The grooming standards are intense
Flight attendants are known for looking perfectly put together at all times, but the regulations around their appearance go way past just uniform standards and permitted nail varnish colours. Many airlines have both height and de facto weight restrictions, with air hostesses being fired if they cannot fit through every door on the plane. They are also told what heel height to wear.
You only get paid once you’re in the air
Everyone’s least favourite part of journeying by plane is the excessive amount of time it takes to check in, get through security, wait at the gate and then finally board. However, flight attendants find all of these steps equally frustrating, because they’re not paid for them. Even physically being on the plane is not enough, as attendants are only paid for time spent in the air and moving.
It takes you weeks to earn your wings
Training to be a flight attendant is surprisingly intense and turns a lot of people off from the career path. Not only do you have to spend five to seven weeks learning safety maneuvers, how to act in a crisis or emergency and basic medical care like the Heimlich, but all this work is largely unpaid, with a stipend being provided for food.
Every single aircraft requires separate qualifications
After the thorough seven weeks of training, you might assume that fledgeling flight attendants are ready to board any plane and get to work. However, it doesn’t really work like that. Every airline’s training process and qualifications are different, and so flight attendants have to go through unpaid school all over again if they ever want to move to a new company.
It all comes down to seniority
Because flight attendants have to retrain every time they want to switch airlines, most choose to remain with the same company for their whole career. As a result, seniority and time spent in the career matter hugely. Those who have been with an airline for longer get to fly to better destinations, have a better shot of getting weekends off and fly fewer graveyard shifts.
You’ll probably never see them do their job
Many people have an outdated idea of what the role and responsibilities of flight attendants consist of. Yes, they serve drinks, help with loading luggage into overhead bins, take meal requests and ensure passengers are comfortable, but that is not their main job. All flight attendants are tasked with managing passenger safety in the event of a plane crash, a set of skills you’ll probably never see them use.
There’s no getting holidays off
There are many benefits to being a flight attendant: the uniforms are cute, you get a 90% discount on plane tickets for a friend and you get to fly to new and exciting destinations on the regular. However, there is one downside to the career path: there’s no spending Thanksgiving and Christmas at home. More people fly during the holidays, and that means flight attendants are in demand.
Staying where you have to eats up your paycheck
While flight attendants spend much of their time in the air when they start out, they still have to live somewhere. Unfortunately, most airlines are based in major cities, meaning that in the beginning, flight attendants spend much of their meager paycheck on accommodation that they barely get to live in. To solve this problem, many new flight attendants pool their money and live in dorms.
You’re stuck with the airline you start with
Since retraining to be able to fly with a new airline is unpaid and takes more than a month to complete, flight attendants rarely stray from their original pick. This makes the choice incredibly high stakes, with wannabe flight attendants interviewing with numerous airlines in order to figure out which has their most ideal benefits, promotion structure and company culture.
They’re not allowed to get you drunk
Many people enjoy a nice tipple as part of their flying experience, but you might have noticed that after one or two, the little bottles of booze stop coming. That’s because it’s actually illegal for a flight attendant to serve you to the point of drunkenness, just as it’s illegal to be drunk on a plane. Hence the “one on the ground, two in the air” motto.
