December 7, 2017 • 41 mins
Flight attendants have come a long way. From having to put up with rampant sexism, to the current incarnation as your first line of defense in case of an incident, they are valued airline employees. Learn all about this cool job in today’s episode.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you should know from house stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
With me is part of your cabin Cruise Charles W.
Chuck Bryant building the whole thing out is our pilot
Jerry Rowland, Captain Jars as we'll call her from now on.
(00:24):
If you'd like to return your seat to its full
upright position, but along with your trade table. If you've
lost your device or phone in the seat, don't touch it,
just come get one of us. Did that happen to you?
It's a new thing. What uh? No, it's like a
new thing on on Delta. And like the safety instructions,
they actually take a little time to say. If you've
(00:46):
lost your tablet or phone in your seat, don't adjust it,
Come get a flight attendant. What do you mean lust
in the seat? What do they mean? Like if you
have If you're sitting there and you've got the butter
of fingers and you know, like you turn into Jerry Lewis,
all of a sudden your phone slides down into the
seat beside you or in between the seat next to you.
Your phone is in grave danger. If you adjust your
(01:09):
seat back upright again, like I say, get a flight attendant,
because they now have additional skills in their repertoire to
get your tablet or phone outside. So at some point
a memo went out to these airlines. It said, we're
breaking cell phones because people are like, well, maybe if
I just throw my seat up, it'll pop out, It'll
shoot right out. Like I, like, I pressed rewind on
(01:31):
life weird anyway, this is stuff you should know the
I thought, that's pretty interesting actually, and it gave me
even more of an appreciation for flight attendance. Yes, then
I had already gained over my years. Yeah, because if
you're one of those puts is who's mean to flight
attendance you get off the plane, you're jerk. Shouldn't be
mean to people anyway. Like everybody's walking around carrying their
(01:53):
own burden that you're totally unaware of. And if you're
mean to somebody usually is because you're not getting what
you right then. So if everybody can just calm down
and be nice to each other, that's great, But be
extra nice to the flight attendants. And if you don't
agree with me, now, I guarantee you'll agree with us
at the end of the podcast, and even even in
our own article here there was a interview with the
(02:16):
flight attendant a couple of them, a couple of them,
but one of them very you know. One of these
vets said, yeah, you know, back in the day, everyone
was all excited when they flew, they were going someplace fun.
Now everyone's crabby. Yeah, but she makes a really good
point why. She says it's because this is all post
nine eleven, that the added layers of security that they've
(02:37):
put onto getting from your car onto the plane increases
stress so much that you're exhausted by the time you
get onto the plane, and flying has become a chore,
a task. The seats have gotten way smaller. I do
by that the leg room has gotten smaller. Um, and yeah,
(02:58):
I think that it's just kind of become or of like,
let's get from pointing to point B. Yeah, I taking
your shoes off, taking your laptop out, it's about all
the extra security. No big deal, that's what I say.
Did I tell you I've gotten kind of on board
your train about taking your shoes off on a flight?
Oh to not do it? Yeah? Good, So every once
(03:19):
in a while, just be like, to hell with that.
I don't care. I'm taking my shoes off. I know
my feet don't stink, but I understand that there's people
like you out there who are deeply offended by that
kind of thing. So I typically do leave them on
unless my dogs are just yapping so so loud. I can't.
I can't ignore it. But it's pretty rare these days.
I think my deal with that is is, uh, you
(03:40):
can't count on everyone's feet to not stink, And I
think plenty of people are like, I don't care that
their feet stink. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty rotten. I just
want to be comfy. That's pretty rotten. But we live
in something called society. There are rules. But getting back
to the new regulations, which is pretty much laptop out,
(04:01):
shoes off, I mean you still have to go through
the line just like before. You know, Yeah, it seems
it feels different to me. Yeah, it does different. Is
in more time consuming? Yeah, much more stressful, Like it's
not a it's not an event like it was. It
definitely used to be an event in a person's life
to go on an airplane. Well, do you have a
(04:23):
different feeling when you go on vacation compared to work travel?
As far as the airport goes, yea, and how you
feel about it the same same stress. Yes, a lot,
a lot of it, to be fair, is in my head. Yeah,
to me, pretty much, the worst thing that can happen
to you is missing your airplane. I can't I don't
(04:44):
even want to imagine what happens when you miss your airplane.
He's like, it's not that bad. As a matter of fact,
she's kind of entertained, like purposefully making us miss your
own version of cognitive debate. Um, but I I don't
want to miss it, so I generate my own stress
in a large part. But it does seem like much
more a process than it was before. Okay, how about you.
(05:08):
You're fine with it? Yeah, I mean it's no big deal,
just shoos in the laptop. Yeah, two bits. But but
it does seem like, um, And I read this Travel
and Leisure article about flight attendants, um where where the
author was saying, or I think she was quoting a
flight attendant who was saying, like, we've all kind of
(05:28):
decided as a group that we're fine with just getting
on an airplane and getting to where we're going, and
it doesn't have to be this luxury experience, and as
a result, the price of an airline ticket has come
down dramatically, has compared to the golden age of flying. Yeah,
but then it has gone back up since it was
pretty cheap. Yeah, but relative to say, average income, it's
(05:50):
I think much less than it wasn't say, like the sixties.
But in the sixties they were cutting like um like
like cut some meat on a cart in front of you.
I'm not kidding. There was a carving station that they
would move. I'm not kidding. I've seen. I believe it.
I think it's funny that that's the definition of fancy
is a carving station. It really is. I mean it is.
(06:12):
The guy had the hat and everything. Yeah, well you
and my extended family agree on that. But all of
us take our shoes off while we eat our carvon meat.
But there there used to be that they were like
piano lounges in first class lounge like they were. It
was like it was an event to But the fact
that it's gone is because we've all said no, we
(06:34):
want we want to be able to travel for less
cost with fewer frills. Yeah, I just kind of want
to get there. I'm with you. There if that's what
you think. Or I'm with the airline industry. Yeah, I
just put me on the plane and give me there.
Maybe throw a whiskey down my throat, and that's about all.
There you go banana maybe, yeah, if it's the morning.
(06:55):
But the people who are going to help you get
there banana and whiskey, Uh yeah, sure, okay. The people
who are going to help you get there, they have Um,
their job has changed over time, but they have not
because they are unsung heroes and have been from beginning
to end. That's right. The early days of plane travel,
(07:16):
they hired young men to take care of the stewardship
of the plane. Cabin boys yea Chris Elliot, Yeah, I
think that was a boat cabin, but still still a
cabin boy. Um. And that was just sort of the thing.
And then this this woman came along and you dug
this up. It's really great. Her name was Ellen Church
(07:38):
the nineteen thirties, uh in nineteen thirty in fact, and
she was a nurse and a license pilot. So she
had it going on and she said, you know what, um,
I have an idea Boeing air Transport, who would become
United Airlines. Why don't you hire eight women to take
care of you on your flight for three months? Just
(08:00):
see how that goes. And it went great, and they said,
I think we're onto something here. Yeah. She actually um
pitched the idea because at first the execs were like, no,
that's a stupid idea. You know, this is no place
for women. Um and she said, we'll get this. How
is a man going to say that he can't fly
because he's afraid of flying if he knows there's a
(08:20):
woman up there flying around? And they're like, actually, that's
a pretty good psychology. So they took her up on
it and it became a thing from that moment on.
But before her, I have to say, if we're talking
gender non specific flight attendants, a man had her beat
by eighteen years. A German Man named Heinrich Cubis who
(08:41):
was the world's first flight attendant and he worked Zeppelin's
including the graph Zeppelin and the Hindenburg. Really did he
die on the Hindenburg? He left. Very few people died
on the Hindenburg. I think they were mostly on the ground. Remember,
I don't remember, because the hydrogen burned up and the
people who died were Once you jump, that's what it
(09:02):
was is that it did we do a show on
that we've talked about before. Yeah, yeah, I'm one of
our many, many, many short lived video series. Oh right,
of course. So at any rate, Ellen Church changed the
face of the flight attendant industry. And then in the
in the sixties and seventies, of course, it was sort
(09:23):
of a and this is not me talking here, this
is in the article. It was the sexy stewardess phase
of airline travel. Yeah, and that was definitely the deal
that you had, uh, weight limits and height limits. You
had to look a certain way and um, they put
you in the just the right outfit and it was
all about sort of, hey, get up there and look
(09:44):
good and serve drinks. So and they were they were
like those limits you talk about. Technically they're still around.
