Beth Blair

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Most people don’t know the difference between commercial aircraft. But when you fly frequently you will begin to notice subtle aircraft differences and eventually that observation and knowledge becomes second nature. Before long you can tell from the ground what type of aircraft is up above making a descent or what model you’re boarding for a flight. And after a while you have your preferences.

This is especially true when you work the aircraft, whether you’re actually in control of the plane as captain or first officer or working the cabin as a flight attendant. For example, when I worked as a flight attendant on the Boeing 737 I adored the new (at the time) 700 series. There were air flush lavatories, leather seats and everything was new and shiny. On the other hand, I dreaded the 200 series. The lavs had blue juice, the engines were too loud and when passengers sat down the fabric cushions produced a fog-like cloud of peanut dust.

When I first started at what is considered a regional or connection carrier I wasn’t sure what I would think of the Embraer aircraft. I had lived by the philosophy, if it’s ain’t Boeing I ain’t going.

The Embraer 170 and 175 were much smaller than what I was used to, but it ends up these little guys are great aircraft. And as for the coined term “regional”, that’s pretty much false. I ended up flying way outside of the regional realm. Based out of Minneapolis, I traveled down to Florida, New Orleans and Houston and up to Saskatoon and Vancouver, Canada.

From day one I noticed passengers saying, Wow! This is a much bigger regional aircraft than I expected. Most passengers can stand up straight and there isn’t a need for gate checking luggage since the overhead bins fit average sized carry-ons. The seats are comfortable and there’s plenty of under the seat space for bags since there’s no dividing bar. The seat headrests bend and move up and down to accommodate all heights. Best of all, there is no middle seat which guarantees everyone is comfortable.

Passenger comfort aside, it’s also an ideal aircraft to work on as a flight attendant for a number of reasons. The engines aren’t terribly loud, the galleys are easy to work in, and because there are only two flight attendants needed on the aircraft there are two extra jumpseats on the 175 and one on the 170 in case one breaks or a co-worker needs to get home to work. There are also a number of other features that make life easier, too…

1. Flight Attendants control the temperature. At my former airlines temperature conversation went like this.

Me: Hi, Captain. Could you cool it off? It’s very cold in the back of the plane.

Captain: Sure.

Me: Hi, it’s me again. Now it’s too hot.

Captain: Ok.

Me: Hello…sorry to bother you again. It’s still really warm. People are feeling faint.

Captain: The other flight attendant just called and said it’s too cold in the front of the plane.

On the Embraer both flight attendants have temperature control: one for the front, one for the back.

2. The door arming lever is an easy up/down handle. Not every airplane door is alike but I can’t tell you how much I loved not having to bend over and fasten a grimy, sticky girt bar to the floor latches when arming the door’s emergency slide. It’s also nice that the flight deck has an armed indicator so the pilots can tell us if the door didn’t arm or disarm properly.

3. Cabin viewing window. I’ve sat on many jumpseats that have a view of a blank bulkhead wall, but on these Embraers there are viewing windows so the flight attendant can see everything that’s going on in the cabin while sitting in the jumpseat. On the 175 the window can close – which is great for night flights when the people in the last row are sleeping. This photo is of the 170. It’s a tinted plexiglass window.

And in a nutshell, that is why I loved working the Embraer 170 and 175. My question for you is…do you have a favorite aircraft?

The Mall of America is one of Minnesota’s most popular attractions and it happens to be my local mall. As a flight attendant I frequently meet people flying into the Twin Cities simply to shop and play at this massive mall that has every store imaginable and much more including my kids’ favorite, Nickelodeon Universe. Now that the holidays are in full-swing the parking at Mall of America is going to be rather, well, competitive.

Today you have the chance to win one of twelve parking places on December 21st for the 12 Days of Parking at Mall of America. What this means is if you’re a winner, you can bypass the holiday parking situation all together with a VIP parking spot and win a gift card to help with your shopping!

Details: 12 winners will receive a $25 Mall of America gift card and a coveted parking spot in the north surface parking lot for the entire day of December 21 (see the photo above). As a winner, you can come and go as you please the entire day. The parking lot will be patrolled as well as a huge sign announcing that violators will be towed at owners expense (that means so sneaking in!).

