The day I’ve been dreading for months finally arrived. Actually, hundreds of us at my airline have been dreading this day. Simply put….We are no longer positive people. Yessiree. The days of commuting to and from work with a positive space ticket are over. Of course, our airline executives are trying to put a positive spin on this life changing decision. But, believe you, me. It’s extremely difficult to live in an airline world when you are no longer positive.

Flying during the pandemic was challenging to say the least. However, for commuters like myself, there was one silver lining. We could book a positive seat to and from work. In essence, we were a regular passenger flying on our airplanes. We didn’t have to sit standby to see if we had a seat on the plane. We didn’t have to book the jumpseat, either. This was a complete game changer for us commuters. For the first time in my 33- years of flying I didn’t have commuting stress. Yessiree. I basked in my plushy Comfort Plus seat on my commutes. Occasionally, I would bask in a First- Class seat. I even basked while sitting in a regular passenger seat. I’m not going to lie. It was fabulous. Heck. I didn’t even mind the days I was stuck in the middle seat. A middle seat always trumps a jumpseat. I was in paradise. I wasn’t living in a Fool’s Paradise, though. I knew one day…November 1, 2022,….everything would revert back to the old commuting lifestyle. I’ll admit. I pushed that ugly thought out of my head as best as I could. Instead, I crossed my fingers and my toes hoping we would continue to have positive space to and from work. I aggressively nodded my head in agreement every time another Skytress, Skyter or Pilot mentioned that positive space was helping the airline’s reliability numbers. Sadly, all my head nodding and fingers and toes crossing didn’t mean anything to the powers that be. They were steadfast in their decision that positive space would be going away. The powers that be chose to call it, “sun setting”. “Sun setting” is a trendy positive phrase people use these days to soften the blow of something ending. Believe me. There isn’t a positive word that exits when it comes to ending positive space.

Airlines drastically reduced their flights when Covid hit. Our airline blocked the middle seats for social distancing. We, also, couldn’t sit next to another person on the jumpseats because of social distancing. Thus, our airline decided to give the commuting Skytresess, Skyters, and Pilots positive space seats. This would help insure employees made it to their respective bases to fly their trips. Let’s be real here, too. Airplanes were basically empty for months. It didn’t matter if we had positive space to get to work or home. We weren’t taking up paying passenger seats. Fortunately for our airline, passengers are coming back in droves to fly. They are filling up every seat imaginable. My butt, and every positive space commuter’s butt, was taking up potential revenue seats. Thus, our airline decided to end positive space. Commuters now have to once again compete with each other to get the coveted jumpseat. I’ll admit. Racing to get the only jumpseat before everyone else is positively a pain in everyone’s non-revenue butt!

I can definitely be described as a commuting veteran. When I was a new Skytress first class was often filled with commuting airline employees. Of course, this was way before the frequent flyer programs. Even if we weren’t in first class, we had little fear we would get on a flight. I remember when we first got the approval to book the jumpseat for personal travel. At the time, it was a nice traveling option for Skytresses, Skyters and Pilots. Especially, for the rare occasions when it didn’t look like we would get on a flight. Getting on a flight became more challenging when air fare wars between airlines drastically brought ticket prices down. I clearly remember passengers bragging about how little they paid for their tickets. I, also, remember when gas prices went so sky high it became cheaper to fly than drive to destinations. Passengers once again bragged about how much money they were saving by flying instead of driving. Our airplanes were filled to the gills with passengers. Booking the jumpseat actually became a necessity to get to work and to get home. Fortunately, we had multiple airplanes with multiple jumpseats. Commuting via the jumpseat was a pain for everyone. However, it was doable. When Covid hit, our airline retired our older airplanes with multiple jumpseats. Egads for commuters! Unfortunately, for many new hires at our airline, the only life they have known is the life of commuting to work with positive space. Double Egads for them! I’ll admit. The adjustment period has been excruciating for flight crews and gate agents. Especially for the newly hired gate agents and crew members. It gets worse my sweet readers. In my 33-years of flying I’ve never seen so many payload optimized flights like I have in the past several months. When a flight is payload optimized no standby passengers are boarded. That includes crew members that are on standby because a jumpseat is no longer available. Triple Egads to this! All I can say is turbulence is brewing for everyone. I’m positive commuting is no longer going to be a positive experience for any of us. Quadruple Egads!

