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Success! First Time Using Flight Benefits on Another Airline
I’ve explained before that my family and I can fly for free on my airline for domestic flights, and for just taxes on international flights with my airline. My family and I can also fly for discounted prices on most major airlines. As a flight attendant, I have an additional bonus (known as a cabin seat agreement) which allows me to fly free domestically on nearly any carrier, and there are a few carriers that will let me fly for just the taxes on their international flights. (Emphasis on “few,” it’s quite limited!)
Here’s the story of using my flight benefits for the first time on another carrier. It’s extremely detailed and possibly extremely boring, and definitely a bit confusing, but I know a few people will be interested in hearing it. Here goes:
We used airline miles to book flights from Seattle to Osaka, Japan in March. We also used airline miles to book flights for Saign and L from Tokyo back to the US in April. We decided NOT to book a flight back to the US for me because I wanted to try and see if I could fly back to the US for just the taxes.
Here’s what it looked like:
In March, I started looking at flight options and came up with a strategy. Here’s the strategy I came up with:
Plan A: Use the Cabin Seat Agreement to get to the US…anywhere in the US…on 4/13. (This left me with 5 flights I could try for…one which flew directly to Seattle). If Plan A worked, I’d have to pay just the taxes for my flight. (This would cost <$50)
Plan B: List for Standby and pay for a direct flight to Seattle on another carrier (not through the Cabin Seat Agreement, but through regular airline employee benefits) that leaves on 4/13 AFTER the 5 flights that fit my Plan A. (This would cost $150)
Plan C: List for standby and pay for flights on any carrier to the West Coast for 4/14. Perhaps list for a whole bunch so that you can make sure to get home! (Depending on the airline and class, this could cost between $125-300).
I knew from the beginning that I’d hope to only have to fly using Plan A, but I’d follow through with listing per Plan B. I had to complete my listing per Plan B prior to leaving the US for Japan, because there was a risk they wouldn’t let me into the country if I didn’t have an outgoing flight booked. (When listing for standby travel, all but a few dollars are always refundable if you don’t end up flying with the airline you listed with).
As it got closer to 4/13, I started requesting flight loads from employees at other airlines so that I could list for more flights (per Plan C) if needed. The flight loads looked a bit nasty, with minimal seats open, and lots of people listed. But I was so overwhelmed with all the options that I decided to just wait to list for flights on 4/14 (for Plan C). The carrier that I could accomplish Plan A with does not release their flight loads to employees until 72 hours in advance, so I was learning about flight loads on other carriers before I could learn about flight loads for my Plan A flights. Most carriers require you to list 24 hours in advance, so there was some risk to not listing on these other carriers, but I was just overwhelmed!
On 4/11, I got some great news: The tax-only flights (Plan A) were looking a lot more open on 4/13 than the other flights! GREAT! There was a flight to Detroit that had 100 open seats! (While this was generally good news, sometimes there are weight and balance restrictions, so they wont put standby passengers on even if there are open seats, plus if another flight to the US cancelled, that flight to Detroit could get filled up quickly).
I had been told that outside of the US, ticket agents often are confused by the Cabin Seat Agreement (Plan A), so it’s best to arrive early to the airport, and to be ready to stand firm and communicate clearly about how it should work. (This was a bit intimidating since I had never used the Cabin Seat Agreement or flown standby with another carrier before).
I got to the airport 3 hours before the Detroit flight. I went to the ticket counter. As I had been warned about, they were confused. They told me to go to the check-in desk. I knew (per the written policy) that this was incorrect, and I was supposed to go to the ticketing counter, not the check-in desk, and I let the agent at the ticket counter know this, but then complied and went to the check-in counter. I waited in line for several minutes, and then ticket-counter-guy came and got me out of line and told me he’d “try” to figure out how to list me using the Cabin Seat Agreement.
And try he did…to the point that a line formed behind me. I politely suggested he take care of those guests and come back to me. He refused at first, and called a friend over to help him. Then they both tried to get me listed. The line grew longer. Finally, they had me move to the side so that they could help the other guests. But, after maybe 30 minutes, they had a ticket for me! Yay!
But then I looked. The ticket said, “jumpseat.” I’m not allowed to sit on the jumpseat on this airline. I had to go back and say, “You need to “flow me back’” to the cabin. (Again, this was verbage I had learned from studying the Cabin Seat Agreement). Thankfully, the agent knew what I was talking about, and gave me a “seat request” ticket. She told me to head to the gates. Yay!
There were no agents yet at the gates when I got to them, so I had to wait a bit. When the agents finally arrived, I went to speak to them to make sure I understood the process.
Me: “Hi! I’m flying standby. I just wanted to make sure I know what to expect. Will you be calling my name?”
Agent: “No. You have to wait.”
Me: ??
Agent: “When the crew arrives, we have to ask the captain.”
Me: “…but then will you call my name???”
So at this point, I was concerned that things might go awry as things were clearly getting lost in translation. So what did I decide to do? Watch for the captain and see if I had an opportunity to speak to him myself.
(To be clear: This is ridiculous. I am ridiculous. But I really didn’t want to get stuck sitting at the airport overnight, so I was prepared to be a weirdo if it increased my chances of getting on the flight.)
A First Officer arrived was standing by the gate, and I consider speaking to him, but I decide that talking to him by himself would be weird. Nope. I waited until the whole crew arrived, including the captain. Then I walked up and said, “Hi! I’m Becky. I’m a Seattle-based flight attendant with _______. I just came to introduce myself because I’m trying to use the Cabin Seat Agreement to get home, and the agent said she’d have to ask the captain. That sounds strange, but just in case, I came to introduce myself.” The crew was nice to me despite my awkwardness, and the First Officer assured me I’d get on and that there were no weight and balance restrictions.
Then I waited more!
