I decided that I wanted to get a good routine established, so I had an alarm set to wake me up at 8AM everyday. I also had an Airport Standby shift at 4PM on Saturday, May 10th, 2025. Absolutely no idea why I thought having a good routine would be a great idea.
I got ready for my standby shift and headed to the airport. I checked in and got settled in the crew room. At around 4:05PM, I saw that I had chat notifications for a flight on my work phone regarding missing flight attendants. I panicked and quickly checked my schedule. Did I read the schedule wrong? Was I supposed to be doing a standby shift or did I actually have a flight? I quickly packed up my stuff and ran out of the crew room to my gate.
I was terrified that I would receive a late report. As a probationary flight attendant, this is not something you want to have on your record. When I was running to the gate, I got a call from Crew Scheduling, and they informed me that I had a pairing from standby. I felt an immense wave of relief knowing that I did not have a late report and that they just placed it on my line as soon as I checked in for my shift.
The trip was what they call a “fake” 3-day because it is really only 2 days of flying sandwiched between a long layover. I was assigned as the Purser (Lead). We would do Houston to San Francisco, then a red-eye from San Francisco to Raleigh/Durham. We had a 24 hour layover in Raleigh/Durham, then we would go from Raleigh/Durham back to Houston. I felt like maybe the red-eye life would be good for me as I consider myself as a night person. I stay up late and wake up late. I find it hard for me to wake up early in the mornings, so perhaps it would be easier for me to work red-eye flights.
When I got to the gate, I scanned my badge then boarded the aircraft. I met the crew, and we all got to know each other a bit. Boarding began, then we were on our way to San Francisco.
It was a very easy flight to San Francisco. I had about a two hour sit in SFO, so Thomas met me outside by the baggage claim area. Soon, it was time for me to get back to the gate so we could get to Raleigh. I went through TSA, walked to my gate, scanned my badge, and made my way down the jetbridge. Once we were on the aircraft, I met a girl who would be working in the aft on the beverage cart. This was her first ever trip, so we were all excited for her. I knew exactly how she felt a little under a month ago.
The flight, for the most part, was pretty manageable. It was about half-full. I felt great for the first part of the service and confident in my red-eye ability; however, my challenge was actually after service was complete. Because it was a red-eye, the majority of the passengers were asleep. The cabin is incredibly dark for passengers to rest, so now I was starting to feel incredibly tired. Could it possibly because I had been up since 8AM? In the meantime, I would try and stay awake by talking to the girl who was working as the forward galley. I occasionally would walk to the back of the plane and talk to the crew in the aft to try whenever I felt drowsy. Eventually, my eyes began to start burning.
Once we finally landed, we made our way to the pickup area to head on over to our hotel. I was exhausted, especially after being up for nearly 20 hours at this time. Note to self: do not wake up at 8AM and try to establish a good daily routine in case you get called to do a red-eye. We eventually made our way to our hotel, and in the van, I got to watch the sunrise. At the hotel, I quickly unpacked and slept. I also took a look in the mirror and saw that my eyes were incredibly red. And that’s why they call it a red-eye!
I woke up around 1PM. It was raining just a bit. I was not sure what to do since it was a pretty long layover. I googled things to do in Raleigh and saw that the North Carolina History Museum was not too far from the hotel. I put on my jacket and quickly made my way to there.
On the walk to the museum, I checked out various Civil War monuments and trails around the Capitol building. It made me really wish that I got a history minor in college. Eventually, I made my way to the History Museum and found out that it was temporarily closed for renovations. It would not re-open until Fall 2028. Instead, I wandered over to the Natural Science Museum and walked around there to get some steps in and kill some time. After I looked through everything, I made my way back to the hotel. I tried to go to bed as early as I could since we had a pretty early flight the next morning back to Houston.
We made our way to the airport. It was so early, but I was glad I would be done early so I could go back home and recover from the red-eye schedule. I also noticed that the plane looked incredibly new. I took a look at the registration, and I saw that the plane’s certificate from Department of Transportation Date was issued on April 17th, 2025! This was the date of my base orientation! Essentially, the plane has been flying for as long as I have!
The flight back to Houston went well, and a sweet passenger even brought us a bag full of snacks. We indulged in some of the snacks on the flight. Upon finally landing, we all went our separate ways. On the drive home, I decided that I do not like red-eyes and maybe I actually prefer to do early check-ins.