September 30, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode, we’re diving headfirst into one of the biggest debates in the airline world: regional versus mainline flying. Rich has always flown mainline, while Drew brings a ton of insight from his years working at a regional airline. So we’re unpacking the real differences in schedules, pay, camaraderie, catering (or lack thereof), and what it truly means to fly solo on a 50-seater.
Whether you're in the industry, considering becoming a flight attendant, or just a curious traveler, this episode is packed with behind-the-scenes perspectives and brutally honest takes on the pros, cons, and culture of both worlds. Plus, we’ve got a cringe-worthy galley gossip story that will make you rethink in-flight proposals forever.
Watch the full episode on YouTube
Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Kicking things off with flight attendant mood swings and summer flying chaos
[4:05] Intro to today’s topic: the battle of regional vs. mainline
[5:41] Drew breaks down what regional flying actually is—and how he stumbled into it
[6:38] Flying solo: what it's really like to be the only flight attendant on board
[10:13] The boarding pay debate and why regional FAs work way harder than they get credit for
[13:24] DIY catering horror stories and building your own galley mid-flight
[16:19] Mainline arrogance: why we need to stop looking down on regional crews
[18:41] Seniority, choices, and finding the right airline “fit” for you
[20:18] Why transferring airlines isn’t just a quick hop—it’s a full restart
[23:25] Losing the camaraderie: how the industry has changed
[26:19] Respecting everyone’s path in aviation—there is no one-size-fits-all
[28:00] Travel benefits explained: how they differ between regionals and mainline
[30:23] StaffTraveler shoutout and how it’s saved our non-rev lives
[31:12] Galley Gossip: an in-flight proposal gone terribly, hilariously wrong
[34:19] How to support us on Patreon and what’s coming next!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rich (00:00):
You ever wondered what your flight attendants are
(00:03):
really talking about behind thegalley curtain?
Unknown (00:06):
Welcome to Two guys on a plane. Your go to podcast for
an insider look at flightattendant life.
Rich (00:11):
We're your hosts, rich and Drew, and we're here to tell you
what really goes on at 35,000feet.
Unknown (00:16):
So sit back, relax.
We're ready for takeoff.
Rich (00:19):
Now, I don't know if people know this or not, but
every airline has a personality.
Wouldn't you agree? Andrew,wholeheartedly, yeah, and that's
what we're going to talk abouttoday, because every airline has
a different personality. And ontop of that, there's so many
different kinds of airlines thatpeople don't even realize I
know. When I applied to be aflight attendant, I had no idea.
Personally, there's legacycarriers, there's main line,
(00:41):
there's regional, there's allsorts of things. So we're going
to talk today a little bit aboutMain Line carriers versus
regional carriers, which is kindof a hot topic in the flight
attendant industry. There'sdefinitely a lot of debate on is
one better than the other. A lotof times there's certain
perspectives that people have,but Andrew has a very unique
perspective in that he hasworked for both so we are going
(01:03):
to start that off. But first,Andrew has flying been going
lately. Oh man,
Andrew (01:09):
summer has been summering. It's awful out there.
Yeah, I don't even have storiesto tell. It's just been crap.
It's so bad right now, I don'tknow the storms, the weather,
the people, it's all just it'sreally makes me re evaluate my
life choices. Every summer I dothis. Every summer. I don't know
if you do it too, or you all doit, but every summer, I get
(01:32):
caught in, like, one too manystorms, and I'm like, this is a
no for me. I can't do itanymore.
Rich (01:36):
I definitely have the same problem. It's I question my
career choice every summer,because I really have no idea,
like I think it's gonna bebetter for some reason, and
every year it's not better. I'vehad, I've been working a lot of
one day trips, turns, as we callit, in the industry, and I feel
like I thought, Okay, what couldgo wrong? It's just a one day.
(01:58):
You go somewhere and you comeright back. Turns out those can
turn into two days and threedays. Yeah, it's been a mess.
I've had so many turns thissummer just turn into, go figure
turns. Maybe that's why we callthem. That turning into two and
three days. And it's like, godforbid we think we're gonna be
home when we're supposed to behome. But that's my rant for
today.
Andrew (02:18):
And I always think that I'm gonna fly less in the summer
than I do in the winter.
Because, you know what, what areyou doing in the winter? There's
no holidays, it's not busy, butanything like that. So you think
I'm just gonna stack all myflying in the winter so that in
the summer I can, like, only fly50 hours, right? So I can go on
vacation and do all the funthings that we do. Turns out,
I'm still flying 100 hours amonth. I just jam them into
(02:39):
like, two six day periods, whichfor anyone that's had to fly
with me this summer, I'm verysorry. I apologize immensely for
my attitude. It's because I'vehad vacation and I needed to fly
like, 12 days in a row. And soto the crew that fre with me on
my last 12th day. I'm verysorry. You didn't deserve any of
that.
Rich (03:01):
Yeah, yeah. I I feel like I have multiple personalities at
work. And maybe this is not justme. It sounds like I'm not alone
here, but I definitely it'slike, what version of rich did
you get? I feel like we're boththis way, where it's like, we
meet people that the other onesflown with, and they're like, Oh
yeah, I know him. He's he'ssomething. Or you get like, Oh,
(03:22):
he's so much fun. He's like, oneof the best people I've flown
with. And I'm like, okay, so yougot him on a good day. Oh, and
Andrew (03:27):
all of my flying partners will tell you that my
personality changes throughoutthe day too. Did you catch me on
the first leg, right? Becausethat's one flight attendant, and
the second leg after 11am that'sanother flight attendant
altogether.
Rich (03:39):
And I think whether you're on a turn or you're on a four
day or two day, whatever thelength trip is, that last leg
doesn't matter. It's just thatflight standing between you and
going home. So always delayed.
Yeah, it's
Andrew (03:52):
always or you're running everything on time, and you land
in your home city and your baseready, and there's no rampers to
marshal you in, so you sit for65 minutes for no reason other
than it was your last day. Goodtimes.
Rich (04:05):
But anyways, today we're talking about regional flying
versus mainline flying. Yeah, Ihave never had the pleasure of
being a regional flightattendant, although, honestly, I
think I would
Andrew (04:14):
like it. Oh, my God, you would have been the best
regional flight attendant. Ithink if you would have known
before you drunkenly startedapplying to places. I think you
would have probably picked aregional. I had,
Rich (04:25):
like, one or two glasses of wine. Calm down. I did. Yeah.
Fun fact, if you didn't knowthis, I applied to be a flight
attendant while drinking,because I was, I was at my at my
end, I was at my wit's end, andI just applied in a whim, and
there we go. Then they called meup a couple days later, but you
started in regional so tell usabout that. Tell us first, what
(04:49):
is regional flying for thepeople?
Andrew (04:50):
So regional flying is usually it can be a company
that's owned by the legacycarrier, or it can be a separate
company that, like leases theairplanes and the crew. Was to
the larger company to flyshorter routes or to smaller
airports. They'll fly smallerairplanes to smaller airports.
So it you can sometimes work forthat company, or sometimes you
(05:13):
don't. It just depends on theregional carrier that you've
picked. And when I started, Iknew none of this. Yeah, I
didn't. I answered an ad in anewspaper, as we may have talked
about before, but I had no ideawhat I was doing. So I didn't
know that I was applying for aregional airline. And I even
through trading, you don'trealize, I mean, you know, it's
a smaller jet, but you don'tfully comprehend what regional
(05:37):
life is going to be exactly,until you get out, get out
online, right? And at
Rich (05:41):
that point, I mean, you don't have anything to compare
to, anyway. You don't know whatbeing a mainline flight
attendant is, or even what thatlife looks like, right?
Andrew (05:49):
You just know you are a flight attendant at this right?
Um, so when I started with theregional that I was working for,
we was single flight attendantairplanes. We flew 37 seat turbo
props, and we flew 50 seat jets,and then as we progressed, we
started getting into like 70seat jets. So it ended up being
two flighted airplanes. But mostof my time at the regional that
(06:11):
I worked for, I was on anairplane by myself.
Rich (06:13):
Yeah, I still can't tell if that would be amazing or if
it would freak me out, likebeing the solo flight attendant
on an aircraft, because part ofme is like, okay, now I don't
have to manage the personalitiesof fellow crew members. This is
cool. I can set the tone of thecabin. I can do my own thing.
But at the same time, when itcomes to emergency situations or
(06:33):
passengers kind of losing theirminds on you, I'd be nervous
about having no backup.
Andrew (06:38):
Truthfully, I have always felt like the passengers
get more difficult. The moreflight attendants you add to an
airplane, like, I think theyknow they can pit us against
each other.
Rich (06:45):
Funny, of course they do.
Andrew (06:50):
I think they know they can pit us against each other
because they do it all the time.
Well, that the other flightattendant said, and I'm always
like, no, they didn't. There'sno way. But anyways, the more
flight attendants you have on anairplane, I think it is more
difficult to manage passengers.