I heard them start calling names, but I didn’t hear mine. After awhile, as boarding was winding down, I stood next to the other standby passengers, waiting for my name. As I chatted with them, I figured out that I would be the very last one called. When you use the Cabin Seat Agreement, you’re the lowest priority, and there was one other flight attendant using the agreement, but she was hired before me, so I knew I’d be last to be called. And…I was!
But, I was so happy when they handed me that boarding pass. Then I got on the plane, and found I was in Comfort+ (so a few extra inches of legroom) in an aisle seat with an open seat next to me! They did try to give me a nice place to sit!
The flight to Detroit went as well as a 12 hour flight can go.
As we got into Detroit, I looked at the flight options. My airline had plenty of seats available 4 hours later, but there was another carrier that I could try to fly home on for free (again, with the Cabin Seat Agreement). I went to the gate and asked if I’d be able to get on. The agent told me he couldn’t get me on, so I told him I’d sit by the gate just in case.
At the end of boarding, he had 1 seat left. He called over the couple who were at the top of the standby list. They didn’t want to separate!
He called the next couple on the list. They didn’t arrive!
He listed me for the flight, and gave me the boarding pass, telling me he might have to pull me off if the other people arrived. “Of course,” I told him, thanking him for all his help.
And then I was flying home several hours sooner than I would have been able to if I had waited to fly with my airline! 🙂
22 hours after I arrived at the Tokyo aiport, I was home at Seatac!
Was it a hassle? Yes! Did Saign and L fly home directly to Seatac on an 8 hour flight? Yes! Could it have been way worse? Yes, WAAAAAAY worse!
Total cost for the flight to the US? $47.33.
And it gets better…taxes are only charged on the way into the US, so if I had used the Cabin Seat Agreement round-trip, it still would have been just $47.33
I LOVE BEING A FLIGHT ATTENDANT!
(It did REALLY REALLY make me want to work for an international airline so that my family could also get all these benefits!)
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One Year as a Flight Attendant
About two weeks ago, I hit my one year anniversary as a flight attendant!
Let’s talk about it.
Can you imagine wanting to go to work?
I know! That’s a crazy thought, isn’t it?
In all seriousness, I hope that many people do look forward to going to work. Towards the end of my career as a psychologist, it had been years since I looked forward to going to work. For many years, work vacillated between being tolerable on a good day, and frustrating on a bad day. During the last two years as a psychologist, it was rarely tolerable, and generally I was miserable. I dreaded work.
Now that I’m a flight attendant, I generally don’t mind going to work. Often, I really look forward to it! Sometimes I get shifts that I don’t like (redeyes, or lots of legs in a day), but even on those days, I don’t usually dread it. I feel mildly annoyed, and then I go to work, and it’s fine.
I’m so much happier now in this new career! I’m so much more relaxed.
There have been a few times that I miss being a psychologist. Once, I saw one of my old patients running around with classmates at a park. The year prior, the child had struggled to attend school and struggled to make friends. We worked really hard to get them into a school program that would work for them and to keep trying to make friends. I was so proud to see them out and about and acting like a child! In that moment, I remembered the joy of celebrating with my patients when they did hard things. I missed celebrating with kids and teens when they followed recommendations and did things they didn’t think they were capable of.
There have also been a few times when either a conversation related to medicine or mental health took place, or I was doing Continuing Education, and I felt a little bit of regret or loss remembering how good I was at being a psychologist. I was really good at it. There is some regret associated with knowing that there is so much mental health need, and I can help, but I’m choosing not to.
There are also times when I suddenly think, “Have I made a terrible mistake???” because of finances. At first being a flight attendant was financially scary because I went from saving over half my income to making <1/3rd of my previous income. It’s scary going from saving mode to barely making ends meet. Except, in reality I was not barely making ends meet, it just felt like I was barely making ends meet because I was making very little money, so Saign had to pay a larger portion of the bills. Saign was making enough that we were still able to save into our HSAs, our Roths, and our 401ks (though I did not max out the 401k like I normally would). I had to keep reminding myself that we were okay, and even with a drastic reduction in savings rate, we were still saving more than most people. And then, a couple months ago, Saign had to stop working due to a shoulder injury. He had surgery in February, but still can’t work right now (in April). We have Emergency Savings for situations just like this, but it feels really, really icky using our Emergency Savings (in reality, we’ve only touched a couple thousand of it and that was so that he could max out his 401k, so seriously, we’re okay). But it feels scary. So sometimes I get a gross feeling in the pit of my stomach and worry I’m doing things wrong.
But…I’m so happy.
This job makes me happy. If I don’t work for long enough, I start getting antsy to get back to work.
It’s amazing!
Aaaaandddd. This job fits our future goals. Saign and I love travel. We’d love a future where we can spend a few months overseas and then a few months back in the US. Unless one of us got an online job, this would be really hard. (Mostly because even if we saved enough money to live off of so that we didn’t have to work, paying for health insurance in the US is cost prohibitive). The work rules with my company are such that we could come back and forth in and out of the US like we want to. I could fly back to the US to work if needed, and I could take a month off and still keep health insurance. This fits our future goals.
So…it’s been a wonderful year! Despite sometimes feeling regret or worry, I’m so so happy that I made the switch! I was recently listening to a podcast where a career coach pointed out that you should make a career switch if you know that if you stay at your current job, there’s a 100% chance that you’ll be unhappy. Maybe the new job will not make you happy either, but you’ve got nothing to lose if you’re already unhappy and confident that you’ll continue to be unhappy! I’m so glad I took this advice before I’d even heard it! Cheers to The Great Resignation! Cheers to one year as a flight attendant!
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How to Fly Around the World and NOT Break the Bank
I am an incredibly frugal person. I think sometimes people look at my life and may think that I live a life of deprivation and that I miss out. I’m sure sometimes it’s true that I’ve really missed out on something amazing because I didn’t want to spend money. But MOST of the time, I don’t feel that I miss out, because my goal is not to hold onto money at all costs; My goal is to spend money on the things that really matter.
