May 23, 2026 • 41 mins
Flight attendants have come a long way. From having to put up with rampant sexism, to the current incarnation as your first line of defense in case of an incident, they are valued airline employees. Learn all about this cool job in this classic episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, Happy Saturday. Chuck here delivering a brand new
Selects episode. But it's really not brand new, because, as
we all know, these are reruns carefully curated and selected
by both Josh and I each week. This one comes
to you from December seventh, twenty seventeen. How Flight Attendants Work.
Just got back from touring in the Midwest, and I
(00:20):
went on quite a few flights and made sure I
gave my appreciation to all the flight attendants because they
do such great work and I think are often underappreciated.
So if you want to know what they are actually
doing on their job and a little bit about how
you get hired some behind the scenes stuff, check out
this episode right now, How Flight Attendants Work. Welcome to
(00:41):
Stuff you should know, A production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I'm Josh Clark with me as part of your cabin cruise,
Charles W. Chuck Bryant filling the whole thing out is
our pilot Jerry Rowland Captain James as we'll call her
from now on.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
If you'd like to return your seat, do it's full
upright position, but along with your trade table.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
If you've lost your device, or phone in the seat,
don't touch it, just come get one of us. Did
that happen to you? It's a new thing, what tell me? No,
it's like a new thing on Delta. And like the
safety instructions, they actually take a little time to say,
if you've lost your tablet or phone in your seat,
don't adjust it, come get a flight attendant.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
What do you mean lost in the seat? What do
they mean?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Like if you have if you're sitting there and you
got the butter fingers, you know, like you turn into
Jerry Lewis all of a sudden your phone slides down
into the seat beside you or in between the seat
next to you. Okay, your phone is in grave danger
if you adjust your seat back upright again. Oh, like
I say, get a flight attendant, because they now have
(01:53):
additional skills in their repertoire to get your tablet or
phone out safe.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So at some point a memo went out to these airlines.
It said, we're breaking cell phones because people are like, well,
maybe if I just throw my seat up, it'll pop out.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Sure, it'll shoot right out, like like I pressed rewind
on life.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Weird.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Anyway, this is stuff you should know.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
The uh I thought this was pretty interesting actually, and
it gave me even more of an appreciation for flight attendants. Yes,
then I had already gained over my ears.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, because if you're one of those puttses who's mean
to flight attendants you get.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Off the plane, you're a jerk. Yep.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Shouldn't be mean to people anyway.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Like everybody's walking around carrying their own burden that you're
totally unaware of. And if you're mean to somebody, it
usually is because you're not getting what you want, right then. Yeah,
So if everybody can just calm down and be nice
to each other, that's great. But be extra nice to
the flight attendants. And if you don't agree with me, now,
I guarantee you'll agree with us at the end.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Of the podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And even in our own article here, there was a
interview with a flight attendant, a couple of them, a
couple of them, but one of them, very you know
of these vets, said, h you know, back in the day,
everyone was all excited when they flew, they were going
someplace fun. Now everyone's crabby.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, but she makes a really good point. Why.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
She says, it's because this is all post nine to
eleven that the added layers of security that they've put
onto getting from your car onto the plane increases stress
so much that you're exhausted by the time you get
onto the plane. And if flying has become a chore
a task, yes, by the seats have gotten way smaller.
(03:32):
I do buy that the leg room's gotten smaller. And yeah,
I think that it's just kind of become more of
like a let's get from point A to point B.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, I taking your shoes off, taking your laptop out,
it's about all the extra security. No big deal, That's
what I say.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Did I tell you I've gotten kind of on board
your train about taking your shoes off on a flight?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Oh to not do it?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah? Good, So every once in a while just be like,
to hell with that.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I don't care. I'm taking my shoes off. I know
my feet don't stink, right, But I understand that there's
people like you out there who are deeply offended by
that kind of thing, So I typically do leave them
one unless my dogs are just yeap and so so loud.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, I can't ignore it, but it's pretty rare these days.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I think my deal with that is is you can't
count on everyone's feet to not stink, right, and I
think plenty of people are like, I don't care.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
That their feet stink. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty rotten.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I just want to be comfy.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
That's pretty rotten. But we live in something called society.
There are rules.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
But getting back to the new regulations, which is pretty
much laptop out, shoes off. I mean you still had
to go through the line just like before, you.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Know, Yeah, it seems it feels different to me. Yeah,
it does.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Different as in more time consuming.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah, much more stressful, Like it's a it's not an
event like it was. It definitely used to be an
event in a person's life to go on an airplane.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Well, do you have a different feeling when you go
on vacation compared to work.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Travel as far as the airport goes.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, and how you feel about it the same, Yeah,
same stress.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yes, a lot, a lot of it, to be fair,
is in my head. Yeah, to me, pretty much, the
worst thing that can happen to you is missing your airplane.
I can't I don't even want to imagine what happens
when you miss your airplane. Uman's like, it's not that bad.
As a matter of fact, she's kind of entertained, like
(05:32):
purposefully making us miss.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Your own version of cognitivebates.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
But I don't want to miss it, so I generate
my own stress in a large part. But it does
seem like much more of a process than it was before. Okay,
how about you. You're fine with it?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, I mean, it's no big deal, just shoes in
the laptop. Yeah, two bits.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
But it does seem like and I read this Travel
and Leisure article about flight attendance where the author was saying,
I think she was quoting a flight attendant who was saying, like,
we've all kind of decided as a group that we're
fine with just getting on an airplane and getting to
where we're going, and it doesn't have to be this
(06:14):
luxury experience. And as a result, the price of an
airline ticket has come down dramatically compared to the golden
age of flying.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Oh yeah, but then it has gone back up since
it was pretty cheap.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, but relative to say, average income, it's I think,
much less than it wasn't say, like the sixties, But
in the sixties they were cutting like cuts of meat
on a cart in front of you.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
There was a carving station that they would move. I'm
not kidding. I've seen us.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I believe it. I think it's funny that that's the
definition of fancy is a carving station.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It really is. I mean it is. The guy had
the hat and everything.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, well you and my extended family agree on that,
but it's.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
And all of us take our shoes off while we
eat our carv But there used to be that there
were like piano lounges in first class lounge like they were.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
It was like it was an event.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Sure, But the fact that it's gone is because we've
all said, no, we want we want to be able
to travel for less cost, right, with fewer frills.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, I just kind of want to get there. I'm
with you there, Yeah, if that's what you think, or
I'm with the airline industry. Yeah, I just hut me
on the plane and give me there. Maybe throw a
whiskey down my throat. Sure, and that's about all. There
you go banana maybe, yeah, if it's the morning.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
But the people who are going to help you get
there banana and whiskey, Uh yeah, sure, Okay. The people
who are going to help you get there, they have
their job has changed over time, but they have not
because they are unsung heroes and have been from beginning
to end.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
That's right. The early days of plane travel, they hired
young men to take care of the stewardship of the plane.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Cabin boys. Yeah, cabin boy at Chris Elliott movie.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, I think that was a boat cabin but still sure,
still a cabin boy. Yeah. And that was just sort
of the thing. And then this woman came along and
you dug this up. This really great. Her name was
Ellen Church the nineteen thirties, in nineteen thirty in fact,
and she was a nurse and a licensed pilot, so
she had it going on. And she said, you know what,
(08:28):
I have an idea Boeing air Transport, who would become
United Airlines. Why don't you hire eight women to take
care of you on your flight for three months and
just see how that goes. And it went great, and
they said, I think we're onto something here.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
She actually pitched the idea because at first the execs
were like, no, it's a stupid idea. This is no
place for women. Yeah, and she said we'll get this.
How is a man going to say that he can't
fly because he's afraid of flying if he knows there's
a woman up there flying around, and they're like, actually,
that's pretty good psychology. So they took her up on
(09:05):
it and it became, yeah, a thing from that moment on.
