Flight Attendant Travel Hacks That Actually Work

You can tell a lot about a crew in the first few seconds, and sometimes one simple smile can change the entire tone of a trip.

In this episode, we start with the real-life airline friendships that come from decades on the job, then jump into something every flight attendant, new hire, commuter, and frequent traveler can use: practical travel gear that actually makes life easier. We’re building out a “Gear We Use” page filled with tools that save money, reduce stress, and help you survive layovers without depending on questionable hotel setups.

One of our favorite finds is a collapsible electric kettle that boils fast, packs small, and saves you from using hotel coffee maker water to heat up your food. We talk about how we use it for ramen, oatmeal, tea, coffee, and quick hot meals on the road, plus how collapsible containers can turn an expensive airport food day into a much better plan.

From there, we get into crew dynamics, first impressions, and why being direct can sometimes be the most respectful thing you can do. Good teamwork matters, whether you’re working a quick narrow-body turn or a long international flight, and we break down what it looks like when the crew actually works together.

We also pull back the curtain on crash pads: hot beds, cold beds, bunk rooms, commuter life, and the parts nobody posts on social media. Then the episode takes a serious turn as we talk through back-to-back onboard medical emergencies, how crews step into roles fast, and why everyone should know the basics of CPR.

The message is simple: if someone collapses and is not breathing, start chest compressions. Do not wait for perfection.

Subscribe for more real flight attendant stories, aviation life, travel hacks, crew room conversations, and the kind of airline chaos you only hear when the mic is on and the galley curtain is closed.

What’s the most useful travel hack you learned the hard way?

Transcript

Old Friends And Selective Hearing

G 0:00

I gotta ask you a question. Like when you when when I'm talking to you, are you hearing the same thing with me? Like, wah wah wah wah wah wah.

Shawn 0:06

What you're killing me, man. So last week when uh when we finished the show, I went back and I watched and I realized something. Do you know we we were talking about Rapid City, South Dakota? South Dakota? Yeah. Do you know? Yeah, but you said you said Iowa twice. Iowa. I'm old. I know. That's what I was thinking. I was thinking, first of all, that we were old. Right. And and then I was thinking, it's like an old relationship.

G 0:43

Yeah. We don't listen to each other. We don't pay attention to each other. What were each other saying? Well, I mean, you know, do you do the same thing as me? Like, I'm just like, all I hear is why?

Shawn 0:53

A lot of times with you. Especially when you start talking to technical shit. And then you're like, gee, you don't know anything. And you have to do it. The technical state for you is like, it's like fudge. Shh. Exactly. I mean, even before the show, he's like, okay, come here, you gotta learn how to do this. You gotta learn. Just go push the damn button. Right? I mean, that's exactly what it is, too. You gotta teach a dog a old new tricks. An old dog. An old dog new tricks. And that's exactly what it was. I I was laughing because I'm like, this is a perfect old relationship. Right. 30 plus years. Hey, dude, this is us. Yeah,

Gear That Helps Flight Attendants Save

Shawn 1:28

it is. So flew with this flight attendant about a week ago. Now you know this is probably good. Sean and I decided to, on the website, uh make an area that's gear we use or flight attendants use, actually. It's proven stuff that flight attendants actually use on planes. It's shit we use. All the time.

G 1:46

You know, like all the time. Like we've been we use so much stuff as flight attendants, right? Like so many products. I I carry three bags of stuff when I travel. And like there's all these little compact pieces of gear and travel suitcase, whatever. Anything that we think of coming up, we're gonna start putting on gear we use.

Shawn 2:06

But the number one thing was we try to save money. Right. Because a lot of places we go, it's expensive. Or for new flight attendants.

G 2:15

Oh heck yeah. For a new flight attendant, this is like super important. Like this is like you need to invest your money into these products so that you can eat cheap and all that stuff when you go to because like like I roll into these different countries now and like you know, I go eat because I got money now. Yeah, you got it. Yeah, but a lot of them don't though. Yeah, we're topped out and pay and stuff and all this stuff. But the new hires, you know, they're not topped out and pay. They can't go eat that filet that I'm eating.

Shawn 2:41

Well, yeah, but sometimes even even down in Mexico, because like when I go down to Mexico, right? I I I know, I mean, it's safe and everything, but for me, it it usually I I don't eat there. So what I do is like I'll take a couple of the ramen noodle spicy buttons.

G 2:56

But why aren't you just a just a quick question? Why aren't you eating there? Just don't I I don't trust it.

Shawn 3:01

I mean trust it. What do you mean what do you not trust it? Well, I I sometimes I guess it's like the bacteria or whatever it is in the So the Montezuma revenge that you get traveling.

G 3:11

We do get on like on the uh on a regular basis, like flight attendants get this constantly.

