Pittsburgh, PA – May 17, 2026. What a pleasant surprise!

I ended up in Pittsburgh by accident. I was on A-days and had preferenced a TO, and when the automated call from crew scheduling came, it started by saying I had been awarded my preference. I was super excited, and then it said I was going to Pittsburgh. What?? Plus, the three-day trip was going to start late and end late each day. WHAT??? I didn’t preference anything of the sort! I am a morning person, and absolutely do not like days that end close to midnight, regardless of the fact that they don’t start until the afternoon. Give me a 3:30 a.m. wake up call and checking into the hotel before dinner any day.

Well, I still have no idea what kind of computer glitch happened, but the trip actually ended up being a lot of fun! I still didn’t like the late report and late release, but I never would have thought that Pittsburgh would be such a cool city if I hadn’t had this trip. Now it’s on Jeff’s and my ever growing list for a weekend getaway.

We arrived late in the evening but our pickup wasn’t until about 4:00 the next day which gave me time to check it out a bit. After Googling “top things to do in Pittsburgh” (and reminding myself I couldn’t do everything so I needed to limit myself to one or two things), I settled on the Duquesne Incline and the Strip District.

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Bozeman, Montana – May 9, 2026

I had never been to Bozeman – or anywhere in Montana – before this trip. I will absolutely be back.

Having done my research, I decided to go for a short hike. Arriving at the hotel around 1:00 p.m. gave me plenty of time. I chose the College “M” trail, a hike with a few different options to the top (I picked the “easy” option) and sweeping views. It was only around 3 miles round trip with 750 feet of elevation gain, and it was busy enough that I didn’t have to worry about bears.

It was a gorgeous day with temperatures in the high 60’s – perfect for a hike. A quick $10 Uber ride took me to the trailhead and I set off. The reviews didn’t disappoint. While it was a bit of an aerobic workout going uphill given that I was already at 4,800 feet, the views were a splendid distraction. I took my time, FaceTimed Jeff several times so he could see the views, and had a nice break at the top before going back down again.

Between cruising on our boat and now living in Baltimore, I haven’t had much mountain scenery for the past eight years. I wouldn’t want to live in them, but visiting sure is easy on the eyes!

After another $10 Uber ride back to the hotel, I explored downtown a bit. I bought chocolates at La Chatelain Chocolat to bring home (they were amazing), and also bought Jeff some local coffee beans at Ghost Town Coffee Roasters.

I actually got lucky with the chocolate. Typically they would have been closed by the time I arrived, but since it was graduation weekend and downtown was busy, they had decided to stay open for a few extra hours. They were happy with the extra purchase, and I was happy that I was able to buy some chocolate!

I didn’t realize that Bozeman is only a few hours drive from Yellowstone National Park. That has been on our bucket list for awhile, and with Bozeman being so cute, we’ve decided that we’ll try to go there this fall once the tourist season has died down – but before the snow has started to fall! We can spend some time exploring Bozeman AND go to Yellowstone.

We had a 4:15 a.m. pickup time from the hotel the next day, but it was well worth it for such a fun layover. And as an added bonus, the Captain made an announcement to let us all know when we were flying over Mount Adams and Mount Rainier on our way to Seattle, so I was able to get a great picture!

It was a great trip, and one I would definitely do again.

Everyone said I’d find out what kind of flying I like the best. San Francisco – May 2, 2026.

During training and after, our instructors and senior crew members would tell us that we’d figure out what kind of flying we like. It didn’t really make sense to me. A plane is a plane, and a trip is basically a trip, right? Well, when I worked my first transcon (transcontinental) on a wide body, I understood. All of a sudden, I realized what kind of flying I liked. Give me a coast-to-coast trip on a wide body aircraft any day. One boarding, one deplaning, plenty of time for service, and a good layover. They aren’t worth much in terms of credit hours, but I like them a lot anyway.

I picked up my first widebody transcon on my A days when I preferenced it, and it was awarded to me. A-days are six days a month when we are on call – either two sets of 3 days, or one set of 6 days. You can be sent anywhere at any time, but you can preference available trips. They are awarded by seniority, but I’ve found that if it’s a domestic trip, I tend to be successful. A TO? Forget it. I’m way too junior for that. But I like to preference a domestic so that I can have some control over my schedule on A days.

So when I looked at open time the night before my A days started, there was a nice looking trip to San Francisco that I preferenced and was awarded. I hadn’t been to San Francisco in over 35 years, and now I was going to get a 20 hour layover downtown. I was psyched!

On top of the destination, I liked this trip because it released at 10:35 p.m. on my second A-day. That meant I couldn’t get used before 10:35 a.m. on my third day. I had the choice of either trying to drop my third A-day without pay, or roll the dice and hope I didn’t get a call for my third day. If I didn’t get used, then I could get released at 5:00 p.m. and fly home to Baltimore while still getting paid for having been on reserve for the third day. These are things I hadn’t even thought about when I initially started six weeks prior, but I was slowly gaining more experience in how to make my schedule work for me whenever I could despite being so junior.

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The best birthday present – Paris! April 27, 2026.

Trips are awarded by seniority, so, being a junior flight attendant, typically the only way I’m going to be able to get a transoceanic (TO) trip is by trading with someone else or picking it up when I can. (Flight attendants who are designated as being able to speak another language fluently get TO’s regularly regardless of their seniority.) I won’t pick up trips on my days off – those are sacred – so that leaves trading trips with someone else, or having the ability to pick up a TO if someone else just takes one of my trips that I’ve put up on the drop/swap board.

Trading trips is typically a no-go for me, because seniors who want to trade TO’s will typically only trade for either another TO or if you’ll take two of their trips in exchange for giving them one of yours. I’m not about to work MORE just so I can get a TO. So, despite my fellow classmates going on TO’s because they are working almost every day that they are legally allowed to, I continued to impatiently wait for lighting to strike while enjoying my days off with Jeff.

I’ll put trips that I’m ambivalent about up on the drop board, but they aren’t particularly attractive to most flight attendants because they are junior trips. In other words, if I’m not crazy about the trip, most everyone else isn’t either for the same reason. If it’s up for drop, no one is going to take it unless they have room in their schedule and they have a desire for that particular trip.

So it’s with that background knowledge that I found myself in my crash pad late in the afternoon, the day before a trip with layovers in Hartford and Norfolk. I certainly didn’t mind going on that trip. I had plans to have dinner with friends in Hartford and I really like Norfolk. But I had put it on the drop board just in case someone wanted it so I could try to pick up a “better” trip. Better could mean higher credit, more appealing layovers, or – dare to dream – a TO.

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