Yeah:
I have visited Singapore a couple of times, and in my experience most Singaporean women are stunningly beautiful, so the flight attendants are probably just in the middle of the bell curve.
My information is a little dated (PI)- I was involved with a woman in 1988 who was going through flight attendant training for Eastern Airlines. (We broke up because of Eastern’s bankruptcy - funny story, but I’ll save that for another day).
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She was very adamant, as were her friends, that she was training to be a “flight attendant” not a “stewardess”. Never explained why.
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They still had weight requirements. Probably the airlines got this past the EEOC through some crap about keeping the weight down on jets. I wouldn’t be surprised if airlines still had weight requirements, using the same excuse.
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The flight attendants had to abide by “PA” (personal appearance) rules. As I understood them, they generally referred to make-up, etc. The trainees thought they were a hoot, but also that they were strictly enforced.
V.
I fly a few times a year and it seems like the attendants are now in their 30’s or 40’s and are putting on a little weight.
I think they are all unionized now with higher wages, so the turnover (resulting in new, young FA’s) is much lower.
I’m not saying a woman in her upper 30’s-40’s can’t be attractive, but that same woman probably looked better 15 years earlier.
Sorry to be a sexist pig, but youth = beauty.
I seem to recall reading that it is the result of airline deregulation. Back when all airline fares were set by regulation different airlines could not compete on the basis on price, so they all emphasized other distinctions, one of them being how pretty the stewardesses were.
Once the industry was deregulated they were able to compete based on price so they deemphasized the physical requirements. This happened at about the same time as the other reasons mentioned earlier, so it was probably just one of many factors.
By the way I have found that it is very interesting to talk with flight attendants as they have some very funny stories about passengers.
It seems strange that there is a significant number of people on this board who want the people on flight crews to be attractive, but not necessarily competent for the job for which they are hired.
I Do want them to be compitent for the job in which they were hired… bringing me drinks and food. Oh, you mean that part about saving lives? I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.
I certainly hope not. But the “saving lives” part doesn’t merely refer to hauling your fat, whining, sexist ass out of a burning plane; you’re right, the odds of that happening are vanishingly small. It refers to administering a defibrillator when your fat, whining, sexist ass has a heart attack.
Anyone interested in a more realistic view of the glamourous life of the flight attendant should read the “Out of the Blue” column on Salon.com. Drunk passengers, fighting passengers, smelly passengers, on and on. They ain’t just there to pour tea.
Nice attempt to make this a personal attack on me, but I’m not biting.
If you were hiring a person who’s primary job was to save lives, handle mean drunks and other similar tasks, would your first choice be the 110 lb. blonde, or a 200 lb man? I don’t see too many strapping men serving me drinks these days. As far as the defibulator is concerned… I hope they can operate it when the time comes. Defibulators on aircraft haven’t been around that long.
I’m sure it’s hard to tell from this context, but I’m not at all sexist. I just happen to think that there is false value associated with being a flight attendant. I went through flight attendant training when their “sickout” seemed imminent. Did I learn to “save lives” yes. Did I learn to cater to passengers? Yes. The main thing I was being trained for was to make the passengers happy.
Did I ever say it was EASY being a flight attendant? No.
You couldn’t pay me enough to work with the public. If they gave up flying… where would their training take them? I’m betting a lot closer to working in a restaurant than working as a paramedic or in a hospital or as a bouncer. So, while “they ain’t just there to pour tea”, that’s still what they were hired for - CUSTOMER SERVICE. Everything else is just the shit part of the job.
I am. xtnjohnson, we do not level personal insults in General Questions. Please refrain from doing so or take it to the BBQ Pit. Thank you.
Quoth Enright3:
What’s the 200 pound guy going to do with a drunk, ask him to step outside? For handling this kind of situation, you need someone with good people skills-- While physical beauty isn’t necessary for people skills, it certainly can’t hurt. As for physical requirements for emergency situations, the most important thing is for a person to stay calm. Maybe the petite stewardess won’t be able to lift away a big piece of debris or whatever, but that doesn’t matter, if she can calm down the weightlifter passenger three rows back enough to get him to do it.