In our family, that means the thing we most splurge on is TRAVEL! To us, travel is what is worth the cost!
And though travel is truly our main splurge, I’ve realized that people sometimes get it twisted when it comes to how much travel really costs. I’ve decided to write a bit about how to save money on travel. This will be a multi-part series, and it starts today with how to save money on airfare. I’d say I’m pretty awesome at saving money on airfare, so today I’m going to share some of my tips and tricks:
- Let airfare price dictate where and when you go. It seems that most people pick a destination first and then buy their airfare, which I suppose makes sense if money is of no concern to you. But if you want to save money, you should really look at airfare before choosing where to go. Instead of choosing a destination and then shopping for airfare, we watch for good flight deals, and then when we see them, we think, “Hey! Yeah! That seems like a cool place to go! Let’s go there; it’s cheap right now!” What this means is that we typically pay around $400 for round trip European flights, and slightly more for Asia/Africa/the South Pacific ($500-$600). If you’re American, you can be super impulsive with your airline ticket purchase, because by law airlines must refund you your money or miles if you change your mind within 24 hours of booking! This makes it extra easy to book a good deal right when you see it, because you can always cancel if you realize the dates won’t work. (I often find deals while Saign is sleeping, book them, and then tell him about them in the morning).
- Fly Open Jaw. “Open Jaw” means that you fly into one airport and out of another. This can save you both time and money, depending on your destination. As a family, we don’t always fly open jaw. We do it when it makes sense. It makes sense to do fly open jaw if you can save money because the airfare happens to be cheaper out of a different airport than you flew into. (For example, London, England has 3 airports. Sometimes it’s cheapest to fly into Heathrow but out of Gatwick). To make sure you get the best deal in these circumstances, you can tell your booking site to search “London Area” airports, and then it will search all the airports in the region. Flying open jaw can also save you time and money if you know you want to see a lot of one country/region. For example, we traveled by campervan in Australia several years ago, so we flew into Melbourne and out of Brisbane. If we had driven all the way back down to Melbourne to fly back out, it would have cost us a great deal of money in petrol, and a great deal of time doing all that driving! Flying open jaw doesn’t always make sense, but it’s certainly best to consider where you want to go and what you want to see to determine if open jaw flying will save you money.
- Utilize flight saver emails. If you decide to use principle #1, then signing up for a subscription site that sends you flight deals is often a great idea. My favorite of these is Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights). Basically you tell the website what airports you like to fly out of, and they email you when amazing flight deals come up. It makes it easy to know when there’s a great deal. Going has a free service and two tiers of paid service. Our family has found great flight deals from Going with both the free subscription and the lower tier paid subscription.
- Google Flights is your friend! Y’all, if you haven’t used Google Flights yet, you must check it out! The website’s “explore” feature allows you to type in your starting point and then either put in a time period and/or a length of time (unfortunately it’s limited to 1 week or 2 weeks), and then you can look at a map and it will highlight the best deals that fit your parameters. My favorite is to say “two weeks in the next 6 months” and find good deals that way!
- Be open to layovers. Yes, I will suffer to get to a destination. Now if it’s only, say $50 more to get a direct international flight, I’ll do it. But otherwise, I go for the cheapest flight, even if it means I have lots of flights to get to my destination. Sometimes this can be fun! I once spent my birthday at a 200 year old brewery in Munich on a layover on my way to South Africa. My only time in South Korea has been on a long layover in which we took the train into the city and enjoyed a market. A lot of times the cheapest route take you on a weird roundabout adventure to get to your destination, but it’s worth it! (I know many people will disagree with me on this point, but I stand by my opinion!)
- Use those credit card rewards! So, while I strongly believe that principle #1 is the BEST advice I can give anyone on how to fly on the cheap, there are limitations to using principle #1. Certain destinations rarely go very low in price. There are several destinations that I’d love to visit, but have missed out on because I’ve never seen a really great flight deal. Japan, Argentina, Chile are all places I’d love to visit, but have not yet been to because I’ve never seen low prices on flights to these places. The solution? Credit card rewards! With US carriers, 60,000 miles is often enough to book a round trip ticket to an international destination in coach, and often credit card bonuses are 60,000 miles +. My family is finally going to Japan this year, and we’re using miles to get there! I would urge anyone looking to be thoughtful about how they spend their miles. In my opinion, miles are best spent on destinations that are typically costlier to fly to.
- Stay longer. Okay, this is less about paying less for flights, and more about getting bang-for-your-buck when it comes to airfare. If you’re paying a lot of money to fly around the world, you might as well make it worth it! In our family we aim to make sure our vacations are 3 weeks + to really make that airfare cost worth it.
- Make it a work trip. If your work will pay for conferences or other learning activities, consider if you can make it a vacation! One of Saign’s favorite vacations was to Mallorca, Spain. I went to a conference for a few days while I was there, so the hospital I worked for paid for my airfare to and from Mallorca as well as the AirBnB and my meals for the days that we were in Mallorca. We spent a few weeks in Spain in addition to the few days I spent at the conference, but my costs during the Mallorca portion of the trip were paid by my employer.
- Become a flight attendant. I’ve written a little about non-revenue benefits before, but here’s basically how they work: Airline employees and their families get free standby travel on domestic flights with their own carrier. Airline employees and their families pay just the taxes on international travel with our own carrier. We get discounted tickets on standby travel with other airlines. Flight attendants specifically get a little bit of a better deal than standard airline employees on other airlines: On certain airlines, we can pay just the taxes for flying. If recommendations 1-8 don’t work for you, come on over to what I have deemed the best job in the world…as long as you don’t need a job!
So there you are: Nine ways that my family flies the world on the cheap!
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Taking one for the team.
So when L was around 20 months old, we had a trip planned to Vietnam.
