throwaflyaway

Many flight attendants choose not to fly this day. Our schedules are incredibly flexible - we pick our trips and create our entire schedule the month prior. We can trade in/out of trips or drop them to other FA's wanting to work, even the day before. (This is all assuming the flight attendant is a line-holder [senior enough to make their own schedule and not be on reserve, or on-call]) so, many just clear their schedule this day or drop the trip. I have flown on this date for the last few years. It's still a traumatic day for many FA's, especially those that were close friends of the crewmembers on those planes.

Sure! It's a hard time of the year for many of us, especially those that knew the crews on those planes. A lot of flight attendants will bid to have off on this day or drop their trip. I think that we all take comfort in the improved security measures compared to 2001, but we definitely know not to get complacent.

I said ask me *anything*! No worries. We do get "crew meals" -- they're allocated to us depending on the length of duty that day. If it's a duty day of over 8 hours, with no sit (sit an airport) of at least 2 hours, then we get a crew meal loaded on the plane by catering. It's usually a small side salad, a slice of cake, butter, salt/pepper, and the entree could be a chicken dish, fish, beef, etc. I usually bring my own food in a cooler bag and learned early on to avoid airplane food. I gained some weight my very first year!

I touched on this a bit just now in a previous question, i'll paste a bit of it:

'I've always thought about how just a struck of luck, fate, etc. could have changed it all. I frequently worked the route to SFO. A lot of people don't know how flexible FA schedules are -- we can trade into, or pick up a trip even just a few hours prior to check-in. One of the FA positions on flight 93 was traded just the night prior - the gal who originally had the trip definitely experienced some survivor's guilt. It's still in the very back of my mind to this day, all of these years later, when I'm building my schedule. "Should I pick this trip up, why do I feel weird about it?" things like that. It's a tiny paranoia that will probably never leave.'

I don't know if I would say that I experienced survivor's guilt. If it was a trip that I originally had and gave away or asked a friend to pick up for me? Then I would most definitely experience those feelings (only naturally.. not saying the aforementioned FA should feel guilty. how would any of us have known?) I was shocked, an immense feeling of... near-miss, if you know what I mean? When you're about to get into a car accident maybe and you're able to slam your breaks hard enough just in time and you pull over and have to compose yourself? And so heartbroken for the country & my flying family.

Our #1, most senior FA in the company, just retired last year at over 60 years of seniority. 20 years is actually JUNIOR in some bases around the system, in my airline. There are plenty lifers here, 20+, 30+, 40+ years. It's an amazing job unlike any other with great benefits. It's a lifestyle, really, not only a job. People get accustomed to the freedom that the job offers.. and the pay isn't that bad either!