Pros and Cons of being a flight attendant

Everyone has a dream to reach the peak of their career, someday. So, they work hard to reach the destination. Sometimes, they start dreaming about any specific job to reach the goal. This is usual and it happens for multiple reasons. In fact, they fall in love with the job. Do not be surprised. Definitely, there are reasons for being in love with the jobs. Most of the cases, the dream jobs provide a wide number of benefits to the job holders. The job of a flight attendant is one of them. This is the dream job for many of the people. The job is mostly popular among the fresher or people with less experience. Globally, this is a charming profession and a great career path for numerous people.

To be honest, the job of a flight attendant is one of the most sought jobs in the world. So, why people are after the job? What are the specialities of this profession? How it provides feedback to the job holders? Yes, there are some usual questions may appear about the job. Besides, even there are some misconceptions as well about the job. All the matters related to the job will be discussed here. In fact, the pros and cons of being a flight attendant will get an elaborate discussion in this post for the convenience of those who want to have the profession. It also would be equally helpful for those who are working as a flight attendant. It is written from a first-hand experience and thus contains the details about the profession.


[Image source: flickr.com] 


Before moving to the key issue, this is wise to know some information about the job of a flight attendant. Let us discuss the basics of a flight attendant job.

The flight attendant is a profession which requires a special set of skills and expertise of the people. The primary task of a flight attendant is to assist the passengers on board in an airplane. There are various types of flights are available like domestic and international. Both types of flights need flight attendant. Hence, the airline companies recruit the very best people for the posts of the flight attendant.

The job primarily focuses on helping the passengers in every possible way to have a comfortable journey and other necessary and important customer services. The number of responsibilities is not limited to assisting the passengers alone. The flight attendants also have to perform various types of roles during the flight. They need to take care of the patients (if any) and children, they need to serve foods and beverages to the passengers, take necessary measures during emergencies and more other responsibilities. So, considering the roles and responsibilities, this is really a great job to perform. And thus a large number of people are after it.

Here are some important pros and cons described in detail for further understanding about the profession. Hope this would be helpful for people aspiring to be a flight attendant.   

Pros for Flight Attendants: 

This is a very good topic to discuss. The advantages of being a flight attendant are numerous. The major advantages are as followed –

Travelling around the world:

This is a great opportunity to travel in various places. When you are on board on an aircraft, you will have the chances to travel in different parts of the world. In line with your airplane, you will land in beautiful places and see new things. Visiting exciting beaches and places is one of the important benefits of the job. Besides, the travelling will be for free. You will not need to spend a single buck from your own pocket for the travelling. On the other sides, you will also get some privileges in airports and immigration offices for your profession. Most of the people suffer from visa complicacy. But this is not a problem for you at all. You will get a visa for any country. In fact, if you do not get the visa, it would be difficult for the aircraft to fly. After someday, it will be your addiction. Guaranteed.


[Image source: flickr.com] 

Meet new people:

Meeting with people is another interesting experience. Life begins when you start socialising with people. Actually, without being social, you cannot have a great life. If you do not meet newer people, you will be unable to gather experience of life. Merely bookish knowledge is not enough to know the world. Meeting and greeting people helps to know the world properly. Your imagination will be increased. You will have the desired familiarity you have been seeking so long. The newer people will surround you and create the friendship. In fact, everything will be positive for you. The world will appear friendly. Moreover, whenever you will meet the people several times, an invisible bondage will be created for them and you. Life will be complete to you. In fact, this is the opinion of many of the renowned flight attendants.    

Flexibility:

The job of a flight attendant is flexible. This is not like a routine job. The flight attendants enjoy some special benefits in this job. Most of the cases, the duties are based on trips. So, if you do not like any destination you have been assigned to, you can swap it with any other one who wants to do that. Moreover, you can also arrange for day offs based on your needs. You will need to do some particular things to get the necessary jobs. You can take responsibilities for the other flight attendants and can have their day offs in your bag. Further, you can also have a preset schedule and can exchange the date with your colleagues if you need. The travel hours are more in summer days while it is lower in the winter days. So, you have plenty of times to enjoy yourself which is not possible for the other jobs.     

Speedy travel:

It is widely admitted that an airplane is the speedy mode of transportation. So, you can travel within the shortest possible time to any place you want to go. Before the invention of the wheel, it was difficult to travel in places. But wheel had brought a radical change in the human lives with its mobility. The living standard has become easier for them after the invention of the airplane. It has literally removed the distance of the places. Now people can travel from one place to another which was not possible even in dreams. The airplane has made it come true. So, when you are with an airplane, certainly it will take less time to go in any places that you have been dreaming of. You are having the opportunity to travel in a speedy mode of the vehicle which is not possible for the other ordinary people.  

Adventurous trips:

Each of the journeys made by airplane is adventurous. When you will ride on an airplane, you will have a sense of special feeling. The journey will make your mind adventurous. On the other side, your aircraft will carry many other passengers, and if you have luck, you can have some celebrities on that ride whom you have admired for your life. Talking with them, taking photographs and autographs etc. are some of the adventurous activities. Further, flying over the renowned structures and building will provide you with a sense of happiness that you cannot have in other rides. In fact, travelling is always an adventure and when it becomes regular, the people related with the travelling becomes a great adventure. The meaning of life will be different to you than the other people.