The only problem? Saign was having a ton of back pain. He got an MRI which showed a herniated disc, but he couldn’t get in to see the back-doctor-guy until after our trip. He told me he wasn’t sure he wanted to go on the trip. To me this didn’t make sense: He could be in pain at home (lame) or be in pain in Vietnam (less lame). But he was worried that the flight would set him back and make his back pain worse, so he told me he wasn’t sure that he wanted to go on the trip to Vietnam.
I called in a favor to a sports medicine doctor, who squeezed him in 2 days before our trip. I just wanted him to give Saign an opinion on if the flight would really make things worse for him, because I truly believed that Saign would be happier recovering in Vietnam vs recovering at home.
Saign came back from the doctor and said, “Well, he said that if I go, I’ll really be taking one for the team.”
TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM?
TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM?
What kind of a delusional world was this man living in? And seriously, just what Saign needs, a doctor stroking his ego.
Saign soaked it up. He looooooooved the idea that he’d be so selfless and “taking one for the team” by traveling with us to Vietnam. He repeated it over and over to me, to our friends, and I’m sure in his head as well.
Now, let me tell you the reality: Did I want Saign to go on this trip? Yes. Was it because it would HELP me? No! Are you kidding me? I’m perfectly comfortable traveling alone with my child. I wanted Saign to come to Vietnam because I thought he’d be happier in Vietnam. But would it be helpful to me? Absolutely not. (He couldn’t carry the kid or the luggage, and he doesn’t do any of the planning or research, so without his brute strength – which he didn’t have because of the back pain – , he really would not be of much use to me).
Saign did decide to come to Vietnam, and the flight over didn’t set back his recovery, and he got better and better every day.
I had planned a 2 day trek in Sapa about a week after arriving in Vietnam. I wasn’t sure if Saign would feel up to coming on the trek with me. When I originally planned it, I imagined that one of us would carry our clothes and necessities, and the other would carry L. The trek involved hiking for several hours through rice fields and hills for two days in a row. When I asked Saign if he planned to come to Sapa, he said he didn’t want to go. Since he was getting better and would be staying in Hanoi with air conditioning and no particular plan, and I was going to be hiking around miles of rice fields in the heat, I asked him if he would take L. You know, so he could “take one for the team.” He absolutely refused and acted as if I was insane for asking. He said he needed to rest and recover and that taking care of L would prevent him from doing so.
Ah, Taking one for the team!
On the night that the trip to Sapa was to begin, L and I got in a taxi and took it to a bus station to head to Sapa for an overnight bus trip. The bus would take 6 hours. L fell asleep in the taxi. I got onto the overnight bus where I was told I’d have a bed to sleep on. Unfortunately, the reality was that the “bed” was like a tiny tight coffin. AND I had a toddler with me, so I had to keep toys and snacks plus the toddler in the coffin with me.
L woke up when I tried to squeeze into the coffin on the bus. After that, she refused to lie down and go to sleep. We were crowded and uncomfortable in our little bus coffin. I remember she kept standing up and then belly flopping onto me instead of sleeping. At around 2am, utterly exhausted, L started crying, waking up the whole bus. I was mortified.
The bus arrived in Sapa at 3am and L was still crying. We were allowed to stay on the bus to sleep until morning, but since my child was disturbing everyone around us, I got off and wandered around Sapa in the dark. Thankfully, the bus station was open so once L quieted, I went in the station and attempted to sleep on a plastic chair. I did not sleep, but thankfully L did.
Later that morning, after having not slept at all, I met my guide and hiked for miles through rice fields in the heat with L on my back and our clothes and necessities strapped to me. It was a slog. I worthwhile slog, but still definitely a slog.
We arrived at our host home after our first day of hiking, and there was nothing for L to play with or do. (I certainly hadn’t been able to pack toys with me in addition to our clothes, necessities, and L…in fact, I PURPOSELY left my toothbrush in Sapa city to reduce the load that I had to carry…though I went on to regret that choice…). At dinner, L fell off a chair and onto a concrete floor, breaking the chair in the process. I was reprimanded for allowing her on the chair. She ended up playing with beer bottles because it was the only thing there for her to play with.
Meanwhile, Saign wandered around Hanoi and met some strangers who first invited him to eat and drink with them and then invited him to karaoke. While at karaoke, the men he was hanging out with asked him which of the karaoke hostesses he preferred. At first Saign didn’t understand why they were asking him this. Then he noticed his new friends were leaving with the female hosts one at a time. Yes, it turned out he was at a brothel. You know, a karaoke brothel.
So yes, Saign really took one for the team! What would our team have done if he hadn’t made it to the karaoke brothel that day? What a travesty that would have been.
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Tips for Flying with a Newborn
Okay, let’s just start this off with the truth: I am no expert on flying with a newborn (meaning a baby who is under 3 months). I flew with my child as a newborn for a total of 21 hours, and a total of 4 flights: Seattle to Reykjavik, Reykjavik to Paris, and back along the same route. Buuuut, after each flight I had people turn to me in shock and say, “I didn’t know there was a baby on this flight!” So I’ve got a few tips of what worked for me. Here they are:
- Consider your baby’s temperament to decide if it’s worth it. I started plotting to go on an international trip with my newborn while I was pregnant, but I didn’t book the trip until she was born. Why? Some newborns are fussy and really challenging. I planned to travel with my newborn only if her temperament was average-to-easy. A colicky baby with 21+ hours of flying for a one week trip would not be worth it for me.
- Stick with a feeding schedule. In normal life, I would wait for L to cry or fuss to let me know that she was hungry. On a plane, I didn’t want her disturbing the other passengers. I kept her on an eating schedule, meaning that I fed her every 2 hours while awake, and every 2.5 hours if she was asleep. If she was sleeping, I’d wake her by sticking my boob in her mouth. She’d eat and fall back to sleep. With a feeding schedule, she didn’t get hungry, and therefore didn’t get upset, and didn’t cry at all. (I breastfed, which made this particularly easy, but I have lots of experience taking care of bottle-fed babies, and feel this would work fine with bottles as well, though).