As for what flight attendants would do if they weren’t flight attendants, I’ve only known one personally, and her other job was-- get this-- a pilot.
On a related note - has anyone actually seen what happens to a passenger when they get really irate or violate the law in the plane? I have once - I happened to be upgraded to First once on a flight to Dallas. Another FC passenger went to the lavatory, and came out 10 or so minutes later in a small but obvious cloud of smoke. The stewardess ran into the bathroom, and came out a second later and said “were you smoking in the bathroom?” The guy looked at her, and in a heavy foreign accent said “yes, yes I smoke. Leave me alone.” The stewardess then asked “where’s the smoke detector?”, to which he responded that he didn’t know, and then said “leave me alone - you can not treat me thus”.
The stewardesses acted perfectly normal and condescending towards him the rest of the flight (why the hell did he have to smoke anyways? It’s barely more than an hour from KC to Dallas!).
After we landed and were taxiing towards the gate, the pilot announced on the intercom that “all passengers MUST remain seated - seriously. We have to have a maintenance crew come on board before anyone can leave and check a couple lights.” As soon as the door opened, 4 cops (they could have been Feds, I’m not sure) came on the plane immediately. The stewardess pointed to the smoking man and said simply “Him.” He was grabbed, dragged out, and gone in less than 10 seconds. He didn’t say a word.
Fun, fun, silly-willy!
The cops were probably the local airport police force, who then turned the guy over to Federal prosecutors.
As for being able to deal with people, I don’t think attractiveness matters that much. Not all good-looking people are inherently more polite than the rest of us Average Joes.
There was a flight attendent on my flight to France last time. I didn’t think it particularly odd that she was fortyish and plump. It did strike me as odd that a flight attendant on a flight from Montreal to Paris did not speak French.
Sorry. Flight attendant’w wages, like in many other occupations, used to provide a middle class living. Now many can qualify for food stamps.
Do you have a cite for this? I was under the impression (evidently mistaken) that flight attendant wages were
30,000 to 35,000 +/- after a few years on the job (say 3-5) and more senior positions were into the $ 50K range. The FAs on major lines are supposed to do even better.
Starting salaries on the smaller airlines may be the mid-low twenties but this is hardlly reflective of what they make as a group.
Since we are on this subject:
[UL warning]
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I know one stewardess who miscarried a number of times and had to stop flying to have a baby. Don’t know if flying causes miscarriages. But I would not envy their jobs.
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I heard that some airlines are more concerned about security than others, such as EL AL regarding terrorism. I would not mess with those stewards or stewardesses.
[/UL warning]
but I don’t have “proof” other than hearing about potential strikes and sick-outs and renogotiating contracts, which sound like union activities.
With the airlines making huge profits the last several years, I wouldn’t be surprised the the FA’s are in the $30K-$50K range. At least one of the major airlines (American, United?) is employee owned, so that would be another reason why the FA’s stick around.
Now I’m the one that is going to be sexist (maybe, or just truthful!) - it is a lot easier to get a man’s attention if you’re young & good looking than if you’re old & good looking or not good looking at all - compare how quickly cars stop for me to cross the road at zebra crossings (optional give way crossing-point in England - not optional if the pedestrain is already on it!) to the speed they stop for my mother (Faster for me, the other way wouldn’t prove/raise the point that I’m making!).
Once you have someone’s attention, it’s a lot easier to get them to calm down.
Besides - if you were the airline HR department & had a lot of men & women that wanted to steward, you could afford to pick the best looking ones with the best people skills. Good lucking/bad looking/neutral - they’ll still fit somewhere on the people-skills bell curve.
(meant to include this in the last one, but hit send by accident! Doh!)
As for the attractive aspect I can definately verify that on the young start up airlines like “RENO” you got some cute attractive flight attendents and pilots. We had American Air at our hotel, talk about a bunch of vile old hags. Rude inconsiderate…You think being in the service business they would understand but they don’t.
Now the foreign carriers are interesting. Most of them are deadbeats when it comes to paying bills but we had “Taesa” a Mexican airline, and when the F/A (all male by the way) got to the front desk, I asked them to sign in and they replied. “Oh no that isn’t right. We must first wait for the captain to sign in.”