For the record, this policy of 1 hotel room for 4 crew members has been in place for at least 3 months. But the news story was correct in stating that it's a bunch of happy h-shi! anyway, because you're looking at (AT BEST) 2 hrs in the hotel.
Course if you're late, or if the Mesa hotel desk drops the ball and "forgets" to book a room, you're looking at 1 hour "rest". The hotel desk is closed at this hour (they're at home in their beds . . . . presumably it's dangerous to book hotel rooms w/o enough proper sleep in the middle of the night) . . . and crew trackers NEVER know what you're talking aboutwith this policy.
Plus, (and I've done these w/in the last <recent date>) . . . .
1 hotel room =
1 bed.
1 lounger chair
1 desk chair.
1 bath tub with an extra pillow. (hope that poor bastard dosen't wake up when I sneak in to do my bid-ness.
This for a 4 person, mixed gender crew. So here's how it REALLY works. Either one person goes (and the rest sleep on the plane), or nobody goes (and everyone sleeps on the plane)
Kudos to the news team. Fact is though, this policy was probably instituted because it's ILLEGAL for crews to remain on the plane or inside a closed terminal at many of the airports we're at. The hotel room is simply a remote "crew room" to go and sit and not make noise for 2 hours.
