How it really is to be a flight attendant. Myths and Facts
„So how is it?” Asked a strange young guy approaching me at the train station, like we were old good friends. I got confused but then quickly realized as I was going to work, I was wearing my uniform. It always encourages people to ask questions. Through the years, the flight attendant profession overgrew with myths, even legends. The reasons might be found in the 60’s, when the airline industry was blooming. At that time, flight attendant was a prestigious, hard to get profession and the whole airline industry was like a brotherhood to which not too many had access.
FLIGHT ATTENDANTS ARE PRETTY (AND NOT TOO SMART)
In the last century the inevitable conditions of becoming a flight attendant included to be young, pretty and unmarried. That associated the profession with a stereotype of proverbial „silly blonde”, which was later supported by the pop culture. In fact, the first flight attendants were one of the first working women in America, while many others decided to get married and pursue their life as housewives. Today, airlines in the U.S. don’t seem to support the standards promoted by the pop culture anymore. Yes, employees have to meet the image guidelines, but there are no direct requirements about the weight, size, beauty type, etc. There isn’t even an age requirement, s long as the candidate is able to perform the work duties. All of these make us an interesting crowd to work in. Because of the big competition in getting to the airline industry, the hiring process is still incredibly selective. That results in diverse environment of interesting people to work with. Of course, there are features that we all have in common and for these features we were selected for the interview. We are all social, team working, travel lovers. But on top of that, we all have additional skills and that makes us somehow special.
Because of the flexible schedule, the flight attendant position is tempting for student who want to pursue their career in other fields. Among my colleagues are also well-doing opera singers, teachers, journalists, real estate agents, nurses, actors and others. Most of the flight attendants have college degrees, even master’s and doctor’s. While the everyday job is not really intellectually demanding, flight attendant are well trained to handle all kinds of emergency situations, medical emergencies, fire-fighting, evacuation, even surviving on open sea. And once a year each of us is obligated to complete hours of recurrent education to refresh the knowledge from the training. But there is one thing that no one can be taught - the ability to react in other unpredictable situations.
WE ARE MEMBERS OF “MILE HIGH CLUB”
This profession makes people encouraged to ask you any question, including the most intimate ones. Maybe the reason is the factor, that flight attendants are fully dedicated to the passengers and they tend to cross our comfort zone… Maybe they really think we hang out with the passengers in lavatories and with the pilots in the cockpit…And with a blink of an eye, they let us know “Psst, I know your secret, is it true?”. Really?!
Coming back to the matter of the subject… It is all about individual preferences. While some people apparently find it arousing, for the flight attendants, who spend hours and days on board, the aircraft is not any attraction anymore. On contrary – the planes are not really clean, even full of germs, and by the way, very acoustic too. And believe me, if you go there, yes, it will be noticed by the flight crew. But the consequences can be more serious than humiliation, it can even result in arresting.
WE ARE NEVER HOME
Last month I did one 4-day trip and couple of times I had to go to the airport to do our stand-by duty. That made the total of 46 hours or 8 days I was physically working for the company. Other days, I stayed in the city. Yes, as a reserve flight attendant, I was „on call”, but knowing the system, you can easily predict, if you are going to get called, or not. I was completing a continuing education course, meeting with friends, seeing art exhibitions, did some writing and travelled on my days off… and I was still paid the guaranteed compensation. To compare, my colleagues who want to fly and reach the total of some 100 hours of flying what makes their check lustier. It is easy to set your preferences.
FREE TICKETS FOR EVERYONE
Yes, we do flight for free in the United States and for very discounted prices when flying around the world. The same do our partners and parents. We also get some buddy passes every year for our friends, so they can travel with us within our airline destinations. But that’s it. Don’t think if you are for 10 years not seen high school class mate of mine, I will suddenly gift you with free tickets, because even if I wanted, I can’t. And I don’t want to anyways :-)
