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A flight attendant has a little fun for Flight
Attendants Pics
Flight Attendants Stress Grows As Airlines Struggle
Flight Attendant Standing Posed in Uniform Clipart - Flight attendant
standing outside airplane
 Flight
Attendant Pin-Ups
Flight attendants in America have a tougher job these
days. Airline companies are reeling from high oil prices, and new
baggage fees are annoying more customers. Caught in the middle is the
flight attendant, the public face of an industry that's on the ropes. A
flight attendant has a little fun
Remember when air travel was viewed as glamorous and exciting?
 Of course
you don't. So check out this collection of vintage flight attendant
photos
When Stefannee Steffenhagen started working for Air Wisconsin — a US
Airways commuter service — several years ago, she thought it was the
beginning of what she called "that little-girl dream."
But the reality of the job doesn't quite measure up. In her brief
career, Steffenhagen has seen a lot of change.
Today, she has fewer amenities to offer passengers, and they're
increasingly angry about it. She says one of her toughest jobs is just
getting women to put their purses in the overhead compartment.
"I have to fight with some of these passengers to get all their stuff up
there," says Steffenhagen, 34, who lives in Northern Virginia.
With new baggage charges coming, she expects conditions will only get
worse. "I'm dreading what they're going to try to bring on the
aircraft," she says.
Moonlighting As A Bartender
Steffenhagen makes about $30,000 a year. On her days off, she tends bar
to make extra cash. She usually flies to places like Greensboro, N.C.,
or Islip, N.Y.
 She
dreams of more exciting routes but wonders if time is running out.
"I do want to go to maybe a mainline carrier, and do the Paris, London
overnights," she says. "But I don't know now, because is that airline
going to still be there in two years?"
This is not what the Association of Flight Attendants had in mind.
 The
union, which represents tens of thousands of workers, wanted to build a
profession where members could earn a decent salary, educate their
children and retire with a pension.
But Patricia Friend, the union's president, says that the industry is in
such bad shape that the hope of a stable, middle-class lifestyle is
"gone."
 The
fortunes of airline workers have been falling for years.
She used to be a flight attendent but was fired for some pictures she
put on her Web site
Decline Vs. Recline
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, companies began slashing wages and
benefits.
 To
save money, airlines are putting crews in cheaper hotels. Stephen
Schembs, who flies for US Airways, says the decline has been striking.
"We used to be [in] downtown Chicago, right there on the Miracle Mile,"
Schembs recalls. "Now, we're at a hotel in Skokie at a strip mall."
In recent months, the airlines' finances have worsened as the high cost
of oil has gobbled up profits. Erin Gailey, a flight attendant with
Alaska Airlines, feels the impact of oil prices all the time. To save
fuel, the airlines are getting rid of as much extra weight as they can,
including bottled water and eating utensils. So sometimes Gailey just
runs out of things.
When passengers complain, Gailey — a spunky woman with 25 years of
experience — tells them: "Pretend like you're camping."
Coffee, tea, or me? If you need to get attention, taking off your
clothes is always effective. That's why some long-standing (geddit?)
stewardesses have created their second annual pin-up calendar
to raise awareness about the cutbacks flight attendants have had to
endure in their retirement packages and pay. This week marks the
upcoming release of the 2007 edition. Sadly, there are no pics from the
new calendar online just yet.
Of course, if the ladies are old enough to worry about their retirement
pacakges,
 they
may not all be pin-up material. Even so, the proceeds goes toward
helping fellow flight attendants who are in financial trouble, and
that's all right by us.
They've got really strong legs, though.
Look at those gams!
Camping, of course, is not what most passengers have in mind. When
Gailey got into the business in the 1980s, airlines actually competed
based on service. Even in coach, there was a wine bottle on every tray,
Gailey recalls.
Those days are long gone. Today, if a passenger wants a snack pack, it
costs $5.
She used to be a flight attendent but was fired for some pictures she
put on her Web site
High-Altitude Referee
A flight attendant has a little fun
Gailey says the role of the flight attendant is more complicated now as
well. As flying has become more trying, there's more conflict in the
cabin, and it falls to flight attendants to diffuse it.
