Mandy has been a flight attendant for nine years. I asked her all of the behind-the-scenes questions that I’ve always wanted to ask a flight attendant. From hygiene to pilots, she didn’t hold anything back!
“It’s a fascinating job that I enjoy, but it’s not as glamorous as people think.”
First off, where are you based and what is your schedule like?
My base is in Florida. I happen to live in the city I am based in. A lot of flight attendants, though, live in other states, even other countries, and commute in using our flight benefits. For people that commute, crash pads are a cheap option. My first two months I had to commute to Oakland and stayed in a Hotel Crash pad for $125 for the month. There were twelve of us in one room, so we usually slept three to a bed, and we had to get ready in the workout room in order to be be quiet for the other girls sleeping. It seems like an odd thing, but it worked!
A normal schedule is three days on and four days off. Every other month, we are on call for the three days and can essentially go anywhere and get called at any time. During the three days on, we are away from base and usually stay in two different cities. Flight attendants who are super super senior, like 20-30 years of flying, can have the same route repeatedly. For everybody else however, we have no set route. We go everywhere and it changes weekly.
Let’s get down and dirty. What's the deal with cleaning between flights? I've heard horror stories of germ-laden tray tables and pillows. Should I be as grossed out as I am?
Yes!! Be grossed out! I've seen babies getting changed and bare feet on tray tables and pillows. Pillows are covered in slobber. In between flights, we just cross the seatbelts and pick up trash that was left. That’s it! But every airline has different procedures, so I can't comment for all airlines.
What are some annoying things that flight attendants hate when passengers do?
GETTING POKED!! Seriously, nothing angers me more than walking down the aisle and getting poked in the ass. A lot of flight attendants will agree. I also hate it when people ring the call-light for trash. We jokingly call it "emergency trash". People can be mean and crazy. I was called "The meanest and ugliest Flight Attendant” once because I told a passenger that the seatbelt sign was on. Once, a passenger told me to stop bumping him with my hips as I walked by because he was leaning in the aisle. I told him that I'll just lose some weight for him. Another time, we had to check someone’s bag because we ran out overhead storage on Christmas, and he said, “Fuck you” to us. I had a drunk passenger tell me that the pilots and I were “going down” because I wouldn't serve him another drink. I have a lot of funny stories about rude passengers…
One thing that really bothers me is when passengers are mad at us because we're delayed. Trust me, we're mad too. None of us, including the pilots, are getting paid when we are sitting on the ground. I have had ground delays for over six hours before. That’s six hours that we are on the clock, but we're not getting paid anything!
It’s also really hard when little old ladies come on with their super heavy bags and expect us to put them up in the overhead bin. If we get injured, the company won't cover us for lifting bags. Flight attendants get injured all the time regarding this issue, including myself. I was out of work for seven weeks!
When you were out for seven weeks, did you have any workman's comp or sick leave or anything?
When we go out for OJI we get workman's comp, but our pay usually comes out to being a third less than we would normally make working. Really, there should be more involvement from OSHA. Flight Attendant health is highly overlooked. We are exposed to massive amounts of radiation. The constant compression and decompression is absolutely terrible for our bodies. We are constantly in different climates, sometimes in the same day. We are exposed to a lot of germs as we come in contact with hundreds of people a day. A lot of us will and have had shoulder surgery from lifting bags. I get chronic ear/sinus infections, which is really common for flight attendants.
How do you manage to stay hydrated?
We have water on board. Our union made it a requirement that the company let us take it off the plane to our hotel rooms so that we aren't stuck with tap water from the bathroom faucet. They tell us to drink at least one can per flight. I drink about two to three cans of water per flight.
What are some good tips for passengers?
Always give yourself enough time, like two or three hours. As hectic as travel is these days, being short on time is an unnecessary stress. Also, stay hydrated and always eat before you fly. Almost all of our onboard medical emergencies could be avoided from doing that.
What medical emergencies have you had to deal with?
I haven't dealt with anything too crazy, mostly just people passing out from not eating or from dehydration. The only one that was difficult was when we had an infant have a seizure due to a fever. It was super scary, but the baby turned out okay. We just had the mom give her sick baby Children’s Tylenol.
Have you ever caught anyone trying to join the Mile High Club?
I actually have! First off, our bathrooms are sooo gross, so I don't see how people would want to do it. When I saw it, I just let them do it, but I gave them a knowing look like, "I know what you just did," when they came out. I really don't care if they want to do that, as long as it’s not at their seat in front of passengers, which I have heard happens sometimes.
Are pilots assholes?
Pilots... They have a God Complex... They have Type A personalities, and they have no problem talking about politics and constantly bring it up. I'd say I've liked about 2% of the pilots I've met. So in summary, yes, I think they're assholes. Also, the rumors are true. Most of them have second lives...
Have you developed friendships with coworkers or are you always working with different people?
I have developed some friendships but it’s not very easy to do. We are always working with new people. Plus, we all have different schedules, which means that we are out of town on different days, making it hard to ever get together outside of work.
Your job seems pretty tough. What can a passenger do to make your day?
- Bring entertainment for you kids!
- Know what you want to drink before I get to you with the cart.
- And a simple one, say please and thank you. It’s surprisingly rare that we hear that…