Shawn 3:15

Yeah, yeah. So I anyway, I take a couple like spicy noodle bowls and I throw some uh canned chicken in there. But when I when I try to heat it up, you try to use that hotel water from the coffee maker, and you know those are nasty, yeah. And hate those. I mean, I can't stand those because you never know how they clean them. Right. So this girl had this electric kettle. Really? Yeah, and and I flew with her for two days, and I was watching her and use it. I'm like, man, you use that a lot. She goes, I use it all the time. And I'm like, How long have you had it? She goes, four years. So I watched her and I started thinking, I'm like, you do a lot of this stuff. I heat stuff up with hot water, but it's never hot enough. So had to go out and get it. Sweet. This is it. Electric kettle. This thing is even tested by myself. I took it on the trip. This thing's amazing. Collapsible. Collapsible. This thing, this thing is it gets hot in three minutes. Okay. It has a detachable cord. But this is amazing, amazing thing, Sean. Look at this. Handle comes right off. It goes, it goes right down. And when you collapse this thing, it collapses down into this size, right? Right. Into this size. You take the handle and you'll click the handle right here. And look at this. And it goes right inside this container. So it's no bigger than this container, sits right inside there, and it has the cord in there, and you can take it with you. The great thing about it is you get these collapsible containers for your bag. And these things is like you put your you can put your noodles in or whatever you want to put food in there. Heat it up. And look at how how thin that is. That's awesome. And if you guys are interested in any of these products, you can go to our site and and look at gear we use, and you can go right there and you can order them. Yep. And these things are phenomenal. You will absolutely love this. If you guys like the ramen noodles, the tea, the coffee, mashed potatoes, oatmeal, any of those things that you for hot water, what I did is I heat I took some organic noodles with me, and you know how you reactivate them. So I poured this in, reactivated the noodles, put a little butter in there, put some seasoning in there, and I had a meal. That's awesome, man. Yeah. And so that's perfect for them.

G 5:30

It is perfect for a flight attendant to be that's traveling on the road, you know, like boom, you're trying to save some money and all this stuff. Like there's so many different ways to use it.

Shawn 5:37

But think if you're in an office, yeah, right? A little cubicle, yeah, and and you're sitting there and you drink tea. Same thing. You can set this up in your little cubicle, and three minutes it clicks on, the light clicks off, and things completely boiled, and and and it's good.

G 5:52

Yeah, so so go to our site, support our show.

Shawn 5:57

Definitely. Oh, definitely. We're gonna we're gonna have more gear to come. Yeah. This is just the

The Collapsible Kettle Travel Setup

Shawn 6:02

first one. But um, do you believe in do you believe that when you meet somebody in the first 30 seconds, it tells you a lot about the person? Oh, yeah. Like when I met you, I thought you was an ass. Yeah, yeah. You're definitely an arrogant ass. Exactly. But I met this, I met this five time. When we come in contact with crew members, um, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.

G 6:23

Yeah, and and just like us, like it does like over the like the course of the the trip or whatever we were on, you know, that could change, right?

Shawn 6:32

Right. Yeah, because you find out about people. But these these crew members that I had, these girls that came on, um, great personality.

G 6:40

Right.

Shawn 6:41

I mean, they came on really friendly. So we had this great crew communication. We had a great yeah. And but the best part about we started talking, and one of the flight attendants, uh, you find out right away. Remember, we talked about we have uh open communication with these people we just met. Yeah. Well, her sister jump seat therapy.

First Impressions And A Karma Moment

Shawn 6:59

Yeah, her sister had stage four cancer. Oh, wow. So we got in the conversation about you know, cancer and everything, and so you you develop this rapport with each other, you go out and we do our service, and it's amazing. We we had this like this this uh constant communication with each other. So at the end of the flight, we're sitting there and we're talking, and she's telling us that um she hasn't she just started being a line holder. And a line holder for us is that you can sit consistently hold a trade. A schedule, yeah. Yeah, a schedule. And she couldn't trade them. I'm like right. I'm like, why can't you trade? No, but I was asking her, I was like, why can't you trade? And she goes, There's nothing in open time. Right. I'm like, honey, you're in Chicago.

G 7:42

There's no way, there's no way there's no, yeah, that's too big of a base.

Shawn 7:45

Yeah. So I said, let me see your phone. So she showed me and she was looking at open time, and it did. It showed up nothing. Right. But then I went to all the different bases that we have, and it showed zero open time. I'm saying I'm like, something's wrong.

G 8:00

Yeah.

Shawn 8:01

So we went in and we found out that she had her phone set up for Dallas. Oh. Dallas Fort Worth.

G 8:08

Got for the when it was the base, what it was looking at, whatever. Oh, gotcha. And and how does she do Dallas? Because we didn't have a lot of things.

Shawn 8:15

No, it was it was it was in like her initial setup. It wasn't even in, you know that drop down it has when you put your base in. Yeah. It's not. It was like in an initial setup.

G 8:25

You can like flush those uh preferences and stuff and everything in the app.

Shawn 8:30

Yeah. But this other girl that knew more than she's like knew more than me about it. Takes her phone, shut up, takes her phone, takes her phone, and she's like, Gary, it's got she had it set up for Dallas. So she takes it out and she's like, uh, nope, this is ascending, this is descending, and then it's posted, and then she had this thing set up for her, and then all of a sudden, this flood of open time. And this girl's emotion, she almost started crying because her whole life changed. Yeah.

G 8:58

Well, that's the beauty of our job. Like, for everybody out there that wants to be a flight attendant, I mean, the number one thing that we want is flexibility in our schedule, right? I mean, we like strive, like, I want to be senior, I want to be able to move around the system, and I want to be able to fly on the days I want to fly, wanted to go to the places I want to go. You know, like that's what we're always like trying to strive for. And, you know, once you get that first schedule, what we call a line, you know, boom. Like that's when you get the flexibility, you know, to be able to do all that type of thing.

Shawn 9:29

The whole point of this story, even wasn't that. It was it was the difference that a simple smile makes. And that's what I told her. We were sitting on the jump seat, and and I told her, I said, you know, the reason why all this occurred is because when you two came on, the first thing that you did was smile at me, and we had a great communication with each other. Yeah, rapport. And you had that great rapport talking. So because of that, look look at the end, this karma that happened for you at the end of it. And that happens a lot of times, right?