Image Asian
flight attendants
"We can't call 911," she says. "We are the police. We are the
psychiatrist. We are the doctor. We are the nurse. We are the bomb
squad."
My name is Ellen Simonetti, but I am better known to Web surfers as the
Queen of Sky.
I had been a flight attendant
 for Delta
Air Lines for almost eight years when I started my blog, or online
diary, in January of this year. I entitled it "Diary of a Flight
Attendant."
Of all the women who constantly get hit on and have heard every line in
the book a thousand times over, flight attendants would be right up
there at the top of the list, along with cocktail waitresses. The number
of dating opportunities that are presented to these women on a daily
basis is extraordinary.
On Saturday, Sept. 25, I came home to flashing messages on my answering
machine.
"Ellen, I need you to call me back. It's about your trip tomorrow,"
repeated the urgent-sounding voice on the tape.
The voice was that of a Delta Air Lines in-flight supervisor. I
immediately dialed the number on the messages, thinking perhaps my Rome
flight the next day had been cancelled. What the supervisor told me,
however, left me shocked and sick to my stomach.
The reason I started my blog in the first place was as a form of
therapy.
"You won't be able to fly your trip tomorrow
 it's
about some pictures on the Web."
I had to wait more than a week after that phone call to meet with Delta
management and find out exactly what was going on. During that very long
week, I lived in suspense in my humble Austin, Texas, apartment and
prepared for the worst.
I assumed I would be fired, so I started consulting with lawyers and
other people.
That was when I began to hear stories about people like Heather B.
Armstrong, of dooce.com, who was fired because of her blog in 2002. Then
there was "the Washingtonienne, who
was fired earlier this year because of comments she entered in her blog.
As my story spread on the Web, I started receiving all kinds of e-mails
from people on both sides of the Atlantic that employer blog backlash
had gotten to. One, a comedian who wished to remain anonymous, told me
she was fired from her day job after making a joke about
co-workers on her blog.
I have decided to continue to blog and spread my story about employer
blog backlash.
The very first thing I did after the phone call from Delta was delete
all of the photographs from my blog that I thought my employer could
possibly have a problem with. That included all of the pictures of me
and fellow crew members posing in Delta Air Lines uniforms.
It was not until the meeting with human resources and my supervisor on
Wednesday, Oct. 6, that I learned the official reason for my suspension:
"inappropriate" pictures. The unofficial reason (implied through an
intimidating interrogation): blogging.
The reason I started my blog in the first place was as a form of
therapy. I
had lost my mother in September 2003 to cancer and that hit me hard. It
was much easier to write about my feelings than talk about them. Now, my
employer was telling me that the very thing that had gotten me through
those tough times, my blog, could cost me my career.
I felt my rights were being infringed upon. And I decided to fight back.
After that meeting, I went home and got online and found plenty of
pictures of male
Delta Air Lines employees in uniform on the Web. I then searched for a
specific company policy prohibiting posting pictures on the Web or
blogging, which I could not find.
I had an excellent employment record with Delta Air Lines and had never
been previously disciplined. Therefore, I find it odd that I was not at
least given a warning before my suspension. I am still trying to figure
out why I was singled out. In fact, two days after that meeting with
Delta Air Lines management, I filed a sex discrimination complaint with
the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Delta Air Lines.
Then, on Oct. 29, 2004, three weeks after I filed that discrimination
complaint,  I
received a call from my supervisor. He advised me over the phone that my
employment with Delta Air Lines had been terminated due to
"inappropriate pictures in uniform on the Web."
I have decided to continue to blog and spread my story about employer
blog backlash.
If it is to be defeated, we all have to stand up to this silent and
arbitrary foe, one that should never again be allowed to rear its ugly
head.
Biography
Ellen Simonetti, aka "Queen of Sky," is appealing to Delta Air Lines to
get her job as a flight attendant back.
In the meantime, she continues to write her Web log.
Many of Gailey's colleagues complain about working conditions.
 One pilot,
James Dixon, said his salary had been slashed by about $30,000. But
Gailey says she refuses to let the industry's problems affect her
performance.
