I take Mike and Becky to the restaurant where I once waited tables. My old boss gives us dinner on the house, certainly a welcome treat on our first-year salary. We have an early start again the next morning and there is not a whole lot to do near the airport in Durham, so we don t stay out late. On an overnight, the airline provides each crewmember with his or her own hotel room. For shorter layovers, you will usually stay at or very near the airport.
Some airlines work a little differently, putting flight attendants and pilots in separate hotels.
The airline also covers meals, if you count the expense money paid for the trip. The next few days of the trip are surprisingly uneventful. The video system on the Airbus, sophisticated as it is with its automatic preprogramming, occasionally malfunctions. At the end of day two, as the plane pulls off the runway at National Airport in D.C., I persuade Becky to spice up the arrival announcement. I cannot tell if anyone notices.