Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I’m a flight attendant!
I don’t even know how to describe what it’s “like”. Can I share a typical day?
I live in-base, so let’s say my first flight is at 8am. I have to check in at the airport 45 minutes before the flight. My commute is around an hour (30 minutes drive to employee parking, and then I like to allow myself 30 minutes to get to the crew room from the parking lot (there is a bus that picks us up.)) So I’m leaving the house probably at 6am, just to be safe.
I check in, fix up my hair and makeup (standards) and walk to the gate. Meet the crew, have a briefing, and then work the flight.
A typical day for me usually consists of an “out and back/turn” (going from base to a city, then back) and another flight, where I will spend the night.
We take a van to the hotel, and from there, you do as you please. Sometimes groups go out for dinner, or sightseeing, depending on the length of the overnight.
If I started at 8am, I’d likely be done for the day and checked in to the hotel by 6pm. If there are no plans with crew, I’ll usually work out in the hotel gym, and depending on the location, walk to grab or DoorDash some food, eat in my hotel room, read, watch a movie or show, and head to bed. If there’s something noteworthy to see, I may spend the evening sightseeing, but I don’t love doing it alone. The next morning, I wake up and do it all again.
A typical work week for me is 3-4 days long, and I’m done the entire time. Some days are short (1-2 flights) some are long (3-4 flights). I don’t fly internationally as I don’t hold enough seniority, but I’m fine with that because I can hold a solid domestic schedule. Some months I bid for shorter week where you work long days, some months I want to explore so I bid best layovers, some months I’m tired and bid long weeks with long layovers.
I’d be happy to answer anything else!
Thank you! I've always wondered about the life of a flight attendant. A few questions:
1) do you like or, or is it lonely?
2) do you typically know the other crew? Do you often work with the same people?
3) do you ever feel scared when flying? I'm a fearful flyer and can't imagine being on a plane that much.
Happy to offer insight!
1) It’s funny. At the end of a trip, I’d say it’s lonely, but by the end of my time off, I am itching to get back to work! I love travel and aviation in general, so it’s always exciting, but yes, I do miss home when I’m away.
2) I see familiar faces in the crew room, but on actual trips, it’s usually new people each time. I’d say it’s more common to fly with the same pilot than it is to fly with the same flight attendant.
3) Never. I love it!
I’ve been flying for over a decade, and in all that time there have only been two flights with in-flight issues, and just one that was treated as a true emergency, compared to thousands of completely routine flights.
I’m so used to the normal sounds and movements of the airplane now that I can usually tell when something sounds or feels different. I can usually tell when something sounds off on engine startup or while taxiing, and almost always anticipate the call from the flight deck before it even comes in.
As for the emergencies, one time, an indicator suggested the boarding door might not have sealed properly. They were receiving pressurization warnings after takeoff. We returned as a precaution, but everything actually sounded normal, if it hadn’t sealed, there would have been a very obvious whistling noise, and there wasn’t. Turns out it was an indicator malfunction.
The other time, the crew wasn’t sure the landing gear had retracted, and thought they were still extended. It was a short flight, so we continued, flew past the tower who assured us they were extended, and we landed with emergency vehicles waiting on the runway just in case. We landed smoothly with no issue at all.
If anything, those experiences just reinforced how many safety layers there are, even a small uncertainty is handled carefully, and most of the time everything turns out completely fine.