The Rerouted Skytress

Since yesterday was Halloween, I decided I would write about ghost stories. Specifically, hotel ghost stories. Sounds spooky, eh? If you are a Skytress or Skyter staying in these hotels, it can be down right haunting.

I never thought about hotels being haunted until I became a Skytress. Early in my flying career, I flew with a crew that had stayed at the Huntley Hotel in Los Angeles. I was the extra-crew member. I flew with the crew the day after they had stayed at the Huntley Hotel. The crew told me they all shared hotel rooms on the layover. Yessiree. They were too scared to sleep in their own hotel rooms. I didn’t have to ask why they were all huddled in the same room. No, siree bob. They freely told me about the comings and goings of the Huntley ghosts. A Skytress on the crew told me she had stayed at the hotel once alone in her room. In the middle of the night she heard someone knocking on her hotel window. She told me she was on an upper hotel floor. She then stated there wasn’t a balcony outside her room either. She knew without a doubt it was the Huntley ghost outside her room. She said she was too scared to go to sleep that night. Ever since that layover, she shared a hotel room with another Skytress. She figured there was safety in numbers. Two Skytresses could definitely take on one ghost. Not this Skytress, though. I avoided this hotel after hearing all their spooky stories.

One of my favorite hotels to stay in is The Mills House in Charleston. The location is ideal for shopping and going out to eat. Yessiree. Two of Skytresses and Skyters favorite things to do. The beds in The Mills House are extremely comfortable. The hotel, also, has copies of the Charleston Wedding magazine in every room. I absolutely love flipping through this magazine on my layovers. It could quite possibly be the hotel ghosts love all these things about The Mills House, too. Yessiree. The hotel is notorious for ghost hauntings. Crews say the hotel ghosts do most of their hauntings on the forth floor. I don’t know this is a fact or not. But, I find it rather interesting. The Mills House ghosts are a fastidious group of ghosts. It’s been reported that guests hear the ghosts moving furniture around in the hotel rooms. I’ve flown with several Skytresses and Skyters that have told me they threw spare change on the desk in their rooms. Spookily, when they arose in the morning, their spare change was neatly lined up on the desk. Being a neat-nick, I get a chuckle out of this.

One day I was flying home with a Skytress I commute with. We were chitchatting about things as we settled into our seats. I asked Donna where she had been on her trip. She replied she had a Charleston layover. She paused for a moment. Then she looked directly at me and she chuckled. I knew she was about to tell me a story. And boy did she! Donna asked me if I had ever heard about The Mills House being haunted. I said I had. Without hesitation, Donna started her story by stating, “I’m just saying, this happened to me… and I can’t explain it”. She told me she had returned to her hotel room after an afternoon of shopping. She was tired. She decided she would lay down on her bed and take a well-deserved nap. Since it was still bright outside she closed her curtains to darken her room. When she woke up several hours later her hotel curtains were open. I giggled. I told Donna The Mills House ghosts were up and moving about. Apparently, they wanted her to be up and moving about,too.

Another layover hotel for our airline crews in Charleston was the Francis Marion. It’s a beautiful, grand, old hotel. Sadly for me, the location of the hotel wasn’t as ideal as The Mills House. Plus, each room I had there was always on the smaller side. I felt like I was constantly shuffling around furniture to get to my bed or the bathroom. Come to find out, I wasn’t the only one shuffling about the hotel. Nope. There are ghosts at the Francis Marion that shuffle about, too. My Skyter friend, Will, told me about his layover there one night. He and his crew arrived at the hotel later in the evening. The hotel clerk told them the hotel was completely booked. She explained to Will and his crew that their rooms would be on the floor that was being renovated. She further explained they would be the only guests on this particular floor. However, she said, Will and his crew would be staying in the newly renovated rooms. Since Will and his crew had a short layover, they would be long gone before the workmen arrived in the morning. Yessiree. They wouldn’t be disturbed by any construction noise. Skyter Will told me he and the two Skytresses on his crew headed up to their renovated guest rooms. They were all eager to get a good nights sleep. Will then stated he was only in his room for a few minutes when he noticed shadows coming from outside his door. Will thought it was one of the Skytresses going down the hallway. Will was curious. He opened his door to see if there was a problem with the Skytress’ hotel room. Shockingly, there wasn’t anyone in the hallway when Will opened the door. Will turned back into his room and went to close the curtains. When he did, he noticed a gentleman outside his window. Will thought it was just one of the construction workers. Then he looked a little closer. Will told me there was no logical way the gentleman could have walked outside of the hotel to his current location. It unnerved Will. Moments later his hotel phone rang. It was one of the Skytresses on his crew. She was panicked. She told Will she was spooked. She kept seeing shadows pass her door. The Skytress knew they were the only three people staying on the floor. Whenever the Skytress looked out her door, there wasn’t anyone there. Then she told Will she saw a gentleman outside her hotel window. For the life of her she couldn’t figure out how he got there. Will told her he had experienced the same things. They decided to check on the other Skytress. Will called her room. The other Skytress told Will she had a very weird feeling about her hotel room. She didn’t feel comfortable spending the night in there. Skyter Will and the two Skytresses decided to gather their belongings and go down to the front desk. They all wanted to inquire about getting new rooms. The hotel clerk was surprised to see the three of them back at the check-in desk. Before the hotel clerk could say anything, Skyter Will asked her if the hotel was haunted. The hotel clerk smiled. She informed them that some hotel guests have told stories about seeing ghosts at the hotel. The three of them recounted their experiences on the renovated floor. The hotel clerk apologized to them. She said she wished she had other guest rooms she could give them. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any available. Skyter Will and the two Skytresses were too spooked to return to their renovated floor. Instead, they stayed in the lobby and fell asleep on the couches until it was time for their van pickup. Yessiree. I believe I would have made the same decision.