In my personal experience, Ireally feel like when I was by
myself, there was a level ofrespect to the job that I was
(07:11):
doing from the passengers, andalso the passengers, kind of, I
won't say, policed each other,but that was really what they
did. Like they really, I mean,if someone was getting out of
hand, someone was standing up tostep in to help you where, I
mean, the more flight attendantsyou have, the passengers expect
your co workers to help you inthese scenarios, like soliciting
volunteers when you're byyourself, is right? It takes
(07:32):
nothing to get somebody to getup to help you in a medical
where, you know, in my jobtoday, it takes a little bit to
get people up.
Rich (07:40):
Yeah, I never thought about their perspective, because
it's like people so often now insociety anyways, think, like,
well, that's not my job, right?
So like, why would I help them?
But if they see you alone,dealing with something, there's,
you know, some empathy cominginto the situation where they're
like, Well, gosh, I kind of feelbad for this person. They look
like they're struggling, like,maybe I can help them out or
whatever, and people rallyaround you, so that's cool.
Andrew (08:03):
Yeah, I don't miss work.
And you know, being a regionalflight attendant, you work a lot
more, right? Because your legsare shorter, so you are by
yourself or with a single otherflight attendant at this point.
But even if you're on a dualflight attendant aircraft.
You're not really working withthe other person, right? You're
not sharing a cart with them.
(08:25):
Usually, one of them is workingfirst remain, and the other one
is working coach. And so you'restill kind of working
independent of each other,versus sharing a cart and, like,
doing the job
Rich (08:39):
together, right, right? So it's like everybody's kind of
got their own like, you do yourjob over here. Yeah, I'll do my
job over here.
Andrew (08:45):
Take care of the front doors. You take care of the back
doors. But, like, you're notreally, you know,
Rich (08:50):
you don't have to interact with them if you don't
Unknown (08:52):
really want to. Yeah? I mean, you should, yeah, you
should, but you don't really.
Rich (08:55):
I have worked at two person aircraft before, and I
did appreciate that. It's like,okay, you've got your things
there. I've got my things here,something otherwise you do see
the
Andrew (09:08):
curtain, I'll say on this side of the curtain,
everything will go just fine. Imean, I think, I mean, it's not
a secret that I don't work for aregional anymore, but I do think
that's the part that I miss themost. I would, I tell people all
the time. I would go back in aheartbeat if we made more money.
I, you know, I don't missworking eight legs a day. I
don't miss catering my ownairplane. I don't there are
(09:31):
aspects to working in a mainline that are, you know, easier,
right? But I, I would go back toregional life in a heartbeat. So
much more fun. You were the onlyperson there for most of it. I
was the only person on theairplane, my personality, my
jokes. Like was my airplane if Iwanted to show it right, it was
my comedy show. Yes, I could dowhatever I wanted during the
(09:52):
announcements. I you know, aslong as the far minimums were
hit, I could raise mypersonality. I was in charge.
What I said went there was noone. To come behind me and be
like, were you nice enough aboutthat? And I don't, right. No,
we're here. Everyone seems to behappy now, but I miss, I miss
being on that plane by myself,truthfully, yeah, go back in a
(10:12):
heartbeat
Rich (10:13):
for regional flight attendants. I feel like the
boarding pay discussion of, youknow, debate that airlines are
having with flight attendants.
Like, gotta be the biggest thingof importance for them, because
it's like, you're boarding eighttimes a day, if you're doing
five to eight legs a day, right?
And you're not getting paid forfive to eight boarding, right?
And, like, that's just asinine,right? And it's totally unfair.
(10:37):
I mean, obviously every flightattendant deserves to get paid
for boarding. It's the hardestpart of our job, and I feel like
that. That's one thing that Iwant for regional flight
attendants more than anything,is like they deserve boarding
pay because they work theirasses off,
Andrew (10:51):
but honestly, they deserve the same pay. This like
two tiered pay that we havegoing on, where regionals get
paid less. That's the onlyreason I left is because I
wasn't getting paid to do thejob that everyone else was
doing? Right? If we were makingthe same money, if it wasn't a
two tiered system, I would havenever left?
Rich (11:08):
Yeah, I understand that day. I think it's bullshit that
they don't get paid the samebecause it's not like they're
not doing the same things.
They're dealing with the samepassengers. They're dealing with
the same right? You know,
Andrew (11:19):
bags minimums are one flight attendant for every 50
people. So if you think aboutit, we all technically are
working for with 50 people.
Yeah, absolutely. So like, ifyou're the only one there, I
think you should be getting paidmore. Perfectly honest with you,
you're the only one on theairplane, you should be getting
paid more because you'reactually doing more work,
particularly when they're notpulling catering trucks up to
(11:41):
your like service door. They'renot hauling carts out. They're
throwing bags of like, that'ssomething soda into the airplane
you like, on landing, or, like,ticking off a catering for and
telling them, I need, like, twocokes or three sprites or four
vodkas, and then they just throwyou on a trash bag. Or this how
it was. I may have changed along time since I've been a
(12:03):
regional.
Rich (12:05):
I was watching that happen. I was dead heading, like
a couple months ago on aregional, 12 years ago, and
we're still doing it. We havebetter. It's insane. I was like
wild. I think I told you aboutthis because I was helping clean
the plane. Because this issomething Andrew always told me
was in particular on a regionalflight attendants, they always
(12:26):
have to clean. So I clean thewhole damn airplane. Last person
off the plane, I get up, and theflight attendant goes, What are
you doing? And I was like, I'mcleaning for you. I know you
clean on these quick turns. Andshe goes,
No, we don't anymore. So I endedup cleaning the entire freaking
airplane
Andrew (12:46):
as a previous regionals do I really appreciate that
you're respectful enough to staybehind and help. I try. We're
all in this together. Well, thatwas the hardest part of being a
regional fighter tonight, isthat?
Rich (12:57):
Well, that what I was gonna say first. The point of me
saying that was I saw the oneour door open, and I saw a trash
bag get thrown out by catering.
And I was like, is what is?
They're throwing trash at you,like, what is happening? And
they were like, No, this is howthey cater us. Like we give them
a checklist. And I was like,It's 2025, we don't have better
(13:18):
systems, like you have to buildyour own cart, do your own
inventory. Anyways, they workway harder. Where are we gonna
say
Andrew (13:24):
that's it? Well, and that that was the hardest part
about being a regional flightattendant is that no one
understood that part. Why? Like,no one understood the things
that you were doing. Becausethat's not what happens on the
airplane, right? Like, well, youdon't just get catering. You
don't just don't get trolleys.
And I was like, what trolleys?
I've got a bunch of drawers thatI like, slide open and throw.
Like, we didn't even havetrolleys, right? We just had
(13:46):
drawers that you like, yeah,built in galley, like, and you
had, like, one half cart, maybe,maybe, if you were on a two
person airplane, but on thesingle flight attendant
aircraft, half of them, youdidn't even have carts. It was
just drawers that you like,built into the galley that you
just pulled open and, like,stored all this stuff in so you
were hand serving 50 people byyourself. Yeah, it's 12 rolls.
Not that big of a deal. I don'tknow when you're doing it, if
(14:09):
that's what you're used to. Idon't know any different. But,
yeah, it's like the lack ofrespect from other people, other
like carriers, because we'redoing the same job, we do it
differently than you do, andjust because we don't get the
same things that you get doesn'tmean that we're not doing the
same job,
Rich (14:26):
and that I I'm so grateful that we met. First of all,
obviously, because we'remarried, and that's great. But
additionally, like yourperspective as a regional flight
attendant is like opened my eyesto so many different things, and
I feel like there are so manyways that mainline flight
attendants act superior toregional flight attendants, and
(14:48):
it pisses me off to no end, andI'm not even a regional flight
attendant, but like, I have,like, secondhand embarrassment
and whatever for from thesepeople that just make these
comments like it. So ignorantand so rude. That same deadhead
that I was telling you about theother day a couple months ago,
and the flight attendant I wasworking with, she got on in
front of me, and she was like,Oh, hi. Like, we're dead
(15:12):
heading, you know, can I have awater? Can I have this? She
starts like, rattling off thingsthat she wants from this person.
I'm like, first of all, that'srude on any aircraft, but
especially a regional aircraft,where they have so little
catering as it is. And then shegoes, Oh, this plane is so
small, it's so cute. And I'mlike, this is just condescending
at this point, like you're just,you think you're being funny or
sweet. And it's like, first ofall, they've heard this 1000
(15:33):
times a day, because passengerssay that shit too. Second of
all, you're also a flightattendant, like you're being
rude at this point. And so shegrabs her suitcase, and she
goes, they gave me a tag, but,you know, I'm pretty sure that
this, you know, I can justsqueeze this in somewhere. And
I'm like, this is a CRJ, like,there's no way you're getting
your massive suitcase into thesetiny overhead bins. Oh, yeah, I
(15:56):
wanted to hit her. Honestly, Iwas so annoyed. And so I'm
standing behind her, and her bigblonde hair, as the flight
attendant is that's working, islike, staring at her, and I'm
just making eyes with her, andI'm like, I am so sorry. Like,
I'm not like that. I don't knowher. Like, I don't want any part
of this. Like, how was that foryou, that that attitude from
(16:16):
mainland flight attendants musthave driven you crazy?
