17050 Non-Rev Camping
Living in the Pacific Northwest, I do a lot of hiking, especially back country, out for days, stinky-as-heck hiking. I'm weighted down with my entire life on my back.
On a recent adventure in the woods, I drew a parallel between the uphill battle that was killing me and travel as a flight attendant.
People say, "Oh cool, you're a flight attendant! You get to travel everywhere for FREE!" Well, yes, I do get great discounts on flights to almost anywhere...but there's a different price we FAs pay. A hidden fee, if you will.
You see, "non-reving" is flight crew jargon for Non Revenue Passenger, meaning we don't pay to be on a flight. However, we are bottom of the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the standby list (but if you have a few years of seniority, your chances are slightly better). What this ultimately means is you probably won't make your first flight. Or your second. Or third. You might not even make it on ANY flight on ANY airline for days (depending on when and where to you're traveling).
For this reason, you can't check a bag like most pax. You have no idea which airline at which time you'll be hopping on. And it might not even be to your actual destination, but maybe one closer (hopefully). So you've got to pack it all with you.
This is why we see Wanda looking like some hippy about to embark on a 4 month journey across the Pacific Crest Trail. But I'm not far off the mark when it comes to what a typical non-rev might look like in the summer.
What are some of your recent non-reving stories?
