Selects: How Flight Attendants Work

Hey, everybody, Happy Saturday. Chuck here delivering a brand new Selects episode. But it's really not brand new, because, as we all know, these are reruns carefully curated and selected by both Josh and I each week. This one comes to you from December seventh, twenty seventeen. How Flight Attendants Work.

Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

I'm Josh Clark with me as part of your cabin cruise, Charles W. Chuck Bryant filling the whole thing out is our pilot Jerry Rowland Captain James as we'll call her from now on.

If you'd like to return your seat, do it's full upright position, but along with your trade table.

If you've lost your device, or phone in the seat, don't touch it, just come get one of us. Did that happen to you? It's a new thing, what tell me? No, it's like a new thing on Delta. And like the safety instructions, they actually take a little time to say, if you've lost your tablet or phone in your seat, don't adjust it, come get a flight attendant.

What do you mean lost in the seat? What do they mean?

Like if you have if you're sitting there and you got the butter fingers, you know, like you turn into Jerry Lewis all of a sudden your phone slides down into the seat beside you or in between the seat next to you. Okay, your phone is in grave danger if you adjust your seat back upright again. Oh, like I say, get a flight attendant, because they now have additional skills in their repertoire to get your tablet or phone out safe.

So at some point a memo went out to these airlines. It said, we're breaking cell phones because people are like, well, maybe if I just throw my seat up, it'll pop out.

Sure, it'll shoot right out, like like I pressed rewind on life.

Weird.

Anyway, this is stuff you should know.

The uh I thought this was pretty interesting actually, and it gave me even more of an appreciation for flight attendants. Yes, then I had already gained over my ears.

Yeah, because if you're one of those puttses who's mean to flight attendants you get.

Off the plane, you're a jerk. Yep.

Shouldn't be mean to people anyway.

Like everybody's walking around carrying their own burden that you're totally unaware of. And if you're mean to somebody, it usually is because you're not getting what you want, right then. Yeah, So if everybody can just calm down and be nice to each other, that's great. But be extra nice to the flight attendants. And if you don't agree with me, now, I guarantee you'll agree with us at the end.

Of the podcast.

And even in our own article here, there was a interview with a flight attendant, a couple of them, a couple of them, but one of them, very you know of these vets, said, h you know, back in the day, everyone was all excited when they flew, they were going someplace fun. Now everyone's crabby.

Yeah, but she makes a really good point. Why.

She says, it's because this is all post nine to eleven that the added layers of security that they've put onto getting from your car onto the plane increases stress so much that you're exhausted by the time you get onto the plane. And if flying has become a chore a task, yes, by the seats have gotten way smaller. I do buy that the leg room's gotten smaller. And yeah, I think that it's just kind of become more of like a let's get from point A to point B.

Yeah, I taking your shoes off, taking your laptop out, it's about all the extra security. No big deal, That's what I say.

Did I tell you I've gotten kind of on board your train about taking your shoes off on a flight?

Oh to not do it?

Yeah? Good, So every once in a while just be like, to hell with that.

I don't care. I'm taking my shoes off. I know my feet don't stink, right, But I understand that there's people like you out there who are deeply offended by that kind of thing, So I typically do leave them one unless my dogs are just yeap and so so loud.

I can't.

Yeah, I can't ignore it, but it's pretty rare these days.

I think my deal with that is is you can't count on everyone's feet to not stink, right, and I think plenty of people are like, I don't care.

That their feet stink. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty rotten.

I just want to be comfy.

That's pretty rotten. But we live in something called society. There are rules.

But getting back to the new regulations, which is pretty much laptop out, shoes off. I mean you still had to go through the line just like before, you.

Know, Yeah, it seems it feels different to me. Yeah, it does.

Different as in more time consuming.

Yeah, much more stressful, Like it's a it's not an event like it was. It definitely used to be an event in a person's life to go on an airplane.

Well, do you have a different feeling when you go on vacation compared to work.

Travel as far as the airport goes.