"For me, it's about my personal integrity,"
she says. Gailey says she does a better job today than she did when she
first started, and she still thinks she works for a great carrier.
Image:Asian flight attendants
"If I didn't," she says,
 I wouldn't
keep going."
I remember my first flight to China like it was
yesterday. It was an American Airlines flight from Chicago to Shanghai.
I had a whole row to myself, about 6 movies to choose from and about 13
and a half hours to wish I was there already. The flight attendants on
this trip were all very similar. Granted, they all had to wear the same
uniform and all had their hair pulled back.
 These
FAA requirements notwithstanding, they all seemed be carved from the
same piece of stewardess stone. What all these American stewardesses had
in common on my way to China was that they were all old. Not old enough
to be my grandmother, but old nonetheless.
As I’ve traveled back and forth many times now, I realized that all the
flights are like this — all of the flight attendants are older women
(except for the young Chinese one whose job is to translate the flight
announcements into Mandarin). They’re the type of older American woman
who calls you “honey” the first time she meets you. Some are aged
beauties,
holdovers from the days when stewardesses in America had to be
beautiful, and some are just aged. But all of them old. As one of these
flight attendants explained to me during a mid-flight chat, the reason
the flight crews are so aged on trips to Asia is because these are the
most sought after flights. And thus, as their union rules dictate,
the most senior of flight attendants have first crack at them. This
stewardess told me that if she did two return trips to China each month
then she wouldn’t have to work the rest of the month. That leaves her
with three weeks out of every month to play bingo and eat dinner really
early and do other things old people do.
 Not such a
bad gig.
But let’s say you don’t want “something special in the air” and you
decide to take a Chinese carrier to or from China. You’ll notice
something much different. You’ll find that on Chinese airlines, there’s
something really really special in the air — the flight attendants. They
are gorgeous. And young. They have perfect figures, perfect hair,
perfect skin and perfect smiles. If you wake up from a nap as one of
them is walking through the cabin, in a half-conscious state you could
reasonably mistake the airplane aisle for a fashion runway and the
stewardess for a model. And when they say, “beef with rice or pork with
noodles,” it’s with an angelic sweetness that will make you wish there
was a third option.
The Chicago Tribune published a story Tuesday on the selection process
Chinese airlines use to hire flight attendants. And consistent with my
observations, apparently it is the most shallow and sexist process
imaginable. You have to be young, beautiful and thin to be hired as a
stewardess in China. According to the Tribune, “in the world’s
fastest-growing aviation market,
entry barriers for flight attendants are not only tolerated
 they’re
flaunted as symbols of excellence.” China’s largest carrier, China
Southern Airlines, is in the process of filming a flight attendant
reality show which features thousands of hot young girls competing for
180 openings. At China Southern, 45 is the mandatory retirement age. The
head of the American flight attendant union called the contest
“offensive” and “a setback to our profession on a global scale.
As with any profession in mainland China, flight attendants do not have
a labor union. But if and when they get one, maybe 40 years from now
when I’m old and gray, they will be the aged Chinese beauties who call
me “honey” and attend to me as I fly the friendly Chinese skies. Best
for beauty
Mongolian
Singapore
Japan
Scandinavian
Lufthansa
Aeroflot
Best for fun
BA
KLM
Virgin
I have been picked up by attendants from Singapore and KLM, but actually
have never propositioned an attendant.
 The
Singapore attendant was very cheeky. I was sitting in the front seat for
leg room, with the attendant’s jump seat in front. We had a fair bit
turulance on the way into Hong Kong, and so she sat down and started to
talk with me.
I told her about my work and travels coming
back from a conference). She was very nice and we were having a good
chat. As we started to come in for the landing she asked what I was
doing next. I told her I was staying one night in Hong Kong before
flying out.
 She
then said: “you need company, can I meet you?”. Well, my answer was yes
and you can guess the rest.
Another time I was getting some cash from a bank machine.
 Behind me
two KLM attendants were giggling.
I got my cash and turned around.
 One
smiled at me and said hi. I smiled back and they started making comments
about the city we were in. I chatted with them and shared my views and
then they said “let’s go get a drink”. Well, that was a nice night.
 Lesson
learned: keep an open mind. |
