Flight Attendant stories?

Question

I am looking into this career, and I just want to hear stories from anyone who has been an attendant. Pros and cons. Best things you have seen or the worst.

Answer 1

I DEFINITELY AGREE WITH "ethanma.." - Being a flight attendant is not for everyone.  FLEXIBILITY is definitely number one and your life is number 2.  LITERALLY... The thing is that I have been a flight attendant for 2 years now.. The first month of flying; it brought a lot of attention to how people are 35.ooo ft up in the air in literally a tin can.  Yes you do meet A LOT of nice people and nice overnights in some cities you wouldn't dream of going to or may but you also get the bad part of the job such as mostly really irritated passengers and also even flight attendants.  Again this job or most flight attendants say its a lifestyle is not for everyone.  For now the way the economy is doing and how it has literally hit u.s airlines from high jet fuel to merger, and bankruptcies-It is the rockiest industry to go into in the moment.  There are talks of furlough and you literally don't know if you as a flight would have a job at all after it is done and said.  But you know what flight attendants are always optomistic, and we always hope for the best even though we know the next hit will come and the possibility of loosing our job or our life.  It's a risky job and you have to give up a lot.  So be ready to relocate, rearrange your life, give sacrafices, less sleep or none at all and yes like "ethanma" said 4-5 hours- and i don't even get that at times and yes the pay sucks.  But 99 percent of flight attendants will admit, that its in the blood and we do love to fly.  Who else gets to always fly to a sunrise or a sunset-we do, of course the guys up front gets the best view but we get to relax at the back and yes when you see us close the curtains at the galley we do pry our feet up and just relax.

Answer 2

I was a flight attendant, look at my profile, and in secondary climb at about 15,000 ft. I took a soda in a plastic glass to the captain.  We hit some rough air and I fell into the cockpit on the MD-80.  The first officer caught me before I hit the center console, but the soda went flying right into the captain's lap.  I was mortified.  I brought towels for him to absorb as much of the liquid as he was able, along with my apologies.  Later in Tampa, we were overnighting there, walking up the Jetway, I apologized once again.  He turned to me with a stern look on his face and I thought- "here we go"....."I am willing to forget the incident, only if you have dinner with me now," he said.  Anyway to make a long story short, we are engaged and depending on when and if I get off of crutches, we will be married.  Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but that is my worst/best story.  Hope you and everyone else enjoys it.

Answer 3

The best things about being a flight attendant are the flexability, the nice people you meet (passengers as well as other flight attendants), ending up in the right place at the right time (was in Amsterdam for Queen's Day, London for the Tour de France, Paris for the Presidential Elections, San Fran for the Chinese New Year, etc), getting layovers in places where you know people, more days off than most jobs, etc etc.  The bad things about being a flight attendant are the REALLY long duty days (not all the time though), the pay isn't the greatest, crabby/mean/irate passengers and sometimes other flight attendants, medical emergencies, and sometimes short layovers where you are lucky to get 4-5 hours of sleep!  Overall, I really enjoy the job....but it's not for everyone.  Another thing to think about is the instability of airlines right now.  If you are lucky enough to find an airline that is hiring, you could be furloughed (be laid off), after putting in weeks and weeks of training.  Being a new hire, you would most likely be one of the first to be furloughed.  I'm not saying this to scare you off, it's just something to think about.  If it's something you really want to do, then I say go for it!