There are weight limits and height limits, but they're restricted
to you can't be so short that you can't reach
the overhead bins. Yeah, they're all practical limits. Right, you
can't be so ta all that you're just bumping your
head all over the place. Um, you have to be
of the of adequate size to fit into a jump
(10:06):
seat that the flight attendant sit in. But that's it.
Back then, it was you have to weigh like no
more than a hundred and twenty pounds, you have to
be this height, and it had everything to do with
looks and attractiveness in your thirty two so you're fired. Yeah,
that was a thing like very early on, I think
in the fifties. I think in the nineteen fifties they
(10:29):
started airlines started instituting age restrictions where once you got
to age thirty two, you were no longer eligible to
be a flight attendant. You might have a job down
on the ground, but you couldn't be a flight attendant
anymore because you were too old according to them. Um.
Plus also you couldn't be married or have kids. Right. Yeah,
(10:49):
it's very restrictive back in the day. Also maybe the
most sexist industry that's ever existed. And of course that's
airline dependent. It's not like it was a federal regulation. Yeah,
so it all depended. But um, you need a high
school diploma at the very least these days, but they're
very competitive jobs to get. Um you've gone to the
(11:10):
days where you can just waltzon there with a head
shot and get a job as flight attendant. A lot
of people want these gigs and so if you have
a college degree, then you definitely have a leg up
these days, definitely. But it's always been pretty competitive. Supposedly
in two thousand six, Delta announced that they had a
thousand openings and got like a hundred thousand applications. But
(11:34):
it's always been like really competitive because from the beginning
it was viewed as like really glamorous in the beginning.
In the beginning, I don't know about from the beginning,
so um, because it's been a really competitive um uh career, chuck.
And because the airlines were run by like men who
(11:55):
were decided that they owned their their flight attendants because
they ran the airlines. There was in that sixties, the
swinging sixties era of that sexy stewardest thing you were
talking about, like they were a major draw for airlines,
and the airlines like advertisements such so, I've got found something.
(12:15):
This is in that UM Travel and Leisure UM article.
I found you ready for this? This is going to
knock your socks off. Purposefully didn't send this to you
because one of you. Yeah, so, National Airlines in the
sixties had an advertisement where they had flight attendants Debbie
Ryl and Karen and they could fly me. They also
(12:39):
had an alternate slogan, I'm going to fly you like
you've never been flown before. And these are print ads. Okay,
um Continental uh well, contin Els was lame. Brand Iff
had one their advertising said does your wife know you're
flying with us? Yeah? Um? Pacific Southwest said you want
(13:02):
an aisle seat because all of our flight attendans have
mini skirts and sometimes they drop stuff basically, and then
get this, Eastern Airlines gave out little black books to
their male passengers so they could get the numbers of
the stewardesses, the flight attendants. And then Quanta seto slogan.
Ever seen a tickle fight? Crazy? You're right, it's basically
(13:23):
the sentiment behind it. Um. And so you've got the
airlines advertising this, and then the flight attendants unions are
fighting this stuff tooth and nails, to be treated in
a dignified manner and not not be fired because you
weigh a hundred and twenty two pounds, which, yeah, it's
just crazy. This is like this was the way that
it was back then. Yeah, yeah, your show for working.
(13:44):
It's like, hey, honey, get on the scale and would
your birthday again? Yeah? Terrible you kind of went to
a Bill Clinton. There sounded a little Bill Clinton. I
thought it sounded like, w all right, well, let's let's
take a break then and work on our presidential accents
and we'll come back and talk about post nine eleven flying. Alright,
(14:30):
So we did mention that after nine eleven, things of
course did change. Uh, and things change in a big
way for flight attendance. They um, not that they never
trained on safety, but I think the training got way
more intense. Yeah, did you see that when I sent you? Yeah,
from I think the Points Guys website. Yeah, we should
(14:51):
go over that now. Actually, so he has a flight
attendant insider who like writes quite a bit for his sight.
I don't remember a name. Just look up the Points
Guy flight Autenant Insider and um, she just she goes
into great detail about what it's like to go through training.
It is more intense than I realized it was, for sure. Yeah,
(15:12):
they and this depends on the airlines, but they sort
of give averages. The average training is seven weeks, but
they can be as long as twelve weeks. We're talking
six days a week, twelve hours a day, and they
call it Barbie boot camp. Because you don't show up
in your sweats and tank top with no makeup. Right,
it's not like you're a passenger. No, yeah, exactly, your
(15:32):
big fuzzy slippers and your pillow from home. Uh No,
you show up as if you are there to work
a flight. So you have to be in whatever attire
that they require you to be in and have your
hair done however, you would do it and just basically
be game day ready. And then they work you that
many hours a day because that's about how many hours
(15:54):
day you're gonna be working. Yeah, attended. When you start
working at first, you have very little will control over
your own schedule. Um, although I get the impression you
have flexibility out of the gate, but if you say
I want to work this many days a month, that's
the input you have at first until you start to
develop seniority. So yeah, they expose you to that six
(16:16):
days a week, twelve hours a day, um, during training
for many weeks. So um. The first thing they do
is learn all the safety equipment. They're given written tests
that she said that they had to score at least
a ninety on. I said that really weird, didn't I? Yeah? Well,
she said, if it was a eighty. They had to
retake it, so they had to score at least ninety
(16:37):
two to pass. And then practical exams. We had to
score a dent on these practical tests, and that basically
means you were on a fake plane doing the thing.
And it's not like you're serving that diet cokerong. It's
all it's mainly of this training, of this training. Yeah,
(16:58):
that's what she said, is uh, equipment safety, all that
stuff right, Like the first stuff where they're giving these
tests that you have to score high on is here's
here's all of the stuff you need to know about
the equipment. And then there's the drills where you're showing
that you know how to use it. And they simulated
emergencies right like smokes pouring in a cabin. What do
you do? Did you see that? One picture of Emirates
(17:21):
Airlines is like the big like a third of an
Emirates plane basically the main cabin with the slide out
going into a pool inside like a hangar, and you're like, oh,
they're gonna have to go down that slide. There's no
way they're not going down that slide and high heels
and everything too. Um, but they're running these drills and
apparently this is a big um. This is where most
(17:43):
people wash out, she said, was was during the drills
because it's so stressful and and also um. She she
points out that because this job always has been and
still is so competitive, that the airlines can choose to
be super picky so they will drop you for them.
This these training programs pretty pretty easily and quickly because
they know that they they can find somebody else who
(18:06):
could do it better. Right, Yeah, so you end up
with the cream of the crop in the end. Exactly.
That's a really good way to put it. And then
she says that really the last thing they learned and
the stuff that they spend the least amount of time
on is the actual customer service stuff like pushing the
beverage cart, where they know exactly what to do during
if sudden turbulence hits and there's a beverage cart. They
they are taught less how to pour that diet coke
(18:29):
or whatever. I think, like, I think I could do that,
the pouring the stuff, I would get so stressed out
the whole thing, Like I've seen it enough. Now we
travel enough for work where if like a flight attendant
was like, oh my ankle, I could throw on the
vest and run beverage service. You'd be like, step aside,
I've got this, Like I know exactly how how they're
(18:49):
doing it. I'm paying attention. Would you splint the person's
ankle first and then take over beverage service? I would
split the ankle and then I would get up. Do
you want peanuts, pretzels or biscoff cookie? Do you what
kind of drink? You want? Cancer? Peanuts anymore? And sure
you can't. The other day? What, Yeah, you have peanuts
on a flight? Yeah? I think they don't serve peanuts
(19:10):
if someone's allergic. But I don't think they peanuts. It
is my impression they have just stopped. I've been on
so many flights and they're like, well you we've got peanuts,
but you can't have them because third teenie is allergic,
and everybody's like, now they have almonds. Yeah, they did
have almonds on adult flight the other day, though they're delicious.
You have peanuts on a flight, that's like a Cela
(19:31):
can't And then uh, I'm a I'm a sucker for
those Delta cookies. So are you I have? Um? I
have desensitized to them. Actually just do pretzels. Now does
Biscoff cookies. I used to be a junkie for him.
I like them. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's just
a little seal treat in the air short bread something
(19:52):
or other. It's like a gingerbread kinderbread. But it's called speculoas,
which is the worst name for a dessert treat. On
on the Planet says that on the package speculus. It's like, yeah,
that's the original Dutch name for that. I'll tell you
where the money is, Chuck. I don't remember what airline
it is, but they have this Dutch treat. It's it's
(20:13):
too thin, very sweet waffle cookies with a caramel like inside,
right caramel sandwich. And they say, take this thing and
put it over your hot coffee and let the steam
from the coffee warm it up. And brother, you were
on cloud nine. Who tells you that the flight attendant
the package? The flight attendant doesn't tell you that. They
(20:36):
just go here, read this package. That sounds like some fancy,
uh international type of fline. I know it was domestic.
