Originally Posted by
Lowlevel
My fiance' is an FA (for now, until she can quit). She has been there 2 years and brings home around 1700 a month. Deduct the $275 for a crash pad in NYC, food, expenses while away from home, and they are not paid well at all. Now as for QOL, it sucks just as much as any crewmember on reserve. She has 11 days off per month and was only able to come home 7 of those in May. They also constantly change her schedule. Example: she was on ready reserve yesterday and was given a 4 day trip. That trip has changed 3 times just today! I know pilots are under paid, but I feel FA's are too. They have to deal with all those folks in the back, I would hate that. Plus, even though we often think of them as sky waitresses, they are responsible for much more. Look at the FA's on the US Air flight in the Hudson.
This sounds exactly like my life and I'm a 2 year FO. I bring home maybe $200 more a month and I don't commute but other than that it's the same. Even better is being assigned a turn and then having it end up a 6 day trip as crew scheduling keeps adding on to my schedule.
I think they've got it better in the sense that no one thinks flight attendants are overpaid but other than that I'd say a big no thank you to being a flight attendant. Who wants to spend all day serving and trying to placate passengers? Give me a bulletproof door anytime. Plus they have no control over the plane which would drive me nuts, but I am a bit of a control freak (in a good way).