- Use cloth diaper covers. I’ll never forget our first trip with L. She was 5 weeks old and we took her to Walla Walla, WA. We were at a beautiful vineyard sipping wine when suddenly I felt something warm on my leg. It was a poo-splosion. I was horrified. I had never experienced this before (and hadn’t packed enough clothes for this problem!). The reason it had never happened before? We cloth diapered when we weren’t traveling. Cloth diapers don’t leak the way disposables do. At the time, I already had our tickets to Paris booked and I was SUPER stressed about having a poo-splosion on a plane while alone with my newborn (but obviously wasn’t going to cloth diaper her on a plane or in Paris). Finally I came up with my most brilliant newborn travel hack: Cloth diaper covers! Basically they’re the plastic shells that are snapped around the cloth part of the diaper for people who use the old methods of cloth diapering. BUT they can also be easily snapped around a disposable diaper to keep things contained when using disposable diapers, which is what I always did while traveling with L when she was still wearing diapers. Seriously, if you listen to nothing else in this post, this is the one to follow!
- Use an infant carrier (Like a moby or a lillebaby or an ergo – But not while taking off and landing). I will admit, I’m pretty biased about carriers generally; unless you have a kid who hates being held, carriers make life as a parent so much easier. As a flight attendant I’m always shocked by the parents who struggle to get themselves and their babies on the plane because they’re trying to carry both their baby and their luggage with their hands! Carriers mean you can have 2 hands available for use while carrying your baby! On a long flight, carriers are even better because you will probably be tired. Can you imagine accidentally drifting off to sleep while on an 8 hour flight? Yep, it would be easy to do! But what if you were holding your baby while you fell asleep? You might drop them! Carriers are great once at cruising altitude. You can also eat, go to the bathroom, etc while “holding” your baby in the carrier. I found wrap carriers to be most comfortable while in flight, but soft-sided carriers are generally best for all other travel contexts (like airports, walking around cities) I actually brought both a Moby and an Ergo with me when I went to Paris because I wanted the Moby for the plane and the Ergo for sightseeing.
- Wear a nursing shirt and nursing bra if nursing while flying. I’ve been stuck in a middle seat in Economy with a nursing lap infant between two men before. It’s awkward. But, wearing a nursing shirt meant I didn’t have to pull my breast out in front of strangers, and meant that I didn’t have to pull my shirt up to show my tummy. It was still super awkward and uncomfortable, but much less so than if I hadn’t been wearing a nursing top/bra.
- Go in with a plan. Parents are often quite anxious about traveling with their newborns. I’d encourage you to think through the phases of travel and the specific concerns you have for each phase, and then plan for them. I was worried my baby would cry and disturb others, so I planned a feeding schedule to keep her calm. I was worried my baby would poo all over me, so I brought extra clothes and used cloth diaper covers. You should recognize that delays are possible and bring enough supplies (diapers, formula, bottles, etc) to last well-beyond the hours you think you’ll be on the plane. You should think through your feeding options and have a plan. (Sometimes parents think there are microwaves onboard aircraft; there are not. Basically you can have hot water; that is your main option. If you need hot water to warm a bottle that’s already filled, you’ll need to provide a container to put the hot water in…) Just go in with a plan, and you’ll do okay!
- Remind yourself that it’s okay! I found that there were two main types of people I’d interact with while traveling with a newborn: People who were SUPER nice, or people who were SUPER rude. In either case, I didn’t have to worry about them. The nice people would give me grace, and the rude people didn’t deserve my kindness or respect, so I didn’t worry too much if my baby was bothering them.
I personally feel that traveling with a newborn is at least 10x easier than flying with an infant or toddler, and it was super enjoyable! Get out there, and go!
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The Best Job in the World…as long as you don’t need a job…
The title says it all. In my opinion, being a flight attendant is absolutely the best job in the world. It is super easy and super fun most of the time. Buuuuuut…it’s not a great way to make money, thus making it the best job in the world only if you don’t need a job.
I think this is important to discuss. I’ve had many people reach out to me to ask me questions about how to become a flight attendant, or to tell me that they’re considering this as a future job. When I explain the financial piece to them, most of them realize that this job cannot work for them. You see, flight attendants make very little money, at least at first. Here are a few contributing factors of why flight attendants make so little money, followed by the main reason (in bold) that flight attendants make so little money:
The hourly wage is pretty low. Unless a flight attendant has been at the same airline for 10+ years, their hourly wage is pretty low. (At my airline, the top-out pay is still less than I was making before becoming a flight attendant). The pay at it’s base is not great.
There’s no negotiating the wage. The wage is set in the contract and no matter what experience you have or how fantastic you are, you’ll get paid the same as everyone else at your seniority level.
Flight attendants don’t work full time hours. This is related to a technicality which I’ll explain below, but I think a lot of people look at the hourly wage and think, “Okay, that should be fine…” not realizing that most flight attendants work 70-90 hours per month. They’ll multiply the hourly wage by the 160 hours they’d work at a traditional job and then be WAY off on how much to reasonably expect they’ll make.
Flight attendants are not paid for their work. Ouch. This is the big one. Most airlines in the US pay their flight attendants only when they’re actually flying. There are two airlines that pay by mileage flown (which basically works out to be the same as only getting paid only while flying). So while basically every airline demands that flight attendants be at the airport 60-90 minutes before their first flight of the sequence will take off, flight attendants are not paid for those 60-90 minutes (with the exception of Delta, who pay their flight attendants half their hourly wage for boarding; though that still leaves time that Delta flight attendants are required to be at the airport but not getting paid, since they have to be at the airport before boarding begins).
The problem compounds though, because often flight attendants are stuck at airports several times per day…while not getting paid to be there. We always have that first hour when we’re reporting for a trip that we’re not paid for. Then we fly somewhere. If we’re lucky, we fly far far away and don’t have to work anymore that day. Buuuuut often enough, we have more flights that same day…and once again we’re not paid when we’re at the airport…usually. My airline pays us for one hour IF we’re stuck at an airport between flights for 2-or-more hours, and as far as my understanding goes, we’re the exception. Most airlines pay their flight attendants nothing for time at the airport.
