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Sao Paulo, Sunday, 1995-10-15 11:30 local (Z-2)
Left New York last night at 18:00 and flew to Miami. Spent 3.5 hours on the ground (it was supposed to be 2.5 but they had loading problems and that made us exactly one hour late) and then flew all night to get here. At the moment I'm waiting for room service to bring me my breakfast. This is the Sunday that Brazil switches to daylight savings time, and that made us too late for the free buffet breakfast. However, the purser talked the hotel into allowing us to order our breakfast from room service. So, a little bit of luxury.
I got a real greaser of a landing at the Guarulhos Airport here. One of the flight attendants said people actually applauded when they realized they had touched down. What they didn't know was that the captain was really pissed at the way I had flown the approach. Oh, well, you can't please everyone. This is the guy I was with when I had the truly bad landing in Paris. There's no way I can ever please him, and I've given up trying. He's got the reputation of being miserable to fly with, so I don't think there's any danger of a “bad report”. If he bothers to give them any more, I think they're probably just discarded. The guy really does have a lot to offer if you can get around his lack of people skills.
<<pause to eat—the breakfast arrived already>>
And it was the wrong breakfast, but I didn't argue. A little confusion is probably to be expected when they get hit with 18 breakfast orders in English all at once. Oh, well.
When you last heard from me, it was Thursday morning. That afternoon I finally did get on an Air India flight to New York. Not, however, until I, the engineer with me, and four others who had showed up all bought full fare business class tickets—$2000 each—and all because Air India or our crew scheduling keeps messing up. Perhaps this will get somebody's attention. I mean, after all, when you pay 6x2000=$12000 for what was supposed to have been free....
I had expected to continue on home from New York when I got there. To my dismay, they had scheduled me for a San Juan turn. So, to the hotel at JFK (company's expense since I had less than 24 hours notice of the trip) and then back out to the airport in the morning, down to San Juan, and back. I was so confident that I would get to go home after that that I made jumpseat arrangements on UPS; they were the only ones that would be leaving after I got back. I had, in fact, been promised that I would get to go home when I left for San Juan that morning.
Further dismay: I get back from San Juan to find out that they had taken away my supposedly untouchable double x days and assigned me to this Sao Paulo trip—and that with a captain with whom I greatly dislike flying. So, here I am, and it's a brutal trip. I'm going to bed in a few minutes, and I will get not quite 7.5 hours of sleep before being awakened to fly back to Miami and then deadhead Miami to JFK. However, I am again hoping I will be allowed to go home when I get to Miami. We'll hit Miami about 07:00 local if all goes well, too late to hit the very early flights to the west coast, but I should be able to get on the second wave. I frankly don't know what I will do if they have scheduled me again. The pilot's union holds the view that xx days cannot be taken from you. Crew scheduling holds the view that they can be taken for “company emergencies”. It's a gray area. Unfortunately those of us who are on probation are vulnerable. Those not on probation routinely refuse to fly when this happens. Those on probation cannot afford to. I am, however, extremely tired, almost to the point of being nauseous. I may just say, “Hey, look, I am basically sick. I need some rest.” Hopefully, I won't have to make that decision.
So, to bed now...Terry
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