i’m a flight attendant. i’m part of the cabin crew. i’m a freakin’ air hostess.
telling people what i do for a living still feels like the oddest thing to me. even though i’ve been doing this for at least 2 months now.
its a love-hate relationship with this job. i think i have a love-hate relationship with everything i do. architecture was a torture, but i can never stop missing the beauty of creation. working as a flight attendant has personally been very demeaning, but the perks has been fabulous.
let me list them down:
1) everything is provided for.
my apartment, my water bills, my electricity bills, my transport to work. i live with another malaysian and we both have our own bathrooms with a large bathtub. the apartment comes furnished, and my room is twice the size of what i had in melbourne. albeit a little old, but its so spacious i’m so grateful to be away from the tiny apartments in melbourne. also my apartment is right next to a metro station which means easy travel everywhere, at least 5 supermarkets surround me and being in bur dubai; its next to a very local community of textile traders.
because everything is provided for, we crew do save a lot of our salary. the only things we pay for are our food. shopping and entertainment will of course be on ourselves; and because of our weak currency i know a lot of crew who doesn’t save much at the end of the day as well.
2) the travel.
this was what i came here for and its the best thing ever. the airline covers a lot of destinations; and being in the middle east is like being in the centre of the world. for each flight more than 4 hours, we get to stay at the destination we land in. usually for a good 24 hours. these are called layovers. Flights to the United States usually have layovers of 48 hours (2 days!). However, crew flying into the US require a special visa which i have yet to get, thus am kinda unhappy about the waiting.
At every layover they put us in a hotel. not dingy motels or backpackers. they’re usually 4 star hotels. most of the time these hotels are located in the centre of the city which makes it good location for sight seeing. some times its in the middle of nowhere but these are rare. then they give us ‘meal allowances’. meaning cash to keep us fed.
how can anyone not like this!? travelling. hotel paid for. food paid for (most of the time with excess money). we crew also get discounted tickets (up to 90% off) for ourselves, immediate families and extended family (meaning cousins and sister-in-laws) not only on the airline i’m working for, but on partner airlines as well! my brother pilots for malaysian airlines and i can say they aren’t as generous as this!
3) the extra time.
i work half the time i did back home (then again i was a workaholic) and am getting just as much. of the many things that came with the job, i’m appreciating this the most. i now go to the gym more often and get the time to spend on my hobbies more often. and since coming here, i’ve realised that i have ALOT OF HOBBIES.
there are many more little perks of being here. dubai, the parties, the free delivery, major discounts everywhere, but these are the extras.
4) easy work, easy money.
this job is like a joke. it really doesn’t require a lot of brains. everything is set out so the high company standards are met. you do this this and this. of course we need the skills to diffuse difficult situations like drunk passengers or medical cases but really, most of the responsibilities goes to the seniors. so my job becomes like a new social party every time i step onto the plane. i meet new people, learn about them, gossip about the crazy seniors and the crazy passengers. i don’t say i go to work like normal people do. i just say i have a flight to do.
now lets get to the not-so-great part.
1) i work like a slave.
its not a glamorous job. that view is so 1960s Pan Am era. we’re here primarily for safety and security reasons, but somehow along the way we have turned into waiters, waitresses, butlers or maids. personally, it is incredibly demeaning for me to be here doing this. i go back and forth bringing people their requested drinks. i have to fake a smile and be nice to rude and irritable passengers. i have to pick up the dirty trays after the meal service and push it strategically into the cart so everything fits well. when a call bell lights up, i have to be there right away to attend to whatever request there may be. i have to periodically check on the lavatories to make sure they’re clean (usually they’re not but i just spray some air freshener and that’s it. haha) god what did i get myself into.
so while all this is going on, i switch off. and think about the next destination. and fool around with the other crew at the back of the plane. haha
2) crazy crew, seniors and unrelenting management.
when i say crazy, i mean that they aren’t sound of mind. difficult passengers are nothing compared to these people. there are bullies, backstabbers, plain mean, racist, anything you can think of. whenever i encounter these people, i just go about doing my work quietly and shut my mouth. not only because i’m new and a junior, but more because they aren’t worth my time to retaliate. half of the time thinking what’s wrong with these people.
because the hierarchical structure is so prominent in the company, everything is so controlled. every word you say can be used against you. every little mistake you land you in trouble with the management. there is no leeway. there is no flexibility. which is such an irony with the core values of the company. from the very beginning, they brainwash you; we got to be flexible to attend to the customer needs, we got to be personal to bring the best customer service. oh yes we do all that, but we don’t get any back.
3) rostering and scheduling.
no we do not get a choice to where we get flights to. just take what is given. shut up and do your job. since i started i've flown to colombo 5 times, which can at times be much more than someone who's been in the same company for 3 whole years. we have no control on what destinations we go to or when we go. okay so we have annual leaves that we can request, but these are to be bid for half a year before. i cannot plan my future so far ahead! also like any other person working abroad, we miss out alot on our families lives; birthdays, first baby steps, anniversaries. and these are the most important things in life. just the fact of being there.
even with the good and the bad, i have to admit; things has been pretty entertaining so far. wait till i bitch about the passengers.
