Today was the day of schedule changes . . . or was that yesterday? I was preparing to get on a plane from LA to Minneapolis when crew support gave me a call telling me to go to Chicago O'Hare for "ready reserve." Instead of being the usual two hours out for reserve, I now had to be inside the terminal, uniform on, ready-to-go at any moment. But first I had to get from LAX to ORD on an oversold redeye United flight, my only way of making it to O'Hare on time. I took the very last seat on the plane -- the jumpseat in the cockpit. It was difficult to get any rest because the crew kept talking about their schedules and their battles with the bidding software. More on this common airline topic of conversation
here...
I arrived in Chicago in the middle of a rainstorm at 6am. My report time wasn't for another six hours, so I went to the United Club, gave them one of my day passes, and attempted to take a nap in one of the chairs with only moderate results, but substantial neck pain. I enjoyed some pound cake, soup, and salad before I received a call telling me I would now be going to Charleston, South Carolina.
Fortunately I would not have to actually operate the aircraft. I would merely deadhead in the back, where I promptly fell asleep. There was a girl afraid of flying across the aisle from me. I feel like there is nothing more calming to a nervous flyer than someone in a pilot uniform nodding off in the middle of moderate turbulence. Two hours later, we arrived in Charleston. The airport is not particularly close to town, so instead of the well-known Georgian-style architecture, I saw an outlet mall and a Chick-Fil-A, which became my dinner. Tomorrow I will fly back to Chicago to potentially start this process all over again.