G 10:01

When you're on when you're working with a crew, dude, it's all about like literally, I I feel like just be good to people, right? Yeah. Like if you come on board and or and you're you're in a terminal or whatever, just be good to people, man. All that stuff, that energy kind of flows with you, and when you have that positive energy going with you, and you're like moving around the system and stuff, that all that karma and that energy kind of goes with you. And like there's so many people that I fly with, you know, and for some reason when I get on a plane, it's like, yeah, he's an arrogant ass. Yeah. But then they find out he's I'm like the fun, happy, you know, cheerful guy and all that stuff that I go, you know. I don't know why that is. Well, tell me why that is.

Shawn 10:44

Because you call a spade a spade. Yeah. I mean, that that's it. I mean, and and the thing is, is that you're only see, there's a difference, me with with us, yeah, because we're we're out there, we're like, look, you got a job to do. Right. And this is this is a team game. Right. And you, if you're not the team player, right. I'm gonna I'm gonna have you. Yeah, I'm gonna call you out quickly. Perfect example was this

Direct Feedback And Crew Teamwork

Shawn 11:05

past week. So we had a newer flight attendant, and we had a situation to where we had two in the back, two in the front. They they it was just a beverage service.

G 11:13

Right.

Shawn 11:14

And now she doesn't she she doesn't know all the ins and outs yet. She's new, that's what happens. It's an educational system, right?

G 11:22

Because well, she's in it's kind of like you gotta relate to it like being in a new house, being a new dormitory, being that you know, being a new location that you're not so familiar with. Right. Unlike us, we walk in the plains and it's like our second home because we know where everything is.

Shawn 11:37

But if you don't know, if you don't know, you're gonna develop bad habits because no one told you. Right. So and or you're not curious to go find out. People like you and me, right that in in a situ then and this is the reason why they'll think that you're an ass. So after the service, she came to the back and I said, You realize you were supposed to come back to the back and help us. And she's like, What? I said, You you they had a beverage service up there.

G 12:00

Yeah.

Shawn 12:01

You didn't need two people.

G 12:02

You don't need two people, right?

Shawn 12:03

It's just a beverage. Right. You should have been back. We are completely packed back here. We didn't say anything to you, but because of that, we weren't able to do a little bit more of what we should have done because you didn't come back. Right. And then you didn't even pick up. Now, she felt horrible. Right. Okay. And she apologized. And and I told her, I said, remember when I told you when you first came here, it's an education. Right. And and that's all this is. And it wasn't to be mean, it was just simply an education. To sit there and say, okay, this is how it's supposed to be done. And she's a she's gonna be a phenomenal flight attendant. Really? I mean, she's got a great personality. She was very apologetic, and she was like, I'll never do it again. And that's exactly what you want.

G 12:42

Yeah, because I mean, when you promote that like sense of like being a team and we're all in this together, it's like even on the international flights, when I fly those, like I usually fly at the first class section, right? So I'm up there doing our job, and there's a lot of details and little nuances to that whole service up there. But our system flows in a different system time-wise than the back end of the plane, right? Right. So you're the services, we want it to all finish at the same time, but sometimes you get done. One gets done sooner than the other. You know, maybe the needs or the wants of the passengers in that section are greater or less, right? But then it's the good flight attendants will always move to the other section and come up and say, hey, how can we help you get there? Yeah, it's a team thing. Yeah, we want to get done.

Shawn 13:31

Yeah, but that's why people, that's why people when when they come across people like you and myself, is that it but we're direct.

G 13:39

Right.

Shawn 13:40

You've got it, you've got to be a part of that team or we're calling you out. Right. But after you're a part of the team, oh yeah, then you're like, hey, let's go eat. You're in. Right? Heck yeah. Let's have fun. Everybody's having a great time because everybody's working. All right, now we talked about that. Let's talk about you because you just got your commuter pad. My what? Commuter pad. Oh, my computer pad, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a computer pad. No commuter

Crash Pads Explained Without The Glamour

Shawn 14:06

pad. My crash pad is what we call it. You call it a commuter pad. You called it a computer pad. Just shut up. It's a crash pad. God. You see what I gotta do with it? You wonder why, you wonder why it was Iowa instead of uh South Dakota. Let's talk about your damn crash pad.

G 14:28

So, since I was like, uh, I mean, when I first started, which was 37 years ago, I mean, I only for nine months of my career I had a crash pad, which is a place to be able to lay your hat, you know, pack your stuff, whatever, get like reoriented before you go on your next trip. Because in in theory, wherever you're based, you're coming from someplace. You've you've lived someplace else, you got this new job, now you're based at another city and you want to go to, you know, but you don't want to be there on your days off. So you only need a place just to lay your stuff at, and then I can like, you know, be based in and out of there, type of thing. So we call it a crash pad, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I got a crash pad now because I'm doing this international traveling, and it's cheaper than have, you know, get booking hotels every time I go over there because I gotta either some trips you have to go over early, sometimes you go the same day, you know. But just to have the convenience of a home base closer to the city that you're based in is a good thing. And so I got this new crash pad, and the crash pad's awesome, man.

Shawn 15:34

So, okay, let's talk about them first of all. So, a lot of people that come into this career, they're some of them are older. Oh, yeah. You got younger ones, right?

