Should flight attendants be given other duties, aside from gossiping and serving warm diet Coke?

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Pilot

What do you have against flight attendants? They get paid little enough already, and they deserve their $12,000 per year starting salaries. And flight attendants do clean the aircraft after landing (not always up to par, they should do a better job sometimes).

I am not an airline pilot, or have any experience flying for airlines. But I do fly a lot by airlines, and yes, I do see a lot of lazy flight attendants. I just think you, as a Christian, should stop putting down these children of God, even if they are sometimes lazy. This is probably the 5th question you have asked where you put them down. Instead, pray for them, that they will do their job better.

I agree with Tom H. Airline pilots are only part of a team. Everyone is to work as a team, not the superior pilots putting down other employees, whether their jobs are serving meals or flying the aircraft.

Beaker!

MEEP?!?!

Marlboro Man

Not exactly the "other duties" I had in mind.

<Edit>
And you even spelled Nolte wrong. Blasphemy!

THE NOLTE-KMA

"Flight attendants". How PC.

Cher JPA

This question reads as though you were fired from a flight attendant's job for inablity to complete the tasks needed.

Quality varies, but on decent flights I've had no trouble getting what I need. They give ice with the drinks. And don't spend much time "standing around." It's like any safety & social watch job, police, subway security, mall security...the job is mostly waiting around for an event to happen. It looks lazy but thank goodness someone thought to hire them when you need them. The count per flight though HAS gone down over time.

If you were a pilot, you would know luggage handling is a constant, heavy job, & not at all compatable with "breaks" between flights for attendants.

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Didn't think you'd like that answer :).

aflumpire

they already wipe up any puke on the seats, make sure everyone has a magazine...what do you want them to say

"ladies and gentlemen, your luggage will be on the carrosel in two hours. We need to run off now and our cart viehcle has broken down and the mechanic is having lunch - and the control tower has put us at the other end of the airport."

Serving warm soft drink is not the flight attendents fault.

They do much, much more than we ever see or hear!

Remember, its safety first - then service. They are the ones to sae your life in an emergency.

Tom H

You call yourself a Captain, but it is easily seen you are not an airline captain. If you are, then shame on you. It is very unreasonable to have flight attendants toss luggage in addition to their regular duties. Think of how much every flight will be delayed if this were the requirement. Airlines are a labor intensive industry, with so many people doing so many things at the same time to ensure you are comfortable and safe. I am sure you would be overwhelmed knowing what it takes to run an airline after reading your ignorant comments and the way you worded your question. Also, they do clean the aircraft after every flight to make it reasonably presentable before the next leg is boarded. And they also make a gallant effort to save your life should the need arise in an emergency, so you best not underestimate the skills and knowledge of the flight attendant. Good example is the US Airways flight that went into the Hudson. Have you forgotten that already? In these difficult financial times, as you state, why don't you apply and get a job as a baggage handler at a major airline? Only then will you know what it is like to lift so much luggage for so long.

USKiwi

It might seem like a good idea, but there are - of course - complications and difficulties.

First, their time between flights is not necessarily 'free' time that the airlines could use more productively by having the FA's clean, handle baggage, or whatever. Much of the time, the FA's are only paid for the hours they are on the flight, not for extra time before/after, so the airline would have to pay extra (assuming the flight attendants aren't continuing on the same plane to the next destination - something that happens perhaps less than half the time).

Clearly there'd be clothing issues too if they then had to go outside the plane to load/unload baggage.

As regards while they're actually on a flight, in the air, and doing nothing, their standard response is 'we are not here to serve you, we are here for your safety'. That is arguably true/not true (not going to go there and argue that contentious point in this forum) but it is the excuse they hide behind.

Plus, they also have a union to 'protect' them. With some countries/airlines/FA unions, the union has even done time and motion studies to count and then limit the number of times the FAs have to walk up and down the aisle, and hand things to passengers or take them from passengers.

So, to answer your question, it would be great to put them to more work, but it isn't likely to happen to any great extent.

Now for the question you didn't ask...... Let me just point out that, if you are indeed a pilot, you'll know that for most of the flight you're doing nothing in the cockpit while the autopilot flies the plane from take-off roll to several hundred feet prior to landing (and maybe all the way down). Don't you, ahem, think there might be something else you could be doing, too? :)

David Rowell
http://www.thetravelinsider.info

Schmeckel Deckel

I think we should put them in charge of Mile High Club inductions. Most of them are too ugly for me and I'm already in the club anyway but I know some losers who would still pay to join.

Looseyв„ў

I would like it if they snuck some of those tiny liquor bottles to me with some *cold* *non-diet* coke. Then I wouldn't care how trashed the plane was or if they were having a cockpit party, as long as the plane was air worthy. Oh, coke -- I meant Coca-Cola, btw. Unless it's a flight to South America.

Marci вЂ SFECUвЂ pray4revival

Gosh you sure are giving the flight attendants a bad reputation!!! I always thought they were so helpful and nice. Are they really that bad? What would they gossip about? oh, if there was a celebrity on the plane, one might tell another, right? oh well. I hope you weren't yelling at them too much.

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