Yeah, and how you feel about it the same, Yeah, same stress.

Yes, a lot, a lot of it, to be fair, is in my head. Yeah, to me, pretty much, the worst thing that can happen to you is missing your airplane. I can't I don't even want to imagine what happens when you miss your airplane. Uman's like, it's not that bad. As a matter of fact, she's kind of entertained, like purposefully making us miss.

Your own version of cognitivebates.

But I don't want to miss it, so I generate my own stress in a large part. But it does seem like much more of a process than it was before. Okay, how about you. You're fine with it?

Yeah, I mean, it's no big deal, just shoes in the laptop. Yeah, two bits.

But it does seem like and I read this Travel and Leisure article about flight attendance where the author was saying, I think she was quoting a flight attendant who was saying, like, we've all kind of decided as a group that we're fine with just getting on an airplane and getting to where we're going, and it doesn't have to be this luxury experience. And as a result, the price of an airline ticket has come down dramatically compared to the golden age of flying.

Oh yeah, but then it has gone back up since it was pretty cheap.

Yeah, but relative to say, average income, it's I think, much less than it wasn't say, like the sixties, But in the sixties they were cutting like cuts of meat on a cart in front of you.

I'm not kidding.

There was a carving station that they would move. I'm not kidding. I've seen us.

I believe it. I think it's funny that that's the definition of fancy is a carving station.

It really is. I mean it is. The guy had the hat and everything.

Yeah, well you and my extended family agree on that, but it's.

And all of us take our shoes off while we eat our carv But there used to be that there were like piano lounges in first class lounge like they were.

It was like it was an event.

Sure, But the fact that it's gone is because we've all said, no, we want we want to be able to travel for less cost, right, with fewer frills.

Yeah, I just kind of want to get there. I'm with you there, Yeah, if that's what you think, or I'm with the airline industry. Yeah, I just hut me on the plane and give me there. Maybe throw a whiskey down my throat. Sure, and that's about all. There you go banana maybe, yeah, if it's the morning.

But the people who are going to help you get there banana and whiskey, Uh yeah, sure, Okay. The people who are going to help you get there, they have their job has changed over time, but they have not because they are unsung heroes and have been from beginning to end.

That's right. The early days of plane travel, they hired young men to take care of the stewardship of the plane.

Cabin boys. Yeah, cabin boy at Chris Elliott movie.

Yeah, I think that was a boat cabin but still sure, still a cabin boy. Yeah. And that was just sort of the thing. And then this woman came along and you dug this up. This really great. Her name was Ellen Church the nineteen thirties, in nineteen thirty in fact, and she was a nurse and a licensed pilot, so she had it going on. And she said, you know what, I have an idea Boeing air Transport, who would become

Yeah.

She actually pitched the idea because at first the execs were like, no, it's a stupid idea. This is no place for women. Yeah, and she said we'll get this. How is a man going to say that he can't fly because he's afraid of flying if he knows there's a woman up there flying around, and they're like, actually, that's pretty good psychology. So they took her up on it and it became, yeah, a thing from that moment on.

Really yeah, did he die on the Hindenburgh? No?

He lived?

Oh wow.

Very few people died on the Hindenburg. I think they were mostly on the ground. Remember, I don't remember, because the hydrogen burned up and the people who died were ones who jumped.

That's what it was, is that it. Did we do a show on that we've talked about before. Yeah, yeah, one of our many, many, many short lived video series.

Oh right, of course. So at any rate, Ellen Church changed the face of the flight attendant industry. And then in in the sixties and seventies, of course it was sort of a uh and this is not me talking here, this is in the article. It was the sexy stewardess phase of airline travel. Yeah, and that was definitely the

So and there were like those limits you talk about. Yeah, technically there's still around. There are weight limits and height limits, but they're restricted to you can't be so short that you can't reach the overhead bins.

Yeah, they're all practical limits.

Right, you can't be so tall that you're just bumping your head all over the place.

Yeah.

