Even after 5 years of being a flight attendant, I still find myself answering the same questions over and over again. Whether they be from passengers, strangers at the bar, or from family and friends, there seem to be many misconceptions about how this job actually works. In this post, I’m going to clear up the most common questions I receive about my job. This flight attendant FAQ will cover everything from hiring to layovers (and everything in between!).
Becoming a flight attendant
Q: Can I do this job part-time?
A: In a word, no. The way that our schedules are built, especially when you’re first hired, make it more of a lifestyle than a typical job.
After 6-8 weeks of training, you’ll most likely start off on a reserve schedule. This means that you know your days on and your days off, but don’t know when (or if) you’ll actually be working. You’re at the mercy of crew scheduling, which makes it pretty hard to plan out your life.
⇉ Should I Be A Flight Attendant? 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Applying
Q: Do I need to go to a special flight attendant school before applying?
A: No! These are definitely not necessary. Your customer service experience and a focus on safety will be much more important when getting hired.
⇉ How to Ace Your Flight Attendant Interviews
Flight attendant FAQ: Schedules + logistics
Q: What route do you usually fly?
A: For some reason, this is the most common question I get from strangers! I don’t know where this misconception came from, but it’s time to put it to rest.
When you first start out, there are no set-in-stone “routes” you fly. Usually, you’re on reserve and at the mercy of crew scheduling. They call you and tell you where they need you, then you show up and work that flight.
Once you gain a bit more seniority and become a lineholder, you can bid for what kind of trips you want to fly the next month. The schedule that you receive is called your “line.” Each line is different — some are all domestic trips, some only fly to Frankfurt, some only have one-day turns, etc. Some people bid on lines based on how many days off they get. Others bid for certain layovers. It’s different for everyone!
Q: Do you get to choose where you fly and how long you’re staying?
A: Hahaha, no. If I had it my way, I would work one flight to Tahiti, layover for 30 days, and work one flight back. Unfortunately, the airlines have their own schedules to stick to.
Q: How much do you get paid?
A: This is actually something you can Google very easily! Just type in “xyz airline flight attendant pay scale.” Let’s just say that no one becomes a flight attendant for the pay.
At my airline, we get a pay raise every year until we hit “top-out pay” (13 years in). We’re paid hourly for every hour that we’re actually in the air in addition to per diem when away from base.
There is additional pay on holidays, for international trips, and when the flight is understaffed. You also get paid more when you are the purser or qualified language speaker on a flight.
Layovers + flight attendant life
Q: How long are your layovers?
A: This depends on what kind of trip it is. On a domestic trip, we generally layover for anywhere between 10 and 32 hours. Internationally, we usually get between 24 and 48 hours (although I’ve seen some trips with over 100-hour layovers!).
Q: Do you have to pay for your own hotel on a layover? / Do you have to share a room?
A: No flight attendant FAQ would be complete without this question. No, we don’t pay for our own rooms, and no, we don’t share! Each flight attendant gets their own room.
Every airline keeps a list of contracted hotels for each location they fly to. There are certain contractual requirements that need to be met for the airline to work with a hotel — things like availability of food and bed size, for example.
Q: Do you fly for free?
A: Pretty much, yes! Domestic flights are free. Internationally, we have to pay for any taxes/fees/customs charges. These fees range anywhere from $20 to $200 a flight. All of these flights are at space available priority, which means that I can only get on if there are open seats on the plane.
My parents and my enrolled friend also fly for free (an enrolled friend is kind of like Southwest’s companion pass). I also get a certain number of buddy passes per year. These passes are discounted standby tickets and can be given to anyone.
⇉ How I Fly For Free (An Explanation of Flight Attendant Travel Benefits)
Q: Where do flight attendants sleep on the plane?
A: On longer flights, flight attendants get to take breaks while onboard. It depends on the type of aircraft, but there are usually crew rest bunks either above or below the main cabin. Depending on the flight, breaks can be between 30 minutes and several hours long (those ORD-HKG flights leave you with a lot of free time).
Q: *after landing in an international location* So… do you guys just turn around and go home now?
A: Believe it or not, flight attendants actually have legal limits to the amount of time we can work (daily, weekly, and monthly).
Duty time limitations are different based on whether you’re working a domestic or an international flight. Barring any unusual situations, we can’t work over 14 hours straight. Since many international flights can be quite long, this means we can’t just be scheduled to fly to Beijing and back in one day.
There are also minimum limits to the amount of rest we get after a flight (aka our layover time). These change based on how long the inbound flight was, what our total duty period was, and where we’re flying to.
Flight attendant FAQ: Personal questions
Q: What is your favorite destination/layover?
A: I have so many! In the US, my favorite layovers are Honolulu, Palm Springs, Phoenix, and Madison, Wisconsin. Internationally, I love going to Paris, Hong Kong, and São Paulo, Brazil.
Q: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen while working?
A: Here are a few short snippets of craziness:
- A woman sitting in an economy bulkhead seat had a miniature horse emotional support animal
- On a flight from Brussels to Chicago, a man sitting in economy kept moving himself up to an open business class seat during the flight. We asked him to move multiple times and even had the pilot give him a firm talking-to. He did it again so we had the police meet the flight when we landed
- I was eating a sandwich in the back galley when someone rang their call bell. While I went into the aisle to check on it, another passenger started eating my (half-eaten) sandwich. When I came back, caught him in the act, and questioned him about it, he said that he thought he could have it (???)
Q: Have you ever had an emergency onboard?
A: I once had a woman faint in the back galley during service, but she ended up being totally fine. Luckily, I haven’t experienced any true medical, mechanical, or safety-related emergencies.
Q: Have you ever met anyone famous while working?
A: No 😭
The closest I’ve come is having Virgil Abloh (CEO of Off-White and Kanye West’s former creative director) on a flight to Paris. He was asleep the 👏 whole 👏 flight 👏 so I didn’t get a chance to talk to him.
Flight attendant FAQ: Furloughs + the future
Q: What is a furlough?
A: A furlough is a temporary layoff. Furloughs happen when demand for flights (and thus, revenue) is low. The most recent furloughs are happening right now at many airlines because of COVID.
Since many flight attendant jobs are unionized, there are certain contractual steps the airlines need to go through before furloughing. These can include any measures that would reduce the workforce voluntarily — temporary leaves, voluntary furloughs, retirement packages, and more. If the numbers still aren’t right after these steps are taken, they furlough.
At my airline, all furloughed employees have to be called back before the company can start hiring again. No one knows when this will be — it all depends on how soon people start flying again.
⇉ Explanation of the Payroll Support Program
Q: When are you going to get a real job?
A: Yes, I have actually gotten this question! First of all, being a flight attendant is a real job. I go to work and get paid just like any other profession. Just because it’s not conventional doesn’t mean it’s not real!
Secondly, never. I’m going to keep this job as long as they’ll let me!
Update: I’ve actually quit my flight attendant job since writing this post. Surprise, surprise!
Hopefully this flight attendant FAQ cleared up some of your questions! If you’re wondering about anything else that I haven’t covered here, feel free to leave it in the comments below.
xoxo Niki
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