The Rerouted Skytress

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.