By Tim Kirkwood | Updated August 8, 2024
When you work as an airline Flight Attendant, you are the frontline ambassador for your airline, and all airlines for that matter - as people generally can’t tell one airline apart from another based on their uniforms. In other words: you represent ALL of us! Therefore, there is a level of etiquette that comes along as part of this job.
That etiquette begins when you are applying for the position. I’m always amused when I see people responding to an on-line job post for a flight attendant job with responses such as “Interested”, or “call me”. You are applying for one of the most sought-after jobs in the world, so you need to “up your game”! For every Flight Attendant job opening, there are a hundred applicants trying to be the one the airline considers. So the airlines are not going to contact you because you say you’re “interested”; and they are surely not going to call you. The onus is on you to put in the work, do your homework and research, and contact the airline yourself.
Your on-line presence is part of this as well. You need to be aware of your social media “footprint”, and how it reflects on you. Is your Instagram account full of pictures of you drunk, naked, or in embarrassing situations? Is your e-mail address “BigStud69”? Is your Facebook page peppered with racist or social unrest posts and links? “Girls-gone-wild” photos starring you? You can be sure your potential airline or corporate flight operation will be checking social median for potential trouble spots. As I said earlier, there’s 100 people in line behind you, looking at the same job as you are. An airline will not waste a nano-second in deleting your application if they perceive a problematic social history.
If you’re hired, that same etiquette will continue throughout your career with your employer. As you are the “front-line” representative, your airline will be expecting you to act in a professional manner on and off the aircraft, and anytime you are wearing the company uniform. You’ve seen the videos of passengers behaving badly; crew members losing their cool. Airlines are very protective of their reputation, and won’t hesitate to eliminate the employee causing the problem. Racial slurs, sexist behavior, harassing or bullying- are very much on an airlines’ radar these days. You will find yourself with additional training for the topics of Inclusion, Discrimination , Harassment- among others, during your career as a Flight Attendant.
All of this is even more important in the area of Corporate or Private Jet flying. Fewer Flight Attendants are required for corporate flying as the planes tend to be smaller. You may be the only Flight Attendant on a plane with some of the top movers-and-shakers in the world. Corporate recruiters are looking even closer to find the “cream of the crop” to take excellent care of their high value, VVIP passengers. More information on this subject can be found in an excellent article by Scott Arnold of SAJet Solutions: http:/sajetsolutionsblogspot.com.
Tim Kirkwood, Author
THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT CAREER GUIDE