Episode Two: Seniority

Seniority in the flight attendant realm dictates everything: your schedule, your hours, your days off; basically your life. Flight attendants who have high seniority--the infamous "senior mamas"--have first pick on trips and days off when the monthly bidding period comes out. For the new-hires, we are left with either the trips no one wants or endless months and years on reserve.

Ah, reserve life. I miss it to an extent, but I do not miss the daily calls from crew scheduling giving me 90 minutes to be at the airport for a trip. At my airline, we have reserve periods from 4:00 AM to 6:00 PM or 10:00 AM to 12:00 AM, and depending on what period you are scheduled for, you can be called at any moment during those hours for a trip. That's right, if it is 11:58 PM and scheduling calls you for a horribly delayed Memphis turn, you are legal and must do the trip. I was only on reserve for three months. I always knew what days I would be on call, but it was the waiting for a call or the intense paranoia of missing a call that drove me insane. For flight attendants who lived at most 90 minutes away from the airport, which a majority did, they were trapped at home on reserve days. If they did manage to go grocery shopping, the minute the phone rang, they had to leave the cart filled with food in a random aisle and change into their uniform in the bathroom. 

My ringtone for crew scheduling was, and still is, a tornado siren. Every day I was on reserve, I would turn my phone's volume all the way up so even if the phone was in my pocket or in a different room, I would hear the call. If a reserve flight attendant misses a call, crew scheduling leaves a message and there is a ten minute window to return the call. If not, the flight attendant is marked as a "no-show" and has four points taken against him/her. At sixteen points, you are terminated. When I was in Orlando, I was on pure reserve from 10:00 AM to 12:00 AM, and scheduling called me virtually every day. It was exciting to receive the first few calls. I wondered where I would be flying, what aircraft, and especially with whom. During my time in Orlando, I was number 177 out of 177--at the very bottom of the totem pole. For the two months I was there, I didn't even bother bidding, save for days off I wanted.  Now almost after a year flying and at a different base, I'm number 24 out of 42. Bidding is always an exciting time and process, and I generally am awarded the certain flights and days off I choose. 

There are flight attendants at other airlines, larger than mine, who have been on reserve for years and even decades. I am thankful that after three months I received a flying line. It added more structure to daily life, but I do miss the spontaneity of being on reserve.  For those still on reserve, your time will come. We all have been there at some point, so we understand the struggle. Give it six months, and by that time, six more months will make a year. Soon thereafter you should get a flying line, and if your airline has done some aggressive hiring like some have recently, your seniority will shoot up in no time. A few more years and you'll be a coveted "senior mama":)

-EJ