Sweet!

Must be nice! Any carrier I've worked for has had less than that. Sure some get blocked for 48 but they never end up being that. Most are blocked for 24 hours or less. Regardless of flight length. 18 hour duty day to Japan, 22 hour layover, 18 hour duty day back.

When I first started flying as an FA, we were not allowed to sleep , or "appear to be sleeping". Even when we eventually got aircraft that had a bunk area. They went unused. I once almost got canned for "appearing to be asleep" while sitting on a bag of garbage in the galley on a flight from Hamburg, Germany to Reunion. I can't remember how long the flight was (12 hours?) but we stopped in Djibouti and by the time we got to the hotel in Reunion, we had less than 7 hours for "crew rest" before pick up to go back the same way. I'd caught a cold during the flight and was sick as a dog. My statement that I'd passed out seemed to placate my In-Flight Director.

I also recall walking into the Flight Deck once to check if they wanted anything and finding both pilots fast asleep. Kind of creepy I have to admit. Who knew how long they'd been asleep? I closed the door loudly, called them and then had someone else go in with coffee and some cold towels.

It still amazes me how little regard both the regulators and the airlines themselves have for the concept of appropriate rest for Crew, including those working in the cabin.

The posting about boarding with the utmost efficiency reminded me of something that always bothered me about some pilots (okay, quite a few of them at my particular carrier). The maximum duty day for Flight Attendants at my carrier was negotiated to an absolute maximum of 18. I was told that the pilots (again, at my carrier) had negotiated an absolute maximum of 16 in the case of a delay.

You'd think that a situation like that would avoid having to go over 18 hours in a delay. Not so. Usually, the Pilots would exceed their own duty day limitations "at their discretion" and we'd be pretty much stuck along for the ride. There were a few time where we'd refuse and the Captain would either yell at us, order the doors closed or believe it or not, start the engines up with L1 open and the bridge attached to prevent us from leaving.

When a Captain is red in the face from screaming and using foul language at Flight Attendants in plain view of passengers, you're kind of inclined to think that perhaps he could use some rest as well.

From what I was lead to believe, Truckers had more regulations governing how long they could work than Pilots or Flight Attendants did. Since there was nothing Federally in Canada regarding Flight Attendants length of duty day, I don't find this hard to believe.

My experience at 4 airlines tells me that "bad communication" is an understatement. I'm reminded of one incident where the pilots knew before we even took off that we'd have to make a tech stop in Gander on the way back from an already delayed Paris to Montreal. "Don't say anything to the passengers... we'll make an announcement during the flight". We (the Flight Attendants) disagreed with this way of doing things but they did it anyway. The pilots made the announcement an hour out of Gander blaming stronger than expected headwinds. Needless to say, when the passengers got off during the refueling in Gander and called family to say they'd be late, they were told that they knew that HOURS ago. They weren't happy and guess who they took it out on?

If nothing else, I'm glad that the Colgan Air accident has brought the low wages I've been telling people about for years out into the open. People wouldn't believe me when I told them that some Pilots made less than 20K a year, or that some companies were paying Flight Attendants less than 12K a year for a full time job.

Re: Cabin Air. I'm sorry but I disagree with you Patrick on several points. Yes, the pilots breathe the same air as we do in the back but it certainly seems much fresher up front, and we've been told in Flight Attendant training that it is refreshed on a more frequent basis than is the air on the other side of the flight deck door.

Air packs: again, I've flown a number of years and though its not as common on the newer aircraft, there have been times where we've asked the Pilots to increase the airflow because we were suffering in the back. Several pilots I know and have flown with on the DC8 for example, told me that they turn off or cycle down one or more air packs to save fuel. So who's correct?