We used to stay at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville. The hotel is known for being one of the grandest hotels in the United States. It’s also known amongst airline crews as being a very haunted hotel. My friend Tara told me a story about staying at the Sealbach when she was a Skytress for United. Tara told me she went to take a shower. After her shower, she planned to eat the cookie the hotel gives all its guests when they check in. Tara explained to me that she placed her cookie on the nightstand before she went into the bathroom. When she came out of the bathroom, she noticed her cookie was no longer on the nightstand. Tara was befuddled. So, she called her roommate that was flying with her on the trip. Tara asked Cindy if she had come into her room and took her cookie off the nightstand. Cindy laughed. She asked Tara how she would have done this since she didn’t have a key to Tara’s room. Tara obviously knew Cindy couldn’t get into her room. Thus, there were only two logical explanations for the missing cookie. Both explanations didn’t sit well with her. One explanation was that a rodent ran off with her cookie. The other explanation was the Sealbach ghost took the cookie. Tara and I believe the latter. Heck. We couldn’t blame the ghost. Those Sealbach cookies were delicious.

One day I was in the aft galley setting up the beverage carts with my Skyter friend Rick. As we were talking, Rick told me about his ghostly encounter at the Seelbach. Rick explained to me that he was in bed watching the television. His television kept turning on and off. Also, while he was laying in bed, his toilet kept flushing. Rick immediately thought about all the ghost stories he had heard about the Seelbach. Skyter Rick suspected the ghosts were in his room that evening having fun at his expense. Rick spoke out loud to the ghosts. He informed he ghosts he meant them no harm. He just wanted to watch a little TV before he went to bed. After speaking to the ghosts, Rick told me the toilet stopped flushing and the TV stayed on. I found this all very interesting. Especially how calm Skyter Rick was concerning the ghostly activity. I made a mental note to speak to any ghosts I encountered on my layovers. I, also, made a mental note to not layover at the Seelbach ever again.

A few months back I was looking at the trips in our bid packet. There was an airport code I wasn’t familiar with. The airport code began with the letter “Y”. Based on this information, I knew it was a code for a city in Canada. FYI-Canadian airport codes start with the letter “Y”. You all know by now how much I love Canada! Thus, I was compelled to find out which city the airport code, YWG, belonged to. YWG is the airport code for Winnipeg. Winnipeg?! I have never been to Winnipeg. I was intrigued. The trip wasn’t commutable for me. Nevertheless, I decided to Google the layover hotel. You know. ….Just in case I was rerouted there. After all, I am The Rerouted Skytress! The first thing I read on The Fort Garry Hotel website was that the hotel is haunted. Wow! Most hotels don’t like to disclose this information. Yet, this hotel was extremely proud of this fact. I decided I would look on our Skytress Facebook page and see if anyone mentioned the hauntings at this hotel. Yessiree. Several Skytresses gave their ghostly testimonials. Egads! They were positively frightful. There were, also, numerous stories on the Skytress Facebook page about ghosts at other layover hotels. I was gobsmacked. After reading about all the ghostly hotel encounters, I was completely spooked. I almost decided it would be safer to fly one-day trips just to avoid all the layover ghosts.

One day my Skyter friend David and I were eating lunch in Savannah. As we were talking, I saw a black hurst drive up outside. David’s back was to the window. However, when I told him a black hurst had pulled up in front of the restaurant, he was compelled to turn around in his seat. I was a little concerned when David told me the make and model of the hurst. Mostly, though, I was impressed. I was more impressed when we realized the hurst was the transportation vehicle for one of the ghost tours. How spooktacular! I informed David if I were ever to take a ghost tour in Savannah, this would be the one to take. I thought this for months. Then one day I was on a layover in another city. I watched a documentary on ghosts in Savannah. The stories weren’t happy, delightful, Casper The Friendly Ghost stories. No siree bob. These ghosts didn’t like humans one bit. The ghosts let this fact be known, too. The documentary showed several places in Savannah where ghosts tried to push people downstairs. Egads! The stories of the ghosts trying to hurl people down the stairs were the nicer ghost stories, too! I was so spooked by the documentary, I vowed never to go on a ghost tour. Especially, one in a hurst!

I flew with a pilot once that told me a story about his layover. The crew was downstairs waiting on one of the Skytresses to come down for pickup. It was getting late. So, the pilot called the room to make sure the Skytress hadn’t overslept. When the Skytress answered the phone, she sounded frantic. She couldn’t find her shoes. She had looked everywhere in the room. She was dumbfounded. She knew exactly where she had taken her shoes off when she got to her room the day before. The pilot told her he would come up to her room and help her look. The pilot and Skytress opened up every drawer of the armoire. They looked in the closet, behind the curtains and all around the furniture. They even looked under the bed and under the furniture. Exasperated, the pilot stood on a chair and looked on top of the armoire. TheSkytress’ shoes were placed nicely together on top of the armoire. The top of the armoire was too tall for the Skytress to reach, let alone place her shoes neatly on top. The pilot told me he and the Skytress had no possible explanation of how the shoes ended up on top of the armoire. Well, there was one explanation. The hotel was haunted.