You have to be of the.

Adequate size to fit into a jump seat that the flight attendants sit in.

Yeah, but that's it.

Back then, it was you have to weigh like, no more than one hundred and twenty pounds, you have to be this height, and it had everything to do with looks and attractiveness.

Yeah, in your third too, so you're fired.

Yeah, that was a thing like very early on, I think in the fifties. I think in the nineteen fifties they started airlines started instituting age restrictions where once you got to age thirty two, you were no longer eligible to be a flight attendant. You might have a job down on the ground, but you couldn't be a flight attend anymore because you were too old according to them.

Plus also you couldn't be married.

Or have kids.

Right.

Yeah, it's very restrictive back in the day.

Also maybe the most sexist industry that's ever existed.

And of course that's airline dependent. It's not like it was a federal regulation. Yeah. Yeah, so it all depended. But you need a high school diploma in the very least these days. But they're very competitive jobs to get you gone to the days where you can just waltz in there with a headshot and get a job as a flight attendant. A lot of people want these gigs, and so if you have a college degree, then you definitely have a leg up.

These definitely, But it's always been pretty competitive. Supposedly, in two thousand six, Delta announced that they had one thousand openings and got like one hundred thousand applications. But it's always been like really competitive because from the beginning it was viewed as like really glamorous.

In the beginning. In the beginning, for sure, I don't know from the beginning.

So because it's been a really competitive career, Chuck.

And because the airlines were run by like men who were decided that they owned their flight attendants because they ran the airlines. There was in that sixties, the swinging sixties era of that sexy stewardess thing you were talking about, like they were a major draw for airlines. Sure, and the airlines like advertisements such so I've got found something. This is in that Travel and Leisure article I found you ready for this?

I am.

This is going to knock your socks off. I purposefully didn't send this to you because I want you. Yeah. So, National Airlines in the sixties had an advertisement where they had flight attendants Debbie, Chryl and Karen and they could fly me. They also had an alternate slogan, I'm going to fly you like you've never been flown before.

And these are print ads.

Yeah, okay, Continental, well Continentals his name bran If had one. Their advertising said does your wife know you're flying with us?

Yeah? Yeah.

Pacific Southwest said you want an aisle seat because all of our flight attendants have mini skirts and sometimes they drop stuff basically and then get this, Eastern Airlines gave out little black books to their male passengers so they could get the numbers of the stewardesses, the flight attendants.

And then Quantus had a slogan, ever seen a tick fight?

Crazy?

You're right, it's basically the sentiment behind it. And so you've got the airline's advertising this, and then the flight attendants unions are fighting this stuff tooth and nails, to be treated in a dignified manner and not be fired because you weigh one hundred and twenty two pounds, right, which, yeah, it's just crazy. This is like, this was the way that it was back then.

Yeah, your show up for work and it's like, hey, honey, get on the scale, and when's your birthday again? Yeah? Terrible. You kind of went to a Bill Clinton. There sounded a little Bill Clinton. I thought it sounded like, w all right, well, let's let's take a break then and work on our presidential accents and we'll come back and talk about post nine to eleven flying. All right. So we did mention that after nine to eleven, things of course did change, and things changed in a big way

Yeah did you see that one I sent you? Yeah, from I think the Points Guy's website.

Yeah, we should go over that now.

Actually, so, he.

Has a flight attendant insider who writes quite a bit for his site. I don't remember her name, but just look up the Points Guy flight Attendant insider and she goes into great detail about what it's like to go through training and is more intense than I realized it was, for sure.

Yeah, they and this depends on the airlines, but they sort of give averages. The average training is seven weeks, but they can be as long as twelve weeks, talking six days a week, twelve hours a day. And they call it Barbie boot camp because you don't show up in your sweats and tank top with no makeup.

Right, it's not like you're a passenger.