How to enter:

• You may enter by leaving a comment below telling us where you will spend your $25 gift card if you’re a winner (enter daily) or why you should be a parking spot winner.
• You may increase your chances by tweeting the following on Twitter: I entered to win the @MallofAmerica 12 Days of Parking giveaway with @BethBlair http://bit.ly/moabb (You must come back and leave a message in the comments below that you entered this way to earn your extra entry.)
• Contest ends at 5 p.m. Central Time on December 16, 2011.
• The winners will be chosen via random.org and will be contacted by Mall of America. Please make sure you have a working email and be prepared to give your name, car make/model and license plate to valid your parking pass.

Good luck!

Congratulations to the 12 winners. You will be notified by Mall of America!

It’s that time of year again when gift givers are scrambling for the perfect gift for their friends, co-workers and loved ones. Lucky for you I have a brilliant idea: California Wine Club. I can speak from firsthand experience. This year I was invited to try a three month membership to California Wine Club and has it been a fantastic experience. I can’t say enough about what a great gift this makes. Let me tell you why…

1. California Wine Club is the gift that keeps on giving year-round. While most Christmas presents are opened and put away, a subscription to this wine club is like a new gift month after month. This gift is a fun way to help someone grow their wine collection or give them the opportunity to try something new and you don’t have to worry about wrapping any gifts or going to the post office to ship it.

2. Good wine. I don’t know how they do it, they must really know their stuff. Every wine I’ve had from the California Wine Club has been delicious. This month – my last California Wine Club shipment – was outstanding! It was no surprise that the Reserve Chardonnay was wrapped in winning stickers, I can never pass up a good Chard and this one didn’t disappoint. And as a regular red wine drinker the bold Cabepulciano went to my “to buy again list.” Both come from Tulip Hill Winery.

3. You have choices. Everyone has their own wine preference – red or white. But did you know you can choose from four great wine-of-the-month clubs? And they are affordable for all budgets:

• The Premier Club is the most popular wine gift, featuring monthly shipments of two bottles of award-winning wine from California’s best “mom & pop” wineries and our entertaining 12-page, full-color newsletter, Uncorked. Wine gifts start at just $36.45.
• The Signature Series, offers only the rarest and most coveted wines from California. Shipments include two to four bottles of highly rated wine and detailed tasting notes. Wine gifts start at $124.
• The  International Selections features small wineries from around the world. Shipments include two bottles of outstanding wine and an engaging full-color newsletter. Wine gift prices start at $71.
• The top shelf gift is called the Aged Cabernet Series. The newest and most exciting club features finely aged Cabernets from Napa’s most prestigious wineries. Wine gifts start at $182.

4. You’ll be known as the cool gift-giver. Giving wine is always a sign of a classy, thoughtful person and the California Wine Club is one gift that will impress all of your friends and family.

5. It can help with your wine country travels. Being that I’m all about travel you…I like to look at the big picture and that’s why I think this wine club is brilliant for finding some great wineries to explore on your next visit to California – and for the person your gifting the wine to. It’s like having your own personal travel planner who is an expert of the wine region and lets you taste the wine before you go.

Be sure to follow California Wine Club on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest news and promotions>

Thank you California Wine Club for asking me to partake in this fun holiday promotion. I can truly say it has been an impressive experience and I highly recommend it.

Now that I’m back in the airlines one of the most frequent questions people ask is, what’s flight attendant training like? I’m currently with my fourth airline and this was my third flight attendant training. Every airline’s training is different but the underlying message is always the same – safety and security.

Some days are fun and full of comradery and laughter while other days can only be described as so intense that you hope you never have to relive a day like that again. Tests are almost daily and vary from written fill-in-the-blank and multiple choice questions (which must be passed with an 80% or higher) to evacuation commands which must be said verbatim. In other words, if you miss one word it’s considered a fail and you have to pull a do-over. By then end, every student knows the cabin and it’s safety features and before long it becomes our second home.

Below are some photos taken throughout the month-long training to give you an idea of what flight attendant training is like.

This is our Flight Attendant Manual (FAM), also known as our Flight Attendant Bible. You can’t tell how thick it is, but believe me, it is. We read every word. It’s a mandatory item when we fly and if we forget it we’re grounded.

Emergency equipment. We have to preflight (make sure it’s operational) each piece of equipment every time we board an aircraft.