Andrew (16:19):
I mean, I've been thinking about this a lot
knowing that this episode wascoming up, and I often wonder if
I wanted to leave the regionalor if I felt pressure from other
people to, like, go get a realjob in aviation, because it was
so people are so demeaning aboutbeing a regional flight
attendant. And truthfully, ifit's the flying that you want to
(16:39):
do, the type of cities that youwant to go to, like, the
camaraderie with the pilots, thecities that we flew to, like, I
prefer the smaller cities. We'vetalked about this on the podcast
before. I don't really love bigcities. I prefer the cities that
we were flying to when I was aregional flight attendant, the
way our schedules worked. Ireally enjoyed staying with the
pilots, and so I look back and Ialso I wonder if I feel I felt
(17:00):
pressured by like, co workers orother people to, like, want
something different. So I did. Imean, obviously I did, but yeah,
I wonder if that level ofrespect would have, if I would
have been met with the respectthat I thought I deserved right
being a regional flightattendant, if it would have been
a different outcome for me,like, I really, I think I'd
still be there.
Rich (18:22):
Yeah, I think there's this idea in aviation that, like you
should, there's like, an endgoal, like you should. I mean,
think about that movie, viewfrom the top. I know Gwyneth
Paltrow complains about it, butit's a great movie. But when
she's talking about Paris, firstclass International, like,
there's this, like, Oh, you mustwant that. Like, you must want
to work those trips. You mustwant this, like, perfect legacy
(18:45):
carrier. Side note, there's noperfect airline. And, like, I
think people just assume that,and they assume you should want
that. And if you want somethingdifferent, like, if you want to
work for a low cost carrier, orregional or something like,
You're crazy, and it's like thejob is different at every
airline, right?
Andrew (19:01):
They all have their own personality. I mean, I worked
really hard to get out of theregional life. I am with a main
line. Now, I still don't thinkit's the main line that people
think I should be with, right? Imean, you know that? Because
every time we go out to dinnerwith any of your friends,
everyone's like, When are youcoming to right? Stop doing
that. Stop doing that shit. I'mhappy. Leave me alone.
Rich (19:24):
It really shows luckily, I think most of our friends have
figured it out by now thatthat's rude. But yeah, I still
like, I fly with people, andthey're like, Oh, your husband
doesn't want to come here. No, Idon't. Why? Why would he? Why do
not? All we do is sit on thejump seat and bitch all day. Why
does he want to come here?
Andrew (19:42):
I mean, that's all any flight attendant does, to be
honest with you. But I just, Ipicked an airline, I picked a
brand that resonated with me. Ipicked, you know, I enjoy my
seniority. I enjoy the rootsthat I get to fly because of our
seniority. And again, I stillthink there's pressure to be
like first class Paris, youknow. And I, truthfully, I don't
(20:02):
think I want that. No, in mylife, I I don't think I'm the
flight attendant for that.
Rich (20:09):
I agree. I personally like having the option to do it. Oh,
for sure. It's not like, Listen,
Andrew (20:18):
if I had the option to do it, I would exercise it,
obviously, because we all love,you know, variety in our trips,
but
Rich (20:25):
sometimes those trips just kick your ass, like changing of
time zones and all this crazymultiple flight attendants all
with different seniorities anddifferent ideas of what should
and shouldn't happen on theplane. Like it gets, it gets a
little chaotic. Sometimes, don'tget me wrong, layovers are
great, but it can be a littlechaotic working those trips.
Sometimes I just really wanteveryone to, like, respect other
(20:45):
people's choices. Like, I didn'tjust,
Andrew (20:49):
I'm not here, because this is the only thing I can do,
right. Actually, really, like,the airline that I work for and
the product that we offer,right?
Rich (20:57):
And you mentioned you, like, where you're at seniority
wise, too. Like, that's such ahuge. Huge factor, like my mom.
I remember when you wereswitching to the airline you're
at now, she was like, alwaystransferring. And I was like,
it's not like, it's not like adepartment store where it's
like, transferring over to themakeup counter, like, so she
(21:17):
kept thinking that you were justlike, for
Andrew (21:19):
any of the CEOs listening, if you want to put in
a makeup counter, I would work,yeah,
Rich (21:24):
oh, don't bring the don't bring the beauty.
Andrew (21:29):
But she really thought that you could just kind of
switch over and keep your samebenefits and seniority and
stuff. And it's like, you reallystart over again when you're at
an airline, like you go back tothe bottom with pay seniority
vacation, like you're back towork and holidays, you're back
to original for almost 15 yearsbefore I left. So, like, I gave
up, always a big jump to go, andthen you have to go through a
(21:49):
new training, which, whilesimilar, because the Fars don't
change company policies do. Solike, you're still trying to
relay. I still felt recurrent,not fail. I still have to, like,
redo my drills every year atrecurrent because I cannot lick
the words. They just don't workfor me. I can't do it. Your
first set of commands, I mean,who release and open were that
(22:09):
big of a deal, but they are abig deal. Those words are not
interchangeable.
Rich (22:13):
And my first set still comes back too, because our
airline has switched so manytimes at this point. And it's
like that first set that youlearn in training for six weeks,
or however long earned in yourbrain, you will go to your grave
saying those,
Andrew (22:27):
yeah, I've got reached that point in my career where
I'm like, Wait, back in my day.
We did it this way. I'm back inmy day, or these,
Rich (22:35):
oh, I was, I just hit, what 12? I'm about to hit 12.
Just hit 12, something likethat. And I'm like, Oh, I'm
definitely at that point in mycareer when I'm like, do you
remember when we had and somelittle new hires, like, are you
okay? Do you need to take a napor something? Did you take your
medicine? I'm in my 30s. Calmdown.
Andrew (22:56):
Would you I mean, I know you would be a flight attendant,
or you, I we joke about youbeing a regional flight
attendant. If you knew now whatyou knew about airlines, then
would you have done moreresearch? Would you apply
different places like, what doyou think you'd still be at the
airline that you're at?
Rich (23:16):
I think ultimately, I still would be where I am. I
think I think the pay would havebeen a big issue for me. And
then I think I also would havedone a lot of research, like
googling things and whatever.
And I think the negativeperspective that people have on
social media about regionallife, I think that would have
deterred me anyway, had I donemore research. So I think I
(23:38):
still would have ended up whereI am. But don't get me wrong,
there's still days where I'mlike, I'd be a great Regional
student. I want to go to allthese random ass little cities
in the US where nobody goes to Iwant to be just me, myself and
50 people like, I want to do myown thing, like, you know, plus
you get to talk to the pilotsmore. They're nicer to you.
Like, the crew camaraderie isway more of a thing a regional
(24:01):
than is at Main Line. And Imean, some days I don't even, I
literally don't even see ourpilots, like, I'll be in the
back of the plane setting up thealley. If it's a quick turn, the
pilots switch out. I don't knowwho went into the flight deck.
Like they don't come back andsay hi. There's no time they
started boarding. Like, whateverthe case may be, there's a
number of reasons I might noteven see them until we're
(24:22):
walking off the plane togetherand it's like or doing a
bathroom
Andrew (24:26):
break. Speaking of the crumb, the camaraderie was my
favorite part. I was walkingthrough the airport to the other
day, and one of the pilots Iused to work with, he works for
my airline now, and we hadworked together way back in the
day, and I was walking throughthe terminal and he was
screaming by my name, and I waslike, wait, what? We were flying
together that day, and I didn'teven recognize his name until I
got to his face. But it wasreally fun to, like, catch up.
(24:48):
And then we were just onvacation recently, and we ran
into a group of pilots. We shotthem anywhere, yeah, literally,
I happen to know a friend ofmine and her husband were going
to be in Croatia, but literallythe first, first restaurant we
walked into. There are his groupof pilots and flight attendants
(25:08):
and goes to show flight crewgravitate towards the same
restaurants on vacation, offvacation, on layovers at home. I
had said I left my new balancesat home, or they would have
picked me out faster.
Rich (25:17):
But it wasn't an Irish bar, believe it or not. We were
not at an Irish bar. We were
Andrew (25:22):
not but it was fun because it was like four, four
pilots and their spouses,spouses that were all there.
Yeah, and it was really fun justto catch up with people like
that. Camaraderie doesn't goaway as well. I guess that, like
regional life, camaraderiedoesn't go away. It doesn't
matter where you're in 10 years.
Yeah, it was wild. I ran intoone of them in an airport once
(25:43):
in Nashville years ago. Butthat's the only interaction I
really had with any of them. Andit was like, we had just walked
off an airplane. You were therefor the whole interaction. It
was like we just walked off.