But before her I have to say, if we're talking
gender nonspecific flight attendants, yes, a man had her beat
by eighteen years a German Man named Heinrich Cubis who
was the world's first flight attendant and he worked zeppelins,
(09:25):
including the graf Zeppelin in the Hindenburg.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Really yeah, did he die on the Hindenburgh? No?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
He lived?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Very few people died on the Hindenburg. I think they
were mostly on the ground. Remember, I don't remember, because
the hydrogen burned up and the people who died were
ones who jumped.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
That's what it was, is that it. Did we do
a show on that we've talked about before. Yeah, yeah,
one of our many, many, many short lived video series.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Oh right, of course. So at any rate, Ellen Church
changed the face of the flight attendant industry. And then
in in the sixties and seventies, of course it was
sort of a uh and this is not me talking here,
this is in the article. It was the sexy stewardess
phase of airline travel. Yeah, and that was definitely the
(10:12):
deal that you had weight limits and height limits. You
had to look a certain way and they put you
in the just the right outfit and it was all
about sort of, hey, get up there and look good
and serve drinks.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
So and there were like those limits you talk about. Yeah,
technically there's still around. There are weight limits and height limits,
but they're restricted to you can't be so short that
you can't reach the overhead bins.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, they're all practical limits.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Right, you can't be so tall that you're just bumping
your head all over the place.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You have to be of the.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Adequate size to fit into a jump seat that the
flight attendants sit in.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, but that's it.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Back then, it was you have to weigh like, no
more than one hundred and twenty pounds, you have to
be this height, and it had everything to do with
looks and attractiveness.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, in your third too, so you're fired.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Yeah, that was a thing like very early on, I
think in the fifties. I think in the nineteen fifties
they started airlines started instituting age restrictions where once you
got to age thirty two, you were no longer eligible
to be a flight attendant. You might have a job
down on the ground, but you couldn't be a flight
attend anymore because you were too old according to them.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Plus also you couldn't be married.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Or have kids.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, it's very restrictive back in the day.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Also maybe the most sexist industry that's ever existed.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And of course that's airline dependent. It's not like it
was a federal regulation. Yeah. Yeah, so it all depended.
But you need a high school diploma in the very
least these days. But they're very competitive jobs to get
you gone to the days where you can just waltz
in there with a headshot and get a job as
a flight attendant. A lot of people want these gigs,
(11:55):
and so if you have a college degree, then you
definitely have a leg up.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
These definitely, But it's always been pretty competitive. Supposedly, in
two thousand six, Delta announced that they had one thousand
openings and got like one hundred thousand applications. But it's
always been like really competitive because from the beginning it
was viewed as like really glamorous.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
In the beginning. In the beginning, for sure, I don't
know from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
So because it's been a really competitive career, Chuck.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
And because the airlines were run by like men who
were decided that they owned their flight attendants because they
ran the airlines. There was in that sixties, the swinging
sixties era of that sexy stewardess thing you were talking about,
like they were a major draw for airlines. Sure, and
the airlines like advertisements such so I've got found something.
(12:55):
This is in that Travel and Leisure article I found
you ready for this?
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I am.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
This is going to knock your socks off. I purposefully
didn't send this to you because I want you. Yeah. So,
National Airlines in the sixties had an advertisement where they
had flight attendants Debbie, Chryl and Karen and they could
fly me. They also had an alternate slogan, I'm going
(13:22):
to fly you like you've never been flown before.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And these are print ads.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, okay, Continental, well Continentals his name bran If had one.
Their advertising said does your wife know you're flying with us?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Pacific Southwest said you want an aisle seat because all
of our flight attendants have mini skirts and sometimes they
drop stuff basically and then get this, Eastern Airlines gave
out little black books to their male passengers so they
could get the numbers of the stewardesses, the flight attendants.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
And then Quantus had a slogan, ever seen a tick fight?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Crazy?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
You're right, it's basically the sentiment behind it. And so
you've got the airline's advertising this, and then the flight
attendants unions are fighting this stuff tooth and nails, to
be treated in a dignified manner and not be fired
because you weigh one hundred and twenty two pounds, right, which, yeah,
it's just crazy. This is like, this was the way
that it was back then.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, your show up for work and it's like, hey, honey,
get on the scale, and when's your birthday again? Yeah? Terrible.
You kind of went to a Bill Clinton. There sounded
a little Bill Clinton. I thought it sounded like, w
all right, well, let's let's take a break then and
work on our presidential accents and we'll come back and
talk about post nine to eleven flying. All right. So
(15:10):
we did mention that after nine to eleven, things of
course did change, and things changed in a big way
for flight attendants. They not that they never trained on safety,
but I think the training got way more intense.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Yeah did you see that one I sent you? Yeah,
from I think the Points Guy's website.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, we should go over that now.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Actually, so, he.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Has a flight attendant insider who writes quite a bit
for his site. I don't remember her name, but just
look up the Points Guy flight Attendant insider and she
goes into great detail about what it's like to go
through training and is more intense than I realized it was,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, they and this depends on the airlines, but they
sort of give averages. The average training is seven weeks,
but they can be as long as twelve weeks, talking
six days a week, twelve hours a day. And they
call it Barbie boot camp because you don't show up
in your sweats and tank top with no makeup.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Right, it's not like you're a passenger.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
No, yeah, exactly, you're big fuzzy slippers and your pillow
from home. Now, you show up as if you are
there to work a flight. So you have to be
in whatever attire that they require you to be in
and have your hair done however you would do it
and just basically be game day ready, and then they
work you that many hours a day, because that's about
(16:32):
how many hours a day you're gonna be working. Yeah,
when it's a flight attendant.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
When you start working, at first, you have very little
control over your own schedule, although I get the impression
you have flexibility out of the gate, But if you
say I want to work this many days a month,
that's the input you have at first until you start
to develop seniority.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
So yeah, they expose you to that.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, six days a week, twelve hours a day during training.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
For many weeks. So the first thing they do is
learn all the safety equipment. They're given written tests that
she said that they had to score at least a
ninety on eighty.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I said, they're really weird, didn't I.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, Well, she said if it was a eighty, they
had to retake it, So they had to score at
least a ninety to pass.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I got you.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And then practical exams where you had to score one
hundred percent on these practical tests. And that basically means
you were on a fake plane doing the thing, and
it's not like you're serving that diet coke wrong's it's
mainly ninety percent of this training, ninety five percent in
this training. Yeah, that's what she said, is equipment safety,
(17:41):
all that stuff, right.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Like the first stuff where they're giving these tests that
you have to score high on is here's all of
the stuff you need to know about the equipment. And
then there's the drills where you're showing that you know
how to use it in these stimulated emergencies.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Right, you know, like smoke's pouring in a cabin, what
do you do?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Did you see that?
Speaker 3 (17:59):
One picture of Emirates Airlines is like the big like
a third of an Emirates plane basically the main cabin
with the slide out going into a pool inside like
a hangar, and you're like, oh, they're going to have
to go down that slide. There's no way they're not
going down that slide, and high heels and everything too.
But they're running these drills and apparently this is a
(18:21):
big This is where most people wash out, she said,
was during the drills because it's so stressful. And also
she points out that because this job always has been
and still is so competitive, that the airlines can choose
to be super picky, so they will drop you from
these training programs pretty easily and quickly because they know
(18:43):
that they can find somebody else who could do it better.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Right, Yeah, so you end up with the cream of
the crop in the end.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
That's a really good way to put And then she
says that really the last thing they learned and the
stuff that they spend the least amount of time on
is the actual customer service stuff like pushing the beverage cart,
where they know exactly what to do during if sudden
turbulence hits and there's a beverage cart. They are taught
less how to pour that diet coke or whatever.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I think, like, I think I could do that.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
The pouring the stuff. I would get so stressed out.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
The whole thing, Like I've seen it enough now. We
travel enough for work where if like a flight attendant
was like, oh my ankle, I could throw on the
vest and run beverage service.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
You'd be like, step aside, I've got.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
This, Like I know exactly how they're doing it. I'm
paying attention.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Would you splint the person's ankle first and then take
over beverage service?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I would splint the ankle and then I would get up.
Do you want peanuts, pretzels or a bisco Off cookie?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Do what kind of drink.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
You want cancer peanuts anymore?
Speaker 1 (19:41):
And sure you can't.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
The other day, what, yeah, you have peanuts on a flight.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, I think they don't serve peanuts if someone's allergic.
But I don't think they banned peanuts.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
It was my impression they have just stopped.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
I've been on so many flights and they're like, well,
we've got peanuts, but you can't have because thirteen E
is alertic and everybody's like, now they have almonds.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah, they did have almonds on a Delta plat the
other day that was on They're delicious.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
So you have peanuts on a flight, that's like a
Sela canth.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And then I'm a I'm a sucker for those Delta cookies,
so are you? I have?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
I have desensitized to them. I actually just do pretzels.