Here’s a video of us inflating our life vests. That’s me on the far right. (refresh the page if you can’t see it).

Ready to fight the fire with my Protective Breathing Equipment (PBE).

And we did get to practice fighting a galley fire at the airport.

We donned the flight deck oxygen.

Jumping down the emergency slide is mandatory. It’s much steeper than it looks.

We spent a lot of time in the cabin trainer rehearsing “what if” scenerios.

One night we were at the airport until 3 am for hands-on aircraft experience.

Finally, Graduation Day!

And here I am now… once again an official flight attendant. And loving every moment…

A few years ago I visited the Ice Hotel in Quebec with a group of travel writers then a couple of nights later I spent the night there with two other writers (the two experience can not be compared). The day we toured the property we sipped cranberry vodka out of ice glasses, slid down the ice slide (which works best in ski pants, which luckily I was wearing) and toured various rooms in this hotel created from ice and snow.

One of my favorite memories was goofing off with my friend Ramsey Qubein. At one point we tried to get a photo of me jumping in the air, hair flying, in one of the hotel’s hall.

It didn’t work.

The camera kept trying to focus…so after a dozen tries we gave up.

But we did pull off a silly video…It certainly didn’t go viral but we both still laugh when we think of it.

One of my favorite things to do on vacation is sit on my hotel balcony and drink coffee in the morning. For some reason I remember doing this at the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort  in Huntington Beach, California several years ago. I can still feel the balmy air and the stillness of the beach. I recall observing a man combing the beach with a metal detector and joggers made their way down the beach’s sidewalk.

I had my computer in my lap as I tapped out an article while my children and husband slept soundly inside. The air was peaceful. 

It was a pleasant moment. I also recall thinking, in a few hours this scene will change drastically. I was right.

A year ago this month was the last time I saw my Grandma Louise. I flew out to California where she was living while my dad was driving from Colorado. My dad picked me up from the Oakland Airport and we spent our days reminiscing, laughing and even made it out to dinner twice, even though she knew it would wear her out – and it did. But she loved every minute.

We drank wine at the Italian restaurant…

And we laughed really hard when the burrito I ordered at the Mexican join was delivered. I didn’t know it was large enough to feed an army…

Leaving was the hardest. I knew it was probably the last time I would see her. And it was. She died this past March.

This was our last photo together. Three generations.

During the planning of our 2010 two-week road trip out east Jeff came across a fun roadside attraction: The Cross Island Chapel in Oneida, NY. The tiny church sits on a wooden platform in a pond and can only be reached by boat.  You will probably guess from the green water we were visiting on a warm August day.

The claim is it’s the World’s Smallest Church. A nearby sign has some information including that it was built in 1989, the floor area is 51 inches by 81 inches (28.68 sq. ft) and it seats two people. That’s pretty small!

We couldn’t resist having fun with the camera…

Our little girl picked flowers…

Roadside attractions are always a nice break from the car – no matter how big or small.

Provodenciales, Turks and Caicos is one of my favorite places. There’s not one stoplight on the island! I visited during early December in 2008 which meant there were plenty of beach chairs to choose from, so I was certainly spoiled. In addition to the white sand beaches and turquoise water of postcard perfect Grace Bay, a highlight of the trip was the sunset sail my group took. It was a beautiful evening, but what really accentuated the sunset were the moody storm clouds in the distance. You can see the intense colors in the following photos.

We saw a rainbow…

This one always wows people.

The sunset…

I’ve found myself sifting through old photos lately and feeling a bit nostalgic. Snapshots are one of the best ways to recall travel memories and so I’ve decided to start a regular Travel Memory series which will highlight photos of the good, the bad and the funny of my personal adventures.

The first in my travel series is one of the more recent stops on Arizona’s Route 66. You may not know that Arizona has the longest remaining continuous stretch of Route 66 and there are a number of fantastic roadside attractions still standing/open for business, including this one.

Never did I think I’d find myself standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. But I did…at the official Standing’ on the Corner Park. The corner was obviously inspired by the classic Eagles song Take it Easy.

Notice the painted Standin’ on the Corner-themed mural in the background. The red truck looks to be reflecting a truck on the road. Well guess what…

There’s is a red flatbed Ford!