Flight attendant AMA!

[Sunflowers2021]

Hi!

I was inspired by the GP AMA thread so thought I’d start one of my own! A lot of people have questions/ assumptions about the job of a flight attendant so I thought I would try and answer any questions and clear anything up I worked as flight crew for a major airline so feel free to ask anything and I’ll answer as best as I can!

What do you do now?

Where do you stand on the Great Reclining Debate?

@ohwaitthatwasme

What do you do now?

Basically just a different type of customer service but on the ground! (Not meaning to be cryptic sorry, just don’t want to be too outing) I still haven’t quite decided what I want to do when I grow up! Flying is a great job but it’s exhausting and after a while I wanted a job with more stable working hours rather than 3am starts!

@MrsTerryPratchett

Where do you stand on the Great Reclining Debate?

Ooh good question! I used to dread working on aircraft with reclining seats because of the arguments that regularly took place between customers over them. I’ve never actually reclined my own seat when flying as a passenger but I’ve sat behind the reclined seat a few times and i can definitely see why people get annoyed Last time I ended up wearing my coffee because the reclined seat kept pushing the tray table over- not ideal!

Did you ever have your own mental plan on how you would respond if a hijacker stood up and announced they were taking the airplane? Would you have complied and tried to make best of the situation or would you have rushed them with a slow-motion pirouette as your heel whipped round and cracked their eye socket open?

How do you feel about overweight passengers?

Many people I know boast that they have joined The Mile High Club. But as we know a mile is 5,280 feet and at that level a commercial plane is either still in the early stages of ascent or in the closing stages of descent. Did you or any of your colleagues ever consider lobbying Parliament to rename it The Six And A Half Mile High Club so as to be more representative of modern times?

@NoMackerelInSwindon

Did you ever have your own mental plan on how you would respond if a hijacker stood up and announced they were taking the airplane? Would you have complied and tried to make best of the situation or would you have rushed them with a slow-motion pirouette as your heel whipped round and cracked their eye socket open?

Honestly I can’t say that I ever thought that- we are very fortunate that we go through extremely extensive training so we’re very well prepared with all the correct procedures and how to handle any kind of situation

Have you ever asked a passenger 'you f'coffee?'

@Luzina

How do you feel about overweight passengers?

Honestly, I never even noticed things like that. We see passengers of all shapes and sizes and I promise it’s not something we would judge. Obviously I can’t speak for every FA and I don’t doubt that as with any job there will unfortunately be some judgemental ones, but I don’t recall ever hearing anyone discussing a passengers weight in a negative or bitchy way

In the cases of passengers who required an extension seatbelt due to physical size, I tried to mirror how they asked for it. If they were discrete and embarrassed about asking for it then I would bring the extension belt to them in a way that other customers wouldn’t see or take notice and I would be as discrete as possible. On the other hand, if a customer just asked for an extension belt openly and they weren’t trying to be discreet then I would just give it to them normally- I would never make a big show of it obviously but I wouldn’t be trying to hide it either because I wouldn’t want it to seem like I’m saying they have a reason to be discrete or embarrassed. Sorry that was difficult to explain- I hope it makes sense! Basically I just tried to be nice to them as with any customer

@NoMackerelInSwindon

Many people I know boast that they have joined The Mile High Club. But as we know a mile is 5,280 feet and at that level a commercial plane is either still in the early stages of ascent or in the closing stages of descent. Did you or any of your colleagues ever consider lobbying Parliament to rename it The Six And A Half Mile High Club so as to be more representative of modern times?

This made me laugh In my experience the mile high club is best left for fiction- it’s not something I was ever aware of happening and I don’t know anyone who has ever joined it. It really isn’t a thing that happens, at least not when I was flying.

What was your most memorable moment, good or bad? How would you have relived it?

What does it actually look like looking through the windscreen in the cockpit. Are you just faced with a blur of grey cloud fog flying into the abyss??

@NoMackerelInSwindon

What was your most memorable moment, good or bad? How would you have relived it?

I had a lot of memorable moments but there’s one in particular that sticks in my mind. It was a late night flight home and there was an older lady who was violently sick mid-flight. I’m talking sick all over her, her handbag, the seats, the floor, her shoes. It was everywhere! I’ve honestly never seen so much sick, the poor soul. She was distraught because she was completely drenched in vomit and the flight still had a few hours and she had no extra clothes because it was all in the suitcase in the hold. I had spare clothes in my own cabin case, as did the other crew (in case we got extremely delayed and had to nightstop) so we gave her our clothes to put on instead. She walked off the flight wearing my trainers, my colleagues t shirt and my other colleagues pj trousers! She was so upset and so grateful for the help and I’ll never forget how kind she was.

That’s a lovely story OP. Which airline were you with?

I’m always amazed by how calm attendants are in turbulence... I’m sure that you need to keep calm to help the passengers stay calm... but has there ever been a time you were not as cool inside as you acted on the outside?
And what do you guys eat on the flight? Do you have the same as us? How about the pilots?