Pay is crap for a newhire. The above mentioned salaries are accurate. As a newhire, you'll have a pretty lousy schedule, working all weekends/holidays and probably only having 8-10 days off a month. That improves, but it takes a few years. Trip trading/dropping (if you can afford it) gets easier as you gain seniority and get used to how the system works.
The 7 years I worked as a FA, I never did any 'fun' travel, because I couldn't afford to eat/sleep/get around there if I were to take a trip. Sure, the flights were 'free' (or very low cost), but then you've got to get a hotel (Airbnb is awesome, but it still costs money, hostels are a 'no thanks' for me), eating is expensive even if you have a rented apartment with a kitchen, and rentals cars, cabs or trains' costs add up. It was just too much on the little money I made. If I had another means of good income it would have been awesome! But I didn't.