What this all means is that often flight attendants have HOURS each day they’re working that they’re not paid for working. Boarding is 100% the most stressful part of the job…and we’re not paid for boarding.
You may be asking, “How is this legal?” Yes. Legitimate question. Apparently it relates to some antiquated law called the “Railway Act” or something??? Honestly, it should be illegal, but it’s not.
This is the ugly underside of this super fun job! Because the job is fun and is glamorized, airlines generally aren’t having a hard time hiring, and therefore I’m not optimistic that more ethical pay rules will come into place any time soon.
For me, it’s 100% worth it, but I’m lucky to have worked my way into a financial situation where it’s feasible. I did have a dream the other day that Saign wanted to divorce me, and I woke up and thought, “Holy crap! I need to keep my psychologist’s license! I can’t pay my bills if Saign leaves me!!!” Not a great feeling…
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The Perfect Layover
I’m often asked, “What’s been your favorite layover?”
My answer to my question is honest, but likely disappointing to the asker, “Any layover that’s over 24 hours.”
Generally, that’s true. I usually have great fun on 24 hour layovers, and no single layover stands out above the rest. (I think Kona probably had the potential to stand out above the rest, but I was ill for most of that layover, so it didn’t really shine like it could have!) However, on those 24 hour layovers, it tends to be less about where I am, and more about finding a balance to how I spend my time that will turn a good layover into a great one.
I just had what I would consider the perfectly layover in Baltimore. Here were the factors:
- 24 hours. Yes, the key to a perfect layover is having at least 24 hours to have fun.
- In the city/near a point of interest. Most of the time my company puts us in the middle of the city so that we can explore when we have longer layovers. But sometimes they put us quite a bit outside the city, which means that I have to figure out a way into the city and waste a lot of time getting from the hotel to the city. This perfect layover had me in a great area in the city so I didn’t have to waste time riding in/out of the city.
- Activities. For me the perfect layover will have a balance of solo activities and activities with others. I’ll tell you about the perfect balance of activities below.
Here are the activities that were important to me on my recent trip to Baltimore (And what generally matters on a layover):
- Exercise. I ran 11 miles (5 miles one day, 6 the next). I would have liked to lift weights, but the hotel gym was locked and even the staff couldn’t get into the gym when I asked! (However, I would have missed out on activity #2 if I had been lifting weights, so I guess it worked out for me).
- Community Activities. I loooooove finding free community activities to participate in while on layover. Most often, I go to free concerts (I assume those will be less frequent as we enter fall and winter), but there have also been parades, outdoor movies, etc. In Baltimore, I ran down to Fort McHenry, which commemorates the writing of the star spangled banner. I made it in time to participate in a flag raising ceremony in which we lowered the modern day flag and hoisted the 15 stars 15 stripes flag that would have been what Francis Scott Key saw when he wrote The Star Spangled Banner. It was super cool! The ranger did a great job teaching us about the history!
- Time with an Old Friend. My FAVORITE thing about traveling around North America is getting to see old friends! A huge thank you to my friend, Matt, who came to see me!
- Time with my Crew. I typically enjoy hanging out with my crew as long as I get some alone time as well, and as long as I don’t have to spend too much money. I had a great crew on this trip and enjoyed a chat and a beer with the three other flight attendants in our hotel bar.
- Time to Explore on my Own. I’ve begun to realize that while I’m extremely extroverted and love being around people, I feel like I miss out on the experience of really getting to know a city when I don’t get to explore it at least a bit on my own. When I’m with others, I get distracted with conversation so I don’t truly still enough to soak in the city, or won’t want to make them stop to take pictures or see the things I’m interested in. I really like getting to wander and explore on my own!
- Watching Naked and Afraid. This is my new TV obsession. I never get to watch it at home (we don’t have cable or streaming services), and most of our layover hotels don’t have the Discovery Channel, so I’m always pretty stoked when I get to watch an episode or two!
So there you have it, the perfectly balanced layover. Some old friends, some new friends, some exercise time, some exploration time, and of course, Naked and Afraid.
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Reserve Life: Getting Paid to Sit Around?
September was a weird month on reserve. My airline increased the number of flight attendants on reserve, which resulted in a lot of us working very little.
As I reviewed here, being “on reserve” means being on-call for the airline. 18 days a month they can call me and make me work. They will pay me as if I worked 90 hours regardless of whether I do or not. My first two months I (by my own choice) went over those 90 hours. These past two months, I’ve been trying to self-assign good trips if any are available, but not trying to work just for the sake of working. Unfortunately, this month, it’s been really hard to self assign any trips.
I worked a total of 10 days in September. Two days were airport standby (meaning I sat at the airport for 5 hours in case they needed me last minute). Two days were turns (meaning I flew somewhere and back in the same day), and 6 days were 2-day trips.
Me in Sitka, AK. One of my 3 trips in September. It rained. A lot. Y’all. I LIKE trips. I like going places and seeing new things.
I realize that probably most people would think that it’s cool to sit at home and get paid to not work. Unfortunately, I don’t love it. I LOOOOOOVE not working when I can camp, hike, or travel. Unfortunately, while on reserve, I have to be able to report to the airport in uniform and ready to work within 2 hours. This leaves me a bit trapped. I can’t even go on a long run when I’m on call! I run these bizarre loops throughout the neighborhood, never straying more than 15 minutes from my house.
Wow.
What a whiner I am.
Don’t get me wrong.
I am happy! This is the best, most fun job in the world!
I just need to tweak how I spend my days when I’m on-call.
I need to do better at packing my bag and being ready to report to work whilst going out and having fun. I don’t have a strategy worked out yet, but I’ve moved from pre-contemplation to contemplation here, so I’m making progress. (That was a psychology joke. I’m still a licensed psychologist; my jokes are as close as I’m planning to get to clinical work).