Now does bisc Off cookies. I used to be a
junkie for them.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I like them. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's just
a little was a cinnamon treat in the air bread
something or other.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
It's like a gingerbread gingerbread, but it's called speculose, which
is the worst name for a dessert treat on the plane.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
It says that on the package Speculus.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
It's like, uh, yeah, that's the original Dutch name for that.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I'll tell you where the money is, Chuck, where's that?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I don't remember what airline it is, but they have
this Dutch treat it's it's too thin, very sweet waffle
cookies with a caramel like inside.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, carmel sandwich.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And they say, take this thing and put it over
your hot coffee and let the steam from the coffee
warm it up. And brother, you were on cloud nine.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Who tells you that the flight attendant the package?
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Oh okay, the flight attendant doesn't tell you that, right,
They just go here, read this package.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
That sounds like some fancy international type of line.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I know it was domestic. I think it was Midwestern though.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
There's a lot of European immigrants from the nineteenth century,
so that would.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Exerting their influence. Yea, in all the best foody ways.
We got side tracked there, where were we?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Well, we were talking about how difficult the training actually is.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, and that's sort of the long and short of it.
I mean it's long, it's sort of grueling, and at
the very end is when you learn just that she
said that you learn that five percent of time you
spend is what you end up doing ninety nine percent
of the time, But you just have to be so
prepared for that one percent. In case something goes wrong,
you can just react on instinct.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Well, what's what made me feel really good was that
she said the flight attendants you were flying with are
so well trained, and they also have to go back
for annual training every year to learn like new stuff
that the airlines have figured out, learn new procedures, whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
And you know, anytime, say, like an airline.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Deploys a new jet in its fleet, they got to
go figure that out because the safety stuff's in different
places and they need to know this stuff and they
need to be able to remember it and act on
it during an emergency. So I guess I didn't really
realize this, but any flight attendant on a commercial aircraft
that you're flying is capable of saving your life should
(22:41):
an emergency arise.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah. I mean they talk about they even go through
like a baby birth in training, right.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
So the next time you want to yell at them
because they're saying the overhead space is full, remember that
that person can save your life if this plane starts
to go down.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Or lands in the water or something.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
And it's not their fault. The over head space is full.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
It's it's all the people who put their bag up
and then walk to the back of the plane.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Are you talking about the worst people on earth?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
The worst people? And they took their shoes off as
they were walking back.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Oh man, why did people do that?
Speaker 3 (23:13):
I don't know, but I was on a flight the
other day and I've never seen overhead space more screwed
up by just a handful of people who did back.
It was crazy, Like toward the end, people who were
sitting in like the first you know, five rows after
first class, we're having to go to the back of
the plane and you're just like watching them like, oh man,
(23:34):
you poor person as you're as you're walking off the
plane and they're just sitting there waiting to get their bag.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah. I think when they started charging for bags, that's
when everything went berserk because nobody wants to check their
bag except me. I don't mind.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Now that's crazy to me.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah, I've never lost a bag, so I don't mind.
I don't have to sweat it. I mean, this is
a if I'm just going on a work trip. I
don't even have my roller bag anymore, and I will
buzzmarkt them all day. My red Ox oh really yeah,
my red Ox shoulder bag.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Uh, the thing is great and I can fit everything
in there. But if I'm going on like a vacation,
and I know you think it's heresy, but I will
check that bag and relax, Hey, my day away.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I'm not trying to yuck your yom here.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
If you want to check your bag, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Or gate check it. That's the good deal because you
don't have to pay there.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Okay, I have no problem with gate checking it at
the plane, so it's just stowed in a handy manner,
so you just walk off and they hand it to you.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
That's fine.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
But there are very few things that you can do
that is a bigger waste of time than standing around
waiting for your bag to make.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
It to the bag carousel.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
I hate doing that, especially when you're ready for vacation
to start.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, I don't mind because most airports, my bag's cruising
around that thing by the time I get to baggage.
Oh yeah, yeah for me, okay, and that's just because
I U I don't know. I don't like having to
mess with fighting a bag a suitcase on a plane.
I don't like contributing to that whole process, much less
(25:11):
being a business traveler. Like you see those dudes that
have the the roller bag with the big bag on
top of that and then a backpack. You're like, dude,
that's like you, that's three pieces of luggage.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
You need to merge them, all right.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
But this is not about just us complaining about traveling.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Get back to the flight attendants, get back to us.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
So customer service. It is the goal of the flight
in it to keep you happy as possible. But also
you know they don't have to indulge you once you
have passed the point of sobriety or just jerkness. They
don't deal with that stuff anymore. Like they will stop
boarding the plane if you were drunk before you get
(25:54):
on and have you escorted off. It's it's serious business.
Now you shouldn't get on a plane if you're loaded.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
No time was they would get you loaded on the plane.
Now they yeah, they do. They don't mess with that.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
But they are long days, so like we said, twelve
hour days. They are if you're if you're new, like
you said, earlier. They don't have a ton of control
over their schedule. So you're gonna be working a lot
of weekends. Everybody's gonna be working some weekends. You're gonna
be doing overnight trips, spending the night in cities, and
that can sometimes be fun if you put a positive
(26:28):
spin on.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
It, sure, or it can be a big drag.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
But one thing that I had seen across the board
from all the sources I hit for this was that
you it's up to you how much or how little
you fly up to I think one hundred hours a month,
there's like a maximum you can you can work.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Right, They probably minimums, do, don't you think?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Or no, not that I saw. I'm probably menial to
get perks, because probably do. Yeah, But I get the
impression that that's actually once you've done it for like
six months. Typically when you're hired on for an airline,
you're on a probationary six month period on the perks. Yeah,
because they don't want just you know, everyone, They don't
know you from anybody, they've known you for seven weeks,
(27:09):
they just trained.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
You, right, you I want ten buddy passes and then
I'm going to quit my job.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Exactly. Well, I saw another thing too.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Apparently buddy passes are like the worst thing that's ever
happened to a flight attendant. Yeah, because everybody begs for him.
But they are like really actually bad passes. Like you're
at the end of standby and if your friend, if
you give the buddy pass to your friend and they
start yelling at the gate agent, you get in trouble
(27:36):
because it was your buddy pass that was being used.
You might even have your perks revoked because your friend
was a jerk to the gate attendant and everybody's always
asking you for him. So a lot of people just
don't even touch the buddy pass perk.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That's like, if you're a country club member, you're responsible
for the behavior of your guests right now, not that
I would know.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
There are other perks, you know, know you've seen Caddyshack.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yeah, but I've never like belonged to the country club.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
There are other perks where like family members, immediate family members,
sometimes extended family members, spouses, they get the same perks
you do, which very frequently is like you just pay
taxes on the tight and you fly for free. That's different,
Like all flight attendants take advantage of that, some of
(28:22):
them will will hop on over to Europe or something
for you know.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Lunch one hundred bucks.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah maybe if that in tax. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Well, buddy passes used to be a lot easier when
they didn't over sell all the flights. You know, Like
I used to have friends back in the day. I'd
get a buddy pass fly no problem, right, But now
you're right, you're in a bad position.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah you are.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Do you remember flights where like entire rows would be empty.
They'd be like, well, the flight was scheduled, so we
have to we have to stick to it.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
It's it's strange, what a day.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
So you're gonna be working seventy five to eighty five
hours a month generally, but like you said, I guess
you can't go over that one hundred mark. And interestingly, too,
another thing you get trained for is very sadly human trafficking.
These days, they will fly kidnapped people right in front
of people's faces, and so flight attendants now are trained
(29:20):
to spot this kind of activity, which can mean like
an adult who doesn't really understand about the final destination,
that's a bad sign. Yeah, Or if it's like an
adult traveler with a minor and they just it definitely
looks like a little more than parental behavior going on,
like don't get up and go to the bathroom and
(29:41):
that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Apparently that's how it started.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
There was a man who caught the suspicion of a
flight attendant named Sandra Fiorini. She worked for American Airlines.
She noticed that like a late eighteen year old teenager
age guy who was had an infant that still had
the umbilical cord attached, and like a bottle of milk
(30:03):
in his pocket, a couple of diaper stucks his in
his pocket his other pocket, so like this baby was
stolen or bought or something. And she started looking into
it and found out that there was actually a big
deal and teamed up with a woman named Deborah Sigmund
who founded Innocence at Risk, and they kind of started
(30:24):
this program where now, if you're a flight attendant, when
the things you're trained for is to recognize human trafficking,
and they actually a bunch of flight attendants volunteered at
the last Super Bowl to look for human trafficking because
apparently the Super Bowl is like also the super Bowl
of prostitution and human trafficking in the world every year.
