"phone number 18"
Posted on 01/07/2013 3:08:11 AM PST by servo1969
Ever wonder what your flight attendant really thinks of you? What they’d tell you if they had the nerve? Or weren’t afraid of being fired? What deep, dark secrets would they reveal about their jobs?
I have a number of friends who work as flight attendants. One of them recently retired after 20 years flying for the most storied name in commercial aviation, while others work for less glamorous domestic U.S. airlines. I asked them what they’d tell their passengers if they could tell them anything at all, or what secrets they’d reveal only if granted complete anonymity. All I can say is that these people do not represent every single flight attendant in the skies, so if you’re a flight attendant yourself, please hold your fire and don’t shoot the messenger. But I didn’t make this stuff up. What you read here may shock you, or make you laugh, I’m not sure which.
-snip-
4. If a flight is late, the airline might have to pay us overtime. If the flight is going to be late anyway, we’ve been known to delay it even further in order make sure overtime kicks in, which on our airline means up to double the hourly pay. We might find some minor defect in the aircraft or use some other ruse to make up for the money we don’t get paid waiting for take off.
-snip-
15. We really don’t like children. Not just your children, children period. Why do you think we chose a career where we spend half our lives away from home?
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
"phone number 18"
After reading this, my only thought was: “Get another job, you bunch of whiners.”
There are choices in life. You folks CHOSE this, it wasn’t foisted on you. Damn, I HATE listening to crap like that.
My job occasionally sucks, as it does right now. But nobody is holding a gun to my head to do it.
That is a myth. The pay clock does not start until all the doors are closed and the breaks released.
You might get a chuckle out of this.
I don't know about that - (many times) I've seen flight attendants pick up crying babies and soothe them as they walk them up and down the aisle. It's a pretty cool sight.
And on long overnight flights the pilot will set the pressure altitude as high as permissible in the cabin to put the passengers to sleep to help out the cabin crew.
After reading this, I have 2 thoughts. Working with the public should be a requirement for every senior in high school, just to give a sense of what it’s like to have to wait on people. And I have a funny feeling if you were not paid until the wheels were off the ground you would be whining too.
It was a poor article based on the thoughts of a few attendants.
These folks are mediocre waitstaff at a crappy restaurant at 40,000 feet.
It does appear to be true about being upgraded to first class if you are well dressed. I've had it happen to me twice and each time I was wearing a business suit. Never when I was in shorts and sandals. They don't seem to want to upgrade beach bums to first class.
This is not possible on today's long haul aircraft. There is no method to adjust the cabin pressure. Pilots can manually control the outflow valve, but they would have to continually monitor the cabin pressure. That would distract the pilots from their crossword puzzles.
Yeah, and that contradiction is in the article too. My experience is that the flight crew gets manic the longer the plane is on the Tarmac. Meanwhile, ground crew is fiddling with some dibbly-bob on the wing, keeping the plane at the gate, and the attendants are ready to explode. But.... They always seem so calm and serene when the plane has to circle, wait in line, or whatever to land. More time in the air? More money? Makes sense.
There is a booked named “Air Babylon,” published in 2005, which basically says all the same things.
No, never. I've always treated flight attendants politely, and they've always behaved professionally around me. That is all that is required of either of us in the situation.
It's not necessary to overthink employee-customer relations if everyone acts with good manners and/or professionalism.
I took dozens of flights on Northwest Airlines when we lived in Minnesota.
I ran into an attendant several times who wore a name tag that read “O. Miss.”
TWo things - $5,00 atarbucks gift cards and chocolates ensure thant one will be treated like like a god......
TWo things - $5,00 atarbucks gift cards and chocolates ensure thant one will be treated like like a god......
3. Our airline used to pay us when we showed up for duty at the airport. That was eons ago. Then we got paid our measly hourly wage when the cabin doors closed. Then it was when the plane’s brakes were released. Now we get paid only when the wheels leave the ground (“wheels up” in airline parlance). We don’t even get paid when we’re taxiing! There can sometimes be hours of delay between the time we show up for work and when we’re airborne. Different airlines have different policies, but it’s a way for them to save money. So when we greet you at the door, we do that for free. When we serve you your pre-flight drink, we do that for free, too. No wonder our smiles are so fake.
4. If a flight is late, the airline might have to pay us overtime. If the flight is going to be late anyway, we’ve been known to delay it even further in order make sure overtime kicks in, which on our airline means up to double the hourly pay. We might find some minor defect in the aircraft or use some other ruse to make up for the money we don’t get paid waiting for take off.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2013/01/02/17-things-your-flight-attendant-wont-tell/#ixzz2HIeTQKDQ
Why would you delay take off if you aren’t getting paid for it? This makes no sense?
All the whining about poor service on airline flights just validates the fact that air travel has become a commodity.
There are no, or anyway not enough, people willing to pay even a little bit more for a less stressful travel experience. With rare exceptions, when they’re spending their own money for a flight people take the lowest available price. This has resulted in air travel declining in price by around 40% in constant dollars since 1978, despite massive increases in the cost of fuel, the airlines’ second greatest expense.
In such a business environment, the entire cost of any amenities at all comes directly out of the profits of the airline, which means all airlines are eventually forced down to the lowest common or regulated service denominator.
IOW, travelers are getting exactly what they, as a group, are demanding from the market by their buying behavior. What they will NOT get is a low-stress, high-amenity experience when they insist on paying the lowest possible price.
Given the fact that within the US most flights are only a few hours in length, IMO it doesn’t make sense to pay for a bunch of frills. If you want a nice meal, bring it with you.
BTW, many foreign airlines have much higher levels of service. AFAIK every one of them is heavily subsidized by tax dollars, as are the “wonderful” train services in Europe, Japan and China.
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