Flight Attendant Friday

I cannot believe it is already Friday again.....time sure flys when you're having fun!

The above picture is of my "crashpad" in Baltimore. After I graduated from inflight training I was assigned Baltimore (BWI) as my base. Southwest has eight has bases. They are Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Oakland, Chicago, Baltimore, Phoenix and Orlando.

I was based in Baltimore for three and a half years. My daughter Casey, and my neice, Cindy were also based at BWI during the same time as me.

Crashpads are where flight attendants and pilots live when they do not live in the same city as they are based. We had the greatest group of (23) girls in our crashpad. We actually lived in a small town just outside of Baltimore called Linticum. It was about five minutes from the airport. Our landlord which is a Captain for SWA negotiated a cab fare to and from the airport of $4.00 with a local cab company or you could ride the lightrail for about $1.50 and it was only two blocks from our house. Linticum is a quaint little town and there are tons of commuting pilots and flight attendants that live there. It's nothing to look out and see a pilot or flight attendant pulling their rollerbag down main street.

As you can see in the above picture, the house is an older house. It has three floors. Each floor had a bathroom and a kitchen. It had been refurbished inside and really felt like home away from home. Each bedroom had 4 bunkbeds, everyone had their own bed and no one had to share. You're probably thinking how in the world could you keep your sanity living in a house with 23 woman. It's easy. You see, we all worked different schedules, different times and days of the week. A big night at the crashpad usually consisted of a maximum of six girls. And one more thing, the company doesn't pay for our crashpad......our rent was $165.00 each per month. The do however, pay for our hotels when we overnight on the job. Thank goodness!


Casey (my daughter), Cindy Lou (my neice), Maryjane, Ruth and Ashley (First Officier)

Becky, Casey, Ashley, Cindy Lou and Loyette



I loved being based in Baltimore and I miss being there. However, it is sooooo much easier flying out of Dallas. When we were based in Baltimore we would block our days together so we didn't have to commute but twice a month. We would work six days at a time and then we were off ten to eleven days at a time. It is exhausting flying six days in a row and I was sick more often with ear infections than I am now. I've been flying out of Dallas for a little over a year and a half and I only work two to three days a week or less. Now Dallas is not a big commuter base like Baltimore is. Most flight attendants live there. There are no crashpads so what we do now is, we either fly to Dallas the night before our trip if we have an early check-in and spend the night at a hotel or if we have a commutable trip which means we have a late check-in we get to spend an extra night at home and get up early, drive to Little Rock, catch the first flight out to Dallas at 7:15 a.m., check-in when we get to Dallas and immediately start our trip.

I know it sounds like a crazy life to you girls, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I truly feel in my heart that a job like this only comes around but once in a lifetime and I feel sooooooo blessed that it came around in mine when it did.

I hope I've given you a little insight as to how a crashpad works. Remember, if you have any questions please don't hesitate. I'm keeping all your questions and someday I'll have a question/ answer session.



Until next week.........stay safe in your travels.