I think it was Midwestern, though there's a lot of
um European immigrants from the nineteenth century and all the
best foodie ways. Um we got side check there, where
were we? Well, we were talking about how difficult the
(20:58):
training actually is. Yeah, and that's sort of the long
and short of it. I mean it's long, it's sort
of grueling. At the very end is when you learn
just that she said that you learn the that five
percent of time you spend is what you end up
doing of the time, but you just have to be
so prepared for that one percent In case something goes wrong,
(21:20):
you can just react on instinct. Well, what's what made
me feel really good was that she said the flight
attendants you're flying with are so well trained, and they
also have to go back for annual training every year
to learn like new stuff that the airlines have figured out,
learn new procedures whatever um And you know, anytime say,
like an airline deploys a new um jet in its fleet,
(21:43):
they gotta go figure that out because the safety stuffs
in different places, and they need to know this stuff
and they need to be able to remember it and
act on it during an emergency. So I guess I
didn't really realize this, but any flight attendant on a
commercial aircraft that you're flying is capable of saving your
life should an emergency arise. Yeah, I mean they talk
(22:04):
about they even go through like a baby birth and training.
So the next time you want to yell at them
because they're saying the overhead space is full, remember that
that person can save your life if the plane starts
to go down or lands in the water or something.
And it's not their fault the overhead space is full.
It's it's all the people who put their bag up
and then walk to the back of the plane. Are
(22:25):
you talking about the worst people on earth? The worst
people on it? And they took their shoes off as
they were walking back. Man, why do people do that?
I don't know, but I was on a flight the
other day and I've never seen overhead space more screwed
up by just a handful of people who did that.
It was crazy. Like towards the end, people who were
sitting in like the first you know, five rows after
(22:48):
after first class, we're having to go to the back
of the plane. And he's just like watching them like,
oh man, you poor person as you're as you're walking
off the plane and they're just sitting there waiting to
get their bag. It's crazy. Yeah. I think when they
started charging for bags, um, that's when everything went berserk
(23:10):
because nobody wants to check their bag except me. I
don't mind. Now that's crazy to me. Yeah, I've never
lost the bags. I don't mind. I don't have to
sweat it. I mean, this is a if I'm just
going on a work trip, I don't even have my
roller bag anymore. I have my and I will buzz
market them all day. My red Ox Yeah, my red
(23:30):
Ox shoulder bag. Uh. The thing is great and I
can fit everything in there. But if I'm going on
like a vacation, and I know you think it's heresy,
but I will check that bag and relax my day away.
I'm not trying to yuck you. Um here, Yeah, if
you want to check your bag, that's fine, or gate
check it. That's the good deal because you don't have
to pay there. Okay, I have no problem with gate
(23:51):
checking it at the plane. So it's just stowed in
a handy manner, so you just walk off and they
hand it to you. That's fine. But there are very
few things that you can do that is a bigger
waste of time than standing around waiting for your bag
to make it to the bag carousel. I hate doing that,
especially when you're ready for vacation to start. Yeah, I
don't mind because most airports, my bag's cruising around that
(24:13):
thing by the time I get to baggage. Yeah for me,
And that's just because I I don't know. I don't
like having to mess with fighting a bag a suitcase
on a plane. I don't like contributing to that whole process,
much less being a business traveler. Like you see those
(24:34):
dudes that have the the roller bag with a big
bag on top of that and then a back back.
You're like, dude, that's like three pieces of luggage. I
need to merge them, all right. But this is not
about just us complaining about traveling. Get back to the
flight attendance, Get back to us. Uh So, customer service
(24:55):
is the goal of the flight in it to keep
you happy as possible. Um. But also you know they
don't have to indulge you once you have passed the
point of sobriety or just jerking nous. Um. They don't
deal with that stuff anymore. Like they will stop boarding
the plane if you're drunk before you get on, and
(25:16):
have you escorted off. It's it's serious business. Now, you
shouldn't get on a plane if you're loaded. No time
was they would get you loaded on the plane. Well
they yeah, they don't. They don't mess with that. But
they're they're long days. So like we said, twelve hour days,
they are if you're if you're new, Like you said earlier,
they don't have a ton of control over their schedules.
(25:37):
So you're gonna be working a lot of weekends. Everybody's
gonna be working some weekends. You're gonna do an overnight trips, uh,
spending a night in cities, and that can sometimes be
fun if you put a positive spin on it, or
it can be a big drag. Yeah. But one thing
that I had seen across the board from all the
sources I hit for this was that you it's up
(25:59):
to you how much or how little you fly. Up
to I think a hundred hours a month, there's like
a maximum you can you can work. Um, they're probably minimum,
don't you think r Now, not that I saw, probably
probably do. But I get the impression that that's actually
once you've done it for like six months. Typically when
(26:19):
you're hired on for an airline, you're on a probationary
six month period. Yeah, because they don't want just you
know number when they don't know you from anybody, they've
known you for seven weeks. They just trained you want
tin buddy passes and then I'm gonna quit my job exactly. Well,
I saw another thing too. Apparently buddy passes are like
the worst thing that's ever happened to a flight attendant
(26:41):
because everybody begs for him. But they are like really
actually bad passes. Like you're at the end of standby
and if your friend, if you give the buddy past
your friend and they start yelling at the gate agent,
you get in trouble because it was your buddy past
that was being used. You might even have your perks
revoked because your friend was a jerk to the gate
(27:03):
attendant and everybody's always asking you for him. So a
lot of people just don't even touch the buddy pass perk.
That's like, if you're a country club member, you're responsible
for the behavior of your guests right now. There are
other perks you don't know. You've seen. Caddy check, Yeah,
but I've never liked belonged to a country club. Um,
there are other perks where like a family members, immediate
(27:25):
family members sometimes extended family members of spouses. Um, they
get the same perks you do, which very frequently is
like you just pay taxes on the ticket and you
fly for free. Um, though that's different. Like all flight
attendants taken advantage of that. Some of them will will
hop on over to Europe or something for you know,
(27:47):
lunch hundred bucks. Yeah maybe if that. Yeah, well, buddy
passes used to be a lot easier when they didn't
oversell all the flights. You know, Like I used to
have friends back in the day. I'd get a buddy pass,
fly no problem. But now you're right, it's you're in
a bad position. Yeah. Do you remember flights where like
(28:09):
entire rows would be empty, Like, well, the flight was scheduled,
so we have to we have to stick to it.
It's it's strange what a day. Uh. So you're gonna
be working hours a month generally, but like you said,
I guess you can't go over that one mark. Uh.
And interestingly to another thing you get trained for is
(28:30):
very sadly human trafficking. These days, they will fly kidnapped
people right in front of people's faces, and so flight
attendants now are trained just to spot this kind of activity,
which can mean like an adult who doesn't really understand
about the final destination, that's a bad sign. Or if
(28:52):
it's uh, like an adult traveler with a minor and
they just it definitely looks like a little more than
parental behavior going on, like don't get up and go
to the bathroom, that kind of thing. Apparently that's how
it started. There was a man who caught the suspicion
of a flight attendant named UM Sandra Fierini. She worked
for American Airlines. She noticed that like a late eighteen
(29:14):
year old teenager age guy who was UM had an
infant that still had the umbilical cord attached, and like
a bottle of milk in his pocket, a couple of
diapers stucks in his in his pocket his other pocket,
so like this baby was stolen or bought or something.
And UM she started looking into it and found out
(29:36):
that there was actually a big deal. And UM teamed
up with a woman named Deborah Sigmund, who founded Innocence
at Risk and they kind of started this program where now,
if you're a flight attendant, when the things you're trained
for is to recognize UM human trafficking, and they actually
a bunch of flight attendants volunteered at the last Super
Bowl to look for human trafficking, because apparently the Super
(29:59):
Bowl is like also the Super Bowl prostitution and human
trafficking in the world every year. So fight attendants went
to the Super Bowl and volunteered to kind of like
keep tabs on things and call out people they thought
were amazing and traffic. Yeah, somebody wrote in and said,
you can call it super Bowl. Sure, it can't do anything. Yeah,
(30:20):
you can't like advertise anything using those words. I don't
think we can't sell our Super Bowl bobble heads that
we have a box full of. Too bad, it was
a poor investment. Should we take our final break here? Yeah,
all right, let's do that. We'll talk a little bit
more about some of the perks and drawbacks right after this.
