Trip Report: Seattle to Los Angeles

Posted in Live from the Line | 5 comments

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it once again: one reason why I love this job is because no two days are ever the same. The passengers on board any given flight make or break a flight attendants day. Luckily, on board this particular flight from Seattle to Los Angeles, it made my day.

I was standing at the boarding door waiting for the first batch of First Class passengers to arrive when I heard the sounds of a Mom yelling at her kids echo through the jet bridge. I braced myself for what I was about to witness and on walked four boys: 14, 11, 8 and 6 years old. Right behind them was their father lugging all of their bags onto the plane and behind him was their Mom, Andrea. The boys began to get settled in their first class seats (side note: I never flew in first class anywhere when I was younger, lucky them!) as Andrea and her husband began to put all of their carryons away.

I snuck into Andrea’s row to offer her a pre-departure beverage as she was still getting settled, and she said “Honestly, I can’t think right now. Have you tried to travel with four boys?” I laughed, and said “No, actually, I haven’t — I’ll come back in a bit.” Five minutes later, right after she about fell into her seat I went back over to her and said “Now that you have a moment to breathe.. Can I get you anything?” She looked right at me and said “Bobby, Mama needs a drink.” That it was, at this moment, I knew we were going to be friends. I laughed with her and asked her what she wanted.. And she wanted me to surprise her.. So I mixed a little champagne and cranberry juice to get her going.

Once we got in the air the task of meals and drinks for her kids was getting cumbersome. Her youngest didn’t like anything we were offering and her 8 year old was so upset that he wasn’t allowed to drink a Sprite that he refused to decide on a meal choice. Andrea apologized, ordered for everyone, and then ordered herself a glass of white wine. Right as I delivered it to her, I asked her to taste it first. Something I’ve learned while being a flight attendant: people have very different palates when it comes to wine. She didn’t like it. She handed it back to me and said “would you mind if I had the red wine instead?” “Of course not,” I responded. She quickly added, “you can finish the rest of it if you want.” I had to remind her that I was working and I could lose my job for drinking the rest of her white wine. She laughed and said she already considered me a friend and just wanted me to join the party.

After the meals were delivered and cleaned up Andrea asked me for Clamato juice. A product that we don’t have, don’t plan to have and I hope we never have. I’m not a fan of it. She was hoping for the juice so that I could recreate her favorite drink from her hometown of Vancouver (shocker, it seems only Canadians go for Clamato). I had her rattle off the ingredients and I did the best I could to make it minus the taste of clams. During this process Andrea and I were talking about their trip, they were flying to Disney for a long weekend with the kids and then asked if I had ever been to Vancouver. I told her that I hadn’t been but I’m planning to visit next year. Instantly, she whips out her Blackberry and asks for my number. I laughed and said “you’re not going to remember me in a year” and then all of her a sudden her silent-thus-far husband said “oh yes she will.” She sneered at him and said, “and I’ll take you out drinking and show you the best of Vancouver.. Now, what’s your number?” After I gave it to her, her husband said “you should take a picture of him and add it to the contact so you’ll remember who he is when he calls you in 12 months.” She said, “I don’t know how to do that” and without even looking at his phone, he was able to talk her through it and finished the tutorial by saying “see we should talk more” and she said, “Well that won‘t happen, I have Bobby now.”

Stuck in between a husband and a wife.. I left that conversation for a while and hid behind the galley curtain. I was talking to one of the other flight attendant’s while we ate our lunch about passengers joining the mile high club and I told her about this one instance where I had passengers actually ask for permission to use the back restroom to join. Just as I said that Andrea’s husband yelled out from row one, “hey Bobby..” I peeked out from behind the curtain and said “yessssss…” in a very playful tone — and he responded with “Andrea and I were wondering if you could watch the kids for a few.” I was confused.. And said, “sure, why?” thinking they may have family in the back they wanted to visit with. He then said “so we could go in the bathroom and join as well?” I laughed, mostly nervously knowing they heard my conversation, “is that okay?” he said. Andrea chimed in quickly, laughing, “who is he kidding? A few? Try 30 seconds! Can I have another double bloody mary? I‘m not moving.” He looked at me, smiled and said: “well, it was worth a shot.”

A few hours after landing, I received a text message from Andrea: “I know I asked you if you ever traveled with 4 boys. Now, Imagine being at Disneyland with 4 boys. This is going to require a lot of Mommy helpers and a few drinks. It was great meeting you, stay in touch! I wish you were beer [here].”

Let’s hope she did her research and knew before hand that they don’t serve alcohol at Mickey’s house. She’s going to find her sanity before she finds a drink.