What I was going
Rich (25:54):
to say was the craziest part is you would think you'd
just seen them two weeks ago,the way you were like, Oh, hey,
so and so, blah, blah, blah.
Like, how. Was blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, when did you seethem? Like, I kept having to ask
you,
Andrew (26:05):
yeah, about regional trips, though. Like, we used to
spend whole months together.
Like, it wasn't like a four daytrip. We would spend like, 30
days, right? This, like, samefour people. So you really, you
really got to know each other.
You really built friendshipswith people.
Rich (26:19):
Yeah, that's nice. That's the that's the one thing I feel
like we're losing in thisindustry overall. Like, even
when I started, it was more likethat than it is now. And it's,
it's disappointing, becausethose few moments when you have
those layovers where crew hangout, you know, pilots are there,
like, everybody's there, it justkind of reminds you of what you
really love about crew life. Andit, I feel like we're losing a
(26:41):
little bit of that. Anythingelse you think people should
know about regional life versusmainline life?
Andrew (26:47):
No, I think that we should all respect each other's
choices. And I think instead ofassuming someone wants to go
somewhere else or be a differentflight attendant, I think we
should approach each other withthe fact that they've chosen the
job that they are working forwhatever reason, base family
time, however they may came tomake this choice, I feel like we
(27:08):
should stop assuming that peoplewant something different, and we
should respect that we all dothe same job, no matter what
kind of airplane that we're on,and be respectful of of that.
And this might be my end goal,
Rich (27:20):
right? And that's okay.
Yeah, I think be respectful is agood way to just live your life.
But also, yeah, don't judgeother people's choices and
mainline people from one mainline to the other. Don't be
condescending to regional flightattendants. There's no reason we
all work the same job. You know,
Andrew (27:39):
it's not a baby plane.
It's not the littlest thingwe've seen today. It's not the
first time we've heard thatjoke. I almost got fired. Did I
ever tell you this story? Ialmost got fired once this man
walked on the like I was on aCRJ 200 the 50 seater, and he
walked on and he was like, thisis the littlest thing I've ever
seen. And I was like, I bet it'sweird saying that his wife was
(27:59):
behind him, and just startedlaughing. She like, doubled
over, and he looked at me, andhe was like, Huh? He didn't get
it? No, not at all. And I said,Well, sir, if you don't get it,
you can go find your littleseat. You can go find a little
seat on this tiny, little planewith your tiny little self. His
wife got on. She was like, hedeserved that. And I was like,
(28:21):
Well, I'm sorry, I don't thinkyou do. And she didn't find
that. No, I thought we werebantering. And she was like, too
far, Andrew. And I was like,fair. This is
Rich (28:32):
when I wish this podcast was more of like a reality show,
and we could have, like, alittle clip that we cut to now
where it's like, where are theynow? Like, divorce corps,
couples therapy. One question Idid have for you about regional
life is travel benefits. Like,what was that different, though?
(28:52):
How did that work with becausesometimes, as a regional flight
attendant, you fly for differentairlines. So do you get benefits
on different airlines, or do youjust get how does all that
Andrew (29:01):
work? So, because I wasn't wholly owned, like I was
a the airline that I worked forwas not owned by the legacy
carrier that we worked for, sowe worked for multiple airlines.
So yes, you get differentbenefits depending on what who
your airline works for.
Sometimes you get the benefitsin the base that you're in
whatever airline you're flyingfor. Sometimes, if you're not a
wholly owned you'll just getbenefits on all the airlines
that they work for. The problemwith being a regional flight
(29:24):
attendant that does that, thoughnot being wholly owned, you get
put at a lower priority level.
So, like, it was great that Icould fly anybody, but it was
more difficult because you'renever going to be the top of the
list. No, yeah, zero. Likeyou've i, we even fell below
retirees. So it was like,employees, employees, families,
retirees, and then the regionalflight attendants. And that was
(29:46):
a big argument when I worked atthe regionals, because, I mean,
we are active flight attendants.
We are actively doing the job.
And, like, I commuted the wholetime I was working there. So I
was trying to, like, I'm tryingto get to work. This isn't a
leisurely thing for
Rich (30:00):
right? The stress of bouncing around must have been
crazy. Oh, my God, you must havebeen using staff traveler like
all the time.
Andrew (30:07):
He acts like I had staff traveler. No, I applied on a
newspaper. We didn't even havecell phones back in, the day was
spent with a pager in my pocket.
Rich (30:17):
I thought staff traveler was around. Well, no, I think it
might have been. Yeah, it wasjust later, but I do
Andrew (30:24):
wish we had it. It would have made it all a lot easier.
It's a combiner routes on everyfor those of you who
Rich (30:30):
don't know what staff traveler is. Staff Traveler is a
an app you can download and usefor non rev travel. So whether
you're, you know, flying on yourown airline, or flying on other
airlines, you can check loadsfor flights for anybody, which
is so great, because we've hadso many moments where this has
come in handy, because you thinkyou have a non rev plan, turns
out flights, full flights,cancel flights, whatever, and
(30:53):
you don't have a plan. So stafftraveler is free to download,
free to use, and the way youearn credits is by. Answering
flight loads for your airlinefor other people. So keep you
know, the more people that useit, the better it works, which
is great. So if you don't haveit, download staff traveler, you
can go to stafftraveler.com/two, guys, and
(31:13):
download it for free. It's afantastic app, and they help
make our show possible. So we'reso grateful for them. But yeah,
that would have come in handyfor you, I think big time,
majorly
Andrew (31:24):
from Nashville, but like, to anywhere I was based at
the time, okay? I mean, I was inmy 20s, and I didn't have any
responsibility, so I changed mybase, like I changed my uniform.
Truthfully, I couldn't do that.
That would stress me out. Oh, myGod, it was so fun. I mean, how
did you know I was in trainwreck I would be on this. I was
based everywhere, DC, Charlotte,Louisville, Cincinnati,
(31:47):
Nashville, Hawaii, Denver, GrandJunction, Phoenix, Dallas,
Houston. I literally just, Iwould change bases for like a
month, just for funsies.
Rich (32:01):
Huh? Interesting. Well, for the regional mainline
conversation, should we do alittle story time before we wrap
up this episode?
Andrew (32:13):
We should? We should we don't know if you guys know this
or not, but I hear them blindwith you, so I'm always really
excited for this segment.
Because, I mean, I don't know ifyou heard a few of our stories
recently, but between the throwup and the hookers this,
Unknown (32:24):
yeah, this session has gotten really fun for me. Please
keep sending
Rich (32:29):
us your stories. We're rebranding this a little bit. We
were calling it, what would twoguys do? But turns out, we don't
have a lot of answers for youguys, because you're leaving us
speechless with these insanestories. So we're just going to
switch the title over to galleygossip, because who doesn't love
a good story when you're sittingaround the galley? So keep
sending us your stories. Go totwo guys on a plane.com/podcast,
(32:52):
and send us your stories. Youcan be anonymous, but you don't
have to be. So this story todayis from Sarah in Chicago. She
was going from Chicago toCancun, a guy once asked us to
help him propose to hisgirlfriend mid
Andrew (33:06):
flight, no immediate No.
If you can't figure out how todo this on your own, you don't
deserve
Rich (33:12):
her. I mean, you can probably finish the story, but
we love a good rom com moment,so we made an announcement and
gave him the mic. He got down onone knee, and the entire cabin
watched in anticipation untilshe just wait.
Andrew (33:26):
Is she standing there too, or should he just propose
to the airplane? She's there?
Okay, let me finish the story.
Rich (33:34):
He got down on one knee, and the entire cabin watched in
anticipation until she just satthere staring at him. Silence,
nothing. Then she shook herhead. The collective gasp from
the passengers was louder thanthe entrance. The guy awkwardly
shuffled back to his seat, andfor the next two hours, we all
had to pretend that that did notjust happen. Even worse, they
(33:56):
were seated together in a middleand window seat, trapped at
36,000 feet with nowhere to go.
Sarah, that's a great story.
Unknown (34:05):
I love that you did it for them. I love that you made
all of that happen
Rich (34:10):
for this is why I say no to stuff like that. When people
ask us to make certainannouncements or be part of some
plan, nine times out of 10, I'mlike, I need to, I don't
Andrew (34:21):
come. So now I'm gonna say yes to things more often,
because you want to watch thetrain wreck too. Absolutely I
do. I want to take the bubblyover and be like, wait not for
Rich (34:33):
you, right? Like, have it ready. And then when, when they
say no, be like, Oh no, only forengaged couples. And then I was
taking her back a lot of vodka.
