Not the Dream Job

If you ever thought that being a flight attendant is the coolest job in the world, I invite you to read this great article of Michelle Higgins, a travel columnist for the New York Times.

Michele spent two days as a flight attendant with American Airlines to write her article titled “Flying the unfriendly skies”

She reported that unruly passengers, crying children, long working hours, and relative low salaries make flight attendant jobs very hard. Gone are the days where stewards would fly for 4 hours, then hit the beach on an exotic destination to wait for her fly home the following morning.

Among the most interesting facts she found about flight attendant jobs are::

• Flight attendants make an average of $35,000 a year.
• They only get pay for the actual flight time (if the flight is delayed or if they have to spend the night over they only get $1.50 an hour flat rate)
• Flight attendants earn between 7 and 20 percent less today than before 9/11
• Though the benefits, like free flights for your entire family, still exist on paper, they are hard to claim as airlines continue to pack planes full of paying

The article was an eye opening for me, and I really recommend you read it if you are thinking on changing careers.