Designated tasks:

In ordinary jobs, the employers want their employees to do many jobs or parts of jobs that they (the employees) were not intended to do. The majority of the cases, they are to do jobs which were not in their job description at all. So, this is a trouble for them. But there are no such issues with the job of a flight attendant. When you are assigned as a flight attendant, you will have to undergo certain responsibilities. Certainly, the list is longer but there are no additional duties. Almost all the tasks are designated for each of the flight attendants. They are instructed to do their parts only and being a well-coordinated job, all the tasks are executed smoothly.     

International relationship:

This is a good chance for you to make international communication. When you are in a different place, you need to make new connections with people. With the passage of time, those connections become stronger and you start to have your own international familiarity. Gradually the relationships turn into deep friendship. When you are abroad, you can get help from your international friends to your needs and for many other aspects. 

Deal with people:

One of the important roles of a flight attendant is to deal with the passengers. You are not quite sure that all the passengers will be polite, well educated, well-mannered or courteous. There might be some bad people as well. They will be your passenger. They may shout for no reasons or to show their influences. They might be angry and showing the anger with you without any exact cause. You are to deal with them. When you would be able to handle such events smoothly, it shows that you have got an extraordinary skill to deal with people. It would be really beneficial for your real-life. Besides, for executing such matters, you may also get rewarded from your authority.

Trips with family:

No other jobs provide such an exciting opportunity to its employees as the chances are provided to the flight attendants. When an ordinary individual goes for buying a ticket for a foreign trip, s/ he needs to pay the complete price. But when a flight attendant is in the queue for the ticket, the price is almost half. In some cases, you do not need to stand in a queue. Moreover, the tickets belong to first class. As a result, the trip becomes more exciting than it was supposed to be. You will have the chance to visit many interesting places with your family members and friends or near and dear ones.  

Durable job:

The job of a flight attendant is durable. If you can stick to the job and make it your career, you can stay here as long as you want. If you do not commit any serious crime or not punished by the state, you can continue the job as long as you want. There are people who have been working in this aviation sector for over 30 years. But they had plans to stay at the job for around two years only. When they started enjoying the benefits of the flight attendant job, they forgot their plans and still continuing the job. If you can prove your worth, there are fewer chances to lose the job. In contrary, you can switch your recruiting company and can have better salaries and other benefits in exchange for your service.

Training:

The airline companies want their flight attendants to be skilled in many real-life issues. So, they arrange for training for their staffs. The training events may last from a few hours to few days or weeks. Besides, sometimes, the airline companies also provide assistances to the flight attendants to pursue higher education as well. All the things they do for the benefits of the staffs. In fact, when the flight attendants are well trained, they can provide the optimum service to the passengers and other clients which finally will increase the reputation of the company.


[Image source: airBaltic] 

Health Insurance:

While working as a flight attendant, you will get a comprehensive health insurance. If the corporation you are working for is good enough, it will arrange for an attractive health insurance for its employees. In the insurance, you will get coverage for your overall health including dental and vision insurance. Moreover, the insurance may also provide benefit to the dependents of the flight attendants after certain consideration. So, when you are working as a flight attendant, you will not need to worry about your health or the health of your dependent. This is one of the great benefits of this job.     

Retirement benefits:

This is another important thing to consider. When you get old and lose your ability to work anymore, you need to retire from your job. But what will happen to you and your family if you do not have any income source? Yes, this a complex question. Most of the airlines provide retirement policies or benefits. When an employee of any airline corporation gets retired, the corporation tries to provide some retirement benefits. This is a standard procedure for them. They may provide a certain amount of fund to the retired employees or share the profit. The policies may vary based on corporations but they care for the retired staffs.

Cons of a flight attendant job:

In this world, there are no such things that have benefits only. In fact, the number of such things in the world are few. The most important disadvantages of the flight attendant job are mentioned below.

Low respect:

Do not get it wrong. There are some ideas that the job of a flight attendant is of low respect. In fact, the idea generated by the weird activities performed by some of the careless flight attendants. They did not know how to deal with passengers and thus brought a defame for the job. Besides, there are some wealthy people who strictly maintains classification among people. To them, the flight attendants are of lower level people. So, they do not have any respect for the people working in this position. But this is a prestigious job indeed and the selection process is extremely complex. Before joining the position, a flight attendant has to cross several barriers and appear before physical and mental tests.    

Critical passengers:

often it becomes difficult for the flight attendants to deal with critical passengers. It may happen that a passenger has grabbed a seat which is assigned to another passenger. When you ask the passenger, who grabbed the seat illogically, to take his/ her own seat, there are situations. It is really difficult to handle for the flight attendants. When you show respect to the passenger, they think that they have become something special and try to dominate over the flight attendants. The situations become critical and then the authority needs to handle it.   

