13 Days of Travel

Posted in A Day in the Life of a Flight Attendant | 13 comments

The end of June was busy. That is an understatement. In order to attend the Travel Blog Exchange in New York City I had to move my work schedule around a bit. On paper, it looked fine. Actually doing it, not so much. Follow along with the maps.

June 17: On the night of June 17th, I commuted to Los Angeles to be in position to work my trip departing the next morning. It was a trip I was looking forward to because I was working with one of my best friends Aimee, and a good friend Billy.

My routing for the 4 days was: LAX-DC 15hr layover | DC-San Francisco, sit at the airport for 2 hours then deadhead (fly as a passenger) to Las Vegas 16 hour layover | Las Vegas-SF-DC 10 hour layover | Then, DC back to LA. In 4 days that was 10,612miles worth of flying, or 23 hours and 27 minutes.

You can still see the tags! ha!

June 18: I went out on my layover in DC to Macy*s and bought some clothes for the Travel Blog Exchange. Something I didn’t want to do but the deals were too great! I spent $50 and walked out of the store with $200 worth of clothes. My receipt said I had $150 in savings. Crazy! From there we went out to Red Robin for burgers. Aimee ordered an “Endless Root Beer Float” but  the way the server acted, she ordered a pot of gold. The server had no idea what she was trying to order even though it was clearly displayed in the menu. Finally, they bring her a float in a beer mug, half full. In one sip it was empty. She asked for a refill and got another float in a smaller glass. Again, in one sip – it was gone. Now Aimee had asked the server to bring the ice cream and the root beer in different glasses so she could make it herself since they were clearly lost on how to make the beverage. This time, they brought her a vanilla shake. It was crazy how many times they tried to make this drink, which is on their menu, but couldn’t.

June 19: As if I hadn’t spent enough money already of course we were going to go out in Las Vegas. We decided to go see Carrot Top and it was a great choice! He’s hilarious and if you’re in Vegas you need to check him out. Spent another $45 on the tickets, plus dinner and drinks and of course, a bit of gambling.

June 20: Finally back in DC.. went to sleep.

June 21: Had an early morning flying back to base in Los Angeles.. done around 10am. After I arrived, I went to my friend Sue’s house for the night because though this trip was over.. I started a two day trip the next morning.

Trip details: LA-San Fran-San Diego-San Fran 16 hour layover | Deadhead from San Fran to Toronto then work back to Los Angeles.

June 22: I arrived at work at 7am for an 8am flight, did the turns to San Diego and retired to my hotel room in San Francisco. I was so worn out, run down and broke. There was no energy for anything.

June 23: Deadheading was nice. I got to relax, write a little bit and take a short nap. Working back to LA was a piece of cake. Small scare though, we arrived in Los Angeles late and I thought I missed my last flight to Phoenix. I was in luck! Southwest was delayed too.. sat in the LAX airport for 3 hours waiting for my flight after working a 12hr day. Flew home to Phoenix

June 24: Got to sleep in my own bed for the first time in six days. Amazing. Unpacked my luggage, did laundry and repacked my luggage. Off to NYC tomorrow morning for TBEX.

June 25: A 4am wake up call comes extremely early. Luckily I wasn’t flying standby thanks to Mike and had confirmed seats to Dallas, then onward to Newark to meet up with Sara. Board my flight at 5:30am, sit next to crazy lady who won’t stop talking about her ex-husband and how they used to travel. Pretending to fall asleep to make her stop — doesn’t work. You can hear/read more about her, here. Finally land in New York to the smiling face of Sara Keagle. For the first time we meet in person! We then head into the city to meet up with Mike and whisk off to record a live taping The Crew Lounge, later we attend the first night of TBEX.

June 26: I slept on a pull out couch the night before, needless to say didn’t sleep that well. But, chipper for TBEX we head to the event. Got to meet Gailen David, Paul Thompson, Grace, Sarah,  and Heather on day one. After the conference broke, we headed to the TripAdvisor Happy Hour (thanks for the notebooks!) There, I got to meet Jeff, and Jennifer. Jennifer and I talked for a while about Punta Gorda, Florida (who knew!?), my book and blog. She told me about what she does in travel PR, freelancing PR and about her blog. Great conversation. Head back to the hotel for a wardrobe change before the party that night, depressed because I didn’t win an iPad. After a one hour quick change, we head back downtown to the EuroCheapo.com / BootsNAll.com After Party. There I got to meet a TON of people thanks to Mike and his bright idea to enter me into the best dressed contest. People I never met before and won’t see again.. have pictures of me on their cell phones. It’s OK to delete them! Got the word out about The Crew Lounge and hung out with Beth, Tom, Sarah, Grace and Colleen most of the night. Met Amy Kemp discussed blogging ideas that I never thought of before. Also met Christine and joined the gay mafia. After late night Japanese food and a long walk back to the hotel (and Sara placing The Crew Lounge business cards on every car along the way while asking people to listen to us)… bed.

June 27: Super tired, we decide to skip TBEX day two. Won’t happen next year. Sara & I also had to fly back home today, so we’d have to leave the conference early anyway.  Mike comes over with breakfast, we do a photo shoot for promo pictures and discuss what we’re going to work on next. Then we head out to Penn Station. Sara gets on a train to Newark, and I head to JFK. That was an ordeal.. read about that here. Finally get home to Phoenix. Unpack, repack. Back to work tomorrow.

June 28: In shock that I have to go to work tonight, I put in a drop request for my trip. Denied. Tired to the point that I can’t keep my eyes open.. I try again. Denied. 4pm I head to the airport. One flight, one leg — I can do it. I fly from Los Angeles to Toronto on the redeye with a great crew. Land early in the morning on the 29th.

June 29th: Head right to bed. Sleep, finally, 8 hours. I wake up at 4:30pm and call the crew to get dinner. We eat, then drink. We drink a lot to pre-game for company party we were invited to. After an ordeal over whose really driving us there.. I pay for a cab. I walked a redcarpet and had my photo taken.. first time for everything. We party. Dance. Mingle. And get tired. 11:30pm we head back to the hotel. This time, Sue paid.

June 30th: Wake up at 5am. I can’t believe I’m up at 5am after only sleeping four and a half hours. Head to airport to work back to San Francisco then onto Los Angeles before heading home. Have a minor medical emergency and issues with nonrevs, meet David and Dan. Nice guys. Head home. Friend reminds me I agreed to help him move. Damn! Head to his house to help him move…can’t back out.. he helps me a lot. Move done. Head to bed at 10pm. 18 hours after I woke up.

After all of that, on July 1st, I wake up to a fever, chills and a sore throat and I’m still nursing back to heath. It all caught up with me after 13 days of travel. However, I had an awesome time meeting everyone at TBEX and those that I met while working and getting to New York. A big thanks goes out to Mike at UPGRD, who also produces The Crew Lounge for Sara and I, if it wasn’t for him getting us the hotel and my tickets to/from New York I wouldn’t have been able to attend. Thank you Mike.

I bought my ticket for TBEX’11.. did you? Oh yeah — and I’m bidding vacation for it next year — this schedule isn’t happening again. In 13 days I flew 25,547 miles.