No, yeah, exactly, you're big fuzzy slippers and your pillow from home. Now, you show up as if you are there to work a flight. So you have to be in whatever attire that they require you to be in and have your hair done however you would do it and just basically be game day ready, and then they work you that many hours a day, because that's about how many hours a day you're gonna be working. Yeah, when it's a flight attendant.

When you start working, at first, you have very little control over your own schedule, although I get the impression you have flexibility out of the gate, But if you say I want to work this many days a month, that's the input you have at first until you start to develop seniority.

So yeah, they expose you to that.

Yeah, six days a week, twelve hours a day during training.

For many weeks. So the first thing they do is learn all the safety equipment. They're given written tests that she said that they had to score at least a ninety on eighty.

I said, they're really weird, didn't I.

Yeah, Well, she said if it was a eighty, they had to retake it, So they had to score at least a ninety to pass.

I got you.

And then practical exams where you had to score one hundred percent on these practical tests. And that basically means you were on a fake plane doing the thing, and it's not like you're serving that diet coke wrong's it's mainly ninety percent of this training, ninety five percent in this training. Yeah, that's what she said, is equipment safety, all that stuff, right.

Like the first stuff where they're giving these tests that you have to score high on is here's all of the stuff you need to know about the equipment. And then there's the drills where you're showing that you know how to use it in these stimulated emergencies.

Right, you know, like smoke's pouring in a cabin, what do you do?

Did you see that?

One picture of Emirates Airlines is like the big like a third of an Emirates plane basically the main cabin with the slide out going into a pool inside like a hangar, and you're like, oh, they're going to have to go down that slide. There's no way they're not going down that slide, and high heels and everything too. But they're running these drills and apparently this is a big This is where most people wash out, she said,

Right, Yeah, so you end up with the cream of the crop in the end.

Exactly.

That's a really good way to put And then she says that really the last thing they learned and the stuff that they spend the least amount of time on is the actual customer service stuff like pushing the beverage cart, where they know exactly what to do during if sudden turbulence hits and there's a beverage cart. They are taught less how to pour that diet coke or whatever.

I think, like, I think I could do that.

The pouring the stuff. I would get so stressed out.

The whole thing, Like I've seen it enough now. We travel enough for work where if like a flight attendant was like, oh my ankle, I could throw on the vest and run beverage service.

You'd be like, step aside, I've got.

This, Like I know exactly how they're doing it. I'm paying attention.

Would you splint the person's ankle first and then take over beverage service?

I would splint the ankle and then I would get up. Do you want peanuts, pretzels or a bisco Off cookie?

Yep?

Do what kind of drink.

You want cancer peanuts anymore?

And sure you can't.

The other day, what, yeah, you have peanuts on a flight.

Yeah, I think they don't serve peanuts if someone's allergic. But I don't think they banned peanuts.

It was my impression they have just stopped.

I've been on so many flights and they're like, well, we've got peanuts, but you can't have because thirteen E is alertic and everybody's like, now they have almonds.

Yeah, they did have almonds on a Delta plat the other day that was on They're delicious.

So you have peanuts on a flight, that's like a Sela canth.

And then I'm a I'm a sucker for those Delta cookies, so are you? I have?

I have desensitized to them. I actually just do pretzels. Now does bisc Off cookies. I used to be a junkie for them.

I like them. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's just a little was a cinnamon treat in the air bread something or other.

It's like a gingerbread gingerbread, but it's called speculose, which is the worst name for a dessert treat on the plane.

It says that on the package Speculus.

It's like, uh, yeah, that's the original Dutch name for that.

Interesting.

I'll tell you where the money is, Chuck, where's that?

I don't remember what airline it is, but they have this Dutch treat it's it's too thin, very sweet waffle cookies with a caramel like inside.

Yeah, carmel sandwich.

And they say, take this thing and put it over your hot coffee and let the steam from the coffee warm it up. And brother, you were on cloud nine.

Who tells you that the flight attendant the package?

Oh okay, the flight attendant doesn't tell you that, right, They just go here, read this package.

That sounds like some fancy international type of line.

