To try and start a new career as Cabin Crew ?

[SecretsInSpitalfield]

Hi,

Mum of two DC .. one nearly 9 the other nearly 11.

I have my own business that I’ve built from scratch. I love being my own boss but after taking my dc on a lifetime trip (as well as accumulating debts) I cannot really travel for a long long time.

I need to tackle mortgage and debts etc. I have some great customers (also p takers) just feel stuck!!

Lifetime dream of being cabin crew! I KNOW it’s not all lipstick, lovely uniform and trips on the beach!

I’m a former make up artist and have worked in sales so think I could be a good ‘fit’ (apart from needing to lose 1-2 dress sizes and a good stone ! Been quite greedy but back on low carb again 😩)

Live within 60 mins to London Heathrow and Gatwick (hate driving long journeys though .. I’m a wuss only do short a-b journeys 🤦‍♀️)

Any of you lovely MN’s that do this? Can you make it work? Is it really for young kids instead of mums ?? (I’m early - mid thirties)

The main reason I’d love to do this

1. a change
2. only way I can think of that I can see a little bit of the world
3. discounted travel for DH and DC etc I’m also good at selling products (lots of experience and qualifications in make up industry ) And also very good with (difficult) customers and bored irritable kids!

Anyone who has done this and regrets it/hates it?
I know the training is intense and is 6 weeks and training is coming up in next couple of months for a particular air like that I’m just about to apply for.

If I go for it/get picked I lose my business and customers. Big risk!! A complete lifestyle change and can be working on DC birthdays, Christmas’ etc.

Would love to hear any words of wisdom! Good or bad! Thank you for reading this far! 😊

The negative is doesn’t it involve alot of overnight stays away?

Pipa- that’s the very appeal! I quit my job when I had dc and DH continued to occasionally travel the world with his work. I since have a complete different job but now kiddos aren’t toddlers was thinking about applying/looking into it..
Ty for your response

I'd go for it!

I don't think it's family friendly and irregular shifts would make it hard to organise childcare. It will be hard to avoid working in school holidays so you may not see a lot of your kids. That in itself would put off most parents. It's also knackering and fairly low paid.

Maybe someone else will be more positive!

I know a mum who is cabin crew and fits in during the nursery day - she just does one short flight to Europe and back. I think her OH does either the nursery drop off or pick up and she does the other. It may have been easier to negotiate as she was in post pre children. Also it sounds like you want a bit more of adventure than a return flight from Paris or Berlin. Sorry not sure if that helps!

The thing I think you need to bear in mind is how exhausted you'd be when you aren't working. I travel quite a lot with work, and I hate it now cus I just feel constantly wiped out. But perhaps it would feel different if you worked on the planes? Not sure. I'm also sure that is a job most people quite when they have kids (although might have made this up!)

That said, I do generally encourage people having a complete life/job change, and if it really a lifelong ambition then you should certainly give it a go! Especially as you Don't not have much to lose career wise at this point.

Hopefully someone who works as cabin crew can give you a better idea of what it involves! Good luck

Thank you for responses!

Any response is appreciated as I love this site as no one sugar coats! All honest but polite!!

I’d ideally love to do long haul (I understand with the long haul airlines you also have back to back shorter hauls where your foot doesn’t even touch the floor of the country)

Name change- that’s amazing that your friend manages that with a LO! Wow. Bet she’s super organised

Blank - that’s what I’m worried about! Hate to be so exhausted and jet lagged with sore feet that I can’t even say I’ve seen/experienced a certain country that I worked so hard to get to for even just a night or day! Thank you for your encouragement and reply! 😊

Personally I would hate this but if you think you can fit it in with your life and your DH is on board then life is too short not to try the things we really want.

I used to be cabin crew - I’ve flown for a Middle Eastern airline, a low cost airline and the UK “flag carrier” so hopefully I can help!

Stay away from Ryanair. They make you pay for training, ID passes, uniform etc. They treat their cabin crew badly and you can’t choose your base!

Easyjet and Flybe are okay. You will mainly be flying there and back flights. Up to 4 flights a day. Your work day will vary between 7 hours and 12 hours! You will be expected to meet sales targets. Money wise, it was a few years ago (over a decade ago in fact!) but I was earning around £1500 a month after tax and pension. I imagine that crew take home more now. One of my friends is a cabin manager at easyJet and takes home up to £2000 after deductions in the busy summer months.

Working at a low cost airline you could become senior cabin crew / cabin manager after 12 months of flying.

BA used to be a good airline to work for but now all new cabin crew are on different contracts with worse T&Cs than the legacy crew. Mixed Fleet crew as they are known fly long haul AND short haul and they don’t earn as much as easyJet crew apparently. But they do get night-stops on short haul as well as long haul trips.

Virgin Atlantic is long haul only but I don’t know too much about them. Pay isn’t great but you get 7? Free return trips a year I think where you only pay taxes. And you get to see the world a bit more even if most night-stops are only 24 hours down-route.

Qantas I’ve heard good things about. They have a Heathrow base and fly solely longhaul to Australia via Singapore. I’m not sure if LHR based crew still do Australia trips or just to Singapore.

Air New Zealand has a LHR base and crew fly solely to LA but they haven’t recruited for years.

Norwegian do long and short haul from Gatwick but I don’t know anything about them!

Charter airlines such as Tui and Thomas Cook recruit temporary cabin crew for the summer seasons. So you might start training in May and be flying up until September. Apparently it can take a few seasons to be taken on permanently but could be a good way to see if you like flying.