(31:05):
All right, let's talk about pay m Baby, you don't
make a ton of money. I think starting salaries in
the mid thirties, Oh no, no, for a flight attendant,
that's no, No, starting salary can be like eighteen. The
median in two thousands, twelve or thirteen or fourteen was
thirty seven the median. That's like, that's the middle, that's
(31:30):
that's not much, you know. That's why it's such an attractive, um,
a job for people who are just looking for extra money.
If you're a parent and you have so much control
over your schedule, once you start to get some seniority, um,
it's a great, great way to spend your money. If
(31:50):
you're a soap opera star, it's a great, great extra job.
Did you see that? Yeah? What's her name? Kate Linder
who plays Esther Valentine on The Young and the Restless. Know,
she's a flight attendant as well, for like thirty two
years and she's done them both for about the same
amount of time. And she does it like every week. Yeah,
and she says it helps keep her grounded no pun intended. Yes,
(32:13):
she didn't say the no pun intended part, but yeah,
I mean she gets those perks, She gets to fly
to Europe for lunch if she wants, and act on soaps.
So good for her. And that's not to say that
that that media and I mean, obviously that's the middle amount,
but it goes much higher than that. And it all
has to do all perks, all pay all benefits, all
(32:34):
that stuff. The flight attendant profession is all about seniority.
And there are plenty of flight attendants out there who
are career flight attendants. And you know like Kate, Kate Linder,
she she's been doing it for thirty two years. There's
another UM woman named Candy Bruton who was a forty
(32:54):
three year veteran of flight attendant. UM Like, there you
can a long, happy career out of it now that
they've taken that age restriction off. Yeah, twenty one three cents.
A few years ago an hour was the was the
rate for a first year attendant. So plus twenty dollars
(33:15):
an hour. But here's the thing, and this is something
that I bet human beings don't realize. When you were
sitting on that plane and those doors are open and
they're getting you your first class drinks, or they're helping
you put your bags away and you're complaining because you
don't have a pillow and coach. They're doing that for
almost free, because the only hours that they get paid
(33:37):
for at that rate are flight hours. Yeah, when it
says the boarding doors now closed, the clock just started
for them. Never knew that. No, I didn't either. They
get something like depending on the airline, maybe a dollar
fifty to a dollar for the pre the boarding stuff,
the pre while the doors open stuff, I guess is
(33:58):
what you call it. Yeah, So like, next time you're
sitting on the tarmac and you're delayed for two hours
and you're super grumpy, think about that flight attendant who
is getting paid almost nothing to be dealing with how
grumpy you are, And if the boarding doors closed, they
would be getting paid right now they sat in here
if flight delays, they like, flight time is the only
thing that matters. I thought it was once the door
(34:20):
is closed. So if the doors closed and you go
out to the runway and you're just sitting there on
the runway, they would be getting paid. I thought that's
not what it said. Somebody let us know because it
said in the article. If next time you're on a
big flight delay, think about the fact that they're not
making any money. I know you, And that's probably why
the airline put it in there, because can you imagine
how much money they would have to pay in flight
(34:41):
attendance for flight delays. Yeah, but it's not like the
flight attendants are just like, I'm off the clock, don't
bother me. Once we get into the air, you can
bother me. You don't hear that, you know, so they
should be paying them for that. Hey, I agree, you know,
I think we should together and start a social movement here.
I wonder why you should tip flight attendant too. Yeah,
that's not a thing. They should stand you know, at
(35:02):
the end, when they stand there and say good day
and I hope you enjoyed your flight, they should be
holding the jar as far as I'm concerned, shaking it. Yeah,
throw five bucks in there on your way out, bye bye.
I think they'd be great. Uh. You remember Tina Mucklow,
the DV Cooper heist. Yeah, he tried to give her
ten dollars and she said no, tipping aloud. That's right.
(35:23):
What a hero. And quite often flight attendants or the
heroes on many flights, whether it is dealing with literally
a terrorist and trying to manage that situation bravely, or
god forbid, some sort of incident in the air with um,
you know, like with the with the plane itself. But
at the very least those jerks on planes that think
(35:45):
they can just talk to people whoever they want, they
gotta put up with a lot in a very cramped space. Um.
Very early on in in flight attendant history, I don't
know if we said or not. You said that Ellen
Church was a registered nurse, but that was par for
the course for early flight attend it's the happy registered nurses. UM.
There was one named Nellie Granger who was a t
(36:07):
W A flight attendant and she UM was on a
flight going to Pittsburgh, I believe in and it crashed
and she pulled a couple of passengers to safety, and
UM made it down the mountain to get help and
went back up with the rescuers to help. UM minister
to the two injured passengers whose lives she saved an hour.
(36:33):
She got a trip to the Equas with her aunt.
That's nice fight, t w A. Yeah, I got a
couple more things. There's some crazy stuff that flight attendants
have seen. The one that gets me though, is dead
bodies on planes that are purposefully brought onto planes, not
(36:55):
people who die. Apparently, Singapore Airlines says what's called the
corpse closet on their plane means to stow a passenger
who might die midair. There in the minority there that
I think they might be peculiar with that. But sometimes
because shipping a body is very expensive, it can run
into the thousands and thousands of dollars. Some people say, well,
it'd be cheaper if I just bought a plane ticket
(37:17):
or put my mother in a garment bag and just
smuggle her body on board and took her where she's
going to be buried myself. That a guy got caught
doing that in Miami. Um, there was in this mental
false article, there was the person who's interviewed said her
roommate UM found a mother and a daughter trying to
(37:37):
smuggle the dead father onto a flight, just in a wheelchair,
and said that he had the flu, but he was
clearly dead and they had to stop the plane mid flight.
Maybe he did have the flu, No, he was dead.
Maybe that's how I done. Oh maybe he previously had
the flu. Yeah, it could have been. Like there's a
kernel of truth to what we just said. That's it. Oh,
(37:58):
and don't order to diet coke. Apparently it takes the
longest to stop fizzing on a trolley. Okay, that's science.
If you want to know more about flight attendants, just
chat up a flight attendant. I'm sure they'd love to
tell you some great stories. And in the meantime, it's
time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this p s
(38:18):
A about the flu because we had someone Courtney Harmouth,
who was a Skanni, who says this, um, hey, guys,
want to basically give you a p s A about
how dangerous the flu can be. In it was a
healthy high school freshman was suddenly stricken with a horrible
digestive distress, chills, fever, coughing. After a week or so,
(38:41):
my parents took me to the g p UH and
I was told to go the hospital for observation and
get an I V. What was supposed to be one
night turned into a month. I had contracted the swine
flu that first night. My vitals went crazy and I
ended up having to be kept in my local hospital
for two weeks. To my say, I developed pneumonia as
a complication. Soon after that, fluid began to fill my
(39:03):
lungs and I had to be helicopter to a larger
hospital in Madison. UM. She said being in the helicopter
was pretty sweet. Though, oh really, yeah, even though you know,
I Wooter would not be comfortable. I think she's a
bright side person. Uh. For about twenty minutes, I was
only taking in about thirty percent oxygen. My parents were
told I could have brain damage or may even die.
(39:24):
When my arrival to the larger hospital, I was immediately
put to a medically induced comma for eleven days. Oh
my god, I was finally taken out of my coma.
I had atrophied and way to measly ninety five pounds
at twelve years old. I had to relearn how to
walk right and use basic motor skills. I am extremely
lucky and I'm completely recovered from the ordeal. Did not
suffer any long term health effects, and now it's twenty
(39:46):
three years old. I thankfully not had the flu. Since
I tell this to everyone to say, please get vaccinated
against the flu. The flu vaccine doesn't just protect you,
but also your kids, parents, friends and co workers really
love your show. Want to thank you for doing such
a great job about important and sometimes hilarious topics. That
(40:06):
is our wisconsinite Van Courtney Harmouth. Thanks a lot, Courtney.
Glad you made it through that one. That was pretty scary. Yeah,
we said the flue could be dangerous, so you haven't.
Courtney just proved good. Everybody. If you want to tell
us a great story that is harrowing and amazing, we
want to hear it or If you have a good
flight attendant story, that's a gooding too. You can tweet
(40:26):
to us at s Y s K podcast or at
josh um Clark. You can hang out with us on
Facebook dot com, slash Charles W. Chuck Bryant, or slash
stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email.
The Stuff podcast to how stuff Works dot com and
has always joined us at at home on the web.