Reliability factors are extremely important to airlines. The powers that be at our airline stressed reliability didn’t improve with positive space. Everyone, airline employees and the public, know Covid sickouts increased dramatically during the past few years. Additionally, Pilots couldn’t fly for several days after receiving Covid shots. Flight cancellations due to weather issues increased dramatically this past year, too. Unfortunately, we will never know if these factors, along with other factors, played heavily on the reliability factor. Crews were never privy the actual reliability breakdown numbers. Oh well. I do know for a fact that employees in other departments didn’t like commuters having positive space to and from work. I can’t say I blame them. A large number of Skytresses, Skyters and Pilots may be commuters. But, they definitely aren’t the majority of our airline’s employees.

I’m quite certain every airline would love for all of their Skytresses, Skyters, and Pilots to live in base. Heck. It’s less of a headache for them. Heck it’s less of a headache for crew members too. Well, maybe not for people based in cities with exorbitant rent and home prices. Not having money to pay for housing is a huge headache! Especially for new hire Skytresses and Skyters at the bottom of the pay scale. I fear many new hires will quit if commuting becomes too difficult for them. I suspect senior Skytresses, Skyters and Pilots will decide to retire earlier than planned if commuting becomes increasingly arduous, too. I know for myself, I have less flights from St. Louis to Atlanta than I did prior to Covid. I jokingly say I hope my airline lets me retire before they fire me for not making it to work because of commuting issues. All joking aside, I truly appreciated having positive space for as long as we did. I know my fellow commuters feel the same. It’s true….on November 1st we were no longer positive people. However, it goes without saying, we will always be grateful that we once were.

I received an unexpected wake-up call on my San Diego layover two weeks ago. The fraud department at my credit union was calling me at 5:30am. Unfortunately for me, I had only fallen asleep a short time prior to my phone call. You see, I had received news earlier in the day that weighed heavily on my mind. Sadly, I found out a Skyter I few with in Cincinnati had been arrested on Federal charges. I’ll admit. I wasn’t sure which shock was worse…..The fraud department calling while I was in the middle of my REM sleep…..or the realization that a person I enjoyed flying with was involved in fraudulent behavior. Two weeks later I’m still baffled by the news I received on both accounts.

Incredibly, my trip that week started off lovely enough. I was flying with three spectacular Skytresses. More importantly, the reroute gods didn’t rear their ugly little heads and mess up my layover plans. No siree. We made it to our Cincinnati layover as scheduled. Better yet, I met up with my dear Skytress friend, Jennie Lou. Yes. THE Jennie Lou that has filled my blog posts for the past two years. When I walked into the restaurant Jennie Lou was excitedly jumping up and down waving to me. I burst out laughing. Not surprisingly, that was the first of many laughs we shared that day. Heck. Between the laughter and all our catching up, we barely had time to breathe. It was wonderful!

As you know, the airline industry took a brutal hit from Covid. Unfortunately for the Cincinnati Skytresses and Skyters, the Cincinnati base was downsized significantly. Many people, like Jennie Lou, took the early retirement package. Other Skytresses and Skyters were forced to transfer to other bases to maintain their quality of flying. Jennie Lou and I updated each other on the whereabouts of our Cincinnati family of Skytresess and Skyters. Jennie Lou ask me if I had heard the latest news about our fellow Skyter. I hadn’t. Jennie Lou disclosed he had been arrested two weeks prior. I was gobsmacked. Jennie Lou pulled up an article on her cell phone and read me the felony charges he was facing. She then showed me his mugshot. I’ll admit. My brain didn’t know how to process this unfathomable information. I thoroughly enjoyed flying with this Skyter when I was based in Cincinnati. I couldn’t understand how he became involved in criminal activity. I felt sad for him. I was angry with him. Admittedly, I was extremely grateful he was no longer a Skyter for our airline at the time of his arrest.

When I got to my hotel room in San Diego I felt compelled to google our fellow Skyter. I was trying to make sense of the deplorable charges. Sadly, I could not. Everything I read reaffirmed he was indeed a fraud. I struggled with this realization. I had so many unanswered questions. Mostly, I wondered how this jovial Skyter I flew with was involved in abhorrent fraudulent activity. What was he thinking? Didn’t he care about his actions? Didn’t he care about the people he was hurting? Now he was behind bars. What was he thinking now? These questions replayed on a loop in my head. It was extremely difficult to fall asleep. When I did fall asleep I had incredibly bizarre dreams about this Skyter.