So lots of options. It took me 7 assessment centres to get my first job. Don’t give up if you get a few “no thank you” emails.

And remember...safety and security is the primary reason cabin crew are onboard by law. Hence the training and exams which are mandated by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Personally, I liked the nice hotels, seeing some of the world and the discounted travel. But the actual job of serving/selling food and drink is pretty mundane. Saying hello and goodbye to several hundred passengers per day. Emotional labour. Some passengers are rude/grumpy/aggressive.

I would try it though and see if you like it! It’s all good for the CV and general life experience.

My sister is cabin crew, does long haul, and finds it hard to plan anything in the near future. Once rotas are done, it’s down to you to find someone to swap with if anything comes up.

Negatives:
Not able to plan anything too far ahead.
Exhausting, then having to adjust to time changes and get back into home life/routine (and she just has an OH and cat!)
Missing her partner, lots of long nights in a hotel room. May also go under positives (!) but she always says she’d rather be curled up on her own sofa.
No escape! Stag/hen dos, stroppy passengers, basically sometimes an extension of children (demanding, whining and vomit!)

Positives:
Visit some beautiful countries
Meet lots of people
You have a proven sales record, good commission
Different perspective
You feel a pull towards it

Not overly scientific, I know 😂. I know my sister loves her job but due to crazy timetables she can feel a bit left out back at home as no one knows when she will be around, and is often asleep!

Sounds like you’re ready for something new, whether this or someth8ng else, I hope you find it and enjoy it!

Off thread, why do iPads suddenly decide to switch to numbers in the middle of a word, yet the rest of the time are all too quick to auto-correct 🤦‍♀️

BTW sister is with Tui, flies throughout the year. Missed that bit! Buggering off now...

House- thank you and so true

Polar- wow thank you what a great insight. I’m going to look into some companies you’ve mentioned! I was mainly thinking of BA and Virgin totally forgetting Norwegian (which I love) do LH as well as short haul. And great tip about summer jobs with TUI (which I’ve worked for before as a teen rep ) and Thomas Cook.
Thank you so much

What else can I tell you....

Training will vary between 3 and 6 weeks depending on the airline and the types of aircraft. You will be jumping down slides, practising evacuation drills for all emergencies, putting out fires, practising ditching in a swimming pool, learning about security which I won’t go into here for obvious reasons. You will do a first aid course. There will be practical and written exams that you have to pass to fly.

Training is really strict, especially in regards to grooming and uniform standards. It’s better once you start flying. I disliked training immensely! But I’m not really one for rules and regulations but I had to play the game and smile inanely like everybody else.

You will get a couple of days on customer / cabin service training. Obviously airlines like BA will spend longer on cabin service and you may get business class training. First class would come further down the line and another course once you are experienced crew.

Depending on the size of your base, you won’t be flying with the same crew very often. It’s a new team everyday!

Other crew will generally be quite nice, friendly people. I didn’t make any lasting friendships but maybe that’s just me as other people do. I find the crew community can be quite shallow and fickle. But if you are friendly and try to get them on with them you’ll be okay.

My- thank you and so eye opening and helpful to hear from a loving family member giving the rl opinion!

Go for it !
Life is too short not to try something you would love to do .
If you get accepted you can juggle and work around stuff domestically ...
if it doesn’t work out at least you tried it !

Good luck

I think that easyJet could be a good one. Their uniform is nice these days and you do get some night-stops. I know that Gatwick do or did stay in Milan, Madrid and glamorous Inverness! They have bases all over Europe and the UK. Which is why they only stay over in selected places without crew bases to cover the late flights and early morning departures.

BA don’t have any crew bases outside the UK so they night stop all over Europe because the airline likes the 0600 departures for all the business people who want early flights into London!

Night stops in Europe will generally be 13-16 hours. I did enjoy the 4/5 star hotels and the feeling of being somewhere else! It’s great! I was lucky enough to travel all around Europe and the wider world. Long haul isn’t as good now. 24 hours in places like USA and India. 48 hours the Far East. There used to be 13 day trips to Sydney via Singapore or Bangkok but they went years ago sadly.

Babbi - thank you love that message!

Polar - if only to born earlier and get all those perks!!
I seem to understand (?) Although you’d know more than me of course! That with say BA on a long haul to California or Florida (for example) its a 48 hour layover? But I’m sure they are few and far between! I’ve heard on YouTube about people doing 8 hour trips to Abu Dhabi then straight onto another destination!

As far as I am aware, west coast USA, Tokyo, Seoul and Rioare 48 hours ish. Other routes like Abuja, Luanda, Muscat, Tel Aviv would be 24 hours

Singapore / Sydney is a 7 day trip - so that means you leave on day one and arrive back into Heathrow around 0600 on day 7. I think it’s one night each direction in Singapore and Sydney.

They are often swapping routes between Mixed Fleet and Worldwide (that’s the old contract crew who fly solely longhaul.) They never mix the fleets. You would be solely flying with other Mixed Fleet crew.

I hope that kind of makes sense!

www.cabincrew.com/forums has individual forums for all the airlines. I used to post on there years ago. Really useful information.

www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/category/recruitment-news/.XN7_zxbTXYV Is really useful. Loads to read on there!

www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/ This link should work. They have specific bits about BA and other airlines on there.

Thank you Polar! So much knowledge abs advice. Im still such a scaredy cat. Maybe cause DH is a bit of an arse and completely unsupportive and not the nicest. Apart from him there’s no family. And he clearly prefers the pub...

I need to tackle mortgage and debts etc.

It is a low paid job. Have you looked into this.