Yeah, me in the galley. We'regetting you drunk. Yeah, keep
sending us your stories. Theseare highly entertaining, and we
love them so much. But that's itfor today. Thank you guys for
tuning in, and if you haven'talready, make sure to join us on
(34:55):
Patreon. Go to patreon.com/twoguys on a plane. This helps
support our podcast, everylittle bit helps, and as a thank
you, you'll get lots of behindthe scenes content, extra bonus
episodes, blooper reels, Q andA's with us, live happy hours.
We're doing all sorts of things,fun merch, so go to
patreon.com/two, guys on a planeand join the Patreon community,
(35:16):
and we will see you next time.
Unknown (35:20):
Join us for more humor, heart and stories from our
beverage card.
Rich (35:24):
This episode was brought to you by staff traveler, the
number one non rev app if youtravel on standby tickets and
are looking to make your journeyeasy and stress free, check out
the staff traveler app in theApple App Store or Google Play
Store. Visit stafftraveler.com/two guys to learn
more and sign up
Buzz Burbank (35:42):
an ironic media production. Visit us at I R O N,
I C, K, media.com you.
You ever wondered what your flight attendants are
(00:03):
really talking about behind thegalley curtain?
Unknown (00:06):
Welcome to Two guys on a plane. Your go to podcast for
an insider look at flightattendant life.
Rich (00:11):
We're your hosts, rich and Drew, and we're here to tell you
what really goes on at 35,000feet.
Unknown (00:16):
So sit back, relax.
We're ready for takeoff.
Rich (00:19):
Now, I don't know if people know this or not, but
every airline has a personality.
Wouldn't you agree? Andrew,wholeheartedly, yeah, and that's
what we're going to talk abouttoday, because every airline has
a different personality. And ontop of that, there's so many
different kinds of airlines thatpeople don't even realize I
know. When I applied to be aflight attendant, I had no idea.
Personally, there's legacycarriers, there's main line,
(00:41):
there's regional, there's allsorts of things. So we're going
to talk today a little bit aboutMain Line carriers versus
regional carriers, which is kindof a hot topic in the flight
attendant industry. There'sdefinitely a lot of debate on is
one better than the other. A lotof times there's certain
perspectives that people have,but Andrew has a very unique
perspective in that he hasworked for both so we are going
(01:03):
to start that off. But first,Andrew has flying been going
lately. Oh man,
Andrew (01:09):
summer has been summering. It's awful out there.
Yeah, I don't even have storiesto tell. It's just been crap.
It's so bad right now, I don'tknow the storms, the weather,
the people, it's all just it'sreally makes me re evaluate my
life choices. Every summer I dothis. Every summer. I don't know
if you do it too, or you all doit, but every summer, I get
(01:32):
caught in, like, one too manystorms, and I'm like, this is a
no for me. I can't do itanymore.
Rich (01:36):
I definitely have the same problem. It's I question my
career choice every summer,because I really have no idea,
like I think it's gonna bebetter for some reason, and
every year it's not better. I'vehad, I've been working a lot of
one day trips, turns, as we callit, in the industry, and I feel
like I thought, Okay, what couldgo wrong? It's just a one day.
(01:58):
You go somewhere and you comeright back. Turns out those can
turn into two days and threedays. Yeah, it's been a mess.
I've had so many turns thissummer just turn into, go figure
turns. Maybe that's why we callthem. That turning into two and
three days. And it's like, godforbid we think we're gonna be
home when we're supposed to behome. But that's my rant for
today.
Andrew (02:18):
And I always think that I'm gonna fly less in the summer
than I do in the winter.
Because, you know what, what areyou doing in the winter? There's
no holidays, it's not busy, butanything like that. So you think
I'm just gonna stack all myflying in the winter so that in
the summer I can, like, only fly50 hours, right? So I can go on
vacation and do all the funthings that we do. Turns out,
I'm still flying 100 hours amonth. I just jam them into
(02:39):
like, two six day periods, whichfor anyone that's had to fly
with me this summer, I'm verysorry. I apologize immensely for
my attitude. It's because I'vehad vacation and I needed to fly
like, 12 days in a row. And soto the crew that fre with me on
my last 12th day. I'm verysorry. You didn't deserve any of
that.
Rich (03:01):
Yeah, yeah. I I feel like I have multiple personalities at
work. And maybe this is not justme. It sounds like I'm not alone
here, but I definitely it'slike, what version of rich did
you get? I feel like we're boththis way, where it's like, we
meet people that the other onesflown with, and they're like, Oh
yeah, I know him. He's he'ssomething. Or you get like, Oh,
(03:22):
he's so much fun. He's like, oneof the best people I've flown
with. And I'm like, okay, so yougot him on a good day. Oh, and
Andrew (03:27):
all of my flying partners will tell you that my
personality changes throughoutthe day too. Did you catch me on
the first leg, right? Becausethat's one flight attendant, and
the second leg after 11am that'sanother flight attendant
altogether.
Rich (03:39):
And I think whether you're on a turn or you're on a four
day or two day, whatever thelength trip is, that last leg
doesn't matter. It's just thatflight standing between you and
going home. So always delayed.
Yeah, it's
Andrew (03:52):
always or you're running everything on time, and you land
in your home city and your baseready, and there's no rampers to
marshal you in, so you sit for65 minutes for no reason other
than it was your last day. Goodtimes.
Rich (04:05):
But anyways, today we're talking about regional flying
versus mainline flying. Yeah, Ihave never had the pleasure of
being a regional flightattendant, although, honestly, I
think I would
Andrew (04:14):
like it. Oh, my God, you would have been the best
regional flight attendant. Ithink if you would have known
before you drunkenly startedapplying to places. I think you
would have probably picked aregional. I had,
Rich (04:25):
like, one or two glasses of wine. Calm down. I did. Yeah.
Fun fact, if you didn't knowthis, I applied to be a flight
attendant while drinking,because I was, I was at my at my
end, I was at my wit's end, andI just applied in a whim, and
there we go. Then they called meup a couple days later, but you
started in regional so tell usabout that. Tell us first, what
(04:49):
is regional flying for thepeople?
Andrew (04:50):
So regional flying is usually it can be a company
that's owned by the legacycarrier, or it can be a separate
company that, like leases theairplanes and the crew. Was to
the larger company to flyshorter routes or to smaller
airports. They'll fly smallerairplanes to smaller airports.
So it you can sometimes work forthat company, or sometimes you
(05:13):
don't. It just depends on theregional carrier that you've
picked. And when I started, Iknew none of this. Yeah, I
didn't. I answered an ad in anewspaper, as we may have talked
about before, but I had no ideawhat I was doing. So I didn't
know that I was applying for aregional airline. And I even
through trading, you don'trealize, I mean, you know, it's
a smaller jet, but you don'tfully comprehend what regional
(05:37):
life is going to be exactly,until you get out, get out
online, right? And at
Rich (05:41):
that point, I mean, you don't have anything to compare
to, anyway. You don't know whatbeing a mainline flight
attendant is, or even what thatlife looks like, right?
Andrew (05:49):
You just know you are a flight attendant at this right?
Um, so when I started with theregional that I was working for,
we was single flight attendantairplanes. We flew 37 seat turbo
props, and we flew 50 seat jets,and then as we progressed, we
started getting into like 70seat jets. So it ended up being
two flighted airplanes. But mostof my time at the regional that
(06:11):
I worked for, I was on anairplane by myself.
Rich (06:13):
Yeah, I still can't tell if that would be amazing or if
it would freak me out, likebeing the solo flight attendant
on an aircraft, because part ofme is like, okay, now I don't
have to manage the personalitiesof fellow crew members. This is
cool. I can set the tone of thecabin. I can do my own thing.
But at the same time, when itcomes to emergency situations or
(06:33):
passengers kind of losing theirminds on you, I'd be nervous
about having no backup.
Andrew (06:38):
Truthfully, I have always felt like the passengers
get more difficult. The moreflight attendants you add to an
airplane, like, I think theyknow they can pit us against
each other.
Rich (06:45):
Funny, of course they do.
Andrew (06:50):
I think they know they can pit us against each other
because they do it all the time.
Well, that the other flightattendant said, and I'm always
like, no, they didn't. There'sno way. But anyways, the more
flight attendants you have on anairplane, I think it is more
difficult to manage passengers.
In my personal experience, Ireally feel like when I was by
myself, there was a level ofrespect to the job that I was
(07:11):
doing from the passengers, andalso the passengers, kind of, I
won't say, policed each other,but that was really what they
did. Like they really, I mean,if someone was getting out of
hand, someone was standing up tostep in to help you where, I
mean, the more flight attendantsyou have, the passengers expect
your co workers to help you inthese scenarios, like soliciting
volunteers when you're byyourself, is right? It takes
(07:32):
nothing to get somebody to getup to help you in a medical
where, you know, in my jobtoday, it takes a little bit to
get people up.
Rich (07:40):
Yeah, I never thought about their perspective, because
it's like people so often now insociety anyways, think, like,
well, that's not my job, right?
So like, why would I help them?
