(no subject)
When people find out what I do for a living, one of the questions I get asked the most, after "Where do you fly?!", is "Do you have to go through security?" (No lie, the dental hygienist yesterday actually stopped in the middle of my cleaning to ask me that question.)
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Yes and no.
Every flight crew member is based somewhere in the world, meaning the company has to start and end your trip in base. Not everybody lives in base, though, and it's easy since we can fly for free on our own and other airlines. "Base" also means that we go through extra background checks to get a specialized airport badge that allows us access to every part of said airport. That's where we don't have to go through security.
Every other airport is where we have to actually go through security. Personally, I hate it. We don't have to wait in line, which means that we have to jump in front of everyone waiting to shove their belongings through the scanner. (We are actually required to cut in line.) Once there, though, we still have to do everything like everyone else - shoes and jackets come off, laptops are unpacked, and pockets are patted down. It's the worst part of the day.
In other news, March is shaping up to be excellent! Instead of sitting reserve, which is where we have to go to the airport and sit on-call and wait for people to not show up for whatever reason, I have what's called a move-up line. A move-up line is for people like me - people who aren't senior enough to hold a regular line, but when crew scheduling goes over the trips for the month, they can manually assign lines to people who can only hold reserve. So technically, I have a line. It's not ideal; all the trips are low hours, and it goes too close to my vacation days, but it's better than dealing with scheduling for two and a half weeks.
I'm in Indianapolis tonight, then Rochester tomorrow, but tomorrow's practically no work, and Thursday is literally no work for me, though I get paid for the flight I ride on down to Atlanta. Lines are awesome!
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Yes and no.
Every flight crew member is based somewhere in the world, meaning the company has to start and end your trip in base. Not everybody lives in base, though, and it's easy since we can fly for free on our own and other airlines. "Base" also means that we go through extra background checks to get a specialized airport badge that allows us access to every part of said airport. That's where we don't have to go through security.
Every other airport is where we have to actually go through security. Personally, I hate it. We don't have to wait in line, which means that we have to jump in front of everyone waiting to shove their belongings through the scanner. (We are actually required to cut in line.) Once there, though, we still have to do everything like everyone else - shoes and jackets come off, laptops are unpacked, and pockets are patted down. It's the worst part of the day.
In other news, March is shaping up to be excellent! Instead of sitting reserve, which is where we have to go to the airport and sit on-call and wait for people to not show up for whatever reason, I have what's called a move-up line. A move-up line is for people like me - people who aren't senior enough to hold a regular line, but when crew scheduling goes over the trips for the month, they can manually assign lines to people who can only hold reserve. So technically, I have a line. It's not ideal; all the trips are low hours, and it goes too close to my vacation days, but it's better than dealing with scheduling for two and a half weeks.
I'm in Indianapolis tonight, then Rochester tomorrow, but tomorrow's practically no work, and Thursday is literally no work for me, though I get paid for the flight I ride on down to Atlanta. Lines are awesome!