10-02-2006
01:20 AM
17 Loves
Dennis -
I volunteered several years to help get ready for the Heros of the Heart event held every February at HDQ. Balloon Nazi doesn't even BEGIN to cover it!! LOL.
But yes, I too would encourage everyone who hasn't had the opportunity to work an event with Annie to work one with her, but don't forget to bring the balloon precise-o-meter with ya! hehe...
Regards,
James Malone
MDW FA
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Jyoti -
Check out http://www.southwest.com/careers and click on Flight Attendant. It will give you an idea about the Flight Attendant Career. You can also check out several of the items that Carole has written by clicking on her name and then check out A Week In the Life of a Flight Attendant by clicking on one of my blogs and locating it from there. If Carole or I can answer any additional questions, please let us know.
Leah - Carole was on the SWA Interview Team for years before taking a much needed break this year. So, perhaps she can answer some of your questions. Do you have any specific questions?
I just have to say for those of you that haven't met Carole in person, she is one of the most delightful people you will EVER meet in your life. She is caring, funny, loyal, HONEST (weather you want her to be or not! 😉 ) and just a GREAT person to know. I'm glad I can call her FRIEND!
Regards,
James Malone
MDW FA
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10-02-2006
01:11 AM
20 Loves
Lacey - as long as you wait until the 10,000 foot DING, and have your ipod on...you are MORE than welcome to get pumped up inflight.
I hope you had a good race!
Regards,
James Malone
MDW FA
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Jenny -
We have teams dedicated to Reservations, Ground Operations, Inflight, Flight Operations, Provisioning, Heros of the Heart, and I think I'm missing a few. Perhaps someone could jump in and name the rest. The teams operate in much the same way as the E-Team. We go to a location, cook lunch / provide lunch, play games, give away prizes, etc...The Inflight Team we do something special. We have "Hokey Days". A Hokey Day is when we go to a particular Inflight Base and we provide a boxed snack for the Flight Crew. We then let them take a little break while we clean the aircraft and grab a Hokey. A Hokey for those of you that don't know is a small human powered vacuumn picker upper (is that a word?) 🙂 We then hokey the plane to pick up all the peanut debris from the aircraft floor. It is a BLAST and the Crews really appreciate this small amount of time to enjoy their snack and get a little rest in a hectic day.
We come together 4 times a year at HDQ to meet with Colleen and her Team of "Culture Chicks" and we also have the opportunity to hear from Sr. Leadership at these meetings. In addition, Colleen normally brings in a guest speaker to share with us. The meetings are very beneficial in that there is a TON of information shared and there is also a lot of time for Q & A. We are then able to go back to our respective work groups and share this information with them.
I hope this has helped a little.
Regards,
James Malone
MDW FA
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Megan - you do get paid while on Reserve. You are paid 6.5 Trips for each day that you are on Reserve wheather the Company uses you or not. What you are not getting is any per diem if you are not used. Commuting is commuting is commuting no matter what city you are in. You just have to be very aware of where you are trying to go and look at the flights that will get you there and then make an informed decision on your routing.
Good luck!
James Malone
MDW FA
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09-29-2006
04:37 PM
19 Loves
I just found a a GREAT podcast on Itunes that you everyone can subscribe to at itunes. Just do a search for fitpod.com and subscribe to their free tune downloads which are updated weekly. They also have a website where you can find everything fitness / ipod(y)! (Is ipody a workd?)
I hope you all have a great weekend!
James Malone
MDW FA
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One of the things that I'm honored to be a part of here at Southwest Airlines is the Culture Committee. The Culture Committee was started back in 1991, by Colleen Barrett, our President. She saw the need for us to keep that family feeling as the Company began to grow. The Culture Committee has approximately 120 Active Members and numerous Alumni Members. You are selected to be on the Committee for 3 years, and during those three years, you attend quarterly Culture Committee meetings and participate in three Team Events. After that, you become an Alumni Member, and you participate in two Team Events, one of which has to be a "Hokey" Day. A Hokey Day is where you go to an airport, provide the Flight Crews with a box snack and use a Hokey (a type of manual carpet sweeper) to help them clean the plane. The pictures here are of the Albuquerque E-Team Visit. E-Team stands for Encouragement. We cooked hot dogs and hamburgers outside for the Albuquerque Station Employees and the Flight Crews that flew through the city that day. It is great to be a part of the Culture Committee. Perhaps Sunny could share some more about it with ya'll. ;-)
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09-18-2006
08:54 AM
522 Loves
I had the pleasure of meeting Matthew on my flight from Chicago to Oakland today. Matthew is a balloon artist at the young age of 14. Matthew has had the honor of making his balloon art at a Notre Dame Football game, at Festivals, a Chicago Cubs game and even some balloon art for Chicago's Mayor Daley. Today on our flight, Matthew made a sword for a young man named Gavin; he made each of the Flight Attendants a bug bracelet and a flower bracelet; and then he made us a Duck Mascot whom he named Freddie. When Matthew came on the flight he was wearing a penguin hat! Matthew's mother even got into the act by making the Pilots a SWA airplane! 🙂 This flight was a lot of fun!
