December 21 - PBI Layover

One of the perks of this job is getting layovers in cities where I have friends and family.  When I got the 3:07am call from Scheduling, I wasn't particularly excited, especially because I never fell asleep that night. However, once I heard the trip had layover in both west Palm and Orlando, I was pretty excited.  The holidays without my family are really hard. It definitely doesn't feel like Christmas this year and I'm trying to forget it’s even here.

I got to the airport around 5.  The buses and trains in Boston don't start until 5:30, so I had to catch the Sunrise Shuttle for the first time.  The Sunrise Shuttle is a van for airport employees and runs from 430 till 530, I think. 

I get to the airport to find out that Nicole (from training) is the F1 on the trip!  It's my first trip with a friend!  And it's my first multi day trip on the E190.  Nothing eventful has happened during the flights really.  The early morning flights were almost empty (half full) and the later flights were completely full.  We left Orlando today at 5:30am and there were 47 out of 100 passengers.  Everyone slept for the most part and I only had 5 drink orders.  Our next flight had 100 of 100.

The trip itinerary was:

Day 1: BOS: Richmond: BOS: Palm Beach

Day 2: Palm Beach: White Plains, NY: Orlando

Day 3: Orlando: Newark: Boston

Not a bad schedule.  I text dad and Justin at 4am to tell them the news haha.  Orlando layover!!!

It's been a lot of young families on the planes, obviously traveling for the holidays.  They've all been nice and polite, for the most part.  On the flight to Orlando, I did have one guy yell at me.  The convo went something like this:

Me:  “Sir, can I get you a drink?”

Him:  “Yeah, a diet coke. And can I get some airflow on this planet?!? My air vent doesn't work and the sun is shining in on me, I'm so freaking hot! I paid $170 for this??”

(he has a newspaper stuffed in the ceiling to block the sun)

Me:  “Sir, you can close the window shade.”  (guy in front of him reaches back and closes the shade.  Guy snatches his newspaper down)

Him:  “This is freaking ridiculous!”

Sigh.

I keep walking and taking drink orders while other passengers give me that look like "what a jerk".  I thought about being rude to him, but instead I brought him extra ice with his drink to help cool him down, told him I turned down the air, and that if I could move him I would but the flight was 100% full so there wasn't much more I could do for him.  He was calmer after that, prob not happy but at least calmer.

On the layover in West Palm, Nicole and I ran into my crash pad roommate at the lobby bar.  Small world!  At 8, my cousins, Joe and Jill came to pick me up for dinner and I dragged Nicole along.  We had such a great time visiting with them and they really enjoyed showing Nicole around Sweet Tomatoes because she'd never been before.