Commuting Crew

by Bobby Laurie
on September 24th, 2010
Leave a Comment

I wanted to write this post last night, but I decided to wait. I wanted to wait until this morning because I wanted to feel the full effects of what I was going to do today so that maybe I could relay them better to you.

It’s 6:15am on September 24th as I write this. Rather than being in bed, I’ve actually been awake for two hours getting ready for work and I now sit in front of gate D5 at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. However, the story here is that I don’t work until 11:50am. So why am I awake 7 hours and 35 minutes early? Because I commute.

Commuting in the airline business is different than the commuting to work that you may do every morning. One of the benefits of being a flight attendant is the ability to live in a city other than the one you work out of. For example, I’m based out of San Francisco but I, personally, cannot afford to work and live in San Francisco so I chose to continue to live in Phoenix and commute to San Francisco.

Commuting is a tricky task to undertake. Don’t forget, airline employees travel via standby when they use their flight benefits, so you can’t exactly always expect to get on your “commute” flight to work. If the flight before it cancels or there has been delays at your base airport all morning long your commuting plans can change, and they can change quickly.

Generally, I allow myself two to three flights to get to work. If I don’t make it on either of those I figure I wasn’t meant to go to work for that particular trip. This morning, however, because of my check-in time, there is only one non-stop flight to San Francisco (with available seats) that I can take that will get me to work on time. If this flight fails I have to fly to Oakland or San Jose and pray I have enough time to take public transportation to San Francisco. It’s very stressful.

What makes commuting even more stressful is not flying your own airline to work. When you commute on your own airline you have the advantage of checking your airlines computer system and knowing exactly where you are located on the standby list and exactly how many empty seats there are on board. When you travel on airlines other than your own, you have to hope that you’ll find an employee willing to give you that information and give you peace of mind when you check in that you’re actually going to make it to work.

Commuting is so common in this industry that most airlines have commuter policies in place in the event that you don’t make it into work on times. Some airlines require that you try for at least two flights, that you can prove had empty seats, and some allow you a “free pass” every now and again where you can miss a scheduled flying event without having to prove that you even tried to get to work.

What makes my commute extra stressful? San Francisco. SFO airport is notorious for delays. The side-by-side runways are built very close together and when there is morning fog and cloud cover in the area the airport no longer allows “visual” approaches because the pilot landing on the right runway can’t see the actual airplane landing on the left and vice versa. Therefore, the airport issues a “ground delay program” (or GDP) which delays all aircraft headed to San Francisco at their departure point. In other words, this 7am flight that I’m scheduled to take usually leaves for San Francisco around 8am. The closer to SFO that you are the longer you’re delayed. It’s not uncommon to have a 2-3 hour delay because of a GDP.

So, here I sit at 6:28am, waiting to board my not-yet-delayed flight to work. I’m a tad bit on edge because the scheduled landing of my flight this morning is 9:05am, and my check in time is 10:50am. That only leaves a one hour and forty five minute window for delays or re-routes to ensure I get to work on time. There are times when I’ve gotten to work 4-5 even 6 hours early just to make sure that I’ll be in position to check in. If I’m at work 6 hours early that means that I left my house about 7 hours prior to that so by the time I actually walk on a plane to work, I’ve been “commuting” for the better part of 13 hours.

Needless to say, I’m tired of commuting. I’ve been doing it for three years and the stress of it combined with the time involved has taken a toll on me. In January, when my lease is up in Phoenix, I’m moving my base and home to Los Angeles and will experience driving to work for the first time in three years. I can’t wait.

Bobby Laurie

Bobby Laurie, author of the book Planely Speaking and television travel correspondent, currently works as a Flight Attendant at a low-cost airline and as a freelance journalist. After graduating from the Pennsylvania College of Technology with a degree in Mass Media Communication, Bobby combined his passion for both journalism and travel by writing about the travel industry through his insider knowledge and personal experiences. You can read Bobby's blog about being a flight attendant and the airline industry by visiting UpUpAndAGay.com.