(30:45):
So flight attendants went to the Super Bowl and volunteered
to kind of like keep tabs on things and call
out people they thought.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Were amazing traffic.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Yeah, somebody wrote in and said, you can call it
super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
It can't do anything, can't like advertise anything using those words. Right,
I don't think.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
We can't sell our Super Bowl bobble heads that we
have a box full of.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Too bad, it was a poor investment.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Should we take our final break here? Yeah, all right,
let's do that. We'll talk a little bit more about
some of the perks and drawbacks right after this. All right,
(31:45):
let's talk about pay baby, you don't make a ton
of money. I think starting salaries in the mid thirties.
Oh no, I know for a flight attendant.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
That's no.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
No, starting salary can be like eighteen oh really the
median And in twenty twelve or thirteen or fourteen was
thirty seven the median. Yeah, that's like that's the middle.
That's not much, you know. That's why it's such an
attractive a job for people who are just looking for
(32:19):
extra money. Right, if you're a parent and you have
so much control over your schedule, once you start to
get some seniority.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, it's a great, great way to spend your money.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
If you're a soap opera star, it's a great, great
extra job. Did you see that?
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah? What was her name?
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Kate Linder who plays Esther Valentine on The Young and
the Restless.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Who knew she's a flight attendant as well.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
For like thirty two years. Yeah, and she's done them
both for about the same amount of time. Yeah, and
she does it like every week.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, and she says it helps keep her grounded no
pun intended.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, she didn't say the no pun intended part.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah, But I mean she gets those perks, she gets
to fly to Europe for lunch if she wants, right,
and act on soaps.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Right, So good for her. And that's not to say
that that median.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
I mean, obviously that's the middle amount, but it goes
much higher than that. And it all has to do
all perks, all pay all benefits, all that stuff. The
flight attendant profession is all about seniority.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Oh sure.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
And there are plenty of flight attendants out there who
are career flight attendants and you know, like Kate, Kate Linder,
she's been doing it for thirty two years. There's another
woman named Candy Bruton who is a forty three year
veteran of flight attendant. Yeah, like you can make a long,
(33:40):
happy career out of it now that they've taken that
age restriction off.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Yeah, twenty one dollars and twenty three cents. A few
years ago an hour was the rate for a first
year attendant. So plus twenty dollars an hour. But here's
the thing, and this is something that I bet ninety
five percent of human beings don't realize. When you were
sitting on that plane and those doors are open and
they're getting you your first class drinks, or they're helping
(34:08):
you put your bags away and you're complaining because you
don't have a pillow and coach. They're doing that for
almost free, because the only hours that they get paid
for at that rate are flight hours.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Yeah, when it says the boarding doors now closed, the
clock just started for them.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Never knew that.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
No, I didn't either.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
They get something like, depending on the airline, maybe a
dollar fifty to or dollars ninety five an hour for
the pre the boarding stuff. The pre while the door's
open stuff, I guess is what you call it.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yeah, So like, next time you're sitting on the tarmac
and you're delayed for two hours and you're super grumpy,
think about that flight attendant who is getting paid almost
nothing to be dealing with how grumpy you are.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
If the boarding doors closed, they would be getting paid, right.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
No, they set in here if flight delays, they like,
flight time is the only thing that matters.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I thought it was once the door.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
So if the door's closed and you go out to
the runway and you're just sitting there on the runway,
they would be getting paid.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I thought that's not what it said. Somebody let us know,
because it said in the article. If next time you're
on a big flight delay, think about the fact that
they're not making any money.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
I know.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
And that's probably why the airline put it in there,
because can you imagine how much money they would have
to pay in flight attendants for flight delays.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Yeah, but it's not like the flight attendants are just like,
I'm off the clock, don't bother me.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Once we get into the air, you can bother me.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
You don't hear that, you know, so they should be
paying them for that.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Hey, I agree, you know, I think we should paying
together in start a social movement here.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I wonder why you should tip flight attendants too.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah, that's not a thing.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
They should stand you know, the end, when they stand
there and say good day and I hope you enjoyed
your flight, they should be holding the jar as far
as I'm concerned, it's just shaking it.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, throw five bucks in there on your way out,
bye bye.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
I think they'd be great.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
You remember Tina Mucklough, the dB Cooper heist. Yeah, he
tried to give her ten twenty thousand dollars and she
said no, tipping aloud.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
What a hero.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
And quite often flight attendants are the heroes on many flights,
whether it is dealing with literally a terrorist and trying
to manage that situation bravely, or God forbid, some sort
of incident in the air with you know, like with
the plane itself. But at the very least, those jerks
on planes that think they can just talk to people
(36:26):
however they want, they got to put up with a
lot in a very cramped space.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Very early on in flight attendant history. I don't know
if we said or not. You said that Ellen Church
was a registered nurse, but that was par for the course.
For early flight attendants, they had to be registered nurses.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Makes sense.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
There was one named Nellie Granger who was a TWA
flight attendant and she was on a flight going to Pittsburgh,
I believe in nineteen thirty six, and it crashed and
she pulled a couple of passengers to.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Safety and.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
It down the mountain to get help and went back
up with the rescuers to help minister to the two
injured passengers whose lives she saved.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
And you got thirty cents an hour.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
She got a trip to the with her aunt. That's
nice by TWA. Yeah, I got a couple more things. Sure,
there's some crazy stuff that flight attendants have seen. The
one that gets me though, is dead bodies on planes
(37:32):
that are purposefully brought onto planes, not people who die. Apparently,
Singapore Airlines has what's called a corpse closet on their
planes to stow a passenger who might die mid air.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
That's nice.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
They're in the minority there that I think there might
be peculiar with that. But sometimes because shipping a body
is very expensive, it can run into the thousands and
thousands of dollars. Some people say, well, it'd be cheaper
if I just bought a plane ticket or put my
mother in a garment bag and just smuggle her body
on board and took her where she's going to be
buried myself. Yeah, that a guy got caught doing that Miami.
(38:08):
There was in this Mental Floss article. There was the
person who was interviewed said her roommate found a mother
and a daughter trying to smuggle the dead father onto
a flight. Yeah, just in a wheelchair, and said that
he had the flu, but he was clearly dead and
they had to stop the plane mid flight.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Wow, maybe he did have the flu.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
No, he was dead.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
No, I mean maybe that's how I died.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Oh, maybe he previously had the flu. Yeah, it could
have been. Like there's a kernel of truth to what
we just said.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Oh, and don't order to diet coke because apparently it
takes the longest to stop fizzing on a trolley.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Okay, that's science.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
If you want to know more about flight attendants, just
chat up a flight attendant. I'm sure they'd love to
tell you some great stories. And in the meantime, it's
time for listener.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Now, I'm gonna call this PSA about the flu because
we had someone Courtney Harmouth who was Askani who says this, Hey, guys,
want to basically give you a PSA about how dangerous
the flu can be. In twenty twelve, it was a
healthy high school freshman was suddenly stricken with a horrible
(39:17):
digestive distress, chills, fever, coughing. After a week or so,
my parents took me to the GP and I was
told to go to the hospital for observation and get
an IV. What was supposed to be one night turned
into a month. I'd contracted the swine flu.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
That first night my vitals went crazy and I ended
up having to be kept in my local hospital for
two weeks. During my say, I developed pneumonia as a complication.
Soon after that, fluid began to fill my lungs and
I had to be helicopter to a larger hospital in Madison.
She said being in the helicopter was.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Pretty sweet though, oh really.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah, even though you know she was being.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Sick and a helicopter would not be comfortable.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
I think she's a bright side person.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
For about twenty minutes, I was only taking in about
thirty percent and oxygen. My parents were told I could
have brain damage or may even die. On my arrival
to the larger hospital, I was immediately put to a
medically induced coma for eleven days. Oh my god, I
was finally taken out of my coma. I had atrophied
and weigh of measly ninety five pounds at twelve years old.
I had to relearn how to walk, write, and use
basic motor skills. I am extremely lucky. I am completely
(40:21):
recovered from the ordeal, did not suffer any long term
health effects, and now at twenty three years old, I
thankfully not had the flu. Sense I tell this to
everyone to say, please get vaccinated against the flu. The
flu vaccine doesn't just protect you, but also your kids, parents, friends,
and co workers. Really love your show. I want to
thank you for doing such a great job about important
(40:43):
and sometimes hilarious topics. That is our Wisconsinate fan, Courtney Harmouth, Thanks.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
A lot, Cordney. Glad you made it through that one.
