Letter to the Editor from an AA Flight Attendant

derg

derg

Apparently a "terse" writer
Staff member
Easy now, lady! Sheesh!

Pilots’ plight
I read the letters to the editor from two airline pilots in the Feb. 19 Voice of the people with a jaundiced eye and a little amusement. I have worked as a flight attendant for almost 41 year with a major airline, and I and my co-workers feel little sympathy for the plight of our pilots. I travel primarily to Asia and I know these are plum routes, but aside from the time change, the pilots do not appear overtaxed. Pilots have assigned first-class seats where they can watch movies, read and eat or sleep in provided bunks for their breaks, which on a 14:30 hour flight average six hours. We have four pilots, so two pilots break at a time.

One pilot told me he’d been off two months by bidding reserve and never called for work. They also have better quality air in the cockpit and can take oxygen if tired.

Yes they have put in time for these flights but, unlike the bees in back, walk out the door with a huge lump-sum payment and often take corporate pilot jobs after retirement.

Whether the age is changed on not, I think this issue is not really about age or health.

Sheryl Hogan
Flight attendant
American Airlines
Arlington Heights
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Original Context
 
WOW how can someone in the industry be so misinformed. She probably believes that aliens built the pyramids also. I wonder if she was the same one who wrote the article about the MIA botched hijacking.
 
Sounds like she needs to retire. . . 41 years. . . I'd be a bit bitter too. Not to sound unsympathetic, my father's girlfriend (soon to be fiancee) is a Southernjets FA flying to South America - she has a level head about her, and is extremely friendly when talking about her work conditions. Only stories about pilots I have heard her talk about are always in a positive light, crew member picking up something when someone else was down, etc.

Just think this one, after 41 years, needs to just call it quits.
 
mojo6911 said:
Maybe it is someone from JC just trying to get a rise out of the old crotchety 777 pilots.
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Then in that case, perhaps someone on JC needs to write the editor to get a rise out of all the old crotchety 777/767/747 F/As flying to Asia. She must just miss her kittens. :o
 
Don't they recycle the air up front like the back? I know you have the option on some aircraft but uh... same air you have in front is the same in back right?
 
cwu50 said:
WOW how can someone in the industry be so misinformed. She probably believes that aliens built the pyramids also. I wonder if she was the same one who wrote the article about the MIA botched hijacking.
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You would be amazed at what some of the F/As think about the pilots. Really. Some think that all they do up there is sit and read the paper. When DL used to carry an 'extra' FA, the A-line, or 'lead' FA was allowed to ride in the JS for takeoff and/or landing. Kind of an 'observation' kind of thing. It was the best program EVER. On the 727 once, Bill had a gal in the JS when they were coming back into CVG one cold blowing snowing night. He was an engineer at the time, and he could see her out of the corner of his eye just staring amazed out the front. The CA called runway in sight and her eyes got big and after they landed she was all like, "OMG, how could you see anything, I could never do that, that was incredible".

It was good for them to see just exactly what goes on up there. Sadly, in this day of min staffing, having an extra is a thing of the past.
 
Don't they recycle the air up front like the back? I know you have the option on some aircraft but uh... same air you have in front is the same in back right?
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Depends on the aircraft.

She may not want higher pressure and less remixed air up there for those rotten pilots, but if there's ever a fire onboard, she'll sure appreciate getting on the ground safely because it evacuated smoke from the cockpit.
 
I actually know that lady, shes from the same city I am from and have met her. She's actually quite nice, so there must have been something that provoked her to write that ....
 
That's very true on the smoke part.. didn't know they did that (higher pressure for example)


if you see her on your crew list and it's smoking pass gas too. j/k :)

interesting letter.
 
I think a lot of the problem lies with us though:

"These things can fly themselves!"

"It's just like riding a bike!"

...etc...

For the most part, the flight attendants only see us when we're not doing a heck of a lot so the impression is that we're pretty much sitting around talking about the quality of airline coffee or cracking some joke about (local colloquialism from your largest base).

I think if we were able to bring back the program where we gave flight attendants an opportunity to ride the jumpseat once a year, it'd give a whole new perspective on what pilots actually do.

True story. We had the VP of "something or rather" ride the jumpseat to DCA one day. Nice guy, just a little full of himself which is typical of that social circle of upper management.

A non-pilot.

Anyway, after we took off, dodged thunderstorms for about an hour and shot a turbulence, rainy "River Visual 19" into DCA, the poor guy seemed ecstatic as if he had just been deflowered by Jennifer Love Hewitt, followed by a free fall skydive and wanted to call and tell all of his friends about it.

We told him that it was just a regular leg and he oughta be on the jumpseat to see what happens when things go bad.
 
I would be like that if I had been a cart tart for 41 years - my mum did it for 3, sounds like hard work.

The main difference though is a pilot is a professional job, a FA is more skilled labour.....
 
I_Money said:
I would be like that if I had been a cart tart for 41 years - my mum did it for 3, sounds like hard work.

The main difference though is a pilot is a professional job, a FA is more skilled labour.....
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I considered myself to be a very professional flight attendant :)

Perhaps saying that the pilot's job is far more technical than the more labor-intense flight attendant job would be more accurate.
 
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