Non-Rev Jinx

Posted in A Day in the Life of a Flight Attendant | 5 comments

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If you ever find yourself non-revving anywhere (airline employee pass; non-rev meaning non-revenue, you didn’t pay for a ticket) don’t talk about it. Hell, don’t even think about it. Looking at the situation the wrong way will jinx your trip and you won’t go anywhere.

My Mother was supposed to fly from New York to Las Vegas to meet me this morning. We were going to spend a night in Vegas before flying down here to Phoenix where she’d visit for a few days before flying back home to New York. Mom is no stranger to non-revving. She’s been coming to Phoenix to visit me since the day I moved out here and had she became eligible on my flight benefits. She’s sat standby for full flights, connecting flights, and empty flights — but she’s made it on all of them.

In the days leading up to her trip which checked in this morning.. every time I talked to her about it she kept saying “I’ve always been lucky, I’ve always made it. I’m sure the day is coming when I won’t.” Well, she jinxed it.

She didn’t make it this morning. The irony? The flight left with 19 open seats. You see when she checked-in she was told by the ticket agent to remain seated in the boarding area and they would call her up to the gate when they cleared the standbys about 20 minutes prior to departure. This is pretty routine, so she thought nothing of it.

Once at the gate area she took her seat and waited. Boarding began for her flight, but she didn’t get antsy. It’s normal for boarding to begin without standbys having a seat or a boarding position yet. Just when they announced a “final boarding call” 10 minutes prior, she went up to the gate to question obtaining a seat. The agents were confused and shocked there was a standby listed for the flight because “our supervisor didn’t tell us anyone was on standby.” Okay, not a valid excuse as the computer tells you that you have a standby checked-in and waiting but after the agents kept passing the blame they finally told my Mom that it was to late to issue her a boarding pass. The flight left without her.

Now, right when this happened, I jumped out of bed from a dead sleep, here in Phoenix at 6:30am. Called her and heard this story. The first thought I had while she was retelling her experience was that she jinxed it. We both jinxed it. There’s no other explanation for her not getting on a flight with 19 open seats other then to say we messed with karma.

So, take this as a lesson. If you’re flying non-rev 1) make sure the gate agents know you’re there. Even if you’re told to sit and wait in the boarding area to be called and 2) don’t talk about the luck you’ve had in the past non-revving.. it’ll come back to bite you in the seat.. you didn’t get.

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