Life in the sky, the good, the bad and the ugly

Traveling around the world while getting paid, sleeping in fancy hotels, living in a paid modern and furnished apartment with a swimming pool and gym downstairs, having transport bring you to and from work, all sounds like a pretty fabulous life, right?

I agree, it does. But there is more, a lot more to know, before you can actually have an opinion about being a flight attendant at the other side of the world. Therefore, I’ll give you a more accurate insight in this ‘fabulous’ job.

I know the good, the bad and the ugly sounds better than the ugly the bad and the good, but I don’t want to end this blog with a bunch of negative shit, so I changed the order.

The Bad

To be a cabin crew, you kind of have to like flying, be flexible, easily adjustable, patient, open minded, easy going, respectful, not needing a lot of sleep, be able to stand up for yourself, time management, an early bird, a night fly, social, efficient, hard working, and a lot of things more which don’t come to mind right now, as I am writing this in the bus from the briefing center to my apartment, and I just operated a 7,5 hour flight from Casablanca. Not the easiest flight and a flight many crew tries to swap for another destination. Not because nobody likes Casablanca, but mainly because the flight is long, demanding and passengers can be quite difficult.

Anyway, I was going to tell you about some aspects of this job you should take into consideration if you are thinking of applying.

If you love your daily routine, forget about it. Routine doesn’t exist in this industry. You work any time and any day of the year. There is no such thing as a weekend or a public holiday like Christmas. A day off on the first of January because of too much champagne showers? I don’t think so. People fly, every single day of the year.

Constantly traveling to different timezones, jetlags, a body tired as f*** but still not being able to sleep, while your alarm will ring in 2 hours, that’s just great. Not frustrating at all.

Working for an airline in general means dealing with all types of guests and many different cultures. People from varying backgrounds, with very interesting and distinct manners and habits, which requires a lot of patience and empathy but is very educating as well. I am not here to make fun of any culture, so I will just give you a vague image of what I learned and experienced on board.

• Although traveling is very normal for many people nowadays, there are still a lot of them who have never seen an aircraft, so it is understandable that they see an aircraft like a flying bus. Buses don’t have seat numbers, so why not just pick any seat you like, right? Yeah this creates a bit of chaos. Especially if 200 people pick a random seat, but the other 100 just really want to sit on their assigned seat.
  
• Besides that, we regularly have passengers on board who are illiterate, so they need some extra assistance with things that seem very natural and basic to us.
  
• Some people can be extremely demanding and I sometimes feel like they didn’t eat nor drink for a week, as they expect us to be ready with a bottle of water and big meal as soon as they board the aircraft. “Give me drink” “I’m hungry I need chicken (or chocolate/chips/almonds/french fries)”. Probably this is a lack of English skills, but I know that in certain cases this is simply a lack of respect and manners.
  
• Some parents blame me for the fact that their baby is too big for the bassinet and they refuse to hold their baby during the flight because, I quote: “I’m tired and want to sleep”, so they just keep putting their baby on the ground. And then they are too scared to put the seatbelt on before landing because he/she will probably cry… Funny fact: all children cry.
  
• I love it when I have an aircraft full of finger snapping brothers calling me “sista”.

• When you ask whether they want Chicken with potato or Beef with rice and they answer “juice juice”, so you ask them “ok, apple or orange?” And their answer is “yes”…
  
• Im still trying to figure out why passengers seem to think that we always have fish on every flight. If I offer you chicken, beef and vegetarian there is obviously no fish. Yes, they might have it in business class, but we’re in economy here aren’t we?

• Have you ever noticed those people who bring way too many cabin bags, at least 3 times heavier than the allowed 7 kgs? Those lovely people (men included) expect the crew to put it up in the overhead stowage for them.  Sorry not sorry, but if I would do this for every person on every flight, I wouldn’t be able to walk in 2 years.