Stuff you Should Know dot com For more on this
(40:48):
and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff Works
dot com
Welcome to Stuff you should know from house stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
With me is part of your cabin Cruise Charles W.
Chuck Bryant building the whole thing out is our pilot
Jerry Rowland, Captain Jars as we'll call her from now on.
(00:24):
If you'd like to return your seat to its full
upright position, but along with your trade table. If you've
lost your device or phone in the seat, don't touch it,
just come get one of us. Did that happen to you?
It's a new thing. What uh? No, it's like a
new thing on on Delta. And like the safety instructions,
they actually take a little time to say. If you've
(00:46):
lost your tablet or phone in your seat, don't adjust it,
Come get a flight attendant. What do you mean lust
in the seat? What do they mean? Like if you
have If you're sitting there and you've got the butter
of fingers and you know, like you turn into Jerry Lewis,
all of a sudden your phone slides down into the
seat beside you or in between the seat next to you.
Your phone is in grave danger. If you adjust your
(01:09):
seat back upright again, like I say, get a flight attendant,
because they now have additional skills in their repertoire to
get your tablet or phone outside. So at some point
a memo went out to these airlines. It said, we're
breaking cell phones because people are like, well, maybe if
I just throw my seat up, it'll pop out, It'll
shoot right out. Like I, like, I pressed rewind on
(01:31):
life weird anyway, this is stuff you should know the
I thought, that's pretty interesting actually, and it gave me
even more of an appreciation for flight attendance. Yes, then
I had already gained over my years. Yeah, because if
you're one of those puts is who's mean to flight
attendance you get off the plane, you're jerk. Shouldn't be
mean to people anyway. Like everybody's walking around carrying their
(01:53):
own burden that you're totally unaware of. And if you're
mean to somebody usually is because you're not getting what
you right then. So if everybody can just calm down
and be nice to each other, that's great, But be
extra nice to the flight attendants. And if you don't
agree with me, now, I guarantee you'll agree with us
at the end of the podcast, and even even in
our own article here there was a interview with the
(02:16):
flight attendant a couple of them, a couple of them,
but one of them very you know. One of these
vets said, yeah, you know, back in the day, everyone
was all excited when they flew, they were going someplace fun.
Now everyone's crabby. Yeah, but she makes a really good
point why. She says it's because this is all post
nine eleven, that the added layers of security that they've
(02:37):
put onto getting from your car onto the plane increases
stress so much that you're exhausted by the time you
get onto the plane, and flying has become a chore,
a task. The seats have gotten way smaller. I do
by that the leg room has gotten smaller. Um, and yeah,
(02:58):
I think that it's just kind of become or of like,
let's get from pointing to point B. Yeah, I taking
your shoes off, taking your laptop out, it's about all
the extra security. No big deal, that's what I say.
Did I tell you I've gotten kind of on board
your train about taking your shoes off on a flight?
Oh to not do it? Yeah? Good, So every once
(03:19):
in a while, just be like, to hell with that.
I don't care. I'm taking my shoes off. I know
my feet don't stink, but I understand that there's people
like you out there who are deeply offended by that
kind of thing. So I typically do leave them on
unless my dogs are just yapping so so loud. I can't.
I can't ignore it. But it's pretty rare these days.
I think my deal with that is is, uh, you
(03:40):
can't count on everyone's feet to not stink, And I
think plenty of people are like, I don't care that
their feet stink. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty rotten. I just
want to be comfy. That's pretty rotten. But we live
in something called society. There are rules. But getting back
to the new regulations, which is pretty much laptop out,
(04:01):
shoes off, I mean you still have to go through
the line just like before. You know, Yeah, it seems
it feels different to me. Yeah, it does different. Is
in more time consuming? Yeah, much more stressful, Like it's
not a it's not an event like it was. It
definitely used to be an event in a person's life
to go on an airplane. Well, do you have a
(04:23):
different feeling when you go on vacation compared to work travel?
As far as the airport goes, yea, and how you
feel about it the same same stress. Yes, a lot,
a lot of it, to be fair, is in my head. Yeah,
to me, pretty much, the worst thing that can happen
to you is missing your airplane. I can't I don't
(04:44):
even want to imagine what happens when you miss your airplane.
He's like, it's not that bad. As a matter of fact,
she's kind of entertained, like purposefully making us miss your
own version of cognitive debate. Um, but I I don't
want to miss it, so I generate my own stress
in a large part. But it does seem like much
more a process than it was before. Okay, how about you.
(05:08):
You're fine with it? Yeah, I mean it's no big deal,
just shoos in the laptop. Yeah, two bits. But but
it does seem like, um, And I read this Travel
and Leisure article about flight attendants, um where where the
author was saying, or I think she was quoting a
flight attendant who was saying, like, we've all kind of
(05:28):
decided as a group that we're fine with just getting
on an airplane and getting to where we're going, and
it doesn't have to be this luxury experience, and as
a result, the price of an airline ticket has come
down dramatically, has compared to the golden age of flying. Yeah,
but then it has gone back up since it was
pretty cheap. Yeah, but relative to say, average income, it's
(05:50):
I think much less than it wasn't say, like the sixties.
But in the sixties they were cutting like um like
like cut some meat on a cart in front of you.
I'm not kidding. There was a carving station that they
would move. I'm not kidding. I've seen. I believe it.
I think it's funny that that's the definition of fancy
is a carving station. It really is. I mean it is.
(06:12):
The guy had the hat and everything. Yeah, well you
and my extended family agree on that. But all of
us take our shoes off while we eat our carvon meat.
But there there used to be that they were like
piano lounges in first class lounge like they were. It
was like it was an event to But the fact
that it's gone is because we've all said no, we
(06:34):
want we want to be able to travel for less
cost with fewer frills. Yeah, I just kind of want
to get there. I'm with you. There if that's what
you think. Or I'm with the airline industry. Yeah, I
just put me on the plane and give me there.
Maybe throw a whiskey down my throat, and that's about all.
There you go banana maybe, yeah, if it's the morning.
(06:55):
But the people who are going to help you get
there banana and whiskey, Uh yeah, sure, okay. The people
who are going to help you get there, they have Um,
their job has changed over time, but they have not
because they are unsung heroes and have been from beginning
to end. That's right. The early days of plane travel,
(07:16):
they hired young men to take care of the stewardship
of the plane. Cabin boys yea Chris Elliot, Yeah, I
think that was a boat cabin, but still still a
cabin boy. Um. And that was just sort of the thing.
And then this this woman came along and you dug
this up. It's really great. Her name was Ellen Church
(07:38):
the nineteen thirties, uh in nineteen thirty in fact, and
she was a nurse and a license pilot. So she
had it going on and she said, you know what, um,
I have an idea Boeing air Transport, who would become
United Airlines. Why don't you hire eight women to take
care of you on your flight for three months? Just
(08:00):
see how that goes. And it went great, and they said,
I think we're onto something here. Yeah. She actually um
pitched the idea because at first the execs were like, no,
that's a stupid idea. You know, this is no place
for women. Um and she said, we'll get this. How
is a man going to say that he can't fly
because he's afraid of flying if he knows there's a
(08:20):
woman up there flying around? And they're like, actually, that's
a pretty good psychology. So they took her up on
it and it became a thing from that moment on.
But before her, I have to say, if we're talking
gender non specific flight attendants, a man had her beat
by eighteen years. A German Man named Heinrich Cubis who
(08:41):
was the world's first flight attendant and he worked Zeppelin's
including the graph Zeppelin and the Hindenburg. Really did he
die on the Hindenburg? He left. Very few people died
on the Hindenburg. I think they were mostly on the ground. Remember,
I don't remember, because the hydrogen burned up and the
people who died were Once you jump, that's what it
(09:02):
was is that it did we do a show on
that we've talked about before. Yeah, yeah, I'm one of
our many, many, many short lived video series. Oh right,
of course. So at any rate, Ellen Church changed the
face of the flight attendant industry. And then in the
in the sixties and seventies, of course, it was sort
(09:23):
of a and this is not me talking here, this
is in the article. It was the sexy stewardess phase
of airline travel. Yeah, and that was definitely the deal
that you had, uh, weight limits and height limits. You
had to look a certain way and um, they put
you in the just the right outfit and it was
all about sort of, hey, get up there and look
(09:44):
good and serve drinks. So and they were they were
like those limits you talk about. Technically they're still around.
