An Inflight Perspective

I remember my first day of training in Inflight. Our instructor asked us to think of our passengers as guests in our own home. I never forgot that, and think of it often when I am flying on business on other carriers.

After training I went on reserve, and I got a trip almost immediately. Where was my first layover going to be? Detroit! Well, I’m a Detroiter by birth so I found this to be rather ironic.

As soon as EWR opened as a base, I seized upon it, and was able to hold a line very early on. Since I lived in Manhattan, it didn’t make much difference, and I was much happier not having to take the crew bus between the LGA and EWR.

I remember the routing of my first trip as an A- line holder like it was yesterday.

Day one: EWR-RDU-SAV

Day two: SAV-RDU-EWR-DTW

Day three: DTW-EWR-BOS-EWR

It is hard for today’s travelers to appreciate the kind of service we provided on New York Air. No meals, no free drinks, no snacks, and no smiles is the standard on most US domestic flights. I had to laugh a few years ago when I traveled on a regional airline with only 33 passengers with flight duration of over 45 minuets. The flight attendant informed her charges that there just wasn’t enough time to serve drinks. BULLHOCKY!

Let’s look back a little on what we provided our customers for their dollars.

The shuttle was hard work, let’s not forget that. A full DC-9-30 carried 110 pax and the super 80 145. Most of the time we worked as a cabin crew of three, although we often had a fourth on the Super 80’s and 737-3TO’s. We got up the moment the non-smoking sign went off and went to work.

On the DC-9, two of us would hand out the nosh bags, whilst the third set up the bar cart. Once the nosh bags were out, two worked together on the cart like a well tuned orchestra. Depending on the time of the day, those mixed drinks were free of charge, as well as the beer and wine. Other flights required the usual making of change. The lead would usually work the first row of seats and deliver drinks by hand. This was all done at times to BOS in less the 40 minutes. I remember one or two late night departures where the flight times could be less then 30 minutes between LGA and BOS. It was a very rare occurrence for a crew to miss a row, but it was always a challenge to get things stowed by the time the two bell chime went off. Then we turned around and did a few more times. A few of the ex AirCal Super 80’s were missing one of the forward galleys for a time, and this just made it more of a challenge.

New Amsterdam beer and the Wines of the month were always a popular choice and made our service unique.

I remember most the type of service we would do between EWR and MSY when the route was first opened. My goodness, it was a feast from the moment we took off. The caterers often had to use some of the overhead bins to store items. We would start with complementary mimosas or bloody marys, a full bar service (don’t forget to that people wanted seconds on the way back up the aisle). Their was a Nosh Bag appropriate for the time of day, baskets with pastries and fresh fruit, all to be passed out by hand. Out of MSY we had some interesting snacks such as Po’boys and other local items.

Similar service was offered on all of our "long haul" flights.

No, we didn’t serve on china, nor did we have linen table cloth, but we provided a first class service for our passengers.

I can’t describe why I liked being a part of New York Air. On my second working flight between DTW and EWR we left at O’dark thirty. The captain invited me into the cockpit. The sun was rising as we flew east. I’ll never forget that, how incredible the view was. It’s nearly 20 years since I left, but I never enjoyed going to work as much as I did back in those days. We were all so young, we all seemed to work together as a team.