Thank the people who work the holidays so all the moving parts can work (ideally) to get you home to your family! I haven't had a single Christmas or New Year's off since I started this job four years ago (somehow I got Thanksgiving off this year, which turned into a travel day anyway). I don't mind it because my family just celebrates on different days. The point, of course, is to find the time to get together as a family, but that's never easy.
This year, David and I had to wait to travel to my parents' until he got off work. We don't take his Jeep long distances, if possible, because it's pushing 260,000 miles, and we want it to last forever. The flights were open, so we left Sunday before Thanksgiving and flew to Denver, then we drove in the traffic to Pueblo, stayed with my grandma and visited my best friend while we fit in my doctor's appointment Monday. Then we drove to Westcliffe Monday afternoon, after picking up Thanksgiving groceries for my mom.
Thanksgiving was the best! We hung out at my parents for two days (it's really not enough time) and celebrated Wednesday night. It felt so short though; everyone was leaving that night before I had expected. Then the flurry of holiday travel began again. My brother and his wife left for Grand Junction, but David and I wanted to spend time together. He drove in the snow to the airport, where he left me on a flight to Grand Junction. Thank God the flights were bad, and I had to stay in Denver Thursday night because SO MANY flights cancelled Friday (I had to check in for work that afternoon) that it was in the news!
My first two legs were cancelled a few minutes after I checked in at noon, and I waited until 8 PM to find out that my last flight to Lubbock, TX was cancelled too. The visibility around the airport was so horrible all day that you couldn't see across to the other terminals. Since so many of us were stuck, I ran into a huge of flight attendants and pilots from my airline I hadn't seen in ages! And we all had our own little unofficial party in the seating area above our crew lounge. It was more fun than we ever could have planned.
Slowly, as we all got cancelled, we dispersed, one after another. I chose to stay at my friend's house again, rather than wait to be put in a hotel, but it bit me in the butt because I still had to get up at 5 am and drive in for a deadhead (a flight where I'm on the plane as a passenger but don't work the flight) to Houston. I did not get much rest, as the drive to my friend's house was icy, and traffic was slow. And I ending up waiting around for the pilots on my trip who had a later deadhead! It was horrible planning by crew scheduling, however, because I timed out at 16 hours before my last flight that kept getting delayed in Chicago. They had to send me to a hotel, and I only worked one leg the next (I'm all about that!).
Long story short, I eventually get home to Grand Junction. It was a four-day trip, and I got home Monday afternoon. David picked me up, and I was exhausted since I had gotten up at 3:30 AM Mountain Time in Bismarck, ND. Since I only had two days off, we ran around running errands, getting me to appointments, meal prepping and doing laundry for my next trip. On top of everything, we have been house hunting and made two appointments to look at houses and had an appointment to meet with a lender. Before I knew it, David took me to the airport in the morning, and I was signing a contract to bid for a house when I arrived at the airport in Denver before passing out for hours in the crew lounge.
I have crazy hours this month because it's the holidays! But my life doesn't stop, and the next three trips, I again have two days off between every trip, which is not enough time to even get settled at home before I leave again. On top of everything, we are now under contract for the home we bid for and need to close by January.
So when you're rushing through the airport and miss your plane and have to be rebooked, or the weather doesn't allow you to get home for the holidays just yet. Please remember to be kind to everyone. We, as airline employees, whether it's someone on the ramp, at the customer service, security, or inflight, are just as tired as you are, and we want to be home with our families too. Most of us love our jobs and would do anything to help you, especially if you ask nicely, so don't take it out on any person. Just take a deep breath, remember it's not the end of the world (even though it may feel like it), and know that a little kindness goes a long way.