Those dream abruptly ended when my cell phone rang. I was so startled the fraud department was calling I actually hung up on them. Well, actually, I hung up on the automated machine wanting me to verify my identity. Heck. I couldn’t even verify where I was at that moment. When I finally got my wits about me, I logged on to my account. I didn’t notice any unscrupulous activity. However, my instincts told me I better call the credit union. Incredulously, fraudulent activity seemed to be the theme of this trip.

The kindhearted agent in the fraud department asked me if I was trying to purchase something via an app. She explained they received an alert for an impending purchase of zero dollars at 830am. Zero dollars? That didn’t make sense to me. It didn’t make sense to the fraud department either. I explained to the agent it was 5:30am where I was and that I had been sleeping. She then verified my past purchases with my credit card. All the while, I wondered who from my previous purchases was trying to fraudulently use my account. I felt violated. I was angry and irritated that some nefarious person was trying to take advantage of me. At that moment I regretted not using good-old hard cash for several of my smaller purchases. Ultimately, with the help of the agent, I decided I would lock my account. I could still have my credit card available to pay for my parking when I got home to St. Louis that evening. My plan was to go to the credit union at the airport prior to my next trip and get a new credit card. It seemed like a perfect plan.

I had barely closed my eyes again when I received a text message from the fraud department at my credit union. My heart sank. The fraud department had noticed more suspicious activity on my credit card. Via text the credit union wanted me to verify two purchases. I thought, “Oh, Boy. This can’t be good.” And I was right. They wanted me to verify two separate purchases for the identical amount at Apple.com. I answered “no” as to whether I authorized the purchases. I’ll admit. I was furious at the audacity of the person trying to use my credit card information. If I could have texted “no” a hundred times I would have just to make an emphatic point. Another texted popped up on my cell phone screen. It was inquiring whether my card was lost, stolen, or in my possession. I quickly replied that I had possession of my card. If I could have typed “Stop that thief! They’re a fraud!”, I would have. I didn’t need to, though. A second later I received a simple text response saying “Thank you. Your card has been blocked to prevent further unauthorized purchases”. I felt very conflicted. I was thrilled I had beat the fraudulent person at their own game. However, I was still livid at the deceitful person for both trying to use my card and for having to deal with their actions at 5:30 in the morning. Of course, I had a renewed appreciation for the fraud department at my credit union. As I placed my head back on my pillow, I conjured up a mental image of someone at the fraud department with their hands on their phone ready to call when suspicious activity alert sounded. I envisioned them wearing a cape emblazoned with the word, “Fraud” in a circle with a line through it. Truthfully, the agents in the fraud department are my unsung heroes. Once I had purchased several hundred dollars worth of makeup while shopping with my friends in Atlanta. No sooner had I swiped my credit card, the fraud department called me. Yessiree. They suspected fraudulent activity. It was humbling to tell the man at the other end that I did indeed just spent several hundred dollars on makeup. Now, if I had a female agent call me, I know she would have completely understood this purchase when I verified it. Nonetheless, I was grateful the fraud department was quick to respond to my purchase. I know the agent was at the ready to catch a fraud. Instead, I’m positive he mumbled under his breath, “Who spends that kind of money on makeup?”

I used another credit card while I waited for my new credit union card to arrive. That credit card isn’t associated with my credit union. Even though I know this credit card company also has a fraud department, I still felt exposed to frauds with each purchase I made. I’ll admit. I didn’t feel secure in the knowledge that someone at this credit card company was diligently waiting to call me with fraudulent activity. No siree. I envisioned this person would be on a coffee break when fraudulent activity was occurring. Their cape would be rolled up in a ball to give them lumbar support when they returned to their desk to get to the next level on Wordspace.

This past Friday I drove to the UPS office to pick up my new credit card. The UPS delivery man tried to deliver it to my house a few days prior. I anticipated the delivery while I was on my trip. Thus, my Mom diligently waited all day for the UPS man to arrive so she could sign for the delivery. Of course, the one time she left her post to go to the bathroom, the UPS delivery person came. I didn’t mind driving to the UPS facility to pick my new card up, though. Actually, it felt very satisfying to pick my card up. Once again, I feel confident knowing my credit union will act swiftly if someone tries to use this credit card without my authorization. Yessiree. I can see the agent clearly in my mind….their one hand on their phone,…their other hand tapping the word “fraud” glistening on their cape…shouting at their computer, “You’re not Eileen Gaffney! No siree. You’re a fraud!”