Exploring Careers and Training for Flight Attendants

[chaitanyak]

Hi everyone!


I’m interested in pursuing a career as a flight attendant and wanted to get some insights from people already in the field. From what I’ve read, becoming cabin crew requires a mix of technical knowledge, soft skills, and practical training. Some institutes, like Frankfinn, offer structured programs in areas such as communication, grooming, customer service, and airline operations.

I’m curious to hear about real experiences from this community:

• What skills do you think are the most essential for flight attendants?
• How helpful was formal training or coaching in preparing for interviews and job responsibilities?
• For those who’ve joined airlines recently, what were the biggest challenges in the first few months?

 

[N826AW]

Welcome to JC. We haven’t had an aspiring flight attendant here for a while so welcome. I’m a pilot but am always curious what backgrounds my coworkers are from.

It seems like a lot of our FAs (regional airline) come from jobs that require lots of customer facing time. Starbucks, Target, teachers, restaurants, retail, etc.

Do you speak another language?

 

[chaitanyak]

Welcome to JC. We haven’t had an aspiring flight attendant here for a while so welcome. I’m a pilot but am always curious what backgrounds my coworkers are from.

It seems like a lot of our FAs (regional airline) come from jobs that require lots of customer facing time. Starbucks, Target, teachers, restaurants, retail, etc.

Do you speak another language?

Thanks so much for the welcome! That’s really interesting—so many flight attendants coming from retail and customer service roles makes sense since people skills are such a big part of the job. I speak English and Hindi, and I’m curious—does being bilingual give a strong edge when applying, or is it more of a nice-to-have? From your perspective as a pilot, what qualities do you appreciate most in the FAs you work with?

 

[scramjet]

Hi everyone!


I’m interested in pursuing a career as a flight attendant and wanted to get some insights from people already in the field. From what I’ve read, becoming cabin crew requires a mix of technical knowledge, soft skills, and practical training. Some institutes, like Frankfinn, offer structured programs in areas such as communication, grooming, customer service, and airline operations.

I’m curious to hear about real experiences from this community:

• What skills do you think are the most essential for flight attendants?
• How helpful was formal training or coaching in preparing for interviews and job responsibilities?
• For those who’ve joined airlines recently, what were the biggest challenges in the first few months?

I’ve been a line flight attendant and a management flight attendant off and on for about 12 years. I’m staying put at my current major airline. Most schools or academies geared towards training flight attendants are not worth it with the exception of a very small number of community colleges that offer certificates and two year degrees. Your airline will provide you the safety and operational training that you need. You’ll hear that being a flight attendant is a lifestyle and I would agree with that.
As far as your questions:

1. My experience as far as skills has been shaped by the era I started. I had a four year degree and a private pilot certificate. But in 2010, some airlines still had furlough lists and the competition for flight attendant jobs was intense. I went to so many “cattle calls” (basically giant conventions with hundreds of applicants and few actual positions) or submitted so many resumes into the void. I had to cut my teeth on airline operations jobs. I worked ramp, station operations, gates, cabin cleaning, etc. Finally in 2013, a regional took me. In 2016, a major finally took me (more on that in a moment). But then I left for a lucrative management position at a regional. I quickly decided that was for the birds, but had to wait five years before my current major finally took me. Luckily, in the interim, I scooted into a great position at said regional coordinating ground ops and SOC, which I enjoyed immensely but still didn’t scratch the flying itch (but I digress).
2. Not effective at all. I’ve seen flight attendant hiring from all angles. It is still competitive yet people get in that shouldn’t and good ones don’t even make it past the first round. Selection criteria seems to be held very close to the vest. After about 2012, airlines transitioned away from “cattle calls” and towards a more or less industry standardized series of online personality tests, automated one way interviews, phone screening, and in person sessions (generally in that order). The in person sessions tended to (without fail across several carriers and personal interview experiences) involve mingling sessions with other candidates, informational presentations with Q&A, group interviews, some strange scenario based group activity (this varied), and then a personal interview with a flight attendant on a special project/ assignment. Both times I was hired by a major, the key seemed to be connecting and relating well to that person. Sometimes it was just luck of the draw with the person that interviewed you.
3. I do not mean this to sound conceited. I don’t think I had major challenges because I had been around the industry awhile by the time I had my first FA job. I had also been semi planning on being a flight attendant since about the time I was 15 years old, so I had prepared myself a great deal for the realities. That being said, what I have observed, is that it can be challenging to adapt to the lifestyle. 3am wake ups in Grand Forks in January followed by a four leg day. People that don’t take your job seriously, including, sadly, some of your own coworkers and adjacent work groups. For me, it’s a six figure job, but that is highly dependent on your carrier, the type of trips you can get, your base (because not every base has 30 hour credit Asia flying), etc. Some people don’t end up at the right airline to sustain that kind of paycheck for various reasons and let me tell you, $45k in an expensive domicile (*cough, cough* the San Francisco Bay Area) in your first year is a massive challenge for a lot of new FAs.

Overall I love this career. It does have its ups and downs, but it’s managed to positively surprise me over the years. Every time I have left it for another role, I’ve always missed it.

 

[scramjet]

Thanks so much for the welcome! That’s really interesting—so many flight attendants coming from retail and customer service roles makes sense since people skills are such a big part of the job. I speak English and Hindi, and I’m curious—does being bilingual give a strong edge when applying, or is it more of a nice-to-have? From your perspective as a pilot, what qualities do you appreciate most in the FAs you work with?

My anecdotal experience has been that speaking a language that the airline needed yesterday will often help to secure a position, even in really tough times. I vaguely recall AA hiring Japanese speakers in the mid-00s when they still had folks on furlough because they had an operational demand for them.