I know it was domestic. I think it was Midwestern though.

There's a lot of European immigrants from the nineteenth century, so that would.

Exerting their influence. Yea, in all the best foody ways. We got side tracked there, where were we?

Well, we were talking about how difficult the training actually is.

Yeah, and that's sort of the long and short of it. I mean it's long, it's sort of grueling, and at the very end is when you learn just that she said that you learn that five percent of time you spend is what you end up doing ninety nine percent of the time, But you just have to be so prepared for that one percent. In case something goes wrong, you can just react on instinct.

Well, what's what made me feel really good was that she said the flight attendants you were flying with are so well trained, and they also have to go back for annual training every year to learn like new stuff that the airlines have figured out, learn new procedures, whatever.

And you know, anytime, say, like an airline.

Deploys a new jet in its fleet, they got to go figure that out because the safety stuff's in different places and they need to know this stuff and they need to be able to remember it and act on it during an emergency. So I guess I didn't really realize this, but any flight attendant on a commercial aircraft that you're flying is capable of saving your life should an emergency arise.

Yeah. I mean they talk about they even go through like a baby birth in training, right.

So the next time you want to yell at them because they're saying the overhead space is full, remember that that person can save your life if this plane starts to go down.

Or lands in the water or something.

And it's not their fault. The over head space is full.

It's it's all the people who put their bag up and then walk to the back of the plane.

Are you talking about the worst people on earth?

The worst people? And they took their shoes off as they were walking back.

Oh man, why did people do that?

I don't know, but I was on a flight the other day and I've never seen overhead space more screwed up by just a handful of people who did back. It was crazy, Like toward the end, people who were sitting in like the first you know, five rows after first class, we're having to go to the back of the plane and you're just like watching them like, oh man, you poor person as you're as you're walking off the plane and they're just sitting there waiting to get their bag.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Yeah. I think when they started charging for bags, that's when everything went berserk because nobody wants to check their bag except me. I don't mind.

Now that's crazy to me.

Yeah, I've never lost a bag, so I don't mind. I don't have to sweat it. I mean, this is a if I'm just going on a work trip. I don't even have my roller bag anymore, and I will buzzmarkt them all day. My red Ox oh really yeah, my red Ox shoulder bag.

Yeah.

Uh, the thing is great and I can fit everything in there. But if I'm going on like a vacation, and I know you think it's heresy, but I will check that bag and relax, Hey, my day away.

I'm not trying to yuck your yom here.

Yeah.

If you want to check your bag, that's fine.

Or gate check it. That's the good deal because you don't have to pay there.

Okay, I have no problem with gate checking it at the plane, so it's just stowed in a handy manner, so you just walk off and they hand it to you.

That's fine.

But there are very few things that you can do that is a bigger waste of time than standing around waiting for your bag to make.

It to the bag carousel.

I hate doing that, especially when you're ready for vacation to start.

Yeah, I don't mind because most airports, my bag's cruising around that thing by the time I get to baggage. Oh yeah, yeah for me, okay, and that's just because I U I don't know. I don't like having to mess with fighting a bag a suitcase on a plane. I don't like contributing to that whole process, much less being a business traveler. Like you see those dudes that have the the roller bag with the big bag on

You need to merge them, all right.

But this is not about just us complaining about traveling.

Get back to the flight attendants, get back to us.

So customer service. It is the goal of the flight in it to keep you happy as possible. But also you know they don't have to indulge you once you have passed the point of sobriety or just jerkness. They don't deal with that stuff anymore. Like they will stop boarding the plane if you were drunk before you get on and have you escorted off. It's it's serious business. Now you shouldn't get on a plane if you're loaded.

No time was they would get you loaded on the plane. Now they yeah, they do. They don't mess with that.

But they are long days, so like we said, twelve hour days. They are if you're if you're new, like you said, earlier. They don't have a ton of control over their schedule. So you're gonna be working a lot of weekends. Everybody's gonna be working some weekends. You're gonna be doing overnight trips, spending the night in cities, and that can sometimes be fun if you put a positive spin on.

