Every time I fly to Charlotte I think to myself, “I could live here”. Mind you, all I’ve ever experienced of Charlotte is the Charlotte airport, our short Charlotte airport layover hotel and our long airport layover hotel. Still, for some reason Charlotte speaks to my soul. When I got my October schedule I saw I had two Charlotte airport layovers. I was perfectly fine with the trips. However, something inside of me longed to have more time in Charlotte. Of course, you all know the saying, “Be careful of what you wish for”. I’ll admit. I wasn’t careful what I wished for. Lo and behold, I did get to have more time in Charlotte. Yessiree. For one full day I was a bonafide resident of Charlotte. My mailing address was the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. My home was our Boeing 717. It was a nice home. Unfortunately, it came as is. “As is”,…as in…it came with two mechanics working on a mechanical issue. Egads. This was definitely not how I envisioned living in Charlotte.
My morning in Charlotte started off pretty decently. My shower water was hot….and I made it down to the lobby on-time for our scheduled pickup. Sadly, we didn’t have enough time for me to get a chai tea latte from Starbucks at the airport. But, I consoled myself with the fact we had a 3-hour sit in Atlanta after we arrived. I could get my tea there and have plenty of time to savor it. The Captain was standing in the first-class cabin when I stepped into the aircraft. I realized he was standing there because two mechanics were sitting in the cockpit. I didn’t think much of the situation. I was trying to get my bags stowed so we could start boarding the aircraft. Heck. I had a chai tea latte waiting for me in Atlanta. Our Skytress In-Charge, Renee, was getting settled in the galley when the Captain told her to tell the agents to hold off boarding. I’ll admit. I still didn’t think much of the situation. Heck. It was day 2 of our 3-day trip. I don’t start to panic about much until day three. Yessiree. Day three is all about getting back to base on time…and me catching my flight home. The Captain and I were talking about our flights for the day when one of the mechanics stepped out of the cockpit. He informed the Captain the program check they ran to clear the cockpit message system, didn’t clear the system. I could tell from the mechanic’s demeanor that we wouldn’t be boarding the aircraft anytime soon. The Captain followed the mechanic into the jetway. Skytress Renee and I sat down in first class and waited for an update. A few minutes later my airline phone pinged. I got a message our 8:40am departure was now going to depart at 10am. I immediately looked at our passenger’s connections. Everyone still had at least on hour to make their connections. So, I felt good about the situation. Since it was only 8am, Skytress Renee, Skytress Barbie and I decided we would go get something to eat. Skytress Renee gave the Captain her phone number. She told him to call her if things changed and we needed to rush back to board the airplane. Of course, we didn’t anticipate getting a call from the Captain.
We all chuckled when I mentioned the passengers were going to panic when we opened the jetway door into the gatehouse. I’ll admit. The passengers DID panic. There were groans and comments about it not being a good sign if we were going to get food. I felt awful. Yessiree. I’ve been in their situation more times than I can count.
The mechanics were in the back of the airplane when we returned with our food. They had opened a ceiling panel near the aft jumpseat. Heck. I’m not an airline mechanic. But, even I knew our mechanical was not an easy fix if the aft panel was dropped to fix an issue in the cockpit. Immediately I started to fear for the passenger’s connections in Atlanta. I had just finished my bowl of grits when my airline phone pinged again. Egads. Our delay had been extended. I decided to walk back into the main cabin to put some utensils in my lunch bag. The cabin was dark because the mechanics had to turn off the ground power. Plus, all the window shades were closed in the back of the airplane. I’ll admit. I’m not a fan of closed window shades. Thus, I felt compelled to open a few of them to let some sunlight shine into the cabin. I could see the mechanic was using his flashlight to see better. So, I decided to walk back to the last row of windows and opened the window shades. The mechanic laughed when I did this. He said he normally works the night shift. Heck. Working in the dark is normal for him. He then explained he and the other mechanic were looking for a wire that was connected to the cockpit message system. He showed me a paper diagram of where the wires stretched throughout the aircraft. He said they had figured out the wire they were looking for went from the aft-ceiling panel to the belly of the aircraft. So, he was closing up the aft-panel and was heading to the belly of the plane to find the wire and troubleshoot. Yessiree. I’m not an airline mechanic. However, my gut was telling me we would be lucky to make our flight to Lexington.