There are weight limits and height limits, but they're restricted
to you can't be so short that you can't reach
the overhead bins. Yeah, they're all practical limits. Right, you
can't be so ta all that you're just bumping your
head all over the place. Um, you have to be
of the of adequate size to fit into a jump
(10:06):
seat that the flight attendant sit in. But that's it.
Back then, it was you have to weigh like no
more than a hundred and twenty pounds, you have to
be this height, and it had everything to do with
looks and attractiveness in your thirty two so you're fired. Yeah,
that was a thing like very early on, I think
in the fifties. I think in the nineteen fifties they
(10:29):
started airlines started instituting age restrictions where once you got
to age thirty two, you were no longer eligible to
be a flight attendant. You might have a job down
on the ground, but you couldn't be a flight attendant
anymore because you were too old according to them. Um.
Plus also you couldn't be married or have kids. Right. Yeah,
(10:49):
it's very restrictive back in the day. Also maybe the
most sexist industry that's ever existed. And of course that's
airline dependent. It's not like it was a federal regulation. Yeah,
so it all depended. But um, you need a high
school diploma at the very least these days, but they're
very competitive jobs to get. Um you've gone to the
(11:10):
days where you can just waltzon there with a head
shot and get a job as flight attendant. A lot
of people want these gigs and so if you have
a college degree, then you definitely have a leg up
these days, definitely. But it's always been pretty competitive. Supposedly
in two thousand six, Delta announced that they had a
thousand openings and got like a hundred thousand applications. But
(11:34):
it's always been like really competitive because from the beginning
it was viewed as like really glamorous in the beginning.
In the beginning, I don't know about from the beginning,
so um, because it's been a really competitive um uh career, chuck.
And because the airlines were run by like men who
(11:55):
were decided that they owned their their flight attendants because
they ran the airlines. There was in that sixties, the
swinging sixties era of that sexy stewardest thing you were
talking about, like they were a major draw for airlines,
and the airlines like advertisements such so, I've got found something.
(12:15):
This is in that UM Travel and Leisure UM article.
I found you ready for this? This is going to
knock your socks off. Purposefully didn't send this to you
because one of you. Yeah, so, National Airlines in the
sixties had an advertisement where they had flight attendants Debbie
Ryl and Karen and they could fly me. They also
(12:39):
had an alternate slogan, I'm going to fly you like
you've never been flown before. And these are print ads. Okay,
um Continental uh well, contin Els was lame. Brand Iff
had one their advertising said does your wife know you're
flying with us? Yeah? Um? Pacific Southwest said you want
(13:02):
an aisle seat because all of our flight attendans have
mini skirts and sometimes they drop stuff basically, and then
get this, Eastern Airlines gave out little black books to
their male passengers so they could get the numbers of
the stewardesses, the flight attendants. And then Quanta seto slogan.
Ever seen a tickle fight? Crazy? You're right, it's basically
(13:23):
the sentiment behind it. Um. And so you've got the
airlines advertising this, and then the flight attendants unions are
fighting this stuff tooth and nails, to be treated in
a dignified manner and not not be fired because you
weigh a hundred and twenty two pounds, which, yeah, it's
just crazy. This is like this was the way that
it was back then. Yeah, yeah, your show for working.
(13:44):
It's like, hey, honey, get on the scale and would
your birthday again? Yeah? Terrible you kind of went to
a Bill Clinton. There sounded a little Bill Clinton. I
thought it sounded like, w all right, well, let's let's
take a break then and work on our presidential accents
and we'll come back and talk about post nine eleven flying. Alright,
(14:30):
So we did mention that after nine eleven, things of
course did change. Uh, and things change in a big
way for flight attendance. They um, not that they never
trained on safety, but I think the training got way
more intense. Yeah, did you see that when I sent you? Yeah,
from I think the Points Guys website. Yeah, we should
(14:51):
go over that now. Actually, so he has a flight
attendant insider who like writes quite a bit for his sight.
I don't remember a name. Just look up the Points
Guy flight Autenant Insider and um, she just she goes
into great detail about what it's like to go through training.
It is more intense than I realized it was, for sure. Yeah,
(15:12):
they and this depends on the airlines, but they sort
of give averages. The average training is seven weeks, but
they can be as long as twelve weeks. We're talking
six days a week, twelve hours a day, and they
call it Barbie boot camp. Because you don't show up
in your sweats and tank top with no makeup. Right,
it's not like you're a passenger. No, yeah, exactly, your
(15:32):
big fuzzy slippers and your pillow from home. Uh No,
you show up as if you are there to work
a flight. So you have to be in whatever attire
that they require you to be in and have your
hair done however, you would do it and just basically
be game day ready. And then they work you that
many hours a day because that's about how many hours
(15:54):
day you're gonna be working. Yeah, attended. When you start
working at first, you have very little will control over
your own schedule. Um, although I get the impression you
have flexibility out of the gate, but if you say
I want to work this many days a month, that's
the input you have at first until you start to
develop seniority. So yeah, they expose you to that six
(16:16):
days a week, twelve hours a day, um, during training
for many weeks. So um. The first thing they do
is learn all the safety equipment. They're given written tests
that she said that they had to score at least
a ninety on. I said that really weird, didn't I? Yeah? Well,
she said, if it was a eighty. They had to
retake it, so they had to score at least ninety
(16:37):
two to pass. And then practical exams. We had to
score a dent on these practical tests, and that basically
means you were on a fake plane doing the thing.
And it's not like you're serving that diet cokerong. It's
all it's mainly of this training, of this training. Yeah,
(16:58):
that's what she said, is uh, equipment safety, all that
stuff right, Like the first stuff where they're giving these
tests that you have to score high on is here's
here's all of the stuff you need to know about
the equipment. And then there's the drills where you're showing
that you know how to use it. And they simulated
emergencies right like smokes pouring in a cabin. What do
you do? Did you see that? One picture of Emirates
(17:21):
Airlines is like the big like a third of an
Emirates plane basically the main cabin with the slide out
going into a pool inside like a hangar, and you're like, oh,
they're gonna have to go down that slide. There's no
way they're not going down that slide and high heels
and everything too. Um, but they're running these drills and
apparently this is a big um. This is where most
(17:43):
people wash out, she said, was was during the drills
because it's so stressful and and also um. She she
points out that because this job always has been and
still is so competitive, that the airlines can choose to
be super picky so they will drop you for them.
This these training programs pretty pretty easily and quickly because
they know that they they can find somebody else who
(18:06):
could do it better. Right, Yeah, so you end up
with the cream of the crop in the end. Exactly.
That's a really good way to put it. And then
she says that really the last thing they learned and
the stuff that they spend the least amount of time
on is the actual customer service stuff like pushing the
beverage cart, where they know exactly what to do during
if sudden turbulence hits and there's a beverage cart. They
they are taught less how to pour that diet coke
(18:29):
or whatever. I think, like, I think I could do that,
the pouring the stuff, I would get so stressed out
the whole thing, Like I've seen it enough. Now we
travel enough for work where if like a flight attendant
was like, oh my ankle, I could throw on the
vest and run beverage service. You'd be like, step aside,
I've got this, Like I know exactly how how they're
(18:49):
doing it. I'm paying attention. Would you splint the person's
ankle first and then take over beverage service? I would
split the ankle and then I would get up. Do
you want peanuts, pretzels or biscoff cookie? Do you what
kind of drink? You want? Cancer? Peanuts anymore? And sure
you can't. The other day? What, Yeah, you have peanuts
on a flight? Yeah? I think they don't serve peanuts
(19:10):
if someone's allergic. But I don't think they peanuts. It
is my impression they have just stopped. I've been on
so many flights and they're like, well you we've got peanuts,
but you can't have them because third teenie is allergic,
and everybody's like, now they have almonds. Yeah, they did
have almonds on adult flight the other day, though they're delicious.
You have peanuts on a flight, that's like a Cela
(19:31):
can't And then uh, I'm a I'm a sucker for
those Delta cookies. So are you I have? Um? I
have desensitized to them. Actually just do pretzels. Now does
Biscoff cookies. I used to be a junkie for him.
I like them. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's just
a little seal treat in the air short bread something
(19:52):
or other. It's like a gingerbread kinderbread. But it's called speculoas,
which is the worst name for a dessert treat. On
on the Planet says that on the package speculus. It's like, yeah,
that's the original Dutch name for that. I'll tell you
where the money is, Chuck. I don't remember what airline
it is, but they have this Dutch treat. It's it's
(20:13):
too thin, very sweet waffle cookies with a caramel like inside,
right caramel sandwich. And they say, take this thing and
put it over your hot coffee and let the steam
from the coffee warm it up. And brother, you were
on cloud nine. Who tells you that the flight attendant
the package? The flight attendant doesn't tell you that. They
(20:36):
just go here, read this package. That sounds like some fancy,
uh international type of fline. I know it was domestic.
