The Rerouted Skytress

Alleluia! The day finally came my sweet friends! Tuesday, April 19, 2022, was the first day of my unmasking. Yessiree. For over two years I’ve had to wear a mask in the crew lounge, in the airport, on the plane, and even on the employee shuttle. I’m not going to lie. The unmasking was absolutely exhilarating! More exhilarating than seeing my picture in The New York Times the next day. That was more hysterically funny. However, both things put a huge smile on my face. A smile everyone could finally see!

Ironically, I could have used my face mask on Tuesday. It was cold waiting for the employee shuttle to come. A warm face covering would have come in handy. When I did finally stepped into the employee shuttle, I noticed the driver and two other airport employees were wearing their face masks. In complete contrast, an American Airline pilot and I were not wearing a mask. We sat near each other in solidarity. I noticed the sign in the shuttle now said masks were encouraged…not required. I wondered how quickly that sign had been changed. Just the day before, the Federal Mask Mandate had been overruled. I admired the efficiency of the employee whose job it was to update the sign.

I was curious to see how many passengers and crew would be maskless when I entered the airport. Interestingly, I saw multiple people still wearing masks. So many people were wearing masks that I almost questioned whether we still had to wear one. That was until I saw the TSA agent at the Known Crew Member security lane. He had a huge smile on his face. He was excited to see me without a mask on, too. The psychological heaviness of being required to wear the mask for two years was lifted. We were giddy talking about being able to see everyone’s smiles again at the airport. We, also, knew the mandate could be reinstated at any time. Thus, we relished this moment even more.

I’ll admit. I was a little shocked to see all the Skytresses working my flight to Atlanta still wearing their masks. I almost thought I hadn’t read a required company email stating employees still had to wear face masks on the airplane. But, not one Skytress working my flight said anything to me about not wearing a face mask. So, I headed back to my seat and promptly fell asleep.

The atmosphere in the crew lounge was completely different when I exited the employee elevator. Everywhere I looked I saw smiling faces. It was refreshing to see. I could easily spy all my friends. Everyone was acting like they had just received the best reroute from crew scheduling. Yessiree. No one had to pretend they were still in the process of eating and drinking in order not to have to wear their face masks. As you can see, we are no different than the passengers on the airplane. Heck. I think we all learned this technique from the passengers in the first place. I did observe several Skytresses and Skyters wearing their face masks. They had obviously decided to continue to wear a mask for their own personal reasons. I applaud them. Under other circumstances, I too, may have decided to continue to wear a face mask. After all, my health and my family’s health are why I started wearing a mask in the first place many months ago.

My crew and I briefed before our trip. It was lovely to brief without our masks on. We couldn’t stop smiling at each other. I’ll admit. It was utterly intoxicating. After we briefed, we headed to our gate. Myself and my Skytress In-Charge, Lisa, chose to take the train to our departure concourse. The Skyter on our crew, Kent, decided he would walk to get his steps in. Lisa and I talked while we waited for the train to depart. Just as the doors were closing, I noticed a gentleman taking pictures outside the train. He had multiple cameras dangling around his neck. I thought it was a bit odd he was taking pictures of us all standing inside the train. I wondered if he was a press photographer. This being said, I’ve bared witnessed to more strange things happening at the airport in my career than I can count. Thus, I also thought the man was just an airline passenger taking pictures for whatever peculiar reason he may have had. I’ll admit. The way passengers minds work continuously fascinates me. Heck. It’s one reason I’ve shown up for work these past thirty-two years. Just when I think I have seen it all, I am reminded by some quirky passenger that I haven’t.