It, sure, or it can be a big drag.

Yeah.

But one thing that I had seen across the board from all the sources I hit for this was that you it's up to you how much or how little you fly up to I think one hundred hours a month, there's like a maximum you can you can work.

Right, They probably minimums, do, don't you think?

Or no, not that I saw. I'm probably menial to get perks, because probably do. Yeah, But I get the impression that that's actually once you've done it for like six months. Typically when you're hired on for an airline, you're on a probationary six month period on the perks. Yeah, because they don't want just you know, everyone, They don't know you from anybody, they've known you for seven weeks, they just trained.

You, right, you I want ten buddy passes and then I'm going to quit my job.

Exactly. Well, I saw another thing too.

Apparently buddy passes are like the worst thing that's ever happened to a flight attendant. Yeah, because everybody begs for him. But they are like really actually bad passes. Like you're at the end of standby and if your friend, if you give the buddy pass to your friend and they start yelling at the gate agent, you get in trouble because it was your buddy pass that was being used. You might even have your perks revoked because your friend was a jerk to the gate attendant and everybody's always

That's like, if you're a country club member, you're responsible for the behavior of your guests right now, not that I would know.

There are other perks, you know, know you've seen Caddyshack.

Yeah, but I've never like belonged to the country club.

There are other perks where like family members, immediate family members, sometimes extended family members, spouses, they get the same perks you do, which very frequently is like you just pay taxes on the tight and you fly for free. That's different, Like all flight attendants take advantage of that, some of them will will hop on over to Europe or something for you know.

Lunch one hundred bucks.

Yeah maybe if that in tax. Yeah.

Well, buddy passes used to be a lot easier when they didn't over sell all the flights. You know, Like I used to have friends back in the day. I'd get a buddy pass fly no problem, right, But now you're right, you're in a bad position.

Yeah you are.

Do you remember flights where like entire rows would be empty. They'd be like, well, the flight was scheduled, so we have to we have to stick to it.

It's it's strange, what a day.

So you're gonna be working seventy five to eighty five hours a month generally, but like you said, I guess you can't go over that one hundred mark. And interestingly, too, another thing you get trained for is very sadly human trafficking. These days, they will fly kidnapped people right in front of people's faces, and so flight attendants now are trained to spot this kind of activity, which can mean like an adult who doesn't really understand about the final destination,

Apparently that's how it started.

There was a man who caught the suspicion of a flight attendant named Sandra Fiorini. She worked for American Airlines. She noticed that like a late eighteen year old teenager age guy who was had an infant that still had the umbilical cord attached, and like a bottle of milk in his pocket, a couple of diaper stucks his in his pocket his other pocket, so like this baby was

Were amazing traffic.

Yeah, somebody wrote in and said, you can call it super Bowl.

It can't do anything, can't like advertise anything using those words. Right, I don't think.

We can't sell our Super Bowl bobble heads that we have a box full of.

Too bad, it was a poor investment.

Should we take our final break here? Yeah, all right, let's do that. We'll talk a little bit more about some of the perks and drawbacks right after this. All right, let's talk about pay baby, you don't make a ton of money. I think starting salaries in the mid thirties. Oh no, I know for a flight attendant.

That's no.

No, starting salary can be like eighteen oh really the median And in twenty twelve or thirteen or fourteen was thirty seven the median. Yeah, that's like that's the middle. That's not much, you know. That's why it's such an attractive a job for people who are just looking for extra money. Right, if you're a parent and you have so much control over your schedule, once you start to get some seniority.

Yeah, it's a great, great way to spend your money.

If you're a soap opera star, it's a great, great extra job. Did you see that?

Yeah? What was her name?

Kate Linder who plays Esther Valentine on The Young and the Restless.

Who knew she's a flight attendant as well.

For like thirty two years. Yeah, and she's done them both for about the same amount of time. Yeah, and she does it like every week.

