Monday, November 20, 2006

Flight Attendants


I would say flight attendants are the perfect first jobs, if they also provide on the side. Because of the wide disparity of world living standards, there are lots of flight attendants that are gorgeous, well educated and beyond. Indeed if you have been a jet setter, you would have noticed the trend of flight attendants, reflecting (inversely?) the economic progress of the country where they were recruited. BTW, looking at the flight attendants, I always have a question in my mind. Can an airline recruits all of the crew from country B, if the international flight is between countries A and B? Because you can't get interesting recruits from US for the wage, can you?

First of all, I'm not saying that many of them are. These things occur in clusters, depending on the route. Some places do honor their flight attendants with the title flying providers.

A long time ago, I was at the grand opening of a Thai restaurant in Europe. I was shocked by how many tall gorgeous models they have, serving flawlessly in a fully jammed restaurant, in very glamorous Thai dresses. I wasn't surprised when I was told that they were flight attendants (whole crew hired for promotion during their day off). Models can't serve, at least not like that in a packed place. I think their dresses were their uniforms too. Certainly they are not providers, or they are way out of my league. I think a lot of them are not just coach flight attendants, but business or first class.

Some flight attendant positions are well paid (compare to their local standards), well sought after, requiring good education and nice appearance. If not, their chance of jumping ship say in US is too high. For this reason, we don't have Philippine domestics when they are all over the world. It's certainly better to disappear into the vast Philippine population in say LA than earning the domestic wage.

Part-timers have their attractions. It's unlikely to have double bookings, end to end bookings. Otherwise they would do it full time. Particularly for flight attendants, I would think their available time is very limited. Obviously many don't provide at their home base. Appointment is by referral.

These girls often go for the job for the romance associated with it - they can see the world. Once into the job, they find out there's more. As long as you are not at your home base, it's like Spring Break forever. You can be adventurous in dating without repercussions, tarnishing your reputations back home. Then you find out that the temptation is too great. An average girl can charge in US the same as a top of the range model back home. Soon you may find out that the whole crew is providing on the side, that's what I mean clusters. I have seen group photos of them like on vacation, then the middle man said, which one do you like?

Like Emma, they process some qualities that 19 year old drop outs don't have (I love them all though). They earn their living, they have a tough job, and they are not quitting on the first week. I have a cheap old luxury car, but that's OK with her. I had a nice house and a nice yard, but her town house probably cost her more than the price I paid for my house. Of course she like my house a lot more. I brought it a couple of years earlier that made all the difference. She drove a very modest car, very respectable. As far as providers go, she is the opposite end of the spectrum as Chanel, who drive a big not entry level luxury car, and can't shut her mouth and instinctively advise me to upgrade. But I've done that and grew out of it now. I think it's time to stop, I can go on forever. Incidentally, they are both American born, exiled and returned.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you are right. I am about to leave a very well-paid corporate job to be a flight attendant. Most people I met during the interview, which by the way is a lot harder than interviews at big law firms, were well educated and beautiful. Many of the girls had graduate degrees (like myself) and were either just completely bored with their "good" jobs, or were not finding jobs in their fields and had always fantasized about being a flight attendant. I'm very excited to begin my new career although I am extremely worried about the low pay (my salary will be reduced approximately 10 times...I must be insane, but if I stay here, I'll die of boredom).

The Player said...

It sounded just like Jane, who will always punish me for the holes in my theories.

So I'm wrong that you can only recruit attractive and educated flight attendants from Bangladesh, who have to offer a relative high salary compared to their local standards, to prevent missing crews every time the plane stops at US ports.

The Player said...

I bet it's still a glamorous job in Bangladesh.

In Europe, the high unemployment (relatively) and pension still attracts some young people.

I don't know about Asia, irrespective of GDP per capita and employment rate, there are not too short of young people joining.

Yes, flight attendants are getting older, but those who grow old on the job are still rather attractive wearing their uniform. I don't know where they dig up some (but not all) US flight attendants, as if nobody wants the job. Perhaps Hooters explains everything.