I think it was Midwestern, though there's a lot of
um European immigrants from the nineteenth century and all the
best foodie ways. Um we got side check there, where
were we? Well, we were talking about how difficult the
(20:58):
training actually is. Yeah, and that's sort of the long
and short of it. I mean it's long, it's sort
of grueling. At the very end is when you learn
just that she said that you learn the that five
percent of time you spend is what you end up
doing of the time, but you just have to be
so prepared for that one percent In case something goes wrong,
(21:20):
you can just react on instinct. Well, what's what made
me feel really good was that she said the flight
attendants you're flying with are so well trained, and they
also have to go back for annual training every year
to learn like new stuff that the airlines have figured out,
learn new procedures whatever um And you know, anytime say,
like an airline deploys a new um jet in its fleet,
(21:43):
they gotta go figure that out because the safety stuffs
in different places, and they need to know this stuff
and they need to be able to remember it and
act on it during an emergency. So I guess I
didn't really realize this, but any flight attendant on a
commercial aircraft that you're flying is capable of saving your
life should an emergency arise. Yeah, I mean they talk
(22:04):
about they even go through like a baby birth and training.
So the next time you want to yell at them
because they're saying the overhead space is full, remember that
that person can save your life if the plane starts
to go down or lands in the water or something.
And it's not their fault the overhead space is full.
It's it's all the people who put their bag up
and then walk to the back of the plane. Are
(22:25):
you talking about the worst people on earth? The worst
people on it? And they took their shoes off as
they were walking back. Man, why do people do that?
I don't know, but I was on a flight the
other day and I've never seen overhead space more screwed
up by just a handful of people who did that.
It was crazy. Like towards the end, people who were
sitting in like the first you know, five rows after
(22:48):
after first class, we're having to go to the back
of the plane. And he's just like watching them like,
oh man, you poor person as you're as you're walking
off the plane and they're just sitting there waiting to
get their bag. It's crazy. Yeah. I think when they
started charging for bags, um, that's when everything went berserk
(23:10):
because nobody wants to check their bag except me. I
don't mind. Now that's crazy to me. Yeah, I've never
lost the bags. I don't mind. I don't have to
sweat it. I mean, this is a if I'm just
going on a work trip, I don't even have my
roller bag anymore. I have my and I will buzz
market them all day. My red Ox Yeah, my red
(23:30):
Ox shoulder bag. Uh. The thing is great and I
can fit everything in there. But if I'm going on
like a vacation, and I know you think it's heresy,
but I will check that bag and relax my day away.
I'm not trying to yuck you. Um here, Yeah, if
you want to check your bag, that's fine, or gate
check it. That's the good deal because you don't have
to pay there. Okay, I have no problem with gate
(23:51):
checking it at the plane. So it's just stowed in
a handy manner, so you just walk off and they
hand it to you. That's fine. But there are very
few things that you can do that is a bigger
waste of time than standing around waiting for your bag
to make it to the bag carousel. I hate doing that,
especially when you're ready for vacation to start. Yeah, I
don't mind because most airports, my bag's cruising around that
(24:13):
thing by the time I get to baggage. Yeah for me,
And that's just because I I don't know. I don't
like having to mess with fighting a bag a suitcase
on a plane. I don't like contributing to that whole process,
much less being a business traveler. Like you see those
(24:34):
dudes that have the the roller bag with a big
bag on top of that and then a back back.
You're like, dude, that's like three pieces of luggage. I
need to merge them, all right. But this is not
about just us complaining about traveling. Get back to the
flight attendance, Get back to us. Uh So, customer service
(24:55):
is the goal of the flight in it to keep
you happy as possible. Um. But also you know they
don't have to indulge you once you have passed the
point of sobriety or just jerking nous. Um. They don't
deal with that stuff anymore. Like they will stop boarding
the plane if you're drunk before you get on, and
(25:16):
have you escorted off. It's it's serious business. Now, you
shouldn't get on a plane if you're loaded. No time
was they would get you loaded on the plane. Well
they yeah, they don't. They don't mess with that. But
they're they're long days. So like we said, twelve hour days,
they are if you're if you're new, Like you said earlier,
they don't have a ton of control over their schedules.
(25:37):
So you're gonna be working a lot of weekends. Everybody's
gonna be working some weekends. You're gonna do an overnight trips, uh,
spending a night in cities, and that can sometimes be
fun if you put a positive spin on it, or
it can be a big drag. Yeah. But one thing
that I had seen across the board from all the
sources I hit for this was that you it's up
(25:59):
to you how much or how little you fly. Up
to I think a hundred hours a month, there's like
a maximum you can you can work. Um, they're probably minimum,
don't you think r Now, not that I saw, probably
probably do. But I get the impression that that's actually
once you've done it for like six months. Typically when
(26:19):
you're hired on for an airline, you're on a probationary
six month period. Yeah, because they don't want just you
know number when they don't know you from anybody, they've
known you for seven weeks. They just trained you want
tin buddy passes and then I'm gonna quit my job exactly. Well,
I saw another thing too. Apparently buddy passes are like
the worst thing that's ever happened to a flight attendant
(26:41):
because everybody begs for him. But they are like really
actually bad passes. Like you're at the end of standby
and if your friend, if you give the buddy past
your friend and they start yelling at the gate agent,
you get in trouble because it was your buddy past
that was being used. You might even have your perks
revoked because your friend was a jerk to the gate
(27:03):
attendant and everybody's always asking you for him. So a
lot of people just don't even touch the buddy pass perk.
That's like, if you're a country club member, you're responsible
for the behavior of your guests right now. There are
other perks you don't know. You've seen. Caddy check, Yeah,
but I've never liked belonged to a country club. Um,
there are other perks where like a family members, immediate
(27:25):
family members sometimes extended family members of spouses. Um, they
get the same perks you do, which very frequently is
like you just pay taxes on the ticket and you
fly for free. Um, though that's different. Like all flight
attendants taken advantage of that. Some of them will will
hop on over to Europe or something for you know,
(27:47):
lunch hundred bucks. Yeah maybe if that. Yeah, well, buddy
passes used to be a lot easier when they didn't
oversell all the flights. You know, Like I used to
have friends back in the day. I'd get a buddy pass,
fly no problem. But now you're right, it's you're in
a bad position. Yeah. Do you remember flights where like
(28:09):
entire rows would be empty, Like, well, the flight was scheduled,
so we have to we have to stick to it.
It's it's strange what a day. Uh. So you're gonna
be working hours a month generally, but like you said,
I guess you can't go over that one mark. Uh.
And interestingly to another thing you get trained for is
(28:30):
very sadly human trafficking. These days, they will fly kidnapped
people right in front of people's faces, and so flight
attendants now are trained just to spot this kind of activity,
which can mean like an adult who doesn't really understand
about the final destination, that's a bad sign. Or if
(28:52):
it's uh, like an adult traveler with a minor and
they just it definitely looks like a little more than
parental behavior going on, like don't get up and go
to the bathroom, that kind of thing. Apparently that's how
it started. There was a man who caught the suspicion
of a flight attendant named UM Sandra Fierini. She worked
for American Airlines. She noticed that like a late eighteen
(29:14):
year old teenager age guy who was UM had an
infant that still had the umbilical cord attached, and like
a bottle of milk in his pocket, a couple of
diapers stucks in his in his pocket his other pocket,
so like this baby was stolen or bought or something.
And UM she started looking into it and found out
(29:36):
that there was actually a big deal. And UM teamed
up with a woman named Deborah Sigmund, who founded Innocence
at Risk and they kind of started this program where now,
if you're a flight attendant, when the things you're trained
for is to recognize UM human trafficking, and they actually
a bunch of flight attendants volunteered at the last Super
Bowl to look for human trafficking, because apparently the Super
(29:59):
Bowl is like also the Super Bowl prostitution and human
trafficking in the world every year. So fight attendants went
to the Super Bowl and volunteered to kind of like
keep tabs on things and call out people they thought
were amazing and traffic. Yeah, somebody wrote in and said,
you can call it super Bowl. Sure, it can't do anything. Yeah,
(30:20):
you can't like advertise anything using those words. I don't
think we can't sell our Super Bowl bobble heads that
we have a box full of. Too bad, it was
a poor investment. Should we take our final break here? Yeah,
all right, let's do that. We'll talk a little bit
more about some of the perks and drawbacks right after this.
