Hidden video of Timbo's first day:

Hey, if it were easy, anyone could do it...

I just wish our Flight Attendants were that hot, let alone our pilots!! I guess they were...about 50 years ago when they were new-hires.

From Delta's daily in house news:
Flight attendant Marty Evans retires after 54 years
March 23, 2010

One of Delta’s longest-serving flight attendants -- Marlene Evans -- is retiring after 54 years of service.

Marlene, who prefers to be called Marty, flew from Atlanta to Stuttgart, Germany, on Sunday for her final flight. Her retirement date is April 1.

Delta leaders, including Richard and Sandy Gordon, v.p., In-Flight Service Field Operations and Safety, joined Marty’s coworkers, friends and family Sunday for a pre-flight reception in her honor. Marty’s brother, who also just retired, flew in from Maine for the occasion.

Marty started her career with Western Airlines in July 1956. She received her 30-year service anniversary pin from former Delta CEO Jerry Grinstein, who was CEO at Western at the time. Jerry also presented her 50-year service pin at Delta.

I think she is 75yrs. old at retirement, I doubt I'll live to see 75, let alone be working!

Erm.........

Yeah, when I first read it, I thought it might be some kind of April Fool's prank, but then I remembered flying with her about 3 years ago, she was Number 1 on the Flight Attendant seniority list then, and I thought she had retired already, guess not quite yet. I think she said she was 72 back then, that's how I guessed she's got to be about 75 by now. But can you imagine being a "Sky Goddess" for 54 years?!

That's Gina Bellman

Timbo: my aunt's been a flight attendant for delta for 30 years now!

They gave her a nice purse or something for 30 years.

Is she based in ATL? I fly with a lot of our "Senior Momma's" as they do like the long Int. flights better than the 6 legs a day in and out of ATL on the MD-88's! If she's ATL based ask her where she usually goes to, if it's Joburg, Lagos, or Dubai, drop me a PM, I might run into her.

I should have known you would know! You got any picts of her in a "T-Back"?

I just joined her fan club!
nice "understated" website

A purse is better than a paperweight.

She was absolutely hilarious in the BBC series "Coupling". My favorite episode was the one about "Lesbian spank inferno"!

My sister-in-law has been with United forever and still going. She has to have in over 40 + years.., bids mostly China. Great lady.., most of her stu friends have all retired, but since my brother is a bum, she has to take care of him.
Rick

I would be curious who in heaven's name would actually want to deal with airline passengers these days.

The airlines passenger of today are pretty much like the bus passenger of 1970s. Maybe business class isn't as unwashed, but still....

I think one trip I took on Midway airlines (probably defunct by now) in the mid 90's was as close to "old school" air travel as I'd ever seen. Probably an MD-80 or smaller plane (one isle, 4 seats per row, maybe 25 rows?). Domestic flight WPB - Midway (Il). Actually served a hot lunch (chicken, asparagus, mashed potatoes) on a plate with shiny silverware (probably plastic) and a hot towel after lunch. This wasn't even first class. I was impressed.

Airlines gotta make money by putting butts in seats. Can't afford those luxuries now.

Too bad rail lines can't develop a hub system like airlines and offer better travel accommodations/service. They've got to be cheaper per mile than airlines. Sure, they aren't as fast, but cruise ships aren't fast either and look what they got.

Why CAN'T you enjoy the ride anymore?

The bean counters in most Airline management teams are focused on two things exclusivly; Load Factor and Cost, per available seat mile. They will lower the ticet prices to get above 85% load factor, and if that won't do it, they park the big iron and bring out the Barbie Jets, the little 50 seaters where you can't even cary on a bag. Delta now owns more Regional Jets than big jets!

When our economy was "booming" ie. the late 1990's, just before the tech bubble burst, oil was cheap ($40/bbl) and loads were high, and for a short time, every airline made money.

Now, we have the opposite; oil is expensive ($80/bbl today but you all know it was much higer a while back and could go up again) and loads are down due to unemployment and the employed people are just not spending much money on vacation type trips, and the business men can do a "Tele conference" vs. fly to a meeting.

So the bean counters want to keep the load factors up, they look at every empty seat as a "spoiled fruit", while keeping the cost per ASM down, that means, no pillows, no blankets, pay to check your bags and of course; "No SOUP FOR YOU!" NEXT!

The majors never fully recovered from the 9-11 attacks, passenger wise, and then oil went up. So in 2005 you had most Majors go bankrupt. Delta, North West, United, US Air, etc. and American was very nearly there and is again talking about it now. In Bankruptcy, the company could pretty much do what they wanted to rip up all contracts with vendors, employees, aircraft leases, airport facilties, etc. and then "Restructure" to their new look, a "Lean, Clean, No Service Machine!"

The old mantra was, "Customer Service is King!" while the new mantra is, "We're no worse than anyone else, we all suck, but your ticket is only 100 bucks!" They love to screw the last minute passenger, but if you buy in advance, it cost about the same to buy a round trip BOS-MIA ticket today as it did 25 years ago. Yet oil and all other operating costs have trippled or more in that time.

The airlines are still hurting and will be going back into bankruptcy again if oil goes back up and the economy doesn't rebound soon...

interesting, thanks Timbo

Jay, any more videos from that instructor (i am just hungry for knowledge)?

Darn Timbo, before you know it I'll be forced to visit my relatives overseas by sailing an ocean going catamaran over there myself.... Its a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it I figure. Best look up that Wharram catalog I had lying around here somewhere...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqYyuM2VttE&feature=related is Timbo is the new guy!!!

The most fun traveling I've ever had was an actual business trip to the Caymans that the company actually HELD ON A CRUISE SHIP.

No kiddin' and we actually got a good amount of work done since everyone was there and there were no phones to answer from outside. It was more of an annual review and planning sesson, so we had all the past data available already, and it was two days of planning (interrupted by various social activities) and three days of putzing around.

This was a domestic captive insurance group (about 120 companies) which, under most circumstances, is like herding cats but this trip attracted probably 90% of the members (way more than other annual meetings). I'd bet it would work for any large or geographically diverse company.

The company even got a discount for family members that wanted to go. I think it worked out to about $110 per day, which is probalby what just a hotel room would cost anywhere else, and the cruise line had all the other stuff included in that...

Dang, now that I think about it, it would be cheaper per day on a cruise ship than in an assisted living facility. When I get old, I think I'll just get on a boat and stay there!

Stuart, that is EXACTLY what it's like, a day in the life! Where did you find that!!

And Cleveland? Yeah Baby! That's our Hot Spot! "...my balls are on the table in the betting position!"