As soon as my crew and I stepped on board the airplane, our Captain greeted us by saying, “ It’s great to see all your smiling faces”. Of course, this made us smile even more. The newfound freedom from not having to wear the face mask was evident. It was even more evident as the passengers boarded. Half the passengers wore face masks. However, the half that didn’t, wore smiles that lifted my spirit higher than it has been on a plane in a very long time. I’ll admit, though. It was an adjustment seeing people smiling on the airplane again. I actually had to squelch the urge several times to tell passengers to put their face masks on. Not surprisingly, I haven’t seen this many passengers this happy traveling on an airplane in years. Everyone wanted to talk about seeing everyone’s smiles. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

The second day of our trip I was sitting in the gate area waiting for my crew when I decided to check my Facebook page. My Skyter friend, Joseph, had direct messaged me. He included a photograph with his message. He wrote, “I think your picture is in The New York Times”. Well, Joseph was right. I was gobsmacked. There I was standing inside the airport train with my Skytress In- Charge, Lisa. My first thought was, “He was a press photographer!” I couldn’t wait for my crew to get to the gate to show them the picture. When they arrived and saw the picture, they were as gobsmacked as I was. Skyter Kent was grateful he had walked to the gate. He teased Skytress Lisa and me about our new found fame. Skytress Lisa asked me to text her the picture so she could share it with her family. Yessiree. We were having great fun over the picture. Skytress Lisa told our Captain about the photograph as we introduced ourselves at the agent’s podium. I could tell the Captain wasn’t sure if we were teasing him about the photo or not. When he saw the photo he immediately congratulated us on becoming famous. We joked about the photo while we briefed and set up the airplane for our flight. One silly comment led to another. If nothing else, The New York Times photo was providing us with a lot of entertainment. The next day when we were getting ready to head back to Atlanta, the Captain made a very humorous PA. Well, humorous to us. The passengers had no idea he was mostly amusing our crew. He told the passengers our crew was one of the best at our airline. Thus, we were part of The New York Times expose on flying without the mask mandate. He stated our crew’s photograph was in The New York Times article. He proudly informed the passengers they could ask for autographs any time during the flight. I’m not sure if anyone looked up the photo on their phones or iPads. I am positive not one person asked us for our autographs, though. This was expected. Still it was humbling. For a moment at least. Mostly, we were still having a blast kidding each other about the photo. For weeks my Skytress and Skyter friends have been wondering when flying was going to be fun again. Flying this trip was a huge step in the right direction.

Sadly, for over two years, flying hasn’t been much fun for airlines or for passengers. However, I am extremely proud of the numerous protocols my airline established to insure the health and safety of our employees and passengers. I believe we continue to be industry leaders in this regard. As we all know, Covid is still around. The uncertainty of this virus still has us all on guard. I pray we won’t have another variant that will slow down the world again. I hope we don’t easily forget the millions of people who lost their lives to this virus. Nor forget their families and friends. Covid has shown us all how a virus can change the world in a matter of days. I know the likelihood of having to wear face masks and socially distance again is great. I don’t take for granted the privilege we now have to choose to either wear a mask or not when we fly.

Obviously, I am overjoyed we are no longer required to wear face masks. What you may not know is, I’m over the moon because I can once again wear my earrings while at work. Yessiree. I stopped wearing my earrings while I was flying. Unfortunately, I had one too many earrings get pulled out while I was adjusting my mask. Sorrowfully, it wasn’t worth the effort of putting them on after awhile. Nothing was more irritating than realizing I had lost another earring on the airplane. Okay. There are many more irritating things. But, when I was looking around the lavatory and the galley for a rogue earring, I sort of lost my perspective.

I was wearing my earrings in the New York Times photograph. Although, you can’t see them. I know because I’ve zoomed in on the photo enough times to tell. What can I say? Fame makes you do crazy things! You may be asking yourselves if having our photo in The New York Times made up for having to wear face masks on the airplane for the past two years? Nope. It did not. However, it did make the transition back to flying maskless more enjoyable. Many of you know I love to tell people when things make my Irish eyes smile. Well, my sweet friends….my Irish eyes are smiling these days. Delightfully, I really don’t have to tell you this. No siree. Thanks to my unmasking, I can now happily show you!