G 15:44

Yeah, so a younger one will will adapt to a crash pad a little bit easier, a little easier because everybody's like ready to, you know, we're all learning and experiencing, and you're chart, you're excited about the job and all that stuff, and the crash pad vibe in those crash pads because crash bags go in like uh in what is it? The um oh, what's the word I'm looking for? It's the you know, the type of people in the crash pad, right? Yeah, pilot crash pads, pilot attendants, but there's there's also within each one of those types of flight, like and you have mixed. Sometimes you have pilot tank flight attendants crash beds too. Um, but like the crash bed that I'm in right now is a senior flight attendant crash bed. So like I'm the most junior one in there at 37 years. Everybody in my crash bed is 40 plus. Wow. Yeah, so we're all a bunch of old people, yeah. Farting. We're farting, yeah, quiet. Yeah, we're you know, keeping it. No bunk beds, yeah, bunk beds. There's no drama. There's no bunk beds, right? No, there's all bump beds. Really? Yeah, the whole thing is nothing but bunk beds. And so we have um we have three rooms, four bunk, uh, two bunk beds in each room. So there's four beds in each in each room.

Shawn 16:55

Now they call them hot and cold, right?

G 16:57

Yeah, hot and cold.

Shawn 16:58

So explain what that is.

G 16:59

Like hot would be like you have like what this crash bed is. You basically can go to any bed you want. If there's an open bed, you can go in there, you make your bed, and you can.

Shawn 17:12

Do you make it or do you make it?

G 17:14

Okay. Yeah, you make it. And then the cold ones are like, I have a signed bunk. Okay. Right? That that's how that works, right? Yeah.

Shawn 17:22

No, I'm I'm not, I'm not, um, that's what I'm asking.

G 17:24

No, no, I'm yeah, yeah. So it's like, so our crash pad's more of a hot, you know, crash pad where you just come in, you just crash wherever you want to go. Big whatever you want.

Shawn 17:34

Could you could you imagine being like I don't know, say late 40s, 50s doing this job? You had a normal life, right? And all of a sudden you're like, okay, I signed up for this crash pad. You walk in there and there's like 20 people stacked on top of each other.

G 17:48

But it's not like that. That's what that's the whole thing. So, like no, yours isn't, but there's yeah, mine is not, and that's the whole idea that I was saying. Like, in these crash pads, there's different periods of crash. No, that's why that's what I'm saying. So, like when we first started, yes, you would walk into a crash pad and you'd find like all these people stacked up in the crash pad, and we're all in there, and it becomes like a big party, yeah, and it's like, you know, the whole that that whole vibe because it's a young, you know, everybody's trying to like get into the job and learn the job and all that stuff. All that drama stuff is going on. But as you go and more senior you get and experience, like all that leaves. Right.

Shawn 18:25

But let's talk about the other part of the crash pads because a lot of people don't understand that part that might be getting into this industry.

G 18:31

What's that?

Shawn 18:32

The the younger parts where they they they have like 20 or you know, 20 people in there stacked up, and you have to actually sign up for the bathroom, right?

G 18:41

Yeah. Well, you'll have you'll have crash beds. Like when I first had my first crash bed, I never had like I think I was in one crash bed where there was like more people in the crash bed than there was beds. Uh-huh. So there's always people coming and going in this business. So you come in and you're like, you're looking for a half a bed. Right? Yeah. So like you're only like somebody can literally climb into bed with you at a hotel room. So you have two queen-sized beds and you got a half a bed on each side, and people are like rolled up, wrapped up in the blankets and stuff, and they're on one side of the bed sleeping. Right. You know, and so you're sleeping next to a stranger, and if you come into your crash bed, like there would be all the beds are filled up. You're sleeping on the floor.

Shawn 19:24

When you think about that's why I I find so much humor in that because in our job, yeah, it's like this glamour, right? Right, what a flight attendant actually is. And if you actually see some of these crash pads, and the only privacy that you get is like the the little blanket that you'll hang over that that bunk bed, yeah, and you're in there by yourself, and then you go into the bathroom and you gotta sign up for a time in the bathroom.

G 19:49

Well, here's the beauty, like, so the one I have, we have like, okay, so we have what 12 beds, right? Yeah in the in the thing. We right now only have like maybe 10, 11 people in the crash pad, and we're all senior. So we're only like the the whole vibe to this one is everybody that's in there is international travelers, and we're only in there either like to like sleep during the day. So you're like the early morning, come in there, sleep between the day and leave at night, or you're sleeping overnight, and so you're only there like you know, eight to twelve hours, usually at at tops in the crash pad, and then a lot of times the place is just empty. Yeah, and like I went in there my first time this last last month here, and I was by myself. Yeah, there was a this is a ghost town, and uh, you know, I had this whole apartment to myself.

Shawn 20:41

So have you met anybody in there?

G 20:42

I've met a couple people already that was in there. Like when I came in that night, um, the guy that owns the place was there. Uh-huh. And then there was another guy that he was leaving on a later trip to that was there, but then they all left. Yeah. And then I was there by myself, right? You know, nobody was coming in for actually maybe another day or two. So, like, you know, it's a totally different type of vibe because we're all like senior and older and it's relaxed. We've got a big screen TV and the thing, the place is decked out. We're this ain't a first rodeo. We know how to do this stuff, you know. And so they we've got all the amenities and extra supplies, and you don't have to bring your like towels and things. We got washer and dryer, we got community linens and all that stuff. And so when you come in, like there's rules to the crash bed where you like you will uh like if there's laundry there to do laundry bat, throw it in the laundry while you're there so you everybody gets fresh towels and stuff like that when you get in. Because you can't do it, but like I get up in the morning, I've got time to do laundry before I leave, right? You know what I'm saying? So we just all share in the duties of kind of like keeping the place going, yeah. So yeah, so there's all those types of different vibes that you learn, and each crash pad's a little different and stuff like that. But it mine's right downtown Newark, it's awesome, man.