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09-07-2006
01:51 AM
1 Love
PLM - check out http://swa.flightattendants.org
Also, everyone else, check this video out. It is pretty cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVpEFQIYFak
Regards,
James Malone
MDW FA
P.S. You Tube has some great amateur take off videos of our Wanna Fly Away ads...just go to www.youtube.com and do a search for Southwest Airlines
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Calling ALL Photo Hounds!
Does anyone have any pictures of landing near the old Hong Kong airport to post? I believe that you can post them to the BlogSouthwest Flickr website.
I've seen a few, but can't remember where I found them. As always, Ray...a GREAT post!
James Malone
MDW FA
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09-04-2006
12:17 PM
4 Loves
Oops....Kim Seale was the first one to post all three cities correctly!
:-)
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09-04-2006
12:15 PM
1 Love
Happy Labor Day!
Let's end the suspense!
The first city is Chicago!
The second city is Houston!
and drumroll, please......................
I believe that Stove was the first person to guess the third city correctly it is HOUSTON!
Good going guys and gals!
I hope everyone has a GREAT Labor Day!
James Malone
MDW FA
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09-01-2006
04:31 AM
1 Love
I'll give it a few more days...then I'll tell you...but yes, Chicago and Houston are correct...and perhaps some of you have the 3rd city right as well. ;-)
Have a good weekend, ya'll!
James
MDW FA
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08-31-2006
11:16 AM
496 Loves
(click on the pics to enlarge)
Okay...a friend of mine took some really cool pictures, so I thought we could play a little game. The pictures below are two cities that we fly into. What cities do you think they are? The third picture is just cool. What city do you think it was taken in?
**Photos provided by Dann**
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08-31-2006
03:21 AM
2 Loves
P.S. I wrote a blog on "A Week In The Life Of A Flight Attendant". You can find it here
http://www.blogsouthwest.com/2006/07/06/a-week-in-the-life-of-a-swa-flight-attendant/
should you be interested in reading it.
Good Luck, Leah!
James Malone
MDW FA
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Robert - PA's = Public Announcements.
Have a good weekend, Ya'll!
James
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08-26-2006
02:24 AM
2 Loves
Sandy - sure, you can commute like I do. You can commute from OKC or TUL. I actually think TULsa might be a little easier for you as we seem to have less commuters out of that city.
Good Luck!
James
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P.S. You can commute while on Reserve, just go up THE NIGHT BEFORE and be available for contact!
James
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Bo - When you graduate training, you will get a line (a month of scheduled trips) for your first month. The next 5 months, you will sit Reserve. Here at SWA, we have 3 types of Reserve, AM Reserve, PM Reserve and Ready Reserve. I'm not exactly sure of the exact rules, but here is the gist. When you are on Reserve, you are basically the Companies to do with what they want. You are the insurance! AM Reserve, they can contact you from 3am - 11am and they have to have you back in Domicile at the end of an assigned Reserve trip by 1800 Central. PM Reserve, they can contact you from 10am - 1800 PM and there is no limit about when they can have you back from a assigned Reserve trip (I think). Ready Reserve, you are on call 24 hours a day the days that you liable for reserve.
After you get off of probation, you go into the Reserve Rotation, which is the bottom 65% of the domicile rotates thru their monthly Reserve committment. Here in MDW, you sit a month of Reserve, then have 2-3 months of a line.
I hope that helps!
James Malone
MDW FA
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Bo - You MUST have your PA's memorized before training. If you don't, you will not have any time to memorize them before the test. Training is intense, but also very fun! You get so much information each day and then most of the time have a test each morning over the previous days information. Business Casual is dockers, polo shirts, etc...I'm not sure if they are allowing denim jeans as part of business casual or not. It should say in the packet. If you have any questions, please just give the People department a call and they should be able to answer any questions that you may have. I don't think you will have a problem being based in BWI. It is our must junior base.
Good luck in training! Study HARD!!
James Malone
MDW FA
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Yvonne - it is all about seniority. If I were based in DAL, I would be sitting Reserve for the rest of my life. After three years of being a Flight Attendant, I'm very close to holding a VR (Vacation Relief ) line in Chicago, which is basically like having a monthly schedule, which means you aren't on Reserve and "on call" so to speak.
Have a good weekend!
James Malone
MDW FA
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Yvonne - I know I would LUV to have an RN on my flight, in case of a medical emergency. A book I would recommend for your interview is 1001 Answers to Tough Interview Questions (or it may be 101 answers) 😉 . I'm not sure how long it is taking to get an interview now days, but I would give it a month or so and then call the People Department at HDQ in Dallas to check on the submission of your resume. The number is 214-792-4000.