(31:05):
All right, let's talk about pay m Baby, you don't
make a ton of money. I think starting salaries in
the mid thirties, Oh no, no, for a flight attendant,
that's no, No, starting salary can be like eighteen. The
median in two thousands, twelve or thirteen or fourteen was
thirty seven the median. That's like, that's the middle, that's
(31:30):
that's not much, you know. That's why it's such an attractive, um,
a job for people who are just looking for extra money.
If you're a parent and you have so much control
over your schedule, once you start to get some seniority, um,
it's a great, great way to spend your money. If
(31:50):
you're a soap opera star, it's a great, great extra job.
Did you see that? Yeah? What's her name? Kate Linder
who plays Esther Valentine on The Young and the Restless. Know,
she's a flight attendant as well, for like thirty two
years and she's done them both for about the same
amount of time. And she does it like every week. Yeah,
and she says it helps keep her grounded no pun intended. Yes,
(32:13):
she didn't say the no pun intended part, but yeah,
I mean she gets those perks, She gets to fly
to Europe for lunch if she wants, and act on soaps.
So good for her. And that's not to say that
that that media and I mean, obviously that's the middle amount,
but it goes much higher than that. And it all
has to do all perks, all pay all benefits, all
(32:34):
that stuff. The flight attendant profession is all about seniority.
And there are plenty of flight attendants out there who
are career flight attendants. And you know like Kate, Kate Linder,
she she's been doing it for thirty two years. There's
another UM woman named Candy Bruton who was a forty
(32:54):
three year veteran of flight attendant. UM Like, there you
can a long, happy career out of it now that
they've taken that age restriction off. Yeah, twenty one three cents.
A few years ago an hour was the was the
rate for a first year attendant. So plus twenty dollars
(33:15):
an hour. But here's the thing, and this is something
that I bet human beings don't realize. When you were
sitting on that plane and those doors are open and
they're getting you your first class drinks, or they're helping
you put your bags away and you're complaining because you
don't have a pillow and coach. They're doing that for
almost free, because the only hours that they get paid
(33:37):
for at that rate are flight hours. Yeah, when it
says the boarding doors now closed, the clock just started
for them. Never knew that. No, I didn't either. They
get something like depending on the airline, maybe a dollar
fifty to a dollar for the pre the boarding stuff,
the pre while the doors open stuff, I guess is
(33:58):
what you call it. Yeah, So like, next time you're
sitting on the tarmac and you're delayed for two hours
and you're super grumpy, think about that flight attendant who
is getting paid almost nothing to be dealing with how
grumpy you are, And if the boarding doors closed, they
would be getting paid right now they sat in here
if flight delays, they like, flight time is the only
thing that matters. I thought it was once the door
(34:20):
is closed. So if the doors closed and you go
out to the runway and you're just sitting there on
the runway, they would be getting paid. I thought that's
not what it said. Somebody let us know because it
said in the article. If next time you're on a
big flight delay, think about the fact that they're not
making any money. I know you, And that's probably why
the airline put it in there, because can you imagine
how much money they would have to pay in flight
(34:41):
attendance for flight delays. Yeah, but it's not like the
flight attendants are just like, I'm off the clock, don't
bother me. Once we get into the air, you can
bother me. You don't hear that, you know, so they
should be paying them for that. Hey, I agree, you know,
I think we should together and start a social movement here.
I wonder why you should tip flight attendant too. Yeah,
that's not a thing. They should stand you know, at
(35:02):
the end, when they stand there and say good day
and I hope you enjoyed your flight, they should be
holding the jar as far as I'm concerned, shaking it. Yeah,
throw five bucks in there on your way out, bye bye.
I think they'd be great. Uh. You remember Tina Mucklow,
the DV Cooper heist. Yeah, he tried to give her
ten dollars and she said no, tipping aloud. That's right.
(35:23):
What a hero. And quite often flight attendants or the
heroes on many flights, whether it is dealing with literally
a terrorist and trying to manage that situation bravely, or
god forbid, some sort of incident in the air with um,
you know, like with the with the plane itself. But
at the very least those jerks on planes that think
(35:45):
they can just talk to people whoever they want, they
gotta put up with a lot in a very cramped space. Um.
Very early on in in flight attendant history, I don't
know if we said or not. You said that Ellen
Church was a registered nurse, but that was par for
the course for early flight attend it's the happy registered nurses. UM.
There was one named Nellie Granger who was a t
(36:07):
W A flight attendant and she UM was on a
flight going to Pittsburgh, I believe in and it crashed
and she pulled a couple of passengers to safety, and
UM made it down the mountain to get help and
went back up with the rescuers to help. UM minister
to the two injured passengers whose lives she saved an hour.
(36:33):
She got a trip to the Equas with her aunt.
That's nice fight, t w A. Yeah, I got a
couple more things. There's some crazy stuff that flight attendants
have seen. The one that gets me though, is dead
bodies on planes that are purposefully brought onto planes, not
(36:55):
people who die. Apparently, Singapore Airlines says what's called the
corpse closet on their plane means to stow a passenger
who might die midair. There in the minority there that
I think they might be peculiar with that. But sometimes
because shipping a body is very expensive, it can run
into the thousands and thousands of dollars. Some people say, well,
it'd be cheaper if I just bought a plane ticket
(37:17):
or put my mother in a garment bag and just
smuggle her body on board and took her where she's
going to be buried myself. That a guy got caught
doing that in Miami. Um, there was in this mental
false article, there was the person who's interviewed said her
roommate UM found a mother and a daughter trying to
(37:37):
smuggle the dead father onto a flight, just in a wheelchair,
and said that he had the flu, but he was
clearly dead and they had to stop the plane mid flight.
Maybe he did have the flu, No, he was dead.
Maybe that's how I done. Oh maybe he previously had
the flu. Yeah, it could have been. Like there's a
kernel of truth to what we just said. That's it. Oh,
(37:58):
and don't order to diet coke. Apparently it takes the
longest to stop fizzing on a trolley. Okay, that's science.
If you want to know more about flight attendants, just
chat up a flight attendant. I'm sure they'd love to
tell you some great stories. And in the meantime, it's
time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this p s
(38:18):
A about the flu because we had someone Courtney Harmouth,
who was a Skanni, who says this, um, hey, guys,
want to basically give you a p s A about
how dangerous the flu can be. In it was a
healthy high school freshman was suddenly stricken with a horrible
digestive distress, chills, fever, coughing. After a week or so,
(38:41):
my parents took me to the g p UH and
I was told to go the hospital for observation and
get an I V. What was supposed to be one
night turned into a month. I had contracted the swine
flu that first night. My vitals went crazy and I
ended up having to be kept in my local hospital
for two weeks. To my say, I developed pneumonia as
a complication. Soon after that, fluid began to fill my
(39:03):
lungs and I had to be helicopter to a larger
hospital in Madison. UM. She said being in the helicopter
was pretty sweet. Though, oh really, yeah, even though you know,
I Wooter would not be comfortable. I think she's a
bright side person. Uh. For about twenty minutes, I was
only taking in about thirty percent oxygen. My parents were
told I could have brain damage or may even die.
(39:24):
When my arrival to the larger hospital, I was immediately
put to a medically induced comma for eleven days. Oh
my god, I was finally taken out of my coma.
I had atrophied and way to measly ninety five pounds
at twelve years old. I had to relearn how to
walk right and use basic motor skills. I am extremely
lucky and I'm completely recovered from the ordeal. Did not
suffer any long term health effects, and now it's twenty
(39:46):
three years old. I thankfully not had the flu. Since
I tell this to everyone to say, please get vaccinated
against the flu. The flu vaccine doesn't just protect you,
but also your kids, parents, friends and co workers really
love your show. Want to thank you for doing such
a great job about important and sometimes hilarious topics. That
(40:06):
is our wisconsinite Van Courtney Harmouth. Thanks a lot, Courtney.
Glad you made it through that one. That was pretty scary. Yeah,
we said the flue could be dangerous, so you haven't.
Courtney just proved good. Everybody. If you want to tell
us a great story that is harrowing and amazing, we
want to hear it or If you have a good
flight attendant story, that's a gooding too. You can tweet
(40:26):
to us at s Y s K podcast or at
josh um Clark. You can hang out with us on
Facebook dot com, slash Charles W. Chuck Bryant, or slash
stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email.
The Stuff podcast to how stuff Works dot com and
has always joined us at at home on the web.
Stuff you Should Know dot com For more on this
(40:48):
and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff Works
dot com
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