March 27, 2020 - 196 - "A Hit of Happy...Then a Barrage of Bad Times and Make Believe"

(Joke Credit goes to my favorite Mike H's:  

Mike Haley told it to Mike Hiett,

...who then told it to me.)

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In Memory  -   Photo by Sharon McCutcheon

  My work emails are a mixed bag of misery these days.  

     The first one I saw this morning was a memorial for a fellow flight attendant:  the first team member from our airline to lose his life after testing positive for Covid-19.  

     I did not know him, but his loss feels very close to heart and home.  

     He sounds like a person I would have enjoyed knowing, flying with, and I'm sorry I won't get that opportunity.

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     There are messages asking anyone who wants to take time away from flying to take the leaves being offered, or early-out packages. 

     We are getting messages about operating special flights.  We're sending planes to bring home passengers who've been stranded by travel restrictions, mostly in the Caribbean,  and South and Central America.  Some of the flights are U.S. State Department charters.  

     We're told, in multiple messages per day, to continuously monitor our schedules for changes.  Changes are coming so quickly that our scheduling departments don't have time to inform each crew member personally.  All of my trips this month (mostly averaging 4 flights for a 2 day trip) have dropped by at least half.


   Flight attendants are no longer required to provide a beverage service on flights less than four hours, though my crew elected to offer drinks to the few passengers on our flight today.  

      Our employee buses are operating less frequently between employee parking lots and the terminal and, as of today, we are allowed to park at the terminal garages for free.  (Typically these parking garages are packed full with paying passengers, but at this point they are pretty empty.).

      It was a surreal moment this morning to see the DFW airport entrance have Employee Only lanes...and the barrier simply stays up. 

      (We show our employee badges to the attendants at the gates as we leave.)   

     There is so much change and uncertainty at this point that it's getting harder and harder to take it all in.  

     Things that would once have sounded like a nice break:  like delaying our yearly training renewal requirements, light loads on flights, minimal service, and free and convenient up-front parking..., are not enjoyable.  They all feel more like harbingers of doom. 

     Each one comes at such a high price.

 

   Airports and planes are nearly empty; mostly  strange ghost towns inhabited only by uniformed employees and officials.  

     It's like we're all dressed up for a game of make believe:  we're just 'Playing Security Check Point', 'Playing Airport', 'Playing Airline'...  

    Things are bad, and seem likely to get worse. 

     I don't see an end in sight.    

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"I am two people.  One goes through the motions, rolling from one thing to the next; the other is withdrawn, watching a complete stranger."

-Doug Cooper

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"It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver."

-Mahatma Gandhi

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