But if they see you alone,dealing with something, there's,
you know, some empathy cominginto the situation where they're
like, Well, gosh, I kind of feelbad for this person. They look
like they're struggling, like,maybe I can help them out or
whatever, and people rallyaround you, so that's cool.
Andrew (08:03):
Yeah, I don't miss work.
And you know, being a regionalflight attendant, you work a lot
more, right? Because your legsare shorter, so you are by
yourself or with a single otherflight attendant at this point.
But even if you're on a dualflight attendant aircraft.
You're not really working withthe other person, right? You're
not sharing a cart with them.
(08:25):
Usually, one of them is workingfirst remain, and the other one
is working coach. And so you'restill kind of working
independent of each other,versus sharing a cart and, like,
doing the job
Rich (08:39):
together, right, right? So it's like everybody's kind of
got their own like, you do yourjob over here. Yeah, I'll do my
job over here.
Andrew (08:45):
Take care of the front doors. You take care of the back
doors. But, like, you're notreally, you know,
Rich (08:50):
you don't have to interact with them if you don't
Unknown (08:52):
really want to. Yeah? I mean, you should, yeah, you
should, but you don't really.
Rich (08:55):
I have worked at two person aircraft before, and I
did appreciate that. It's like,okay, you've got your things
there. I've got my things here,something otherwise you do see
the
Andrew (09:08):
curtain, I'll say on this side of the curtain,
everything will go just fine. Imean, I think, I mean, it's not
a secret that I don't work for aregional anymore, but I do think
that's the part that I miss themost. I would, I tell people all
the time. I would go back in aheartbeat if we made more money.
I, you know, I don't missworking eight legs a day. I
don't miss catering my ownairplane. I don't there are
(09:31):
aspects to working in a mainline that are, you know, easier,
right? But I, I would go back toregional life in a heartbeat. So
much more fun. You were the onlyperson there for most of it. I
was the only person on theairplane, my personality, my
jokes. Like was my airplane if Iwanted to show it right, it was
my comedy show. Yes, I could dowhatever I wanted during the
(09:52):
announcements. I you know, aslong as the far minimums were
hit, I could raise mypersonality. I was in charge.
What I said went there was noone. To come behind me and be
like, were you nice enough aboutthat? And I don't, right. No,
we're here. Everyone seems to behappy now, but I miss, I miss
being on that plane by myself,truthfully, yeah, go back in a
(10:12):
heartbeat
Rich (10:13):
for regional flight attendants. I feel like the
boarding pay discussion of, youknow, debate that airlines are
having with flight attendants.
Like, gotta be the biggest thingof importance for them, because
it's like, you're boarding eighttimes a day, if you're doing
five to eight legs a day, right?
And you're not getting paid forfive to eight boarding, right?
And, like, that's just asinine,right? And it's totally unfair.
(10:37):
I mean, obviously every flightattendant deserves to get paid
for boarding. It's the hardestpart of our job, and I feel like
that. That's one thing that Iwant for regional flight
attendants more than anything,is like they deserve boarding
pay because they work theirasses off,
Andrew (10:51):
but honestly, they deserve the same pay. This like
two tiered pay that we havegoing on, where regionals get
paid less. That's the onlyreason I left is because I
wasn't getting paid to do thejob that everyone else was
doing? Right? If we were makingthe same money, if it wasn't a
two tiered system, I would havenever left?
Rich (11:08):
Yeah, I understand that day. I think it's bullshit that
they don't get paid the samebecause it's not like they're
not doing the same things.
They're dealing with the samepassengers. They're dealing with
the same right? You know,
Andrew (11:19):
bags minimums are one flight attendant for every 50
people. So if you think aboutit, we all technically are
working for with 50 people.
Yeah, absolutely. So like, ifyou're the only one there, I
think you should be getting paidmore. Perfectly honest with you,
you're the only one on theairplane, you should be getting
paid more because you'reactually doing more work,
particularly when they're notpulling catering trucks up to
(11:41):
your like service door. They'renot hauling carts out. They're
throwing bags of like, that'ssomething soda into the airplane
you like, on landing, or, like,ticking off a catering for and
telling them, I need, like, twocokes or three sprites or four
vodkas, and then they just throwyou on a trash bag. Or this how
it was. I may have changed along time since I've been a
(12:03):
regional.
Rich (12:05):
I was watching that happen. I was dead heading, like
a couple months ago on aregional, 12 years ago, and
we're still doing it. We havebetter. It's insane. I was like
wild. I think I told you aboutthis because I was helping clean
the plane. Because this issomething Andrew always told me
was in particular on a regionalflight attendants, they always
(12:26):
have to clean. So I clean thewhole damn airplane. Last person
off the plane, I get up, and theflight attendant goes, What are
you doing? And I was like, I'mcleaning for you. I know you
clean on these quick turns. Andshe goes,
No, we don't anymore. So I endedup cleaning the entire freaking
airplane
Andrew (12:46):
as a previous regionals do I really appreciate that
you're respectful enough to staybehind and help. I try. We're
all in this together. Well, thatwas the hardest part of being a
regional fighter tonight, isthat?
Rich (12:57):
Well, that what I was gonna say first. The point of me
saying that was I saw the oneour door open, and I saw a trash
bag get thrown out by catering.
And I was like, is what is?
They're throwing trash at you,like, what is happening? And
they were like, No, this is howthey cater us. Like we give them
a checklist. And I was like,It's 2025, we don't have better
(13:18):
systems, like you have to buildyour own cart, do your own
inventory. Anyways, they workway harder. Where are we gonna
say
Andrew (13:24):
that's it? Well, and that that was the hardest part
about being a regional flightattendant is that no one
understood that part. Why? Like,no one understood the things
that you were doing. Becausethat's not what happens on the
airplane, right? Like, well, youdon't just get catering. You
don't just don't get trolleys.
And I was like, what trolleys?
I've got a bunch of drawers thatI like, slide open and throw.
Like, we didn't even havetrolleys, right? We just had
(13:46):
drawers that you like, yeah,built in galley, like, and you
had, like, one half cart, maybe,maybe, if you were on a two
person airplane, but on thesingle flight attendant
aircraft, half of them, youdidn't even have carts. It was
just drawers that you like,built into the galley that you
just pulled open and, like,stored all this stuff in so you
were hand serving 50 people byyourself. Yeah, it's 12 rolls.
Not that big of a deal. I don'tknow when you're doing it, if
(14:09):
that's what you're used to. Idon't know any different. But,
yeah, it's like the lack ofrespect from other people, other
like carriers, because we'redoing the same job, we do it
differently than you do, andjust because we don't get the
same things that you get doesn'tmean that we're not doing the
same job,
Rich (14:26):
and that I I'm so grateful that we met. First of all,
obviously, because we'remarried, and that's great. But
additionally, like yourperspective as a regional flight
attendant is like opened my eyesto so many different things, and
I feel like there are so manyways that mainline flight
attendants act superior toregional flight attendants, and
(14:48):
it pisses me off to no end, andI'm not even a regional flight
attendant, but like, I have,like, secondhand embarrassment
and whatever for from thesepeople that just make these
comments like it. So ignorantand so rude. That same deadhead
that I was telling you about theother day a couple months ago,
and the flight attendant I wasworking with, she got on in
front of me, and she was like,Oh, hi. Like, we're dead
(15:12):
heading, you know, can I have awater? Can I have this? She
starts like, rattling off thingsthat she wants from this person.
I'm like, first of all, that'srude on any aircraft, but
especially a regional aircraft,where they have so little
catering as it is. And then shegoes, Oh, this plane is so
small, it's so cute. And I'mlike, this is just condescending
at this point, like you're just,you think you're being funny or
sweet. And it's like, first ofall, they've heard this 1000
(15:33):
times a day, because passengerssay that shit too. Second of
all, you're also a flightattendant, like you're being
rude at this point. And so shegrabs her suitcase, and she
goes, they gave me a tag, but,you know, I'm pretty sure that
this, you know, I can justsqueeze this in somewhere. And
I'm like, this is a CRJ, like,there's no way you're getting
your massive suitcase into thesetiny overhead bins. Oh, yeah, I
(15:56):
wanted to hit her. Honestly, Iwas so annoyed. And so I'm
standing behind her, and her bigblonde hair, as the flight
attendant is that's working, islike, staring at her, and I'm
just making eyes with her, andI'm like, I am so sorry. Like,
I'm not like that. I don't knowher. Like, I don't want any part
of this. Like, how was that foryou, that that attitude from
(16:16):
mainland flight attendants musthave driven you crazy?
