delayed again...what's new?

darn it! why is does it always happen to me? our wake up call and pick up time has been delayed for 15 mins. i knew something fishy was going on. somehow i can sense that the delay will be more than that. somehow i could feel that when we get to jfk airport we will still need to wait for an hour or so. i know that the company is aware of the delay but for some reason want us out of the hotel and hang around at the airport.

the first time it happened to me, i was still in my hotel room all made up for the flight, when at 11:30am i didn't receive any wake up call. wtf?! we waited and waited and waited. good thing my friend the gullible sent me a big platter of quesadillas with edible orchids. i shared it with my colleagues of the same nationality (we stuck together on that flight). we didn't get any instructions from the company or the airport manager. at 6pm i was so worried about the rest of the crew who might be getting hungry because everybody was standing by their phones. i called the manager (who's running around like a headless chicken i suppose) and got the word that we were leaving the next day because of technical problems. we left the next day indeed.

the funny thing is, CBA regulations are very strict on the maximum flying time or duty time of crew members. our rest periods are essential to the safety of the flights. the more rested the crew are, the better they can function. the maximum duty time that we can operate is 19 hours and upon the captain's discretion it can be up to 21 hours.

when we got to the airport we were given food vouchers that we can use at the fast food shops. half of the crew decided to get mc donald's, the other half wanted to get starbucks. i went with starbucks. you guessed it...the young ones went to the other store and the older ones to the other. i won't tell at which age group i ended up going with...but you will know anyway. each of us were to spend $5.00 only, yay! that would go a long way! haha. i got a hot green tea to wake me up and a croissant just in case. after the last crew got her drink, there was still $8.00 left to spend since not everyone got to spend the whole $5.00 each. we got 2 brownies just to spend all the money.

finally after 3 hours of waiting at the airport the ground staff and the captain decided to let us rest at the closest hotel. he reasoned that we can either operate up until we reach korea or japan then another set of crew will take over and operate the rest of the leg, or stay at the nearest hotel and have a minimum of 10 hours of rest.

i would opt for the first one if you will ask me. i want to get to our base ASAP and catch a flight back home. i still have to set up for a party in one of the hotels. which reminds me, my partner will kill me for i have the decorations needed at the party. i just picked it up here in new york.

we were billeted at the best western kennedy inn. my gosh...the lobby so tiny that some of us had to stand outside of the hotel! it was about the size of one room. the front desk was totally not ready for us. we waited for more than 30 minutes to get our room keys. the elevator could fit 2 people and there was only one of them. no room service whatsoever. we were in the middle of nowhere. we are not familiar with this area so we have decided to either stay in the hotel and starve or go out together to grab some food.

i was lucky enough to have my croissant with me that i got from starbucks. i might need it for later. my only regret..i was thinking of filling up my small evian water before we left the doubletree hotel earlier and carry it with me. i decided not to because we have a lot of bottled water inflight anyway. that's what i thought! lesson learned.

now i have to get some rest (which started some 2 hours ago) and hopefully won't be getting hungry anytime soon. otherwise i'll chew on my nails...

the only good thing about this place...free internet! woo hoo! that's why i was able to upload this blog. thank you best western. you are not that bad after all.