Our Facebook Fundraiser was a great success, and you helped us near our goal of $2,000!
 

 

 

 

 

Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues who have experienced devastating losses due to fire, wind, and flooding as a result. 
 
Flight Attendant Disaster Relief (FADR) is primarily funded from onboard recycling of aluminum cans. FADR is very fortunate to benefit from this procedure which may be reviewed in Comply 365 on the flight attendant tablet. In-flight service changes have understandably affected can recycling, which is down tremendously. Still, each can placed in an insert helps ... Please do your part if you are able!

 

 

Please visit this link:  
DONATE NOW
 

... then designate the Flight Attendant Disaster Relief fund. 
Since 2016, your efforts have contributed to nearly $178,000
in recycling revenue to Wings  FADR!

My career at AA started in September of 1991, having recently returned to the US from nine years in Japan as an English teacher. From day one, we were warned that change and adaptability were two concepts to become accustomed to in the airline industry. How right our instructors were! I don’t think they had any idea what was going to happen in the years to come, but change -- and the need to be adaptable -- has certainly been a big part of my years of flying.

SEA was my first base, and with no more than 150 in the base, we got to know each other very well.  We flew NRT (Tokyo): That’s it, unless you were on reserve, which was pretty stress-free as assignments nearly always came the night before. The base was good about calling in early if they were sick, and if you were going to work an out-of-base trip, you had to deadhead on the first flight to DFW or ORD the next morning. But a career in SEA was not to be. Shortly after September 11, the base closure news came and we scattered to bases around the system. Those first ten years were certainly wonderful.

My next (and last) base was DFW. Compared to SEA, DFW was the other extreme in size. I went from one of the smallest bases to one of the biggest. Reserve was also very different: You could and did get called to go anywhere, any time. So, in a way my career was kind of flipped with SEA being my “senior” period and DFW my “junior” period.

I haven’t personally needed to call upon Wings in my years of flying, but I’ve known at least one flight attendant who needed help. He had a cancer diagnosis, and at that time Wings was able coordinate sick days we could donate. By all of us working together from the former SEA base and beyond, we kept him on payroll, ensuring both he and his wife had medical insurance and other company benefits until he passed away. A sad story, but it shows that Wings has done great work and I was happy to support them during my career.

I’m upbeat on taking the early out. For me, the middle of March was when I worked my last trip, though I didn’t know it at the time. Then my entire April schedule canceled, so taking a six month leave felt like a good idea. Commuting with only one flight a day is no fun. Besides, this was all going to be over by the fall, right? It’s a good thing I took the leave, because it wasn't very long after the leave started that American Airlines stopped flying from DFW to my commuter city of YVR (Vancouver)! 

I’ll miss certain layovers. Europe (though I didn’t go often) was a highlight. I have to remind myself I can’t go to LHR for that particular tea and marmalade you just can’t get any place else!

What does a retired flight attendant do with new-found free time? Well, I can’t wait to use the positive space passes that were part of the early out package I chose, that’s for sure. COVID restrictions will, by necessity, keep me grounded for a bit, but I can’t wait to travel again. Since I can’t travel all the time, in anticipation of retirement, I started working on a contract basis at the medical school in Vancouver as a “Standardized Patient.” SPs participate in role-playing during teaching sessions and evaluations of medical students for each of the four years they are in school. It really is quite interesting work, and certainly satisfying knowing I am part of helping train tomorrow’s doctors.

Change and adaptability: Yes, they were part of my time flying, and I expect they will be part of the next leg of this trip called life. Thank you one and all for a great trip at American Airlines, and may Wings continue to soar!