Andrew (16:19):
I mean, I've been thinking about this a lot
knowing that this episode wascoming up, and I often wonder if
I wanted to leave the regionalor if I felt pressure from other
people to, like, go get a realjob in aviation, because it was
so people are so demeaning aboutbeing a regional flight
attendant. And truthfully, ifit's the flying that you want to
(16:39):
do, the type of cities that youwant to go to, like, the
camaraderie with the pilots, thecities that we flew to, like, I
prefer the smaller cities. We'vetalked about this on the podcast
before. I don't really love bigcities. I prefer the cities that
we were flying to when I was aregional flight attendant, the
way our schedules worked. Ireally enjoyed staying with the
pilots, and so I look back and Ialso I wonder if I feel I felt
(17:00):
pressured by like, co workers orother people to, like, want
something different. So I did. Imean, obviously I did, but yeah,
I wonder if that level ofrespect would have, if I would
have been met with the respectthat I thought I deserved right
being a regional flightattendant, if it would have been
a different outcome for me,like, I really, I think I'd
still be there.
Rich (18:22):
Yeah, I think there's this idea in aviation that, like you
should, there's like, an endgoal, like you should. I mean,
think about that movie, viewfrom the top. I know Gwyneth
Paltrow complains about it, butit's a great movie. But when
she's talking about Paris, firstclass International, like,
there's this, like, Oh, you mustwant that. Like, you must want
to work those trips. You mustwant this, like, perfect legacy
(18:45):
carrier. Side note, there's noperfect airline. And, like, I
think people just assume that,and they assume you should want
that. And if you want somethingdifferent, like, if you want to
work for a low cost carrier, orregional or something like,
You're crazy, and it's like thejob is different at every
airline, right?
Andrew (19:01):
They all have their own personality. I mean, I worked
really hard to get out of theregional life. I am with a main
line. Now, I still don't thinkit's the main line that people
think I should be with, right? Imean, you know that? Because
every time we go out to dinnerwith any of your friends,
everyone's like, When are youcoming to right? Stop doing
that. Stop doing that shit. I'mhappy. Leave me alone.
Rich (19:24):
It really shows luckily, I think most of our friends have
figured it out by now thatthat's rude. But yeah, I still
like, I fly with people, andthey're like, Oh, your husband
doesn't want to come here. No, Idon't. Why? Why would he? Why do
not? All we do is sit on thejump seat and bitch all day. Why
does he want to come here?
Andrew (19:42):
I mean, that's all any flight attendant does, to be
honest with you. But I just, Ipicked an airline, I picked a
brand that resonated with me. Ipicked, you know, I enjoy my
seniority. I enjoy the rootsthat I get to fly because of our
seniority. And again, I stillthink there's pressure to be
like first class Paris, youknow. And I, truthfully, I don't
(20:02):
think I want that. No, in mylife, I I don't think I'm the
flight attendant for that.
Rich (20:09):
I agree. I personally like having the option to do it. Oh,
for sure. It's not like, Listen,
Andrew (20:18):
if I had the option to do it, I would exercise it,
obviously, because we all love,you know, variety in our trips,
but
Rich (20:25):
sometimes those trips just kick your ass, like changing of
time zones and all this crazymultiple flight attendants all
with different seniorities anddifferent ideas of what should
and shouldn't happen on theplane. Like it gets, it gets a
little chaotic. Sometimes, don'tget me wrong, layovers are
great, but it can be a littlechaotic working those trips.
Sometimes I just really wanteveryone to, like, respect other
(20:45):
people's choices. Like, I didn'tjust,
Andrew (20:49):
I'm not here, because this is the only thing I can do,
right. Actually, really, like,the airline that I work for and
the product that we offer,right?
Rich (20:57):
And you mentioned you, like, where you're at seniority
wise, too. Like, that's such ahuge. Huge factor, like my mom.
I remember when you wereswitching to the airline you're
at now, she was like, alwaystransferring. And I was like,
it's not like, it's not like adepartment store where it's
like, transferring over to themakeup counter, like, so she
(21:17):
kept thinking that you were justlike, for
Andrew (21:19):
any of the CEOs listening, if you want to put in
a makeup counter, I would work,yeah,
Rich (21:24):
oh, don't bring the don't bring the beauty.
Andrew (21:29):
But she really thought that you could just kind of
switch over and keep your samebenefits and seniority and
stuff. And it's like, you reallystart over again when you're at
an airline, like you go back tothe bottom with pay seniority
vacation, like you're back towork and holidays, you're back
to original for almost 15 yearsbefore I left. So, like, I gave
up, always a big jump to go, andthen you have to go through a
(21:49):
new training, which, whilesimilar, because the Fars don't
change company policies do. Solike, you're still trying to
relay. I still felt recurrent,not fail. I still have to, like,
redo my drills every year atrecurrent because I cannot lick
the words. They just don't workfor me. I can't do it. Your
first set of commands, I mean,who release and open were that
(22:09):
big of a deal, but they are abig deal. Those words are not
interchangeable.
Rich (22:13):
And my first set still comes back too, because our
airline has switched so manytimes at this point. And it's
like that first set that youlearn in training for six weeks,
or however long earned in yourbrain, you will go to your grave
saying those,
Andrew (22:27):
yeah, I've got reached that point in my career where
I'm like, Wait, back in my day.
We did it this way. I'm back inmy day, or these,
Rich (22:35):
oh, I was, I just hit, what 12? I'm about to hit 12.
Just hit 12, something likethat. And I'm like, Oh, I'm
definitely at that point in mycareer when I'm like, do you
remember when we had and somelittle new hires, like, are you
okay? Do you need to take a napor something? Did you take your
medicine? I'm in my 30s. Calmdown.
Andrew (22:56):
Would you I mean, I know you would be a flight attendant,
or you, I we joke about youbeing a regional flight
attendant. If you knew now whatyou knew about airlines, then
would you have done moreresearch? Would you apply
different places like, what doyou think you'd still be at the
airline that you're at?
Rich (23:16):
I think ultimately, I still would be where I am. I
think I think the pay would havebeen a big issue for me. And
then I think I also would havedone a lot of research, like
googling things and whatever.
And I think the negativeperspective that people have on
social media about regionallife, I think that would have
deterred me anyway, had I donemore research. So I think I
(23:38):
still would have ended up whereI am. But don't get me wrong,
there's still days where I'mlike, I'd be a great Regional
student. I want to go to allthese random ass little cities
in the US where nobody goes to Iwant to be just me, myself and
50 people like, I want to do myown thing, like, you know, plus
you get to talk to the pilotsmore. They're nicer to you.
Like, the crew camaraderie isway more of a thing a regional
(24:01):
than is at Main Line. And Imean, some days I don't even, I
literally don't even see ourpilots, like, I'll be in the
back of the plane setting up thealley. If it's a quick turn, the
pilots switch out. I don't knowwho went into the flight deck.
Like they don't come back andsay hi. There's no time they
started boarding. Like, whateverthe case may be, there's a
number of reasons I might noteven see them until we're
(24:22):
walking off the plane togetherand it's like or doing a
bathroom
Andrew (24:26):
break. Speaking of the crumb, the camaraderie was my
favorite part. I was walkingthrough the airport to the other
day, and one of the pilots Iused to work with, he works for
my airline now, and we hadworked together way back in the
day, and I was walking throughthe terminal and he was
screaming by my name, and I waslike, wait, what? We were flying
together that day, and I didn'teven recognize his name until I
got to his face. But it wasreally fun to, like, catch up.
(24:48):
And then we were just onvacation recently, and we ran
into a group of pilots. We shotthem anywhere, yeah, literally,
I happen to know a friend ofmine and her husband were going
to be in Croatia, but literallythe first, first restaurant we
walked into. There are his groupof pilots and flight attendants
(25:08):
and goes to show flight crewgravitate towards the same
restaurants on vacation, offvacation, on layovers at home. I
had said I left my new balancesat home, or they would have
picked me out faster.
Rich (25:17):
But it wasn't an Irish bar, believe it or not. We were
not at an Irish bar. We were
Andrew (25:22):
not but it was fun because it was like four, four
pilots and their spouses,spouses that were all there.
Yeah, and it was really fun justto catch up with people like
that. Camaraderie doesn't goaway as well. I guess that, like
regional life, camaraderiedoesn't go away. It doesn't
matter where you're in 10 years.
Yeah, it was wild. I ran intoone of them in an airport once
(25:43):
in Nashville years ago. Butthat's the only interaction I
really had with any of them. Andit was like, we had just walked
off an airplane. You were therefor the whole interaction. It
was like we just walked off.
What I was going
Rich (25:54):
to say was the craziest part is you would think you'd
just seen them two weeks ago,the way you were like, Oh, hey,
so and so, blah, blah, blah.
Like, how. Was blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, when did you seethem? Like, I kept having to ask
you,
Andrew (26:05):
yeah, about regional trips, though. Like, we used to
spend whole months together.
Like, it wasn't like a four daytrip. We would spend like, 30
days, right? This, like, samefour people. So you really, you
really got to know each other.
You really built friendshipswith people.
Rich (26:19):
Yeah, that's nice. That's the that's the one thing I feel
like we're losing in thisindustry overall. Like, even
when I started, it was more likethat than it is now. And it's,
it's disappointing, becausethose few moments when you have
those layovers where crew hangout, you know, pilots are there,
like, everybody's there, it justkind of reminds you of what you
really love about crew life. Andit, I feel like we're losing a
(26:41):
little bit of that. Anythingelse you think people should
know about regional life versusmainline life?
