 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Rowden quits her day job at Delta
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
© St. Petersburg Times, Diane Rowden recalls the day she embarked on a career with Delta Air Lines as if it were yesterday. She was 20 years old, working at Sears in St. Petersburg, attending courses at St. Petersburg Junior College and unsure what the future held. An advertisement seeking stewardesses for the relatively unknown airline caught her attention, and though Rowden had boarded an airplane only once before, she applied. Wearing white gloves to hide her chewed fingernails, and sporting a tight, short hairstyle, Rowden captured the look the airline wanted. She got the job. Thirty-two years later, Rowden has decided to join more than 2,500 colleagues in taking early retirement. Delta has offered a generous package to about 11,000 eligible employees in its effort to trim 13,000 jobs because of financial woes stemming, in part, from losses associated with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on four airplanes. Rowden, 52, insisted the deal, and not terrorism in the skies, prompted her retirement. "I started my career at the very, very best time you could with the airlines, and I think I'm ending it at the best time," she said. She will be able to dedicate more effort to her other job as a Hernando County commissioner, and spend more time with her family, including a first grandchild on the way. Also, Rowden noted, she opens a slot for a younger person to keep his or her job as Delta makes its cuts this week. After three final flights, Rowden will hand in her uniform and become a full-time passenger, with unlimited free tickets as part of her retirement package. She reminisced about her carefree first years on the job, and contrasted them to the serious, security-conscious weeks since Sept. 11. In the late 1960s, she said, no one paid much attention to the crew. Rowden spoke of her first base at Miami International Airport, where flight attendants walked straight through "the hole in the fence," onto the tarmac and into the plane. The biggest fear, Rowden recalled, was getting blown off-course by the powerful exhaust of other planes. She nearly lost a carry-on bag that way. Once on board, they dealt with polite passengers who really didn't pay much heed to the "girls." "For years, we would tell passengers, 'We're here for your safety.' No one really took it seriously as they do now," Rowden said. 'Before, it was the attitude of 'coffee, tea or me.' " The advent of mobile phones, laptop computers and portable CD players made passengers less friendly. Air rage became common, she said, and other passengers shared silently in the frustration. Things changed drastically after Sept. 11. Flight attendants now must go through tight security to the terminal, and even need special codes to enter the plane and permission to get into the cockpit, Rowden said. They also must pay close attention to the behavior of each passenger, and do things such as check behind garbage cans and inside paper towel holders for stashed weapons or other contraband. On a recent trip from Tokyo to Atlanta, a pilot told Rowden and her team not to allow anyone to loiter near the restrooms next to the cockpit. "Now, that's just part of what you do, and this was not what you did before," she said. Air rage among passengers seems to have disappeared, Rowden said. "If someone starts to give you a hard time, you can see the person behind them getting ready to come up out of their seat." No one seems to mind longer security waits, takeoff delays or other inconveniences, she said. On a recent flight from Atlanta to Tampa, for instance, a passenger asked urgently to leave the plane because she had left her keys in a rental car. In the past, the passenger would get off the plane, and the flight would leave, Rowden said. Not this time. The passenger was escorted out of the terminal, and the ground crew opened all of the plane's baggage containers until they found and removed her bag. It took 40 minutes. Nobody complained. "They were actually appreciative that we were taking the time to make sure that bag was off," Rowden said. "They wanted it off, too." She laughed at one of the security changes, which seemed so small yet also significant as she talked about it. "We used to have, and we never even thought about it, in our galleys we had pretty sharp knives. We had to cut up our lemons and limes," she related. "We don't have that any more. All our lemons and limes are cut up. "And it looks so funny in business class. You give people this meal on nice china with forks and spoons, and plastic knives," Rowden said. It makes sense, she said, and no one fusses. The passenger bill of rights seems to have disappeared as security has become king, she said. "When you get on an airplane, it seems like a quiet feeling," she said. "Everybody is just sitting there, watching you and wanting to do everything right. They're kind of paying attention to what's going on around them." Despite the heightened concerns, and tougher security measures, Rowden said she never worried about getting back into a plane after Sept. 11. And she urged others not to fear flying. "I still believe that the scariest part of my job is driving to the airport," she said. "I think it's safer to fly than it is to open your mail."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