That was a pretty scary.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah, we said the flu could be dangerous, so you
have it.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Cordney just proved it.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Everybody.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
If you want to tell us a great story that
is harrowing and amazing, we want to hear it, or
if you have a good flight attendant story that's a
good one too.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
You can send us an email.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
The Stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, everybody, Happy Saturday. Chuck here delivering a brand new
Selects episode. But it's really not brand new, because, as
we all know, these are reruns carefully curated and selected
by both Josh and I each week. This one comes
to you from December seventh, twenty seventeen. How Flight Attendants Work.
Just got back from touring in the Midwest, and I
(00:20):
went on quite a few flights and made sure I
gave my appreciation to all the flight attendants because they
do such great work and I think are often underappreciated.
So if you want to know what they are actually
doing on their job and a little bit about how
you get hired some behind the scenes stuff, check out
this episode right now, How Flight Attendants Work. Welcome to
(00:41):
Stuff you should know, A production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I'm Josh Clark with me as part of your cabin cruise,
Charles W. Chuck Bryant filling the whole thing out is
our pilot Jerry Rowland Captain James as we'll call her
from now on.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
If you'd like to return your seat, do it's full
upright position, but along with your trade table.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
If you've lost your device, or phone in the seat,
don't touch it, just come get one of us. Did
that happen to you? It's a new thing, what tell me? No,
it's like a new thing on Delta. And like the
safety instructions, they actually take a little time to say,
if you've lost your tablet or phone in your seat,
don't adjust it, come get a flight attendant.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
What do you mean lost in the seat? What do
they mean?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Like if you have if you're sitting there and you
got the butter fingers, you know, like you turn into
Jerry Lewis all of a sudden your phone slides down
into the seat beside you or in between the seat
next to you. Okay, your phone is in grave danger
if you adjust your seat back upright again. Oh, like
I say, get a flight attendant, because they now have
(01:53):
additional skills in their repertoire to get your tablet or
phone out safe.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So at some point a memo went out to these airlines.
It said, we're breaking cell phones because people are like, well,
maybe if I just throw my seat up, it'll pop out.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Sure, it'll shoot right out, like like I pressed rewind
on life.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Weird.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Anyway, this is stuff you should know.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
The uh I thought this was pretty interesting actually, and
it gave me even more of an appreciation for flight attendants. Yes,
then I had already gained over my ears.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, because if you're one of those puttses who's mean
to flight attendants you get.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Off the plane, you're a jerk. Yep.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Shouldn't be mean to people anyway.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Like everybody's walking around carrying their own burden that you're
totally unaware of. And if you're mean to somebody, it
usually is because you're not getting what you want, right then. Yeah,
So if everybody can just calm down and be nice
to each other, that's great. But be extra nice to
the flight attendants. And if you don't agree with me, now,
I guarantee you'll agree with us at the end.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Of the podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And even in our own article here, there was a
interview with a flight attendant, a couple of them, a
couple of them, but one of them, very you know
of these vets, said, h you know, back in the day,
everyone was all excited when they flew, they were going
someplace fun. Now everyone's crabby.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, but she makes a really good point. Why.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
She says, it's because this is all post nine to
eleven that the added layers of security that they've put
onto getting from your car onto the plane increases stress
so much that you're exhausted by the time you get
onto the plane. And if flying has become a chore
a task, yes, by the seats have gotten way smaller.
(03:32):
I do buy that the leg room's gotten smaller. And yeah,
I think that it's just kind of become more of
like a let's get from point A to point B.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, I taking your shoes off, taking your laptop out,
it's about all the extra security. No big deal, That's
what I say.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Did I tell you I've gotten kind of on board
your train about taking your shoes off on a flight?
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Oh to not do it?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah? Good, So every once in a while just be like,
to hell with that.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I don't care. I'm taking my shoes off. I know
my feet don't stink, right, But I understand that there's
people like you out there who are deeply offended by
that kind of thing, So I typically do leave them
one unless my dogs are just yeap and so so loud.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, I can't ignore it, but it's pretty rare these days.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I think my deal with that is is you can't
count on everyone's feet to not stink, right, and I
think plenty of people are like, I don't care.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
That their feet stink. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty rotten.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I just want to be comfy.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
That's pretty rotten. But we live in something called society.
There are rules.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
But getting back to the new regulations, which is pretty
much laptop out, shoes off. I mean you still had
to go through the line just like before, you.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Know, Yeah, it seems it feels different to me. Yeah,
it does.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Different as in more time consuming.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah, much more stressful, Like it's a it's not an
event like it was. It definitely used to be an
event in a person's life to go on an airplane.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Well, do you have a different feeling when you go
on vacation compared to work.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Travel as far as the airport goes.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, and how you feel about it the same, Yeah,
same stress.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yes, a lot, a lot of it, to be fair,
is in my head. Yeah, to me, pretty much, the
worst thing that can happen to you is missing your airplane.
I can't I don't even want to imagine what happens
when you miss your airplane. Uman's like, it's not that bad.
As a matter of fact, she's kind of entertained, like
(05:32):
purposefully making us miss.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Your own version of cognitivebates.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
But I don't want to miss it, so I generate
my own stress in a large part. But it does
seem like much more of a process than it was before. Okay,
how about you. You're fine with it?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, I mean, it's no big deal, just shoes in
the laptop. Yeah, two bits.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
But it does seem like and I read this Travel
and Leisure article about flight attendance where the author was saying,
I think she was quoting a flight attendant who was saying, like,
we've all kind of decided as a group that we're
fine with just getting on an airplane and getting to
where we're going, and it doesn't have to be this
(06:14):
luxury experience. And as a result, the price of an
airline ticket has come down dramatically compared to the golden
age of flying.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Oh yeah, but then it has gone back up since
it was pretty cheap.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah, but relative to say, average income, it's I think,
much less than it wasn't say, like the sixties, But
in the sixties they were cutting like cuts of meat
on a cart in front of you.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
There was a carving station that they would move. I'm
not kidding. I've seen us.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I believe it. I think it's funny that that's the
definition of fancy is a carving station.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It really is. I mean it is. The guy had
the hat and everything.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, well you and my extended family agree on that,
but it's.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
And all of us take our shoes off while we
eat our carv But there used to be that there
were like piano lounges in first class lounge like they were.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
It was like it was an event.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Sure, But the fact that it's gone is because we've
all said, no, we want we want to be able
to travel for less cost, right, with fewer frills.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, I just kind of want to get there. I'm
with you there, Yeah, if that's what you think, or
I'm with the airline industry. Yeah, I just hut me
on the plane and give me there. Maybe throw a
whiskey down my throat. Sure, and that's about all. There
you go banana maybe, yeah, if it's the morning.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
But the people who are going to help you get
there banana and whiskey, Uh yeah, sure, Okay. The people
who are going to help you get there, they have
their job has changed over time, but they have not
because they are unsung heroes and have been from beginning
to end.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
That's right. The early days of plane travel, they hired
young men to take care of the stewardship of the plane.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Cabin boys. Yeah, cabin boy at Chris Elliott movie.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, I think that was a boat cabin but still sure,
still a cabin boy. Yeah. And that was just sort
of the thing. And then this woman came along and
you dug this up. This really great. Her name was
Ellen Church the nineteen thirties, in nineteen thirty in fact,
and she was a nurse and a licensed pilot, so
she had it going on. And she said, you know what,
(08:28):
I have an idea Boeing air Transport, who would become
United Airlines. Why don't you hire eight women to take
care of you on your flight for three months and
just see how that goes. And it went great, and
they said, I think we're onto something here.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
She actually pitched the idea because at first the execs
were like, no, it's a stupid idea. This is no
place for women. Yeah, and she said we'll get this.
How is a man going to say that he can't
fly because he's afraid of flying if he knows there's
a woman up there flying around, and they're like, actually,
that's pretty good psychology. So they took her up on
(09:05):
it and it became, yeah, a thing from that moment on.