It IS pretty cool to have a job that’s so fun that I’m actually whining about not getting to work enough. What a privilege!
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Them Flight Bennies
One of the best things about being a flight attendant is being able to fly for free on my days off! It’s super cool!
I finished training at the beginning of May, and so far, we’ve taken so many free flights that I quite honestly can’t count them. We’ve flown somewhere for fun at least 1x/month. We took a vacation to Cabo San Lucas Mexico. We took a vacation around Alaska. We’ve flown L to her aunt’s house in Oregon and back, and we’ve flown L to her grandparent’s house in Minnesota and back.
So how does it work?
Basically as soon as you start working for an airline in the US, your family (yourself, your spouse, your kids, and your parents) all get “non-rev” benefits on your airline. “Non-rev” means non-revenue; in other words, the airline makes no money from you flying. Having non-rev benefits means that we get to fly for free! It’s the greatest perk of working for an airline!
If we fly internationally, we do have to pay the taxes and fees incurred for the flight, so international flying is not completely free.
The problem with non-revving is that it’s standby travel. We show up at the gate and get open seats on the airplane. The only problem? Sometimes there are no open seats for us!
The key to non-revving successfully is being flexible and willing to modify plans as needed. When our family went to Mexico, we were initially planning to go to Hawaii, but the flights to Hawaii were so full that I was afraid I might not make it back in time for work, so…we went to Mexico instead!
Our Alaska trip was the most stressful trip in terms of non-revving. Particularly, when going to Katmai, we risked losing the money I had paid for our seaplane, as well as completely losing the opportunity to go to Katmai at all (since I only had camping reservations for one night) if anything went wrong with us getting on our flight into King Salmon, Alaska. (Thankfully, that portion of the trip went swimmingly). We did have a bit of a difficulty at the beginning of the trip: Our plan was to fly into Gustavus, AK on the first day of the trip. This meant we had to fly into Juneau first. The flight to Gustavus from Juneau was wide open, but getting to Juneau from Seattle looked a little more sketchy; there were just a few seats open. Then suddenly, on the day of the trip, the flights into Juneau from Seattle started to look more and more full. We showed up at the airport in time to get on the first flight of the day – which was fully booked. I wasn’t too worried, as people miss flights all the time! But, then the flight closed without any non-revs getting onboard – AND there were several (I think around 7) non-revs listed ahead of us! (That means that the others had priority over us because they had been working with the company longer). The next flight to Juneau was an hour-or-two later, but that flight was also full. I knew that all the other non-revvers who had tried to get on the first flight would likely try to get on that flight too, and we’d get nowhere! Luckily, I had noticed that there was a multi-leg flight that was leaving soon that would eventually end up in Juneau on that same day. We ran to that gate and the agent worked to get us on the flight. The agent had a hard time issuing us tickets and ended up having to manually do several things to get the tickets issued AND had to call a supervisor to get us on. This took so long that they had to delay closing the boarding door for us. The captain ended up coming out to see what the delay was in closing the boarding door, but he agreed that getting us on should be a priority. And they got us on! We had to land in several cities and switch seats in several cities, but we did eventually get to Juneau on the day we needed, and all for free!
Another interesting aspect of having flight benefits has been factoring in gas prices. My sister lives ~5 hour drive from us. Flying to her takes about 4 hours between the drive to the airport, going through security, waiting, and then flying. But if I drive to her I have to pay for gas, and if we fly, we get to her for free (well, actually for the price of transportation to Seatac from our house).
L non-revving to my sister’s house in Oregon. Right now, non-revving is pretty simple because I only have flight benefits on my airline, and I can see flight loads (e.g. see how many empty seats there are) through my company’s website/app.
In a few months (after 6 months of employment), flight benefits will open up on other airlines. That is when things will get more complicated. On the major US airlines, I will be able to fly domestically for free, though I will have to pay taxes and fees when flying internationally just as I currently do with my own airline. However, Saign and L will NOT be able to fly for free on other airlines. They’ll have to pay a fee (often around $100-200) to the airline in order to fly with them. This is where things get interesting: Saign and I have always chosen our vacation destinations based on where we can get cheap tickets. It seems that between the taxes and fees + the fact that the fees we will have to pay are only one-way, we are not convinced that we’ll save much money (if any) on flying internationally, unless we go to destinations that we’ve typically avoided because the airfare is so high. (We’ve never been to South America or Japan because I’ve never seen a particularly affordable deal on airfare to these destinations). Now, some airlines will upgrade their non-revs to first class or business class, meaning that for around the price of a coach ticket non-revs get to fly much more comfortably. The only problem with this? None of these airlines will let non-rev kids L’s age fly in these cabins. Until L is a little bit older, we’ll be stuck in coach!
The other thing that’s complicated about non-revving on other airlines is that I can’t see the flight loads. There are apps in which airline employees can share flight loads with one other, and that helps, but it’s not as easy as just checking for myself on my company’s website AND one of the three major airlines in the US prohibits their employees from sharing flight loads, so it’s not possible to learn flight loads for them.
Thus far, having flight benefits has been super cool, amazing, and worth the minor hassle. When we start trying to fly with other airlines, things will get much more complicated! I’ll keep you updated!
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Our Latest Adventure: Katmai National Park
Saign and I have a goal to visit every US National Park together. In 2020 and 2021 we took road trips from Washington State to cover parks that were driveable-ish from our home. If our lives hadn’t changed so much in the last year, I suspect we would have taken our adorable truck camper on some new adventures to cover a few more parks. But, I decided that with the current gas prices and my new flight benefits, the most logical choice would be to cover some of the parks that we wouldn’t want to take a camper to. Enter: The Alaska National Parks!
