Staff Travel Angels!

Well you guessed it! The flight was full and further to that, there still seemed to be a rather large number of people hanging around ... "I hope they are not all staff" I thought to myself. One of the perks of working for an airline is our travel concessions but it also means that we are never actually guaranteed a seat. We can however, use a crew supernumery seat with the permission of the Captain which means we get from A to B but without the luxury of a seat in the cabin for the flight.

It is a pretty tense and stressful situation to wait at the check in desks, with walkie talkies buzzing and the ground staff's fingers flying over the keyboards. The closer it gets to take off time, the less chance there is of getting on ... and the seats are allocated in order of our priority within the company. "I wonder where I am in the pecking order this time" I thought as I eyed up my colleauges. I am in my 18th year with the airline, and so far it has served me well when it comes to jump seats!

"Please angels ... please get me on this flight" Another silent plea was sent out into the ether and boy, I really meant it. After everything I had just gone through to get to Sao Paulo, I began to think I should have stayed home with my husband afterall. There was an immense flurry of activity going on behind those desks and to my horror I didn't hear my name being called as 3 jumpseats were allocated. There are 5 on the jumbo. I took a deep breath and asked my angels for help again. There was now only 20 minutes till take off and the butterflies in my stomach were definately fluttering. All of a sudden I heard a crackly "Teixeira" being called through the walkie-talkie and then it came through loud and clear as I was madly beckoned to the desk. Yes, my angels had looked after me again, and I had to leg it through security and immigration before the aircraft doors were closed. What a relief! Who cares that I didn't have a seat ... I got on ... thank you thank you thank you angels!

But it didn't end there, the Universe still had something up its sleeve for me!