And so I heard that crew parties are pretty wild. They are pretty tight and self sufficient too - as they probably don't need outside help.

The fact is, the hotels that I use offering good internet deals also offer good deals for airline crews. I can see bus loads of crews arriving at the hotels. I wonder what they do at their day(s) off, after punishing work hours. I'm thinking of getting laid even when I'm not in my day off.

The fact is, some crews leave their wives and children 2/3 of the time. The (few) crews I know all are work out freaks (to me), which makes you wonder why.

Emma is US born, being exiled because she was a ticking time bomb once in her teens. I think the job is her way of coming back, and I won't be surprised if she has a degree, because she is a geek, into hardware and software, because she like cam dating.

In a way she isn't an exception because I saw the group photo of her crew, all 20 somethings and I was asked to take my pick after I tried Emma. But I kept her because she has an oral fixation and she likes sex.

She has a worldwide gym membership and when she did managed to come back and settle down, she put a gym in her town house.

Vanity is a funny thing. The top end in LA can be seen in CitySource (.com), from $700 to $1000 per hour, some require 2 hr minimum. So if you are an average flight attendant, but someone offer you $1000 per hour in some hypothetical destination. It's not something to be ashamed of to your close friends. If you temp one more to join in, you feel better, until, well, the whole crew is game.

Coco said...

I think that you can also recruit attractive and very well educated flight attendants in the US, but they are probably a little crazy for being willing to take such a big pay cut, and who knows how long they stay --I'll find out soon how long I stay I guess.

The Player said...

Oops, so it wasn't Jane making fun of me. Is Wall Street so bad? Fascinating. Pity that I wasn't invited to read. Good luck with the pay cut. But I think you can select to live almost anywhere domestically to offset the living cost.

Anonymous said...

I am a FA who needs to make some money on the side. How should I go about it? I thought I would seek advice from an expert. What do you suggest? I have a relationship in my base city, so it'd obviously have to be in the places I fly to.

The Player said...

Difficult question. But certainly don't buy some escort handbook by the likes of After Hours and go about it.

My first advice is don't. The most risky time is when you are trying it out. There is always the possibility of moving on or being dragged into full time. Then never get out of it, or come out of it becoming a totally different person. If you have to, my advice is think big and quick. So doing it part time is not the best - the return doesn't balance the down side. On the other hand, you may be afford to be one of those $1000 / hr girls. If nobody calls, so what? Change the ad and the pictures may be the price and tomorrow will be another day.

If you are from a foreign airline into US, if there's some moonlighters around you, it shouldn't be hard to detect. You can say they are the experts and can introduce you to the right people. It's very different for FA of US airlines. I suppose there aren't that much moonlighters, and they spread all over.

In US, everything depends on location. Agencies, advertising, discussion boards, etc. If you can find agencies on the open, you can find one that fit you - their reputation, the other girls, the price they charge.

In LA you can say there are no agencies. Of course there are but it's by referral, or somehow underground. The closest to agencies are those targeted advertising sites like citysource.com. All the ad are targeted at same type of clients, eg, loaded and have the patience of advance booking via email. Also there are some booking agents, some of whom are ex-escorts. To avoid legal trouble they only do the appointments and nothing else, but they should be able to give advice based on their own experience.

Or you can just email or call up some escorts of your caliber at the cities you want to work for advice. Well for one thing, some are bi, so they should be very willing to help. I think in general their own networking is good. Mutual referral increase business, not to mention that many girls require clients to have references from other escorts.

You can learn something from reviews and discussion boards. The average going rate and the local laws. The TER reviews are better than none, but the discussion board sucks - too distorted without free speech. Redbook is good for North Cal and beyond, and TSR covers some major cities.

Nowadays, handling everything on your own is feasible, even if your availability is very limited and you travel around.

Anonymous said...

Wow!! Thanks a lot for your reply. Very very helpful.