Friday, February 6, 2009

First operating flight to Toronto.

Breath in... breath out... breath in ... breath out..... just thinking about this flight makes me nervous LOL
I was so excited to go on my first operating flight and I wanted it to be so perfect.. but it was so NOT.
The flight was delayed a little bit because we still needed to wait for a lot of pax that did not arrive yet from their connecting flight. That made other passengers extremely mad... and they took out all of their stress on us way before take off.
We were 6 crew for the whole economy section and the most experienced one has only 4 month experience and she was the galley operator. Just imagine the mess that was going on in the cabin. We did our absolute best but still we were running late with the service, we run out of meal choices, the pax constantly were asking us for something... not a minute went by without a call bell...so demanding- crazy... Total nightmare.... The worst was when 3 of us went to have their 4 hours rest and only 3 of us left to deal with all of this.... aghrrr.... we all wanted this flight to be over... but it's not easy when you'r on 15 hour flight.
On top of that our cabin manager gave us a lot of hard time and was pushing us way too hard and creating unnecessary stress instead of helping.... really disappointing.
But the flight finally came to an end and we all happily left the aircraft for our 29 hours layover :).
Toronto was beautiful but really cold, about -15 C. After we arrived at the hotel and checked in, me and few of my friends went to have sushi for dinner and to check out the area a little bit. What's nice is that the hotel we stay at is in the middle of the city... right on huge shopping street.... so what else to do, but shop ?!
The next day my friend got sick so I had to continue shopping by myself yeah.....and 7 hours later... finally I finished LOL.
We were so not looking forward to doing the flight back, but it proven us to be a totally 180 degrees different experience.
The economy class was only half full, with all nice passengers. Our service went unbelievably smooth. No problems at all ohhhh how we loved our lives again LOL. I have to admit that the flight back from Toronto was perrrfect !!!
After this experience.. I'm not sure if I want to fly to Toronto again... maybe it's just not worth all the stress.... but it's always a valuable lesson.

4 comments:

JuliaWawa said...

Nikita,
It is nit only interesting but also very useful what you write. I am sure a lot of people would love t read MORE and MORE :) Let us know more details, descriptions of your flats,your colleques and what you do in your free time etc... We're all courious of that:)
I am waiting for the glden call and it is so great to read your blog in the meanwhile..

Traytable said...

How are you since Toronto flight? Have you had many more trips since then?

Anonymous said...

u have a interesting blog very useful
im thinking becoming a cabin crew and ur blog is very useful..
amazing adventures u have been to
GOOD LUCK
EMELIE

Aviation Crazy said...

I came across your blog through Airboy! You might be happy to see some Etihad Cabin crew pics I have on my blog :). I have the say Etihad is a great airline and I'd fly with you guys any day! Sorry about your trip to Toronto that it did not go so well.