Overbooked flights:

This is a plight for the flight attendants. It is true that they get free air tickets or tickets at a reduced price. But most of the time, they are unable to board the flights because the flights are overbooked. In fact, the tickets are issued in such a moment when the flights are unavailable for the flight attendants. So, they cannot do something with the air tickets. The plans to travel in foreign lands with family and friends go in vain. On the other sides, the vacations are also wasted in some other ways. When they cannot go to the desired destinations, they waste the times by spending here and there.

Stand on the aisle:

When they are on the flight, there are fewer spaces for them. In fact, the authority keeps no seat for the flight attendants. So, they are to stand across the entire journey. When it is a domestic flight, they can easily stand in the aisles. But when they are on an international trip, it really becomes difficult to stand all the way. Though some of the airlines have seating facility for the flight attendants, the majority of the mainstream airways do not provide such facilities for the staffs. They need to do everything for the passengers within the standing posture.    

Unpaid training:

The flight attendants are to attend training sessions of diversified ranges and duration. But most of the cases, they are not paid for attending the training. The airline authorities have no policies to provide an honorarium for the flight attendants when they are being trained. They only pay the flight attendants when they are on duty. Though the training is really necessary for the flight attendants, they should have been paid for investing the hours. In fact, the airline companies are providing the training to the flight attendants so that they could serve the passengers and bring a fame for the company. The ultimate goal is to gain benefit for the airline company.

Unpredictable schedule:

Sometimes, the scheduling teams makes phone calls at late night to inform about the schedule. It is really troublesome to get ready in the last part of the night to attend the flight that will leave within next one and half hours. Besides, sometimes it is really hard to manage off for a single day. It happens that nobody is available for a working day swap at the exact date you are in need of. Be the same time, it is not possible always to get the schedule on your preferable hours. You may need to fly at midnight or noon. It is an unpredictable issue and the flight attendants need to remain aware of it.


[Image source: flickr.com] 

Professional treatment:

As a flight attendant you will need to be professional in treatment with the passengers and even with your colleagues. But sometimes, it becomes difficult to reply professionally to some questions or postures. For instance, if you are a female flight attendant and asked to lift an oversized suitcase, it is really troublesome to say ‘No’ to the individual. Further, sometimes you may need to keep smiling even if you are hurt mentally or physically as like nothing has happened there. These are some issues that you need to be careful and expecting a professional treatment in such settings is really hard.

Uniforms:

This is another issue to ponder. If you want to be a flight attendant, you will have to wear designated uniform. Regardless of gender, you are to wear your uniforms and hang your identity card before the flight departure. Sometimes the feelings with the uniforms are not pleasant. But the flight attendants are to wear them. Moreover, they need to be careful about the uniforms. Before wearing the uniforms, they need to check them properly. They need to focus on their shoes, laces, jackets etc. Besides, they also need to be careful about the other additional materials attached to their uniforms.

Heavy makeups:

Either you want or not, you have to use makeups. In fact, this is a bit troublesome for those who have skin disorders. Using excessive makeup may trigger the disorders in their skin. The skin may lose sensitivity and also may lead to skin diseases like allergies and more. But this is a must for the flight attendants for apply heavy makeups while they are on board and serve the passengers with their needs.    

Look after the kids:

I think this is one of the hefty jobs of the world. But the flight attendants have to care for the kids on board. They need to be with the children and stop their screaming. Besides, sometimes they need to feed the kids and even change the diapers if necessary. To save their job, they are to do the things and of course with great care. If there are any negligence found, they are punished in different ways. When the passengers are deplaned they need to clean the wastes, diapers and other unwanted materials. In fact, this has become their duty to clean the aircraft once the flight is over.

Less family time:

If you are a flight attendant, you will have less time to spend with your family. In fact, you will be out of home always. When you will have holidays, you will see nobody around you. It happens as there is schedule conflict among the other family members and you. It mostly happens with the most junior flight attendants. They become unable to change their flight schedules or cannot swap the responsibilities, and thus work relentlessly for long days and weeks. So, they cannot manage time for their family.

Poor payment:

The aviation industry pays a huge amount of money to its staffs. The statement is true in some sense but not applicable for everyone or everywhere. When you are joining as a flight attendant, the salary will appear attractive to you. But if you compare it with other staffs of the industry, you will see a huge difference. It is natural. With the salary, you might have a standard life but you cannot expect for a posh life until you have crossed at least five years in this profession. You need to be patient and execute your responsibilities.

Finally, based on the conversation above, it appears that the job of flight attendant is challenging and filled with surprises. It is true that there are hardships in the job. If you want to be a successful flight attendant, you have to go through under certain facts and matters which might appear unpleasant instantly. But if you keep patience, and continue working, you will be a winner. Reaching the top will be a matter of time for you. In fact, without a strong determination and struggle, you cannot survive at anywhere.

There is a saying that industry is the mother of success. So, if you cannot be industrious, you cannot be the winner. Yes, there are disadvantages of a flight attendant but there are advantages as well. This is a secured job and will fit you only if you can stick to it and be professional in attitude. Hope you will grow with the job and reach your desired destination with perseverance, professionalism and real-life skill.