Shawn 21:53

So there you go. Breakdown of the crash pads for the flight attendant. So if you guys are coming into the industry, if you wonder. What flight attendant's glorious little life is. That's it. It's in the bunk beds.

G 22:04

Yeah, in bunk beds. I haven't sleeping in bunk beds in my freaking, I don't know how many gazennes of years. Well, okay, now talking about talking about bunk beds, right?

Bunk Beds To Yellowstone Side Quest

Shawn 22:14

So have you have you caught, I mean, we're switching gears a little bit, but we were talking about bunk beds. Have you caught the the new episode of the Dutton Ranch?

G 22:22

No.

Shawn 22:23

You haven't caught that from Yellowstone?

G 22:25

Dude, I've been so busy lately. Really? You know you're always like, you're not flying. You're not flying. I've been flying. I know you're always busy. I give you shit. I've been like, I've been like flying my butt off lately lately. I've been uh I just got back two days ago from Tokyo. I was out there again, uh hitting Arita airport this time, and uh that was experience. I'm gonna talk about that here in a minute.

Shawn 22:45

You you're always doing something. I always give him shit. He's always doing something. I don't care if he's not at he's not at work, he's doing something. Dude, I got but I love giving him shit. You know what? Because he he does the same damn thing to me.

G 22:54

Yeah, yeah. Well, and both of us have wives that have honeydo lists. Yeah. Even when we don't know we got honeydo lists, we got honeydew lists to do. Yeah. I walked in the door this last time, dude. I was bombarded. Like literally, I was like, hey, I'm home. Trying to get a kiss or something, you know? It was like boom. I need to do this. Yep. I need you to do this. You've been gone. I need this done here. Yeah, the lights need changing the outside. My sink is linking. Yeah.

Shawn 23:23

I need you. You're still in your uniform. Right. You haven't even got out of uniform yet. I'm like, really? Yeah. Really? I love you, honey. Yeah. But you know, that's why Gemma gets all the love when I walk in the door because she's like shaking her little tail. She's happy. She's snorting and she's bringing her toy, right? She's like, why do you you always show her the most love? I said, look how she is. When I come in the door, she doesn't got anything for me to do other than just, hey, take my toy and pet me. Right. Shaking her little butt, right? I'm happy. Yeah, just a little happy to see you. I'm I'm glad you're back.

G 23:59

I know, dude. It's like, it's it's wild. It's like the time, like I got time, time, time, go, go, go.

Shawn 24:05

But it's a it's that relationship thing again. It's crazy. But anyway, so uh going back to the Dutton Ranch, Dutton Ranch was incredible. If you guys haven't seen it, it's actually the continuation from the Yellowstone.

G 24:19

Oh, it's a spinoff from Yellowstone.

Shawn 24:21

And they had the Marshalls with Casey. Didn't like that.

G 24:24

It was eh.

Shawn 24:25

It was it was just an eh. They the characters they didn't.

G 24:28

It wasn't bad, but it was just it wasn't as good as Yellowstone was.

Shawn 24:31

Yeah. So Dutton Ranch, only two episodes, phenomenal. They've already built characters in. Oh, good. They they rebuilt the train station. Now it's uh you'll have to see where it ripp takes takes the people from the from uh from the train station to a big hole. And then and that Benning is this crazy bitch of a uh ranch lady, and the characters that they build around this, and uh oh uh Ed Harris. He's in it too. He's in it too. He's like this old vet. He's like this cool old vet. Yeah, but all the characters Carter, Rip, Beth, yeah. You guys you'll definitely love it. Check that out.

G 25:09

You know you love you, some yellow.

Shawn 25:11

Well, you know, I mean, okay, it if it holds my attention, I'm gonna watch it. And if I think it's good, I'm gonna say like you. Right. If you think it's good, you're gonna say something about it. Oh, yeah, for sure. And if I thought, I mean, I you didn't know.

G 25:23

No, it's on my list. I got I I will definitely be watching it.

Shawn 25:26

I mean, Marshall's is out there. I didn't say anything about Marshall's because I didn't think it's good. Right. I think that they'll bring Casey in to this one because I think Well, he's part of the story still. Well, they're gonna they're gonna need his help. You can already see how it's gonna build. Right. That Casey's gonna have to come in and help the family. But anyway, Dutton Ranch got it, you gotta watch that one, man. That is unbelievable. That's cool, man. So, what's been going with you?

Narita Layover Food And Temple Plans

G 25:47

Hey, so I went on this trip over to Narita. I've been holding uh Narita, so that's awesome. That I've finally, you know, senior trip. Yeah, it's Narita's a super senior trip, but it's like here's the here's the thing. Narita's so senior that in the wintertime, when the schedules of our airline rotates and summer flying comes and seasonal flying comes, that all the senior people kind of like flock to all these new, fun, you know, destinations we can't get, you know, aren't available normally. Right. And so then all the senior wintertime trips open up, and that's where I'm kind of flowing in right now. So I'm getting to go hold Narita, which is a great trip for me.

