# Advice from a Flight Attendant



## Jules (Jun 22, 2022)

(Aa a precursor, don’t get on an airplane without a bottle of water and lots of snacks.  Things get delayed and there is minimal food and drinks on airplanes.  Dont check bags! If you MUST, be sure to bring your toiletries and a change of clothes in your carry on.)
Notes from a flight attendant:
Flying this summer is ROUGH!!! I feel like as a Flight Attendant I should attempt to share some tips to get you through airline travel for the foreseeable future. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			









1.  Things are not good..... if its less than 7 hours - DRIVE! I'm not kidding. There is nothing enjoyable about flying right now. On any airline. If you must fly, keep reading. 
2. Download and use the app of the airline you are flying. You can do everything on it - get your boarding pass, track your bags, see your incoming plane, and change a flight. It sure beats waiting in the long line to talk to an agent! Trust me - Usually these apps will tell you a flight is cancelled before the crew even knows! 
3. Fly MUCH earlier than you need to - a whole day early if its important!!  This week I saw many people miss important things like weddings, funerals, cruises, international connections, and graduations. The tears were very real, for very real reasons, and there was nothing I could do! If you have to be somewhere, spend the extra money, go a day early. Have a glass of wine and stay in a hotel, enjoy your night not being stressed while everyone else misses their events. 
4. ALWAYS fly the first flight in the morning so you have all day to be rebooked if the shit hits the fan. Yes, that means it might be a 3:00 alarm, but morning flights don't cancel nearly as often.
5. This is not unique to this year, but keep in mind summer is thunderstorm season. A single storm can shut down a whole airport- a whole state, a whole region.  We can't fly through them. It’s not a choice! Storms usually build as the day gets later. Book early flights! 
6. Schedule long layovers - Your 1 hour layover is NOT enough anymore. 30 minutes, not a chance. 3 hours minimum.
7. What you see on the news is an understatement. We are short staffed and overworked. Not just pilots and flight attendants, but also ground crews. Without ground crews there is no one to park the planes, drive jetways, get your bags on/off planes, or scan boarding passes. This causes many delays that snowball throughout the day. Sometimes HOURS.(Another reason morning flights are best!)  
8. When flight crews get delayed we time out- meaning we HAVE to clock out for the day. We can NOT fly longer than 16 hours. Its illegal. So it doesn't matter if you have a wedding or graduation or funeral to get to, when we are done, we are done. The way things are now, there are no back up crews, so when this happens your flight cancels. (Now you are starting to see why those morning flights are best!) 
9. Avoid connecting in Newark (Or any New York airport for that matter). It is literal hell. You have a 50/50 chance your flight will cancel or missing your connection. They have been cancelling flights at their starting points just to keep the planes out, because there just aren't enough people to manage the planes, so the gates stay full. Also the restaurants are expensive, it is not a great place to be stuck. 
10. Be nice. As stated above, we are overworked and tired. We will not help you if you are mean. Not one cares that you are going to miss your cruise and they don’t care DOUBLE if you are an asshole. So even if we CAN help, we will save our help for someone nice. Tensions are high. Our patience is gone. If you make us mad - you will not be flying on our planes. We will leave you behind without a second thought, and laugh about you later. 
11. Being drunk on an airplane is a federal offense, so don't overdo it. If you drink too much at the bar waiting for your delayed flight you risk not being allowed to fly at all. We are too tired to deal with your drunk ass when we have legitimate issues to deal with. 
12. Get trip insurance if you have a lot of money invested. I hate the whole idea of this, but I also hate the idea of losing money.  Example: I was working a flight yesterday that waited over an hour for a gate. A family of 8 missed their flight to Rome. The only flight of the day. They were going to a cruise which they would now miss. They were all crying, there was NOTHING I could do- I was yes to cry too! (Annnd another reason to fly a day early!) 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



13. Flights are FULL. If you buy the cheap seats you will not be able to sit with your family. It says so when you purchase your ticket!! Flight Attendants aren't there to rearrange the whole plane just so you can sit with your family because you tried to save $100 on a third party website. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



