Read Online Pan Am Unbuckled: A Very Plane Diary by Ann Shelby Valentine, Ramona Fillman - Free Book Online Page B

trip as it involved long days, full loads, not particularly cordial passengers, and no layover in San Juan. It was just what it was called—‘the San Juan turnaround’.
    Robbie laughed at me when I loaded up my tote bag with a bikini and a change of clothes and my full make-up kit. She said “You are just making your tote bag too heavy.” But I had been told in training school to be prepared, and I was following my training. Robbie told me how to go to the East Side Bus Terminal again on the Third Avenue Bus, and she advised me to get there early enough to get a Carey Bus Pass, as it would save me a lot of money in the long run. I took her advice to heart—even though the pass used up almost ALL of my cash reserves. I made it back to JFK on the Carey Bus and felt very confident about my ability to find my way around already.
    I entered the crew lounge and, even though I was early, signed in right away. Now, as far as Pan Am and scheduling was concerned, I was officially at the airport and ready for duty. What I didn’t know was that crew members, who were waiting for their flights, played ‘a little bit of a game’. Nobody actually signed the sign-in book until right before their report time—which was an hour and a half before the flight’s departure. I soon found out why.
    I went to the mailbox room to check my box and by the time I walked back into the crew lounge, they were calling out my name. “Oh, no!” I thought, “ What had I done wrong on my first flight?” Breathlessly, I said I was there. “Oh, you are being rerouted”, the scheduler told me. “You are not on the San Juan, but on Flight 2.” People within hearing distance either gasped or laughed. “Yes, hope you brought a suitcase.” I could tell from the way the scheduler looked at me, when he told me to go to the briefing room that he felt a bit sorry for me. As I walked across the crew lounge area, an old male purser said to me “That’ll teach you to sign in early.” I asked where Flight 2 went and he said “Honey, you are on the ‘round-the-world.” I technically knew that Flight 1 and Flight 2 were Pan Am’s Around-the-World flights out of NY, but it didn’t compute immediately what that meant—but I was about to find out.

‘Round The World ~ My First Flight
     

    By the end of briefing—where the crew is given flight time and conditions information by the captain and assigned jobs by the purser— I was very excited. I was replacing a no-show, and joining a seasoned crew on a flight bound for London and as far east as Hong Kong. During briefing, I was initially assigned to the first-class galley. When details became clear— that this was literally my first trip out of training school, the senior purser, Georgia, decided that I would not be assigned first class galley after all. She made another crew member take first-class. The other stewardess was not happy with the decision, as she had more seniority and did not like being assigned to first-class. I learned that flight crew fell into two categories— those that did, and those that did NOT like to do the galley. Working the first class galley on a dinner service AND doing breakfast service into London was a lot of work—a LOT of prep work, and a LOT of organizing. The logic of the senior purser was indisputable— that it would be harder for everyone if I was in the first class galley since I lacked any real experience. Instead, I would work the first class cabin and then help with pick-up in economy.
    As we walked out of the briefing room to catch the crew bus, I asked if I could make a phone call. The purser said she was sorry but I couldn’t—it would hold up the crew bus. We were walking past the mailroom and I tossed a note into Robbie’s box telling her that I was on Flight 2—hoping that she would get the note and know what that meant. (Later, Robbie made it clear to me that these re-routes would happen and were to be expected, and delays would happen and not