Shawn 26:26

When we're gonna start seeing some clips. Clips of you and and Narita and these little international destinations. Well, you're gonna see even if you're gonna be able to do that.

G 26:33

You're gonna see some clips this time because uh so I did some serious eating. You know, I'm all about traveling. I know that's what I want to see.

Shawn 26:39

I want these guys to see what you're doing.

G 26:41

The first thing I did was I get like we get in there and I was like thinking, I want sushi again, I want sushi again, you know, because last time I was there had the sushi experience. Uh, we don't need to talk about that. And so then I was like, okay, let's, you know, let's see what these youngsters are doing. And so I worked with this dude. His name was So Mean. So mean. So mean. Spelled, yeah, spelled S-O-M-E-A-N. So mean. And I was like, he goes, yeah, it doesn't translate well in English. No, no, it doesn't. But he's a super nice guy. Super nice guy named So Mean. Yeah, that was his name. His first name was So Mean. Anyhow, so we got together, we went out immediately. Like, it was one of those things, you know, internationally, you gotta like keep going. So you get there and you gotta keep going. So we 30 minutes up, take a shower, come back downstairs, we hit it. And we went to eat uh shaboo shabu. And shabu shabu is this uh like hot pot. Yeah, so if anybody's familiar with hot pots out there, that's what it is. And man, I'll show some pictures of this, but it is it was all-you-can-eat place. It was like 20 bucks each. You get these like thin slices of meat, all these vegetables, super healthy, man. And you just you order up broth, and you the broth comes to the table, it's in the middle of the table, it's on this hot plate, and you just start putting vegetables in there, and then you take the meat and you stir it around to cook the meat. Oh, so delicious, man. The the the the food, the the spices, everything. You would have been in heaven. It was such a good good.

Shawn 28:22

You guys have to see these videos that he has because I actually seen them. They have the live eels. Well, I haven't got there. They oh, okay. I thought you were coming up.

G 28:30

So is the that was lunch. Okay. Now we're dinner. Now I jumped I I jumped ahead. So then the next, yeah. So the next morning, So Meen wanted to go out and go to the temple and see the local temple and all this stuff, which is really cool. And um, I was like, Yeah, he goes, There's this famous eel place. And I was like, eel, I'm not big too keen on eel. And most people are like morning, huh? In the morning? Mor in the morning, yeah. It was like for lunch, you know, like we're gonna get up, go kneel out, because we didn't have to leave till like three something. Okay, so we're just like head there in the morning, go see the temple, yeah, go eat have lunch and eat this eel. Well, there's this famous eel. I mean, I'm talking like lines of people. I had to wait an hour and a half to get into this place. Really? Yeah, I mean, is that it's crazy. But all they serve on the menu is eel and rice, and I'll show pictures of that too, and we'll be you'll see it here between.

Shawn 29:27

No, it was actually really cool because you look down, you see all these eels in these.

G 29:32

Yeah, you can you'll see the pictures. Um, anyways, so uh it it's uh it's gross, yeah, but it was good.

Shawn 29:39

Yeah, it's it but it's fresh, definitely fresh.

G 29:43

Fresh them damn things were moving. They're grilling it right there, the whole nine yards. I went there by myself. He ended up not going in the morning because he couldn't, you know, his sleep. He got messed up his sleep that night. Because if you you know you mess up your sleep on international, you're you're all whacked out.

Shawn 29:57

Now, those videos of the guys with the eels, is that outside the restaurant?

G 30:00

That's just like the that's how that's the front of the restaurant. Like you they're they're just right there on the street.

Shawn 30:06

No question whether it's it's fresh, right?

G 30:07

Oh no, no question.

Shawn 30:09

I mean, that's the crazy you would not see that in the United States. Oh no. Right? Well, you can't come up, no. I'll take that back.

G 30:14

I'll take that back. Really? Yeah, like uh there's places like in Chinatown, like uh different different places, they do have that. They just whack the head off. Yeah, you'll see them. I haven't seen them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but I mean, it's not like there are places in here that are like that, but it's just very hard to find. Let's put it that way. But it was awesome. That was pretty cool. It was awesome. Yeah,

Crew Rest Comfort Hacks For Long Hauls

G 30:36

anyhow. Uh the other thing that happened, man, was um, dude, you were talking about things that you like. One of the things I've been ever since I started flying, like, you know, we have these rests, right? Always people always think that like flight attendants are always like, oh, we're doing a 14-hour flight. Oh man, that's a long flight. You're doing a 16-hour flight. That's a terrible. Well, part of that flight, we have a crew rest. People don't understand that we have rest periods. So, like, we do that first service on the flight as soon as you take off, and then after that service is done, we go to a crew rest. Yeah, then we take turns doing crew rests. And so we have these bunks in the ceilings on the wide-body aircraft. And so when I first got there, I was like, the bunks just aren't padded enough. So I was like, I need a like a blow-up mattress or something like that. Yeah, so I went shopping and all that stuff, and I found this little teeny compact blow-up mattress, man. I love this thing. It takes like maybe 10 puffs, really, and the whole thing is blown up, and it's perfect size for our bunk. It's not like too long. And I actually experimented, like, bought a few different ones, and they didn't really work, but this one works really good. It will be on gear we use. I absolutely love it. They come with different like colors.

Shawn 31:50

What about rolling it back up though? Because you know, I mean, you get those, you get those damn things that that are that that are hard to I'm on my crew rest.