14. Speaking of third party websites and saving money..... Like I said flights are FULL. If a flight is oversold, and no one volunteers to give up their seats, who do you think is the first to be bumped? You guessed it, the family that saved a few $$ by using sites like Expedia, Kayak, Hotwire etc. 
15. Pack smart. Don't be "That guy" Don't hold up boarding because you have your extenders open till they are busting and you can't figure out how to make it fit in the overhead. (Passengers are stressed too, they can be aggressive when boarding a delayed flight)
16. Take showers, brush your teeth, leave the perfume off, don't eat stinky food (caesar salad and tuna fish I'm talking to you!), and bring headphones. Trust me. These things sound basic, but add to stress on crowded planes. If you are stuck on the tarmac for 3 hours after a 4 hour flight, you will thank me for this. 
17. Bring a sweater if you tend to be cold. So tired of half naked girls asking me to turn the heat up. NO. Wear clothes!!  Side note: If you dress like this and ask for heat, there's a chance I will turn the AC up. 
18. Thats not water on the bathroom floor. For the love of God wear shoes to the bathroom!!! 
19. Don't tell a Flight Attendant they look tired. We are and we know. You may cause us to ugly cry right there in galley. 
20. Happy Travels!


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## oldman (Jun 23, 2022)

Don’t forget to say “thanks” when you get your drink. 
I used to like it when passengers were deplaning they would talk loud enough and tell the pilots thanks for getting us here safely. Believe me, we hear you and appreciate the thought.


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## Jules (Jun 23, 2022)

oldman said:


> Don’t forget to say “thanks” when you get your drink.
> I used to like it when passengers were deplaning they would talk loud enough and tell the pilots thanks for getting us here safely. Believe me, we hear you and appreciate the thought.


Besides a thank you, I also make a point of looking directly at the FA when spoken to or given something.  When I looked around, I noticed there were lots of people that don’t.


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## Don M. (Jun 23, 2022)

We've just about given up on flying, for now.  We had to attend a funeral, in Denver, a few weeks ago.  Trying to book a flight in short notice was almost impossible.  We drove up to Kansas City, and joined one of the daughters/son-in-law, and drove to and from.  It was an enjoyable 10 hour drive, each way.  Between the high gas prices and the hotel costs, it was still only about half the price of trying to find a last minute flight, and we didn't have to endure the hassles at the airports.


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## oldman (Jun 23, 2022)

The really sad part of this whole thing with shortages of flight crews, baggage handlers, air traffic controllers, the gate agents and etc., the entire airline industry has seen this coming for almost 30 years. What did they do to try to head this off? Very little. You can’t just put an ad in the paper and expect people to apply for these jobs. Jobs in the airline industry are specialized and had they set up a training program for all of these jobs, it’s likely that this mess wouldn’t be near as bad as it is.


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## Aunt Bea (Jun 23, 2022)

oldman said:


> The really sad part of this whole thing with shortages of flight crews, baggage handlers, air traffic controllers, the gate agents and etc., the entire airline industry has seen this coming for almost 30 years. What did they do to try to head this off? Very little. You can’t just put an ad in the paper and expect people to apply for these jobs. Jobs in the airline industry are specialized and had they set up a training program for all of these jobs, it’s likely that this mess wouldn’t be near as bad as it is.


I understand the shortage of human resources, but the thing that I can't understand is why the airlines continue to overbook and then cancel flights.

It seems like they would have sophisticated programs that could match the available human resources to flights and right-size the capacity or number of flights.


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## JustBonee (Jun 23, 2022)

Aunt Bea said:


> I understand the shortage of human resources, but the thing that I can't understand is why the airlines continue to overbook and then cancel flights.
> 
> It seems like they would have sophisticated programs that could match the available human resources to flights and right-size the capacity or number of flights.



My thoughts too  ...  maybe common sense doesn't play into the problem ??


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## Aunt Bea (Jun 23, 2022)

Bonnie said:


> My thoughts too  ...  maybe common sense doesn't play into the problem ??


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