Delayed...because my flight attendant was stuck in her hotel room

Done with yet another 4 day trip. I don't care for 4 days, but it's all I can hold that fits my lifestyle (weekends off, domestic only, late starts).

I already mentioned the scratch issue on day 1 of the trip. On day 3 something just as interesting happened.

Decent overnight...barely. The hotel is located off a highway next to a gas station that has a Dominos Pizza inside. That's the only food around.

I ate the free hotel breakfast and then ordered a sandwich from Dominos for lunch.

Van time set for 1:45PM for a 2:40PM departure.

My Captain and I were downstairs at 1:40PM when the front desk clerk stated a flight attendant was stuck in her room.

The mechanism inside the handle broke. Turning the handle from the inside or outside did nothing.

Luckily (depending on how you look at it) for my flight attendant, she was the only one with a "balcony" room. The balcony was just a 1 foot ledge (with a rail) and the window was locked from the inside.

The hotel manager passed a tool under the door to unlock the window. Another hotel employee then went out the window of the adjoining room and into her room to help.

Meanwhile my Captain alerted the company of our delay. The crew scheduler had never heard of such an excuse. My Captain advised them to call the hotel to verify.

The employees tried everything they knew to open the door, nothing worked. The next option was to call the fire department.

The flight attendant only had one leg that day. She was flying out an hour after arrival to visit family in Florida. She was motivated to leave.

Without us knowing she climbed OUT onto the ledge and into the adjoining room. She then had the hotel employee pass her bags over to her.

The next thing we knew she was in the lobby ready to go. Crazy!

Ironically the night before she was the one who filled out the hotel sign in sheet. She mistakenly took the room assigned to the Captain. If my Captain (or I) had been in that room we would have just waited. There was no way we would have fit (or risked) going out on that ledge.

Once in the plane we quickly boarded. The crew that brought the plane in was sitting at a cafe in the terminal as they had a 2 1/2 hour sit. It would have been nice if they could have boarded up the plane while waiting...bleh.

Boarded up. A "passenger of size" broke the seat back of a seat. He was pulled off. Delayed again.

Quick write up and we blocked out 17 minutes late. Not bad at all really.

Blocked in 27 minutes late as we were number 6 for takeoff from the out station. Normally there is little to no traffic.

New flight attendant. Decent 4 hour turn. Another new flight attendant for the overnight.

This flight attendant was somewhat new to my airline and was engaged to a First Officer. I made the joke that, "If your first wife isn't a flight attendant, your second one is." She laughed.

Quick flight to the overnight. Shortish 9 hour overnight.

The flight in the morning left at 9AM. Once back in base we had a 2 1/2 hour sit. Four legs later we were done.

I'm not looking forward to my trip this week. It's a 3 day trip, but I don't finish until 9:30PM. Eh....still better than a 4 day.