I get so many questions about my job and thought this would be a good way to fill you in on what a typical work day is like for flight attendants. Everything mentioned is just my personal experience and I can only share what I know to be true from working for my airline.
Before I started, I had NO CLUE what this job was like so I wanted to share some little details that may surprise you. Please let me know any questions in the comments!
Day one of a work trip is filled with preparing for your trip. A lot goes into packing for work trips. Packing for a work trip is very different than packing for a vacation or going to visit someone you know because our layover hotels are normally pretty far from anything and sometimes we get in very late or have to leave early so it is a good idea to have your meals along with you in case that happens. Food on the road is crazy expensive so if you don't bring your own food along on your trip, you will spend a ton of money eating out.
I normally head to the grocery store the day of or the day before my work trip and stock up on healthy food to pack in my crew lunch box. It takes me an hour or two to prepare all the food and get it into tupperware. Something else that takes a while is getting all your toiletries together. Even though working flight attendants do not adhere to some of the TSA guidelines, I personally don't like taking all of my full bottles so I have to transfer my beauty products into separate bottles which also takes a while.
If it is any season other than summer, packing can take hours because I have to pack enough warm and cold weather clothes depending on the layover cities I am going to. This requires checking the weather in each city to make sure I pack appropriately. I am going to do a post soon on what is really in my luggage for a work trip.
Next, it is time to get all ready for work. The more effort I put into presenting myself well at work, the more prepared I feel to take on the challenges of the job. Many times we are so tired with this crazy job, it can be pretty tough to look put together all the time.
After you are all ready, it is time to head to the airport! You could start a work trip at 5:00AM or 11:00PM. When you say you are "flexible" during the interview for this job, you better mean it.
Each trip we fly is with a different crew and you work a different position which you pick based on seniority. A crew at my airline consists of 3 flight attendants but each airline does this differently. I love all the variety but to be honest I normally get nervous the first day of a work trip. I don't know who I will be working with in a medal tube 40,000 feet above the ground facing crazy stressful situations with. Normally, everyone is wonderful and sometimes by the end of a trip, I don't know how I lived so long without knowing they even existed.
On the larger planes, more flight attendants are required so for a few flights here and there you meet more new flight attendants depending on the size of the aircraft. We really work with so many different people on any given day and as expected, some times you get a few people with different personalities and then the crews have drama which I hate.
We fly anywhere from 1 to 5 flights in a day before arriving at our crew hotel. After getting on board, stowing our luggage and doing our safety checks and duties, we board the plane and do the safety demo.
Then we do more checks and prepare to fly!
In flight, you have to be at everyone's beckon call and always be friendly and professional, no matter how tired you may be. This can be very difficult for us because our job really can be tiring. Please, give us the benefit of the doubt and appreciate those flight attendants that TRY to be kind!
People can be really hard on flight attendants. On board, we have to make sure everyone is taken care of but our main priority is safety. We are all safety professionals and have been trained in what to do in case of every possible thing that could go wrong on board such as depressurization, evacuations, fires and any type of medical situation (including delivering a baby!) Some passengers can be very rude because traveling is very stressful.
It can be really hard not to let stressed out passengers get to you. However, there are some really beautiful people who take pity on us poor flight attendants and say something nice which is so appreciated.
Each flight is a different time, different place, different pilots. Some flights are busy, some flights no one wants a thing. Some times you have terrible turbulence and hard landings and other flights are so smooth you barely feel like you are flying. Some passengers make you cry, some make you laugh so hard you can't breathe. You never know what to expect!
A lot of people ask me about the hotel situation while I am at work during a layover. After we are done for the day with our flight or flights, our airline sends us to our crew hotel until we all have to report to the airport again the next day. Your layover may be anywhere from 10 hours to 30 hours. Of course work pays for the hotel and yes, we all get our own hotel rooms even though during flight attendant training you have a roommate. It always shocks me when people still think we pay for our own hotel rooms!
There are rules that airlines must follow to make sure that we are safe at each cities crew hotel. Just like every aspect of this job, every city we stay at is so different. Most of the crew hotels are pretty nice although nothing too fancy and they are normally near the airport.
However, there are a handful of crew hotels I would rather never see again. I even turn down great work trips if it means I won't have to stay in them.
We make "per diem" while we are on our layovers which is a small amount per hour. Each airline has a different per diem amount for their airline crews but ours is under $3.00. It sounds like nothing but it can add up if you have a 30 hour layover. Although we don't pay for the hotel rooms, we do have to pay for our own food on the road.
Every flight attendant spends their free time at the hotel during their layover differently. Unless I am in a super cool city, I use my layover time to recharge and relax but many flight attendants like to get out and about. I can be quite a loner on my layovers and I am 100% OK with that.
I like to make sure to get a good, sweaty workout in and enjoy taking baths and sleeping in if possible. If it is in a fun city with good public transportation options, I try to go see the city and do some new things. We spend so much time cooped up in airports and planes that I do love to get outside when I can.
My favorite layover hotel is Portland because the hotel has nice bikes and it is so fun to ride around downtown Portland and across all the bridges there. Some of my other favorite layovers are Los Angeles because there is a $5.00 round trip little shuttle van that picks up near our hotel and drops you off at the Manhattan Beach Pier right off the ocean. I take this shuttle whenever I have a long enough layover to! In Manhattan Beach I walk around downtown, stop in the stores and normally pick up a healthy juice and fruit at the grocery store then go down to the beach for a picnic. You can see some snaps from a layover in LA here.
There is so much mystery about what goes on in the airline industry and I look forward to share more about what goes on. It is a CRAZY job for sure but I cannot imagine a more fun lifestyle. I will be sharing my top tips for becoming a flight attendant soon if you are interested. Now, I am off to finish packing for my trip this evening!