But before her I have to say, if we're talking
gender nonspecific flight attendants, yes, a man had her beat
by eighteen years a German Man named Heinrich Cubis who
was the world's first flight attendant and he worked zeppelins,
(09:25):
including the graf Zeppelin in the Hindenburg.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Really yeah, did he die on the Hindenburgh? No?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
He lived?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Very few people died on the Hindenburg. I think they
were mostly on the ground. Remember, I don't remember, because
the hydrogen burned up and the people who died were
ones who jumped.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
That's what it was, is that it. Did we do
a show on that we've talked about before. Yeah, yeah,
one of our many, many, many short lived video series.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Oh right, of course. So at any rate, Ellen Church
changed the face of the flight attendant industry. And then
in in the sixties and seventies, of course it was
sort of a uh and this is not me talking here,
this is in the article. It was the sexy stewardess
phase of airline travel. Yeah, and that was definitely the
(10:12):
deal that you had weight limits and height limits. You
had to look a certain way and they put you
in the just the right outfit and it was all
about sort of, hey, get up there and look good
and serve drinks.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
So and there were like those limits you talk about. Yeah,
technically there's still around. There are weight limits and height limits,
but they're restricted to you can't be so short that
you can't reach the overhead bins.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, they're all practical limits.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Right, you can't be so tall that you're just bumping
your head all over the place.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You have to be of the.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Adequate size to fit into a jump seat that the
flight attendants sit in.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, but that's it.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Back then, it was you have to weigh like, no
more than one hundred and twenty pounds, you have to
be this height, and it had everything to do with
looks and attractiveness.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, in your third too, so you're fired.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Yeah, that was a thing like very early on, I
think in the fifties. I think in the nineteen fifties
they started airlines started instituting age restrictions where once you
got to age thirty two, you were no longer eligible
to be a flight attendant. You might have a job
down on the ground, but you couldn't be a flight
attend anymore because you were too old according to them.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Plus also you couldn't be married.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Or have kids.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, it's very restrictive back in the day.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Also maybe the most sexist industry that's ever existed.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And of course that's airline dependent. It's not like it
was a federal regulation. Yeah. Yeah, so it all depended.
But you need a high school diploma in the very
least these days. But they're very competitive jobs to get
you gone to the days where you can just waltz
in there with a headshot and get a job as
a flight attendant. A lot of people want these gigs,
(11:55):
and so if you have a college degree, then you
definitely have a leg up.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
These definitely, But it's always been pretty competitive. Supposedly, in
two thousand six, Delta announced that they had one thousand
openings and got like one hundred thousand applications. But it's
always been like really competitive because from the beginning it
was viewed as like really glamorous.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
In the beginning. In the beginning, for sure, I don't
know from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
So because it's been a really competitive career, Chuck.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
And because the airlines were run by like men who
were decided that they owned their flight attendants because they
ran the airlines. There was in that sixties, the swinging
sixties era of that sexy stewardess thing you were talking about,
like they were a major draw for airlines. Sure, and
the airlines like advertisements such so I've got found something.
(12:55):
This is in that Travel and Leisure article I found
you ready for this?
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I am.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
This is going to knock your socks off. I purposefully
didn't send this to you because I want you. Yeah. So,
National Airlines in the sixties had an advertisement where they
had flight attendants Debbie, Chryl and Karen and they could
fly me. They also had an alternate slogan, I'm going
(13:22):
to fly you like you've never been flown before.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And these are print ads.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, okay, Continental, well Continentals his name bran If had one.
Their advertising said does your wife know you're flying with us?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Pacific Southwest said you want an aisle seat because all
of our flight attendants have mini skirts and sometimes they
drop stuff basically and then get this, Eastern Airlines gave
out little black books to their male passengers so they
could get the numbers of the stewardesses, the flight attendants.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
And then Quantus had a slogan, ever seen a tick fight?
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Crazy?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
You're right, it's basically the sentiment behind it. And so
you've got the airline's advertising this, and then the flight
attendants unions are fighting this stuff tooth and nails, to
be treated in a dignified manner and not be fired
because you weigh one hundred and twenty two pounds, right, which, yeah,
it's just crazy. This is like, this was the way
that it was back then.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, your show up for work and it's like, hey, honey,
get on the scale, and when's your birthday again? Yeah? Terrible.
You kind of went to a Bill Clinton. There sounded
a little Bill Clinton. I thought it sounded like, w
all right, well, let's let's take a break then and
work on our presidential accents and we'll come back and
talk about post nine to eleven flying. All right. So
(15:10):
we did mention that after nine to eleven, things of
course did change, and things changed in a big way
for flight attendants. They not that they never trained on safety,
but I think the training got way more intense.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Yeah did you see that one I sent you? Yeah,
from I think the Points Guy's website.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, we should go over that now.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Actually, so, he.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Has a flight attendant insider who writes quite a bit
for his site. I don't remember her name, but just
look up the Points Guy flight Attendant insider and she
goes into great detail about what it's like to go
through training and is more intense than I realized it was,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, they and this depends on the airlines, but they
sort of give averages. The average training is seven weeks,
but they can be as long as twelve weeks, talking
six days a week, twelve hours a day. And they
call it Barbie boot camp because you don't show up
in your sweats and tank top with no makeup.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Right, it's not like you're a passenger.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
No, yeah, exactly, you're big fuzzy slippers and your pillow
from home. Now, you show up as if you are
there to work a flight. So you have to be
in whatever attire that they require you to be in
and have your hair done however you would do it
and just basically be game day ready, and then they
work you that many hours a day, because that's about
(16:32):
how many hours a day you're gonna be working. Yeah,
when it's a flight attendant.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
When you start working, at first, you have very little
control over your own schedule, although I get the impression
you have flexibility out of the gate, But if you
say I want to work this many days a month,
that's the input you have at first until you start
to develop seniority.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
So yeah, they expose you to that.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, six days a week, twelve hours a day during training.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
For many weeks. So the first thing they do is
learn all the safety equipment. They're given written tests that
she said that they had to score at least a
ninety on eighty.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I said, they're really weird, didn't I.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, Well, she said if it was a eighty, they
had to retake it, So they had to score at
least a ninety to pass.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I got you.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And then practical exams where you had to score one
hundred percent on these practical tests. And that basically means
you were on a fake plane doing the thing, and
it's not like you're serving that diet coke wrong's it's
mainly ninety percent of this training, ninety five percent in
this training. Yeah, that's what she said, is equipment safety,
(17:41):
all that stuff, right.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Like the first stuff where they're giving these tests that
you have to score high on is here's all of
the stuff you need to know about the equipment. And
then there's the drills where you're showing that you know
how to use it in these stimulated emergencies.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Right, you know, like smoke's pouring in a cabin, what
do you do?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Did you see that?
Speaker 3 (17:59):
One picture of Emirates Airlines is like the big like
a third of an Emirates plane basically the main cabin
with the slide out going into a pool inside like
a hangar, and you're like, oh, they're going to have
to go down that slide. There's no way they're not
going down that slide, and high heels and everything too.
But they're running these drills and apparently this is a
(18:21):
big This is where most people wash out, she said,
was during the drills because it's so stressful. And also
she points out that because this job always has been
and still is so competitive, that the airlines can choose
to be super picky, so they will drop you from
these training programs pretty easily and quickly because they know
(18:43):
that they can find somebody else who could do it better.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Right, Yeah, so you end up with the cream of
the crop in the end.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
That's a really good way to put And then she
says that really the last thing they learned and the
stuff that they spend the least amount of time on
is the actual customer service stuff like pushing the beverage cart,
where they know exactly what to do during if sudden
turbulence hits and there's a beverage cart. They are taught
less how to pour that diet coke or whatever.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I think, like, I think I could do that.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
The pouring the stuff. I would get so stressed out.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
The whole thing, Like I've seen it enough now. We
travel enough for work where if like a flight attendant
was like, oh my ankle, I could throw on the
vest and run beverage service.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
You'd be like, step aside, I've got.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
This, Like I know exactly how they're doing it. I'm
paying attention.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Would you splint the person's ankle first and then take
over beverage service?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I would splint the ankle and then I would get up.
Do you want peanuts, pretzels or a bisco Off cookie?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Do what kind of drink.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
You want cancer peanuts anymore?
Speaker 1 (19:41):
And sure you can't.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
The other day, what, yeah, you have peanuts on a flight.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Yeah, I think they don't serve peanuts if someone's allergic.
But I don't think they banned peanuts.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
It was my impression they have just stopped.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
I've been on so many flights and they're like, well,
we've got peanuts, but you can't have because thirteen E
is alertic and everybody's like, now they have almonds.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah, they did have almonds on a Delta plat the
other day that was on They're delicious.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
So you have peanuts on a flight, that's like a
Sela canth.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And then I'm a I'm a sucker for those Delta cookies,
so are you? I have?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
I have desensitized to them. I actually just do pretzels.
Now does bisc Off cookies. I used to be a
junkie for them.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I like them. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's just
a little was a cinnamon treat in the air bread
something or other.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
It's like a gingerbread gingerbread, but it's called speculose, which
is the worst name for a dessert treat on the plane.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
It says that on the package Speculus.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
It's like, uh, yeah, that's the original Dutch name for that.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I'll tell you where the money is, Chuck, where's that?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I don't remember what airline it is, but they have
this Dutch treat it's it's too thin, very sweet waffle
cookies with a caramel like inside.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, carmel sandwich.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
And they say, take this thing and put it over
your hot coffee and let the steam from the coffee
warm it up. And brother, you were on cloud nine.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Who tells you that the flight attendant the package?
