Flight Attendants Speak Out About Cabin Conditions, Safety and Their Pet Peeves

by SharonKurheg

If you’ve flown from Point A to Point B in the past few years (and if you’re reading this, chances are good that you have, and even quite possibly have gone from Point A to Point B to Point C to Point D and then reversed it with Points E, F and G before getting back to Point A…AND you went First Class with a flat bed and a shower and a Reflexology session…AANNDD you paid for it with frequent flyer miles that you earned by charging 8 bazillion dollars on your credit card ☺), you know that flying is more stressful that it used to be. There’s the traffic on the way to the airport, trying to find a parking space, standing on line at TSA, going through X-ray, possibly getting patted down at X-ray, possibly having your carry-on searched at X-ray, waiting for your plane, waiting even longer for your plane when it’s Screen Shot 2017-05-26 at 8.45.52 PMdelayed, standing in a cattle call atmosphere until your section is called and being told there’s no room for your carry on so you have to gate check it. Then you finally get on the plane and it takes forever to get to your row because the guy in 24C is trying to get something out of his bag in the overhead, you’re squished into your middle seat for what could be several hours, there’s a screaming baby is behind your left shoulder, his older brother is kicking your seat incessantly, and the woman next to you has taken her shoes off and is eating a tuna sandwich, while the guy on the other side of you, who is manspreading, has only periodically stopped coughing and sniffling so he can spit his chewing tobacco into an empty Gatorade bottle that he has placed between the two of you. Granted, not everyone has to go through every aspect of that process, but most people have experienced at least some of those on just about every single trip. So yeah, it’s stressful. And when people are stressed, their sense of niceties can sometimes go out the window, things can become tense, and suddenly cell phone video cameras get turned on. The friendly skies are really not so friendly anymore, are they?

Four flight attendants who are members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA were on the Today Show to discuss, among other things, conditions, safety and reducingtension in the cabin when flying. Here’s the 6-minute video of the interview:

Regardless of what you think about modern-day flying, I think most of us need to see this video. On a whole, when we’re on a plane, our sense of self-preservation tends to kick in and it may be difficult to keep in mind the important job that the flight crew has. It’s so much more than bringing us an extra pack of pretzels or Biscoff cookies if we ask for it. A large portion of their job is to keep us safe…and nowadays, in those stressful times in the air, sometimes the safety is from each other. True, it’s the 1 out of 1000 incidents that wind up being on mainstream media, but there are 999 other flights where the members of the flight team are doing their best to take care of us. It’s an important thing to remember on several levels.

Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love if you decided to hang around and clicked the button on the top (if you’re on your computer) or the bottom (if you’re on your phone/tablet) of this page to follow our blog and get emailed notifications of when we post (it’s usually just two or three times a day). Or maybe you’d like to join our Facebook group, where we talk and ask questions about travel (including Disney parks), creative ways to earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points, how to save money on or for your trips, get access to travel  articles you may not see otherwise, etc. Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!

 

Leave a Comment