It has been a month since I worked as cabin crew on a flight. As I type I am sitting on a plane headed to my domicile airport base in Columbus, Ohio, to pack up my crashpad apartment and move out, for now anyways ( A “crashpad” is a home away from home, where a commuting flight attendant stays when they need to be in their assigned base city, between flights). The truth is, I am not certain if it will be an available living option for me when I return. I feel like I have lost my footing in having a solid place to call “temporary home” while in base, and that is an unsettling feeling. Frankly in my situation as a commuter having high risk loved ones in my home, paying for homes in 2 states, and having very unreliable commuter flights, it makes sense for me to take a voluntary leave of absence at the moment. I am choosing to do this through August. This leave has generously been offered by my airline during this very unsettling time, and it helps the airline mitigate furloughs by saving money on payroll.
It goes without saying the aviation industry is experiencing unprecedented financial catastrophe, even greater than 9-11. We are flying significantly reduced schedules, let me stress, significantly reduced schedules, as air travel is being avoided and discouraged due to corona virus. I miss flying so much, but especially the hustle and bustle of normal flying. I miss the sense of urgency to get out all my pre-departure drinks in time to my first class passengers. I even miss the fact I was needed for flights that got me out of bed at 3am to put in my hot rollers, and gloss on those red “landing lips”. I found it very melancholy and dystopian to fly during this crisis the weeks I was still out working. Empty airports, flights with only about, 2, deadheading crew members as passengers, and no service to give. Once I worked several days alongside a crew member who tested positive for Covid-19 a few days later. Praise God, I did not get it, and this sweet person did recover. I sure am thankful for the brave crew members who choose to continue to fly currently. I can think of several of my lovely beautiful flight attendant friends out there, flying right now. I send them my love and prayers.
Right now local government officials are trying to implement tiered plans of dealing with corona virus, and hopefully returning to a semblance of normalcy. I have my own phases. The first was getting approved for the leave offered by my airline. Phase 2 for me is moving out of, and sorting out, and mailing home my belongings from my Columbus crashpad, thus saving a great deal of money on rent, while on leave. Phase 3 is returning for work in September, and if possible, get my annual recurrent training completed. Finally phase 4 will be a mystery revealed in October on the status of my employment. Communication indicates that it is almost 100% certain I (and MANY, many others) will be in the group of flight attendants furloughed, as I have very little seniority, in a seniority driven workplace. What does furlough mean? It means I would no longer work for my airline, however, one wonderful day I would be recalled back to work when they can once again support the amount of crew members on payroll prior to Covid-19. It means no new flight attendants would be hired, until asking those of us on furlough if we’d like to return to work. I for one, can assure you I will be checking my mailbox every day waiting for that recall notice. I absolutely ADORE my job, and I highly respect the airline I work for. I want to do this until I retire!
Like so many of you right now, the fear of the unknown, the fear of likely job loss October 1st, economic loss, and the current stress of the corona virus epidemic makes for many restless nights. I love my job so much. Honestly, the way I feel about this career is like it was what I was born to do, and it took me years to discover it. It took bravery to change my life up, and it took intense, month-long training, testing, and drilling, to earn my wings. It makes me cry when I think about losing it. Especially because I built my happiest life around having it work out. I was able to return to my hometown once a month for a couple days, live in Florida, and travel to multiple states every week. But I have been trying to deal with it day by day the best that I can, and rely heavily of faith because nobody knows the answers here. God only knows how this will play out, but I pray that very soon I will be back in the sky, confidently knowing I won’t run out of flights to keep safe and provide hospitality to.