Eventually, my crew and I decided to go on an airport adventure to check out our new neighborhood. Not surprisingly, we had grown tired of sitting on the airplane. We all agreed we needed to get the blood flowing in our legs. We amused ourselves by walking up and down the various concourses in the Charlotte airport. Lucky for us, our new neighborhood had a lot of amenities. We sauntered into a few shops and talked to a few friendly airport employees….I mean our new neighbors. Then we stopped in to check out our neighborhood Starbucks. You know every good neighborhood has one. Our’s was centrally located near our Boeing 737 home. I was ecstatic to get my tea. Yessiree. I had given up hope after several phone pings that I would get my chai tea latte in Atlanta. When we got back to the airplane… or rather our Charlotte 737 home…we all received another update. Our flight to Lexington had been removed from our rotation. We would be living in Charlotte a wee bit longer. We were now scheduled to now fly to Atlanta at 1:45pm and then pick up our rotation. Once we arrived in Atlanta we would have plenty of time to work our flight to Omaha.
I tried to pass the time by working on my blog. Not this blog post, though. No siree. I was trying to edit a post I had already written for this week. In between my writing and editing, my phone pinged with several new departure updates. The Captain learned from the mechanics they needed a part to be flown in from Atlanta to fix the message system. Skytress Renee quickly looked up the flights arriving from Atlanta and rattled off their arrival times. We didn’t want to be pessimistic. But, everyone on the crew was now referring to themselves as a resident of Charlotte. I decided to look at my Facebook page to mindlessly pass more time. I saw a post from Father Jim Sichko. Father Jim posted his flight to Lexington was aborted on landing. Good golly. This was the flight we were supposed to be working to Lexington. I no sooner relayed this information to my crew when my phone pinged again. Egads! Our departure to Atlanta was now delayed until 8pm.
Our Skytress In-Charge, Renee, called crew accommodations when our departure moved to 8pm. We were now legally in a position to request a hotel room to wait out our delay. The person in crew accommodations told Renee to hold tight. The person explained crew accommodations needed our rotation to be formally updated so they could book our hotel rooms. A few minutes later our our airline phones pinged again. We all laughed. Our 8pm departure to Atlanta was miraculously changed to a 4pm departure. Seconds later our phones pinged again. Our Omaha layover was gone. We would now have a domicile layover in Atlanta and pick up our rotation the next day. I was giddy our rotation had become ridiculously easy. Yet, I found myself a wee bit sad. What can I say? Charlotte had become my new home. Heck. Our airport neighborhood even had a healthy smoothie shop. I know this because my crew and I stopped there as we took one last walk around the neighborhood. I consoled myself over my impending move with a pineapple mango smoothie. I’ll admit. It did ease the pain.
Finally, at 5pm we pushed back from our gate to head to Atlanta with three passengers onboard. The three passengers were airline employee family members. Thankfully, our Charlotte gate agents were able to accommodate our morning passengers on different flights to their destinations. I’ll admit. The three family members were ecstatic to be sitting in first class…even if it was only for 43 minutes. Heck. Our drive from the Atlanta airport to our layover hotel was twice as long as our flight. Still, you take the first-class seat victories whenever you can!
Leaving my Charlotte Douglas International home for my temporary housing in Atlanta wasn’t too hard of a transition for me. Our hotel in Atlanta was quite swanky. Needless to say, my bed was much more plush and comfortable than my first-class seat I sat in all day. I felt like the ultimate Sky Goddess as I laid in bed and talked on my phone with my friend Shannon for two hours. I’ll admit. I’d love to have another domicile layover at this hotel. I definitely know I will have more layovers in Charlotte. Heck. I have another short layover in Charlotte in a few days. Plus, I’ll be flying in and out of Charlotte five times this month. Heck. I’ll be in and out of Charlotte so many times this month, I may start referring to myself as a long-time Charlotte resident.