There are eight national parks in Alaska, and only 3 are accessible by car! Oh hey! My flight benefits will work out great in this scenario. I started reading about the parks (This blog is one of the best resources on how to visit the parks on a budget IMO), and definitely the most exciting park to visit (from what I could tell) would be Katmai National Park. Why? It’s basically full of brown bears and you get to see them play and eat and fight and get pretty close to them and it just sounded magical and amazing.
But as I read more, visiting in 2022 seemed impossible. I started thinking about this trip a few weeks before I planned to go. Katmai is so popular that usually you have to get camping sites booked on January 5th, the date that they go on sale, and quite often even if you try to book as soon as they go on sale on January 5th, you won’t get camping permits. Ho-hum. I decided I’d have to save the Magical Katmai Bears for 2023…or so I thought! About 2 weeks before our trip, I happened to be up later than I should have been and I happened to go to recreation.gov and find camping permits for one night during the time I had off of work! I quickly paid for the permits and was so excited!
The next day, I did more research and learned that August (which is when we had permits) was not the best time to go to Katmai. July and September are when the salmon are running the strongest and when most bears can be seen. I hoped and prayed I’d still get to see some. Even if I got up close to just one, I thought it would be worth it.
To get to Katmai, there are commercial flights (free for my family and I on my flight benefits) to a town called King Salmon, but from there you have to take either a boat or a seaplane to Katmai. The boat at the time was $320, and the plane $350. As a family of three, and as someone who is very frugal, I considered this to be quite an expense. I really really really wanted to see bears if we paid nearly $1000 to get just 24 hours at the park! It felt risky to pay all that money to visit at a time that was not considered ideal.
It also felt a bit risky flying standby to King Salmon: if the planes there were fully booked, we’d miss out on our seaplane and our bears! I looked into staying in King Salmon the night before to give us a little insurance that we’d be able to board our seaplane on time, but all the hotels were booked up AND expensive AND quite frankly didn’t look very nice. There was camping that we probably could have done. Camping that was $150 a night + charged us extra to take showers!
In the end, while it felt risky, I decided that we would fly into King Salmon on the day we had camping reservations in Katmai. I was a bit nervous about things falling apart. In addition to the concern of not getting to the seaplane on time, seaplanes are not safe to fly in many weather conditions, so I was hoping and praying the weather would cooperate.
On August 3rd, we made our way safely to King Salmon! Buuut…then there was the matter of our baggage. We checked our camping gear and food and really didn’t have many options if our baggage didn’t arrive. Thankfully, our baggage arrived, and our driver from the seaplane company arrived, and everything was going smoothly. I was so excited! But still worried the bears might not be around.
Our seaplane was supposed to take off at 2pm, but the company told us, “We’ll probably be able to get you there sooner.” And they did! They took just our family in our own little seaplane an hour early! As we were loading into the plane, the pilot asked, “Does anyone want to ride in the cockpit?” ME ME ME ME!
It was super awesome flying below the clouds on the way to Katmai! Our pilot did a few turns that I thought were for our entertainment. Later I learned that they WERE for our entertainment, but it was because he was trying to show us a moose. I didn’t see it!
Flying as the First Officer to Katmai As we flew in towards Naknek Lake to land, there they were: Two brown bears just chilling on the beach!
My dreams were coming true! The magical Katmai Bears were there ready to meet me! So so so cool!
After we landed on the beach and were shuffled away from the bears, we got to attend “Bear School,” a requirement for all visitors to Katmai National Park where they teach you how to be safe around the bears. When you’re done with bear school they give you a cute little bear pin to show that you graduated.
L at Bear School From there, we headed off to the campground to set up our tent and THANKFULLY found a crazy excessive amount of camp stove fuel up for grabs (since you can’t fly with camp stove fuel we flew in hoping that we’d be able to score some at the campers exchange). From there, we went to look for bears!
The main spot to see bears is at Brooks Falls, which is a 1.2 mile walk from Brooks Camp. We walked a tiny bit over a bridge on the way to Brooks Falls and found several bears wading in the river, including some juvenile bears who were VERY noisy and upset when their mother wouldn’t share her salmon with them. So cool!
This Mama Bear was not sharing with her cubs! From there we hiked on up towards the Brooks Falls platform where we put our name on a list to be granted access to the Brooks Falls platform to watch the bears. They limit the platform to 40 people, so often during the day there’s a wait to go out to see the bears. Once you’re on the platform, you’re allowed 30 minutes to sit and observe and take pictures before your turn is up. Apparently during peak times that wait can be 2 hours+! Thankfully, we visited during shoulder season, so our longest wait to the platform was 15 minutes. While waiting, there was another platform where we were able to go observe bears, and even that platform was absolutely amazing. We saw tons of bears! I felt so lucky!
We finally got to the Brooks Falls platform where we watched bears playing and eating and lazing and salmon attempting to make their way up river, over a small waterfall (the Brooks Falls) to spawn. It was super cool! We got to see all sorts of different fishing techniques and disagreements between the bears and two adorable bear cubs.
As always, the best images will be on my instagram account: adventurefam_org And…that’s pretty much how our time at Brooks Falls went. We stared at bears a LOT. It was super cool! We learned that there are a lot of day-trippers to Katmai (since getting campsites is so difficult, and the lodge is crazy expensive and also difficult to book), so at night when the day-trippers left, we could watch the bears in a less crowded environment (when we were there, they weren’t restricting entrance to the Brooks Falls platform in the evening, so we could stay as long as we wanted. In the evening, I counted 27 bears at one time from the Brooks Falls platform. It was so cool!
I do wish that we had gotten two nights at Katmai, because that would have allowed all the glorious bear watching that we did, plus we could have gone for a hike at the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, which looks pretty cool in pictures. But even with just 24 hours, I still think it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life! Given the seaplane cost, I do see this as a once-in-a-lifetime thing to do, and don’t think I could justify spending the money to return to see the bears again, or to get the Valley of 10,000 Smokes hike in.
All-in-all, 10 Stars, would highly recommend visiting Katmai National Park!
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