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Oh okay, the flight attendant doesn't tell you that, right,
They just go here, read this package.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
That sounds like some fancy international type of line.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I know it was domestic. I think it was Midwestern though.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
There's a lot of European immigrants from the nineteenth century,
so that would.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Exerting their influence. Yea, in all the best foody ways.
We got side tracked there, where were we?
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Well, we were talking about how difficult the training actually is.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, and that's sort of the long and short of it.
I mean it's long, it's sort of grueling, and at
the very end is when you learn just that she
said that you learn that five percent of time you
spend is what you end up doing ninety nine percent
of the time, But you just have to be so
prepared for that one percent. In case something goes wrong,
you can just react on instinct.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Well, what's what made me feel really good was that
she said the flight attendants you were flying with are
so well trained, and they also have to go back
for annual training every year to learn like new stuff
that the airlines have figured out, learn new procedures, whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
And you know, anytime, say, like an airline.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Deploys a new jet in its fleet, they got to
go figure that out because the safety stuff's in different
places and they need to know this stuff and they
need to be able to remember it and act on
it during an emergency. So I guess I didn't really
realize this, but any flight attendant on a commercial aircraft
that you're flying is capable of saving your life should
(22:41):
an emergency arise.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah. I mean they talk about they even go through
like a baby birth in training, right.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
So the next time you want to yell at them
because they're saying the overhead space is full, remember that
that person can save your life if this plane starts
to go down.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Or lands in the water or something.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
And it's not their fault. The over head space is full.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
It's it's all the people who put their bag up
and then walk to the back of the plane.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Are you talking about the worst people on earth?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
The worst people? And they took their shoes off as
they were walking back.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Oh man, why did people do that?
Speaker 3 (23:13):
I don't know, but I was on a flight the
other day and I've never seen overhead space more screwed
up by just a handful of people who did back.
It was crazy, Like toward the end, people who were
sitting in like the first you know, five rows after
first class, we're having to go to the back of
the plane and you're just like watching them like, oh man,
(23:34):
you poor person as you're as you're walking off the
plane and they're just sitting there waiting to get their bag.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah. I think when they started charging for bags, that's
when everything went berserk because nobody wants to check their
bag except me. I don't mind.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Now that's crazy to me.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah, I've never lost a bag, so I don't mind.
I don't have to sweat it. I mean, this is
a if I'm just going on a work trip. I
don't even have my roller bag anymore, and I will
buzzmarkt them all day. My red Ox oh really yeah,
my red Ox shoulder bag.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Uh, the thing is great and I can fit everything
in there. But if I'm going on like a vacation,
and I know you think it's heresy, but I will
check that bag and relax, Hey, my day away.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I'm not trying to yuck your yom here.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
If you want to check your bag, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Or gate check it. That's the good deal because you
don't have to pay there.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Okay, I have no problem with gate checking it at
the plane, so it's just stowed in a handy manner,
so you just walk off and they hand it to you.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
That's fine.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
But there are very few things that you can do
that is a bigger waste of time than standing around
waiting for your bag to make.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
It to the bag carousel.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
I hate doing that, especially when you're ready for vacation
to start.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, I don't mind because most airports, my bag's cruising
around that thing by the time I get to baggage.
Oh yeah, yeah for me, okay, and that's just because
I U I don't know. I don't like having to
mess with fighting a bag a suitcase on a plane.
I don't like contributing to that whole process, much less
(25:11):
being a business traveler. Like you see those dudes that
have the the roller bag with the big bag on
top of that and then a backpack. You're like, dude,
that's like you, that's three pieces of luggage.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
You need to merge them, all right.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
But this is not about just us complaining about traveling.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Get back to the flight attendants, get back to us.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
So customer service. It is the goal of the flight
in it to keep you happy as possible. But also
you know they don't have to indulge you once you
have passed the point of sobriety or just jerkness. They
don't deal with that stuff anymore. Like they will stop
boarding the plane if you were drunk before you get
(25:54):
on and have you escorted off. It's it's serious business.
Now you shouldn't get on a plane if you're loaded.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
No time was they would get you loaded on the plane.
Now they yeah, they do. They don't mess with that.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
But they are long days, so like we said, twelve
hour days. They are if you're if you're new, like
you said, earlier. They don't have a ton of control
over their schedule. So you're gonna be working a lot
of weekends. Everybody's gonna be working some weekends. You're gonna
be doing overnight trips, spending the night in cities, and
that can sometimes be fun if you put a positive
(26:28):
spin on.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
It, sure, or it can be a big drag.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
But one thing that I had seen across the board
from all the sources I hit for this was that
you it's up to you how much or how little
you fly up to I think one hundred hours a month,
there's like a maximum you can you can work.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Right, They probably minimums, do, don't you think?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Or no, not that I saw. I'm probably menial to
get perks, because probably do. Yeah, But I get the
impression that that's actually once you've done it for like
six months. Typically when you're hired on for an airline,
you're on a probationary six month period on the perks. Yeah,
because they don't want just you know, everyone, They don't
know you from anybody, they've known you for seven weeks,
(27:09):
they just trained.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
You, right, you I want ten buddy passes and then
I'm going to quit my job.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Exactly. Well, I saw another thing too.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Apparently buddy passes are like the worst thing that's ever
happened to a flight attendant. Yeah, because everybody begs for him.
But they are like really actually bad passes. Like you're
at the end of standby and if your friend, if
you give the buddy pass to your friend and they
start yelling at the gate agent, you get in trouble
(27:36):
because it was your buddy pass that was being used.
You might even have your perks revoked because your friend
was a jerk to the gate attendant and everybody's always
asking you for him. So a lot of people just
don't even touch the buddy pass perk.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That's like, if you're a country club member, you're responsible
for the behavior of your guests right now, not that
I would know.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
There are other perks, you know, know you've seen Caddyshack.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yeah, but I've never like belonged to the country club.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
There are other perks where like family members, immediate family members,
sometimes extended family members, spouses, they get the same perks
you do, which very frequently is like you just pay
taxes on the tight and you fly for free. That's different,
Like all flight attendants take advantage of that, some of
(28:22):
them will will hop on over to Europe or something
for you know.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Lunch one hundred bucks.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah maybe if that in tax. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Well, buddy passes used to be a lot easier when
they didn't over sell all the flights. You know, Like
I used to have friends back in the day. I'd
get a buddy pass fly no problem, right, But now
you're right, you're in a bad position.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah you are.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Do you remember flights where like entire rows would be empty.
They'd be like, well, the flight was scheduled, so we
have to we have to stick to it.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
It's it's strange, what a day.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
So you're gonna be working seventy five to eighty five
hours a month generally, but like you said, I guess
you can't go over that one hundred mark. And interestingly, too,
another thing you get trained for is very sadly human trafficking.
These days, they will fly kidnapped people right in front
of people's faces, and so flight attendants now are trained
(29:20):
to spot this kind of activity, which can mean like
an adult who doesn't really understand about the final destination,
that's a bad sign. Yeah, Or if it's like an
adult traveler with a minor and they just it definitely
looks like a little more than parental behavior going on,
like don't get up and go to the bathroom and
(29:41):
that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Apparently that's how it started.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
There was a man who caught the suspicion of a
flight attendant named Sandra Fiorini. She worked for American Airlines.
She noticed that like a late eighteen year old teenager
age guy who was had an infant that still had
the umbilical cord attached, and like a bottle of milk
(30:03):
in his pocket, a couple of diaper stucks his in
his pocket his other pocket, so like this baby was
stolen or bought or something. And she started looking into
it and found out that there was actually a big
deal and teamed up with a woman named Deborah Sigmund
who founded Innocence at Risk, and they kind of started
(30:24):
this program where now, if you're a flight attendant, when
the things you're trained for is to recognize human trafficking,
and they actually a bunch of flight attendants volunteered at
the last Super Bowl to look for human trafficking because
apparently the Super Bowl is like also the super Bowl
of prostitution and human trafficking in the world every year.