G 31:58

Here it is, it's all rolled up and everything, and literally it has a valve, this little valve right here. You pop that valve and it has a little valve on the inside, you just push your finger in there and pop it open. But as I'm laying there in the bunk, I just pop the valve and the thing just goes, Oh, really? Done. Oh, cool. And then I just flip it over, fold it over, roll it up. You gotta sometimes have a valve will close on anybody gotta open back up. Yeah, but boom, air comes right out of it, wraps up in this little roll. And uh, the greatest thing about that is that you got all these extra pads, and like the one thing flight attendants are always doing is we're always looking for like more padding to put on those bags.

Shawn 32:35

Just that I was sitting there thinking, you know, when the shit hits the fan in the airport, oh yeah, and you don't have a hotel, dude. These are these are good for camping, this is good for hotel, all that stuff. But I mean, even even as think about that, even as a a a passenger or a customer traveling, anyway, you could throw that damn thing in your bag and you can any airport spot blow that sucker up and go to sleep.

G 32:59

Right, right, right. It's just it's super compact, you know. Like you you can literally uh take this thing anywhere. It's fairly lightweight and all this stuff, but it's on our site. Check it out. Man, absolutely love this thing.

Shawn 33:12

Perfect, man. Yeah, but uh, so what have you been doing?

Back To Back Medical Emergencies Onboard

Shawn 33:16

Um a medical emergency week. Oh that's what I would say. Medical emergency. Back to back, back to back. Back to back, yeah.

G 33:23

We had we had a this is like your now third one now. Have them all the time. I know, but they don't normally like come in threes type of thing.

Shawn 33:31

No, I have them all the freaking time. I wish I I didn't, but I do. I have them all the time. But I had great great crew, everybody worked well together. Um, but you know what what's really important in our job, when you come together, you have two galleys, right? You have the front and the back. Right. I mean, uh on a narrow body, you have the front and the back. Right. So you have a couple flight attendants up front, a couple in the back, and all of a sudden this medical emergency occurs. And this is what passengers don't see a lot of times because a lot of times they're tuned out, they're doing their own thing.

G 34:00

Oh, yeah.

Shawn 34:01

So you have this emergency, you're you're looking for a doctor, if the doctor's not there, or if the doctor even is there, crew members converge on this one area. So you have one person that's assisting or helping the person or the doctor, you have another one that's um writing information down, one that's communicating to the cockpit, possibly the med link, and the other one getting equipment. It's amazing when you see a crew come together like this, and ever because we've had ones that it's just been a mess, right? But this crew came together, and what was great about it afterwards, I told them, is that I was there helping this person, but every time a crew member came up, they noticed, didn't have to be told, and they just assumed a role in that emergency. And then after everything was done, everybody just shared the information. We did the reports that we're supposed to do. Yeah, it's our training kicking in, right? I understand that, but but it doesn't always work like that. No, and you know, like in in most scenarios, you know, it it kind of gets to be there's people that are avoiders, right? They stay to themselves, and it kind of gets to be a little bit of a clusterfuck.

G 35:10

Right.

Shawn 35:10

Right?

G 35:12

It can get that one. Those are the ones you don't want to be involved with.

Shawn 35:14

No, but you also have to recognize the ones when the when it does. Right. So after afterwards, I told those guys, I said, you know, I just want to tell you, I've been part of a lot of emergencies. And it's nice to see when the crew comes in a situation, right? They all assume the roles they're supposed to assume, and everything works out really well.

G 35:32

Yeah. It's uh you're all it's like this little supportive circle. Yeah.

Shawn 35:37

I mean, we we had, I mean, even j just yesterday, had a lady, uh, same same problem, and and the crew came together and worked out well too. Two in a row. I don't want to have any more.

G 35:48

No.

Shawn 35:49

It hasn't been, it hasn't been a fun, fun week medically at all.

G 35:52

Knock on wood, I'm telling you right now, it's like I have been like really great lately. We've had some, yeah, that I but it hasn't been in my area, you know. I mean, we're on like 200 plus people on on the plane, right? So it's like it's not all it's normally normally, it just hasn't been in my area. So that's that's that's I've been fortunate for that.

Shawn 36:15

As long as they're breathing, and when I get up there, it you know, that's you know you know we've come on the ones that haven't weren't breathing, and though that's the worst one. Zero. Yeah, and and when you come up the ones that are breathing, you're like, okay, we can handle this. All we gotta do is is do what we're trained to do.

G 36:33

So here's an interesting

CPR Compressions And Why They Matter

G 36:34

thing. Just this is kind of like this like left field here, but um, on this subject, neighbor of mine here, like a week ago, just dropped on the golf course massive heart attack, right? The whole foresome, so it's him, three other guys, nobody there knew how to do CPR. You're kidding me. So the guy was laying there for like five, ten minutes before somebody came and started doing any type of CPR. And here's my here's my message to everybody out there. I don't care if you know CPR or don't know CPR, and you listen to this and you're like, wow, you know, we're amazing, we're not, we're idiots, whatever. It doesn't matter. If somebody drops and they're not breathing, there's only one thing you have to do. What's that, G? Compressions. You just have to keep just start pumping on their chin. Just try to get that. Yeah. It doesn't, I mean, we don't have to be technical about it or anything. No, but any compressions on that heart to keep it pumping is gonna happen. You don't have to be trained to do that. Yeah. We've seen it on TV, yeah, we've seen it everywhere. Get down there, start pumping it. Whether you whether you you you hurt them or don't hurt them, believe me, it's helping them to keep that circulation.