Good Luck!
James
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08-08-2006
07:21 PM
4 Loves
Leah - that is none other than John Stamos himself! Isn't this another cool part of being a Flight Attendant?
Regards,
James Malone
Flight Attendant - MDW
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08-08-2006
01:47 PM
560 Loves
One of the fun things about being a Flight Attendant is all of the celebrities (Actors, Musicians, Sports stars and even Presidents!) that we get to see! Some of them are A-list, some are on the B- or C-list, but nevertheless, they all have had or are having their 15 minutes of fame. One person, I would like to meet is the D-lister, Kathy Griffin. 🙂 Often times, they are quiet and seem to want to be left alone to their reading, catching up on sleep, etc...but other times, they are more than willing to answer the questions from our Customers and Flight Attendants, and more often than not, they let us take pictures with them. As you can see from the pictures, Hollywood LUVS Southwest Airlines!
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07-28-2006
08:54 AM
758 Loves
Today on my flight, I had the pleasure of meeting passenger Andrew Schiff. Andrew had drawn a picture for the Pilots and attached the following note.
"Dear Southwest Pilots of WN518:
Thank you for flying my brother and me to Florida to visit our relatives. It's been a long time since I've been to Florida. When I grow up, I want to be a Pilot for the Southwest 737. I've had two flying lessons out of Farmingdale, NY. On Friday, I flew a Piper PA 2b-151 Warrior from Farmingdale to Bridgeport, CT. The Instructor said I flew 98% of the time. In Bridgeport, we did a few touch and goes and in the middle of the second touch and go, we were on downwind to runway 24 when a Piper was a couple of hundred feet from our left wing. They were supposed to be behind us, but they passed without clearance from the tower, so my instructor told the tower. In Florida, my Nana knows somebody who is able to get me into the tower at Boca Raton or Ft. Lauderdale Executive. I'm really looking forward to that. Thank you again!
Future Southwest Pilot -
Andrew
P.S. Happy 35th Birthday SWA!"
Andrew also included his email address for future correspondence. If you would like to write Andrew some words of encouragement, etc...please post the comments here, and I'll be sure he gets them.
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Judy - i'm sorry that you have experienced delays out of RDU. I can't tell you the reason. Perhaps since we are a "linear" carrier and not a hub and spoke carrier, you are experiencing the delays that have happened earlier in the day "upline" to you and you are just the unlucky reciepient of those. Hopefully this new program will help to alleviate some of those as well.
Thanks for your business!
James Malone
MDW FA
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Hey Gary - Congrats on making it "through" the General Interview (GI)! I wish you the best of luck as you enter your 1 on 1 phase.
Regards,
James Malone
MDW FA
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Jennifer -
My commute is 2 legs from OKC (Oklahoma City to St. Louis or Kansas City) then to MDW (Chicago Midway). It takes approximately 3 hours or so. We do have a commuter policy in our contract that covers us in the event of bad weather, mechanicals, etc...it does NOT however cover us in the event of an oversell situation. I should have planned better! :-)
Sometimes I commute in uniform, sometimes I don't. It just depends on what day and time I am commuting up.
A Crew change is simply when the AM Crew gets off and the PM crew gets on. The C Flight Attendant MUST check all of the emergency equipment on each aircraft change. The A and B Flight Attendants must conduct their security checks as well.
Yes, the Company does pay for our layover hotels.
Each position, A, B and C has their individual responsibilities, they are to numerous to mention in this posting. But yes, the C can sell liquor, the A and B are just responsible for the accounting of the liquor in their respective galleys.
I personally choose to stay in "Herb" time or central time as the case may be. My two travel alarm clocks are set to central time, then I set my cell phone alarm in local time, since it adjusts to the local time anyway and I get a wakeup call in local time as well. Overkill? Probably, but I haven't missed an assignement yet!
Lobby time is when we have to be in the lobby of the hotel to get on the van and go to the airport to begin our work day. It is typically 1 hour prior to push, since we have to be at the aircraft 30 minutes prior to push.
I hope I answered all or most of your questions!
Best Wishes!
James Malone
MDW FA
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Leah - the length of layover just depends on the specific trip. They can be as short as 10 hours and as long as 23. I personally like a layover that is around 14 hours. It gives you the time to wind down a little, make some phone calls, eat dinner, iron your uniform and hit the bed.
Good luck in your endeavor to become part of our family!
James Malone
MDW FA
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I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you what it is like to be a Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant. I figure the easiest way to do this is to describe a recent trip. It's a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday three-day trip with layovers in Los Angelas (LAX) and Salt Lake City (SLC).