Andrew (26:47):
No, I think that we should all respect each other's
choices. And I think instead ofassuming someone wants to go
somewhere else or be a differentflight attendant, I think we
should approach each other withthe fact that they've chosen the
job that they are working forwhatever reason, base family
time, however they may came tomake this choice, I feel like we
(27:08):
should stop assuming that peoplewant something different, and we
should respect that we all dothe same job, no matter what
kind of airplane that we're on,and be respectful of of that.
And this might be my end goal,
Rich (27:20):
right? And that's okay.
Yeah, I think be respectful is agood way to just live your life.
But also, yeah, don't judgeother people's choices and
mainline people from one mainline to the other. Don't be
condescending to regional flightattendants. There's no reason we
all work the same job. You know,
Andrew (27:39):
it's not a baby plane.
It's not the littlest thingwe've seen today. It's not the
first time we've heard thatjoke. I almost got fired. Did I
ever tell you this story? Ialmost got fired once this man
walked on the like I was on aCRJ 200 the 50 seater, and he
walked on and he was like, thisis the littlest thing I've ever
seen. And I was like, I bet it'sweird saying that his wife was
(27:59):
behind him, and just startedlaughing. She like, doubled
over, and he looked at me, andhe was like, Huh? He didn't get
it? No, not at all. And I said,Well, sir, if you don't get it,
you can go find your littleseat. You can go find a little
seat on this tiny, little planewith your tiny little self. His
wife got on. She was like, hedeserved that. And I was like,
(28:21):
Well, I'm sorry, I don't thinkyou do. And she didn't find
that. No, I thought we werebantering. And she was like, too
far, Andrew. And I was like,fair. This is
Rich (28:32):
when I wish this podcast was more of like a reality show,
and we could have, like, alittle clip that we cut to now
where it's like, where are theynow? Like, divorce corps,
couples therapy. One question Idid have for you about regional
life is travel benefits. Like,what was that different, though?
(28:52):
How did that work with becausesometimes, as a regional flight
attendant, you fly for differentairlines. So do you get benefits
on different airlines, or do youjust get how does all that
Andrew (29:01):
work? So, because I wasn't wholly owned, like I was
a the airline that I worked forwas not owned by the legacy
carrier that we worked for, sowe worked for multiple airlines.
So yes, you get differentbenefits depending on what who
your airline works for.
Sometimes you get the benefitsin the base that you're in
whatever airline you're flyingfor. Sometimes, if you're not a
wholly owned you'll just getbenefits on all the airlines
that they work for. The problemwith being a regional flight
(29:24):
attendant that does that, thoughnot being wholly owned, you get
put at a lower priority level.
So, like, it was great that Icould fly anybody, but it was
more difficult because you'renever going to be the top of the
list. No, yeah, zero. Likeyou've i, we even fell below
retirees. So it was like,employees, employees, families,
retirees, and then the regionalflight attendants. And that was
(29:46):
a big argument when I worked atthe regionals, because, I mean,
we are active flight attendants.
We are actively doing the job.
And, like, I commuted the wholetime I was working there. So I
was trying to, like, I'm tryingto get to work. This isn't a
leisurely thing for
Rich (30:00):
right? The stress of bouncing around must have been
crazy. Oh, my God, you must havebeen using staff traveler like
all the time.
Andrew (30:07):
He acts like I had staff traveler. No, I applied on a
newspaper. We didn't even havecell phones back in, the day was
spent with a pager in my pocket.
Rich (30:17):
I thought staff traveler was around. Well, no, I think it
might have been. Yeah, it wasjust later, but I do
Andrew (30:24):
wish we had it. It would have made it all a lot easier.
It's a combiner routes on everyfor those of you who
Rich (30:30):
don't know what staff traveler is. Staff Traveler is a
an app you can download and usefor non rev travel. So whether
you're, you know, flying on yourown airline, or flying on other
airlines, you can check loadsfor flights for anybody, which
is so great, because we've hadso many moments where this has
come in handy, because you thinkyou have a non rev plan, turns
out flights, full flights,cancel flights, whatever, and
(30:53):
you don't have a plan. So stafftraveler is free to download,
free to use, and the way youearn credits is by. Answering
flight loads for your airlinefor other people. So keep you
know, the more people that useit, the better it works, which
is great. So if you don't haveit, download staff traveler, you
can go to stafftraveler.com/two, guys, and
(31:13):
download it for free. It's afantastic app, and they help
make our show possible. So we'reso grateful for them. But yeah,
that would have come in handyfor you, I think big time,
majorly
Andrew (31:24):
from Nashville, but like, to anywhere I was based at
the time, okay? I mean, I was inmy 20s, and I didn't have any
responsibility, so I changed mybase, like I changed my uniform.
Truthfully, I couldn't do that.
That would stress me out. Oh, myGod, it was so fun. I mean, how
did you know I was in trainwreck I would be on this. I was
based everywhere, DC, Charlotte,Louisville, Cincinnati,
(31:47):
Nashville, Hawaii, Denver, GrandJunction, Phoenix, Dallas,
Houston. I literally just, Iwould change bases for like a
month, just for funsies.
Rich (32:01):
Huh? Interesting. Well, for the regional mainline
conversation, should we do alittle story time before we wrap
up this episode?
Andrew (32:13):
We should? We should we don't know if you guys know this
or not, but I hear them blindwith you, so I'm always really
excited for this segment.
Because, I mean, I don't know ifyou heard a few of our stories
recently, but between the throwup and the hookers this,
Unknown (32:24):
yeah, this session has gotten really fun for me. Please
keep sending
Rich (32:29):
us your stories. We're rebranding this a little bit. We
were calling it, what would twoguys do? But turns out, we don't
have a lot of answers for youguys, because you're leaving us
speechless with these insanestories. So we're just going to
switch the title over to galleygossip, because who doesn't love
a good story when you're sittingaround the galley? So keep
sending us your stories. Go totwo guys on a plane.com/podcast,
(32:52):
and send us your stories. Youcan be anonymous, but you don't
have to be. So this story todayis from Sarah in Chicago. She
was going from Chicago toCancun, a guy once asked us to
help him propose to hisgirlfriend mid
Andrew (33:06):
flight, no immediate No.
If you can't figure out how todo this on your own, you don't
deserve
Rich (33:12):
her. I mean, you can probably finish the story, but
we love a good rom com moment,so we made an announcement and
gave him the mic. He got down onone knee, and the entire cabin
watched in anticipation untilshe just wait.
Andrew (33:26):
Is she standing there too, or should he just propose
to the airplane? She's there?
Okay, let me finish the story.
Rich (33:34):
He got down on one knee, and the entire cabin watched in
anticipation until she just satthere staring at him. Silence,
nothing. Then she shook herhead. The collective gasp from
the passengers was louder thanthe entrance. The guy awkwardly
shuffled back to his seat, andfor the next two hours, we all
had to pretend that that did notjust happen. Even worse, they
(33:56):
were seated together in a middleand window seat, trapped at
36,000 feet with nowhere to go.
Sarah, that's a great story.
Unknown (34:05):
I love that you did it for them. I love that you made
all of that happen
Rich (34:10):
for this is why I say no to stuff like that. When people
ask us to make certainannouncements or be part of some
plan, nine times out of 10, I'mlike, I need to, I don't
Andrew (34:21):
come. So now I'm gonna say yes to things more often,
because you want to watch thetrain wreck too. Absolutely I
do. I want to take the bubblyover and be like, wait not for
Rich (34:33):
you, right? Like, have it ready. And then when, when they
say no, be like, Oh no, only forengaged couples. And then I was
taking her back a lot of vodka.
Yeah, me in the galley. We'regetting you drunk. Yeah, keep
sending us your stories. Theseare highly entertaining, and we
love them so much. But that's itfor today. Thank you guys for
tuning in, and if you haven'talready, make sure to join us on
(34:55):
Patreon. Go to patreon.com/twoguys on a plane. This helps
support our podcast, everylittle bit helps, and as a thank
you, you'll get lots of behindthe scenes content, extra bonus
episodes, blooper reels, Q andA's with us, live happy hours.
We're doing all sorts of things,fun merch, so go to
patreon.com/two, guys on a planeand join the Patreon community,
(35:16):
and we will see you next time.
Unknown (35:20):
Join us for more humor, heart and stories from our
beverage card.
Rich (35:24):
This episode was brought to you by staff traveler, the
number one non rev app if youtravel on standby tickets and
are looking to make your journeyeasy and stress free, check out
the staff traveler app in theApple App Store or Google Play
Store. Visit stafftraveler.com/two guys to learn
more and sign up
Buzz Burbank (35:42):
an ironic media production. Visit us at I R O N,
I C, K, media.com you.
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The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.