Shawn 37:47

Right, because a cardiac surgeon told me that the one that we worked on on the plane, she looked right at me, and and this is after we got done, and this person survived, she looked at me and she said, if that heart isn't pumping, that air doesn't matter. Right, doesn't matter, it does not matter. You have to keep that heart flowing.

G 38:04

You have to keep it flowing. And that's it.

Shawn 38:07

And you don't have to, you don't worry about how many compressions right.

G 38:10

Just come start doing compressions. If you if you if you don't, if you've never been trained, never did it, just start doing compression because eventually somebody's gonna show up that does know what they're doing, right? And then start doing the right things and all that stuff. But it's really important to keep that thing pumping. Yeah, and this guy, um uh God bless him and his wife and all that stuff, but um, I don't think he's gonna make it right now. He's still in life support. Really? So yeah, super nice guy. We've known him for years and all that stuff, but it's you know, maybe in different scenario, he might be still here.

Shawn 38:40

But yeah, but before people thought you have to go through this whole program, and you're absolutely right, compressed. That's all you can do.

G 38:46

It's kind of like the AEDs now, you know, like they made it so simple to use an AED, and like I they train them on a child to do it. So any if a child could do it, anybody could do it. And if for you to say, I don't know how to do that, it's just you being denial and avoiding to be able to help.

Shawn 39:05

Yeah, you know, but you know what I find, you know what I found out in an emergency though on the airplane, and and truthfully, is that it's like um you got to slow your role a little bit because what happens is that you get another adrenaline really because you're trying, you're thinking, how how do I help this person? And and the nerves are going in because you're not a doctor, right? But then you slow that role, go, okay, what do what can I do? Yeah, what can I do to help you? And you're absolutely right. If they're laying there, those compressions are gonna save that person's life. Absolutely. I that's a great, that's a great thing to say, too.

G 39:42

Yeah, yeah. I I just I just wanted to throw it out there because this just happened, and I was like, and I heard the story about it, and I'm like, not one of these guys did compressions, not one of these guys like had the sending. Too bad you weren't there, like yeah.

Shawn 39:55

It's just I was just like, well, you know, anyways, yeah, but all right, we're gonna go around the globe.

Tesla Wake Mode And Closing Takeaways

Shawn 40:01

One around the globe because this guy was an idiot. So he We got an idiot around the globe. Let's do it. Yeah, let me figure that out. Down in Texas. Yeah? Yeah. So you know what he did? He drove a Tesla into a lake. Nice. Yeah. Did he get electrocuted? No, no, he was doing this. You know, they have I didn't know this. They have a wake mode. Do you know what that is? A wake mode? Wake mode. In the Tesla. In a Tesla. No. It's it's supposedly like, you know, for high water, right? That you can actually go through it.

G 40:31

Oh, okay.

Shawn 40:32

Okay, but maybe you should read exactly what's considered high water before you go test the wake mode. Okay? All right, just I'm just saying, you spend all that money. Teslas aren't amphibious. But you it looks amphibious, doesn't it? It does. It looks like one of those amphibious uh vehicles. Right, right. So you know that that dude was like, oh hell yeah, they're talking wake mode. They mean wake. Yeah, so no, when they say wake mode, just for you people that invested in Tesla, in case you didn't read the book, it's no more than 32 inches of water. Okay, and it specifically says not in a lake. Yeah, it doesn't mean wake, right? So he drove it into the lake and guess what?

G 41:14

32 inches of water is deep, man.

Shawn 41:16

Yeah, but you should have seen this idiot driving around. So anyway, he he stalls it. It's in the lake. He has to get it towed. Well, has to get it towed out. Gets it towed out, right? Pulls it out, gets arrested, gets arrested, and probably just trash that Tesla.

G 41:36

Yeah.

Shawn 41:36

All just to test awake mode, and all you had to do was just read the owner's manual. Me not smart. Me not smart at all. Me stupid. Me stupid. You pay that much vehicle, I'll keep my Honda. Six speed turbo. Right, exactly. But it has a limp mode in it. Damn stupid lint mode. Anyway, inspirational quote. Inspirational quote, man. Ambition is the path to success, but persistence is the vehicle you arrive in. Hopefully, it's not a Tesla. Not a Tesla, right? We gotta, we have to show persistence, that's for damn sure, right?

G 42:14

Heck yeah. Hell yeah, man.

Shawn 42:16

All right, guys. We had a great time this week. Whatever you do, if you own a Tesla, don't be waking it. If you use wake mode, just you know, that much water, maybe that much.

G 42:27

Yeah, but not a lake. Again, support the show. Come on out, man. Go to our website, take a minute, check out the tools that we use. Yep. All that gear. And uh, we'll see you again next time in Captain Pressure.

Shawn 42:40

One more thing before we get out, and I I think it was the most important thing of this podcast. Like Sean said, a person goes down and you guys don't even know how to do CPR, jump on top of them and compress, guys. Save a life.

G 42:54

Save a life.

Shawn 42:55

All right, man. You guys have a great day. We will see you next time.

G 43:00

See ya. Alright, friends, that's a dose of aviation chaos for today. If you laughed, gasped, or got mildly triggered by airport behavior, hit subscribe and go ahead and watch another episode because we are fully committed to turning your free time into airline stories and bad past year decisions. Leave us a comment with your funniest travel experiences and share this with that one friend who's always late to the airport but somehow blames the TSA. Thanks for hanging out with us, and we'll catch you on the next episode of Cabin Pressure with Sean and G.