It's Sunday night and tomorrow, I have a trip. I'm a commuter so my first order of business is getting to work. I log on to SWALife (our Company's internal web site) to check the loads for the flights to Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI)...my report time is at 12:10PM, so I try for the 7:40AM departure. Now that I'm listed for the flight, I make the last preparations for tomorrow.
MONDAY It's 6:15AM and my alarm clock just went off...after a quick shower, I'm out the door headed for the airport by 6:45.
We arrive in BWI right on time at 9AM and head for the Crew lounge, where I check in for duty by computer and print out a copy of my trip so I know where I'm going and when for the next three days. My trip sheet also lists the name and phone numbers of the hotels where I'll be staying.
Since I don't have to be at the gate until 12:40PM, I've got time for a nap and lunch. After a quick bite, I put on my uniform...I never commute in uniform because it's easier to stay looking crisp if I wait until it's time to actually work to suit up.
12:30PM, and I'm off to the gate. I meet my Crew, "Jack" and "Jill" (not their real names), in the jetbridge. The Captain briefs us for the flight, and before we know it the aircraft is pulling up to the gate...it's time to go to work. As the passengers begin deplaning, Jill and I step onboard to help the inbound Crew tidy up. I'm flying C position (we have three positions, A, B, and C, at Southwest) so I also need to check the presence and operation of all the emergency equipment, and Jack stays in the jetbridge and watches the luggage. We complete our Crew change, board the flight, and depart BWI right on time for Phoenix, AZ (PHX). Even though the flight is full, the next thing I know, we're descending for PHX. Five hours went by faster than I thought.
We have two hours of ground time in PHX before working a flight to LAX. We tidy up the aircraft, complete our Crew change, and head into the terminal for a bit of "airport appreciation." It's nearly 7:00PM Eastern, and it's dinner time! By the time we find, purchase, and eat our dinner, it's time to report for our flight to LAX. After a quick Crew change, we're boarded and off for California. We get to LAX right on time and turn the plane over to an Oakland, CA (OAK)-based Crew who will take it on one more leg, and we're finally finished flying but not quite done. Jack and Jill have sold liquor on their flights today, and they have cash and coupons to record and deposit. Out we go to the curb to catch the hotel shuttle, and we only have to wait a few minutes. Once at the hotel, Jack signs us in; we decide on a time to head back to the airport tomorrow; and we're done for the night. Once I get to my room I grab a quick shower, iron tomorrow's uniform, and it's off to bed. It's almost 10PM eastern, and I'm asleep before my head hits the pillow.
TUESDAY Lobby call is 8:45AM Eastern, but I still could have used a few more winks. Fortunately, there's a Starbuck's in the hotel lobby...mmmmmmm caramel macchiato. Today looks pretty easy on paper--only four legs, and they are all relatively short. We arrive at the gate 30 minutes prior to departure. It's the aircraft's first flight of the day, and it's clean as a whistle and ready to go. We perform our various pre-flight duties, board up, and off we go. Three stops and just under seven hours later we arrive in Salt Lake City (SLC). We change Crews and head for the hotel. Jill wants to check out a shopping center she heard about and asks us to come along. After a quick change, we meet up again in the lobby, and the hotel van driver gives us a lift to the mall. We go our separate ways with plans to meet up in a couple of hours for dinner. At dinner, we check out the Hard Rock Cafe. Dinner is good, and we all get to know each other a bit over the meal. Jill has a three-year-old daughter, and her husband is an attorney. Jack is working on his real estate license and plans to sell commercial property on the side. We call the shuttle for a lift back to the hotel, confirm tomorrow's lobby time, and head off to our rooms. I make a few phone calls, check my e-mail, watch a little TV, and it's time for bed.
Wednesday 7:00AM Eastern, and we're on the Crew van headed for the airport and then to Phoenix, AZ (PHX). It's day three of a three-day, and we're looking forward to going home at the end of the day. We depart SLC right on time, but getting out of PHX is a different story. It's raining in PHX this morning, and traffic is delayed. Unfortunately, we are about an hour behind schedule when we lift off for Austin, TX (AUS). We like to stop in AUS because the airport has excellent food, and we nominate Jack to make a food run while Jill and I tidy up and board the aircraft. He gets barbecue (another mmmmmmmm). Two and half days, nine legs, four states, and countless peanuts later we are back in BWI at 4:00PM local time. We're only 20 minutes late, which isn't bad considering we left PHX over an hour late. We complete one last Crew change, and we're done. Jill dashes off to catch her flight home, Jack heads to the parking shuttle, and me? I've got about two hours before my own flight to home checks in. I change out of my uniform and find a quiet spot in the terminal to relax. I make it home around 9:00PM. It's been a long day. There's three days' worth of mail in my PO Box and laundry to be done, but that can wait til tomorrow. I had a great Crew to fly with, and now I've got Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off.
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