Memoirs from the Orange Army

The Unfinished Business...Finished

This industry is well known for never knowing the end to a story. Welcoming new faces onboard is a daily occurrence and it is very rare to see a familiar face onboard. Every passenger has a story to tell and it is either never heard or finished. The end of our duty will always see us reflecting upon the daily events and wondering about people whom we had chance to speak with in great depth. We are left to ponder over many unanswered questions which with great sadness will almost never be resolved. This chapter will delve into one of my most fond memories in easyJet. A time when some unfinished business was indeed finished .

It was almost eleven 'o' clock. I was busy rushing about trying to pack my suitcase for work. I was due to operate a nightstop trip to Copenhagen. Copenhagen was always my favourite place to go, the city was beautiful and filled with many traditional western european buildings as well as many brand new futuristic ones too. The hotel itself was a true modern marvel, it was sleek, shiny and even had a living forest inside. The food was always of good quality and value and there were many bars to find a bit of time for myself to have a quiet drink. Copenhagen was a very forward thinking city and I always felt like I could fit in.

I quickly snapped out of my daydreaming and continued to busy myself throwing a jumper into my suitcase. It was a lovely city but could be very cold so I made sure I was well prepared. After finishing getting ready, I bumped my suitcase down the stairs and headed out the door for the airport. I cantered through the terminal to the crew room and got myself ready for the brief. Another thing I loved about flying to Copenhagen were the low passenger loads. It was always easy with plenty of spare seats so there was never any worry about baggage offloads. The passengers were always polite and never asked for much either.

We boarded promptly and closed the doors on time. We had to operate to Berlin and back to Gatwick first before we could even consider operating to Copenhagen but Berlin was always easy too. The Berlin sectors were completed easily and we quickly boarded once again, this time bound for Copenhagen which would be our final stop for the day. Once we were in the air, I happened to notice a very subdued looking couple and I was also not the only crew member to notice either. I politely asked them if everything was okay and was half expecting to receive some sort of complaint about their journey with us today. They instead reassured me everything was fine despite the lady looking clearly upset. I accepted their reassurance and carried on with my duties. We were reaching the end of the flight and were sitting at the back with our lunch when the gentleman from the subdued couple approached me. In a rather sheepish manner, he enquired about his baggage in the hold. He wanted to know what would happen to their baggage if they didn't collect it at baggage reclaim. I wasn't too sure but explained there would be a chance of it being placed into lost property where he would most likely have to pay to be reunited with it. I also told him that since it was a long walk from the gate to baggage reclaim, he would probably have his baggage waiting for him there. Still not looking satisfied with the answer, he just thanked me and returned to his seat.

I was puzzled. Why couldn't the man pick up his baggage? Copenhagen airport was such a long walk to the exit from the gate that I was sure their bags would be there before them. I mulled over all of the possible answers in silence whilst the rest of my crew chatted away about various things. I became frustrated at my thoughts. Every possible answer I thought about was quickly dismissed by logic and I couldn't settle on a definitive answer. I pondered over whether to approach the couple for more information, professionalism was telling me to just leave well alone for fear of being branded as nosey but the rest of me wanted to find an answer. I decided against professionalism and walked up the cabin to speak to the couple. Curiosity had gotten the better of me and I really wanted an answer as to what could possibly stop them from picking up their belongings. Everything about the situation was so unnatural, it was almost impossible to take bags away from passengers.