Early in my career I had to report very early in the morning for my flights, since I was low on the seniority totem pole! In the Winter, getting to the airport was a real challenge! But there were times, once on the aircraft, we were informed that there would be a delay. It seemed that it was either due to weather or a mechanical. Early morning passengers were not always happy people anyway - but coffee always helped!
I remember more times than I can count we would make coffee and juice and push our beverage carts up the jet way to the boarding area. We would serve beverages to the passengers in the boarding area while they waited for the weather to clear, or the mechanical to be fixed.
I remember one time a fellow Flight Attendant saying she felt we had served the whole airport, so many people kept coming up to the beverage carts! We had to remove the alcohol from the cart since we weren't allowed to sell that on the ground! We actually had to have someone call catering to come and restock our carts! I got called into the office for that one- but was "forgiven" for overstepping my bounds and "over serving". A week later I got called in again! This time it was due to the many "GOOD" comments written by the passengers about how well the airline took care of their waiting passengers! Ha!
From time to time we would go from a "delay" to a cancelled flight. That usually meant we crew members were sent to unknown destinations that were not part of our original work schedule!
I once ended up heading West instead of East, my original destination- and ended up instead in Phoenix, Az. We checked into a hotel- went out for dinner, and waited for scheduling to let us know where we were to go next. The following day we waited. The Captain tried to call scheduling, but the phones were down or busy. So out to dinner we went on day two! On day three the Captain got ahold of scheduling, who had no idea where we were! Out to dinner again! On day four we were given confirmed seats back to Detroit. We found out later that as soon as we had left Detroit on day one a new storm hit and created chaos and headaches all around! I almost felt guilty for having a warm and pleasant vacation!.... Almost!
Of course, there were times we were on an overnight and the weather caused us to be "stuck" for a while. I guess my favorite experiences with that sort of situation was being stuck in Northern Michigan and Wisconsin! The hotel personnel, restaurant folk, and our airline ground crew all were great! I remember an agent in Iron Mountain bringing the crew home made food that his wife prepared for us! And a cook in the restaurant there showing me the "right" way to eat oatmeal! Put oatmeal in a bowl- cover it with hot apple sauce, then cover that with brown sugar! Yum! She told me to eat that every day, because I was too skinny and needed the calories to keep me warm! LOL!
I have many other memories of unscheduled stops and delays that I'll share at another time!
Life Is Indeed An Adventure! And Delays and Cancellations Are Adventures Indeed!
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