• Don’t you think it’s interesting when people say they are vegetarian and don’t eat meat, but when there is no more vegetarian meals left and I give them 2 non vegetarian meals, so at least they can eat the sides, they then end up finishing both portions COMPLETELY…
  
• Or when they say they can’t eat vegetarian.. do you mean you are allergic to rice and pasta and vegetables and potato and cheese and everything that is not meat? Or are you just a whining picky eater trying to make my life harder?

Luckily there are also plenty of guests that make me laugh. For instance, when somebody asked me for a juice exactly after I have strapped myself in on my jump seat as we’re about to take off…

A few weeks ago, someone ordered ‘wine’ so I looked at him with a questioning face and asked.. well, what kind of wine sir? And he thinks and answers “black wine”, that put a little smile on my face ^^

The Ugly/Unbelievable

Do you blame me for not responding happy, upbeat and at the same time professionally, in any of these situations?

• When a parent gives me a blanket full of white smelly baby barf and expects me to take it from them with my bare hands, right when I’m about to start the bar service. Yeah no.
• When people think it’s acceptable to use a pillow cover as a vomit bag, instead of the waste bag we provide and then wants me to dispose it. Please go dump that in the lavatory yourself amigo.
• When somebody thinks it’s a good idea to get drunk on an aircraft after not having touched alcohol for the past 2 years, then throw up everywhere and sleep on the floor in its own vomit.
• When people think it’s ok to wash themselves in the lavatory, create a swimming pool on the ground and don’t clean it up afterwards.

Ok, I think you get the message. This job is not as glamorous as it may seem, which is what a lot of people don’t realize and why thousands of people would love to do this job and see it more as one big holiday.

The pretty amazing

Nevertheless, I have never for a second regretted moving to the desert and starting this job and I would definitely recommend it for everyone who loves to explore the world and earn money at the same time. The benefits of traveling in my free time with countless of airlines for very low prices, sleeping in nice hotels during layovers and having the freedom to request destinations and days off when you need them, makes for a lifestyle that’s hard to leave behind. This is probably why there are so many colleagues who’ve been saying they want to leave for years but they simply can’t do it. Besides all the travel benefits, I love to be around happy travellers, going to see their family after a long time or going on holidays to a new exciting country. It’s unbelievable how many interesting and even inspiring stories you hear when you chat to the passengers. There are actually also passengers who notice our struggles and hard work sometimes and this acknowledgement is very appreciated.

Of course there are only a few people that can annoy you, but the majority is just enjoying their journey and it gives a great feeling to see them leaving the aircraft with a big smile on their face and thanking you for the flight. It’s amazing how a small gesture can make a big difference, for instance when I tried my best to move 4 other guests to put a family together because their seats were spread over the aircraft, or when I noticed a very tall man seated at the window and offered him a vacant aisle seat. It’s also really lovely to see how happy people are when they find out the alcohol onboard is free.

When you fly as a passenger you’re probably not very happy to see babies and children around you, but I can assure you that many parents are way more stressed and ashamed about their baby’s crying than you should be, and although I sometimes ask myself where they get all the energy from, some of them are really the cutest little cupcakes with the most beautiful smiles.

Flying with different colleagues from varying countries all the time can be challenging at times, but having a good team has such a huge impact on everyone’s mood that regardless of the rude people or stress during the flight, there will still be a positive vibe among us.

Oh, and how could I forget to mention the breathtaking views I get to see from the windows. I could honestly never get enough of these amazing landscapes, sunrises, sunsets or just bright shiny clouds.

Just to be clear, the above examples are just a few personal situations I experienced on board, which I wanted to share to give friends and family a better understanding of my job.  I am pretty sure air hostesses from any other airline have loads of interesting or crazy experiences as well.

Although I may sound negative, I truly love my job and appreciate having the opportunity of meeting so many people and most importantly constantly having something exciting to look forward to!

If you’re not sure what to do with your life, give it a try!

Let me know if you have any questions.