(30:45):
So flight attendants went to the Super Bowl and volunteered
to kind of like keep tabs on things and call
out people they thought.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Were amazing traffic.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Yeah, somebody wrote in and said, you can call it
super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
It can't do anything, can't like advertise anything using those words. Right,
I don't think.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
We can't sell our Super Bowl bobble heads that we
have a box full of.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Too bad, it was a poor investment.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Should we take our final break here? Yeah, all right,
let's do that. We'll talk a little bit more about
some of the perks and drawbacks right after this. All right,
(31:45):
let's talk about pay baby, you don't make a ton
of money. I think starting salaries in the mid thirties.
Oh no, I know for a flight attendant.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
That's no.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
No, starting salary can be like eighteen oh really the
median And in twenty twelve or thirteen or fourteen was
thirty seven the median. Yeah, that's like that's the middle.
That's not much, you know. That's why it's such an
attractive a job for people who are just looking for
(32:19):
extra money. Right, if you're a parent and you have
so much control over your schedule, once you start to
get some seniority.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, it's a great, great way to spend your money.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
If you're a soap opera star, it's a great, great
extra job. Did you see that?
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Yeah? What was her name?
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Kate Linder who plays Esther Valentine on The Young and
the Restless.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Who knew she's a flight attendant as well.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
For like thirty two years. Yeah, and she's done them
both for about the same amount of time. Yeah, and
she does it like every week.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, and she says it helps keep her grounded no
pun intended.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, she didn't say the no pun intended part.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah, But I mean she gets those perks, she gets
to fly to Europe for lunch if she wants, right,
and act on soaps.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Right, So good for her. And that's not to say
that that median.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
I mean, obviously that's the middle amount, but it goes
much higher than that. And it all has to do
all perks, all pay all benefits, all that stuff. The
flight attendant profession is all about seniority.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Oh sure.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
And there are plenty of flight attendants out there who
are career flight attendants and you know, like Kate, Kate Linder,
she's been doing it for thirty two years. There's another
woman named Candy Bruton who is a forty three year
veteran of flight attendant. Yeah, like you can make a long,
(33:40):
happy career out of it now that they've taken that
age restriction off.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Yeah, twenty one dollars and twenty three cents. A few
years ago an hour was the rate for a first
year attendant. So plus twenty dollars an hour. But here's
the thing, and this is something that I bet ninety
five percent of human beings don't realize. When you were
sitting on that plane and those doors are open and
they're getting you your first class drinks, or they're helping
(34:08):
you put your bags away and you're complaining because you
don't have a pillow and coach. They're doing that for
almost free, because the only hours that they get paid
for at that rate are flight hours.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Yeah, when it says the boarding doors now closed, the
clock just started for them.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Never knew that.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
No, I didn't either.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
They get something like, depending on the airline, maybe a
dollar fifty to or dollars ninety five an hour for
the pre the boarding stuff. The pre while the door's
open stuff, I guess is what you call it.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yeah, So like, next time you're sitting on the tarmac
and you're delayed for two hours and you're super grumpy,
think about that flight attendant who is getting paid almost
nothing to be dealing with how grumpy you are.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
If the boarding doors closed, they would be getting paid, right.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
No, they set in here if flight delays, they like,
flight time is the only thing that matters.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I thought it was once the door.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
So if the door's closed and you go out to
the runway and you're just sitting there on the runway,
they would be getting paid.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I thought that's not what it said. Somebody let us know,
because it said in the article. If next time you're
on a big flight delay, think about the fact that
they're not making any money.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
I know.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
And that's probably why the airline put it in there,
because can you imagine how much money they would have
to pay in flight attendants for flight delays.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Yeah, but it's not like the flight attendants are just like,
I'm off the clock, don't bother me.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Once we get into the air, you can bother me.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
You don't hear that, you know, so they should be
paying them for that.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Hey, I agree, you know, I think we should paying
together in start a social movement here.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I wonder why you should tip flight attendants too.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah, that's not a thing.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
They should stand you know, the end, when they stand
there and say good day and I hope you enjoyed
your flight, they should be holding the jar as far
as I'm concerned, it's just shaking it.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, throw five bucks in there on your way out,
bye bye.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
I think they'd be great.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
You remember Tina Mucklough, the dB Cooper heist. Yeah, he
tried to give her ten twenty thousand dollars and she
said no, tipping aloud.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
What a hero.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
And quite often flight attendants are the heroes on many flights,
whether it is dealing with literally a terrorist and trying
to manage that situation bravely, or God forbid, some sort
of incident in the air with you know, like with
the plane itself. But at the very least, those jerks
on planes that think they can just talk to people
(36:26):
however they want, they got to put up with a
lot in a very cramped space.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Very early on in flight attendant history. I don't know
if we said or not. You said that Ellen Church
was a registered nurse, but that was par for the course.
For early flight attendants, they had to be registered nurses.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Makes sense.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
There was one named Nellie Granger who was a TWA
flight attendant and she was on a flight going to Pittsburgh,
I believe in nineteen thirty six, and it crashed and
she pulled a couple of passengers to.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Safety and.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
It down the mountain to get help and went back
up with the rescuers to help minister to the two
injured passengers whose lives she saved.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
And you got thirty cents an hour.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
She got a trip to the with her aunt. That's
nice by TWA. Yeah, I got a couple more things. Sure,
there's some crazy stuff that flight attendants have seen. The
one that gets me though, is dead bodies on planes
(37:32):
that are purposefully brought onto planes, not people who die. Apparently,
Singapore Airlines has what's called a corpse closet on their
planes to stow a passenger who might die mid air.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
That's nice.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
They're in the minority there that I think there might
be peculiar with that. But sometimes because shipping a body
is very expensive, it can run into the thousands and
thousands of dollars. Some people say, well, it'd be cheaper
if I just bought a plane ticket or put my
mother in a garment bag and just smuggle her body
on board and took her where she's going to be
buried myself. Yeah, that a guy got caught doing that Miami.
(38:08):
There was in this Mental Floss article. There was the
person who was interviewed said her roommate found a mother
and a daughter trying to smuggle the dead father onto
a flight. Yeah, just in a wheelchair, and said that
he had the flu, but he was clearly dead and
they had to stop the plane mid flight.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Wow, maybe he did have the flu.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
No, he was dead.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
No, I mean maybe that's how I died.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Oh, maybe he previously had the flu. Yeah, it could
have been. Like there's a kernel of truth to what
we just said.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Oh, and don't order to diet coke because apparently it
takes the longest to stop fizzing on a trolley.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Okay, that's science.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
If you want to know more about flight attendants, just
chat up a flight attendant. I'm sure they'd love to
tell you some great stories. And in the meantime, it's
time for listener.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Now, I'm gonna call this PSA about the flu because
we had someone Courtney Harmouth who was Askani who says this, Hey, guys,
want to basically give you a PSA about how dangerous
the flu can be. In twenty twelve, it was a
healthy high school freshman was suddenly stricken with a horrible
(39:17):
digestive distress, chills, fever, coughing. After a week or so,
my parents took me to the GP and I was
told to go to the hospital for observation and get
an IV. What was supposed to be one night turned
into a month. I'd contracted the swine flu.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
That first night my vitals went crazy and I ended
up having to be kept in my local hospital for
two weeks. During my say, I developed pneumonia as a complication.
Soon after that, fluid began to fill my lungs and
I had to be helicopter to a larger hospital in Madison.
She said being in the helicopter was.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Pretty sweet though, oh really.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah, even though you know she was being.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Sick and a helicopter would not be comfortable.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
I think she's a bright side person.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
For about twenty minutes, I was only taking in about
thirty percent and oxygen. My parents were told I could
have brain damage or may even die. On my arrival
to the larger hospital, I was immediately put to a
medically induced coma for eleven days. Oh my god, I
was finally taken out of my coma. I had atrophied
and weigh of measly ninety five pounds at twelve years old.
I had to relearn how to walk, write, and use
basic motor skills. I am extremely lucky. I am completely
(40:21):
recovered from the ordeal, did not suffer any long term
health effects, and now at twenty three years old, I
thankfully not had the flu. Sense I tell this to
everyone to say, please get vaccinated against the flu. The
flu vaccine doesn't just protect you, but also your kids, parents, friends,
and co workers. Really love your show. I want to
thank you for doing such a great job about important
(40:43):
and sometimes hilarious topics. That is our Wisconsinate fan, Courtney Harmouth, Thanks.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
A lot, Cordney. Glad you made it through that one.
That was a pretty scary.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah, we said the flu could be dangerous, so you
have it.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Cordney just proved it.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Everybody.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
If you want to tell us a great story that
is harrowing and amazing, we want to hear it, or
if you have a good flight attendant story that's a
good one too.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
You can send us an email.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
The Stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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