Yeah, and she says it helps keep her grounded no pun intended.

Yeah, she didn't say the no pun intended part.

Yeah, But I mean she gets those perks, she gets to fly to Europe for lunch if she wants, right, and act on soaps.

Right, So good for her. And that's not to say that that median.

I mean, obviously that's the middle amount, but it goes much higher than that. And it all has to do all perks, all pay all benefits, all that stuff. The flight attendant profession is all about seniority.

Oh sure.

And there are plenty of flight attendants out there who are career flight attendants and you know, like Kate, Kate Linder, she's been doing it for thirty two years. There's another woman named Candy Bruton who is a forty three year veteran of flight attendant. Yeah, like you can make a long, happy career out of it now that they've taken that age restriction off.

Yeah, twenty one dollars and twenty three cents. A few years ago an hour was the rate for a first year attendant. So plus twenty dollars an hour. But here's the thing, and this is something that I bet ninety five percent of human beings don't realize. When you were sitting on that plane and those doors are open and they're getting you your first class drinks, or they're helping you put your bags away and you're complaining because you

Yeah, when it says the boarding doors now closed, the clock just started for them.

Never knew that.

No, I didn't either.

They get something like, depending on the airline, maybe a dollar fifty to or dollars ninety five an hour for the pre the boarding stuff. The pre while the door's open stuff, I guess is what you call it.

Yeah, So like, next time you're sitting on the tarmac and you're delayed for two hours and you're super grumpy, think about that flight attendant who is getting paid almost nothing to be dealing with how grumpy you are.

If the boarding doors closed, they would be getting paid, right.

No, they set in here if flight delays, they like, flight time is the only thing that matters.

I thought it was once the door.

So if the door's closed and you go out to the runway and you're just sitting there on the runway, they would be getting paid.

I thought that's not what it said. Somebody let us know, because it said in the article. If next time you're on a big flight delay, think about the fact that they're not making any money.

I know.

And that's probably why the airline put it in there, because can you imagine how much money they would have to pay in flight attendants for flight delays.

Yeah, but it's not like the flight attendants are just like, I'm off the clock, don't bother me.

Once we get into the air, you can bother me.

You know.

You don't hear that, you know, so they should be paying them for that.

Hey, I agree, you know, I think we should paying together in start a social movement here.

I wonder why you should tip flight attendants too.

Yeah, that's not a thing.

They should stand you know, the end, when they stand there and say good day and I hope you enjoyed your flight, they should be holding the jar as far as I'm concerned, it's just shaking it.

Yeah, throw five bucks in there on your way out, bye bye.

I think they'd be great.

You remember Tina Mucklough, the dB Cooper heist. Yeah, he tried to give her ten twenty thousand dollars and she said no, tipping aloud.

That's right.

What a hero.

And quite often flight attendants are the heroes on many flights, whether it is dealing with literally a terrorist and trying to manage that situation bravely, or God forbid, some sort of incident in the air with you know, like with the plane itself. But at the very least, those jerks on planes that think they can just talk to people however they want, they got to put up with a lot in a very cramped space.

Very early on in flight attendant history. I don't know if we said or not. You said that Ellen Church was a registered nurse, but that was par for the course. For early flight attendants, they had to be registered nurses.

Makes sense.

There was one named Nellie Granger who was a TWA flight attendant and she was on a flight going to Pittsburgh, I believe in nineteen thirty six, and it crashed and she pulled a couple of passengers to.

Safety and.

It down the mountain to get help and went back up with the rescuers to help minister to the two injured passengers whose lives she saved.

And you got thirty cents an hour.

She got a trip to the with her aunt. That's nice by TWA. Yeah, I got a couple more things. Sure, there's some crazy stuff that flight attendants have seen. The one that gets me though, is dead bodies on planes that are purposefully brought onto planes, not people who die. Apparently, Singapore Airlines has what's called a corpse closet on their planes to stow a passenger who might die mid air.

That's nice.

They're in the minority there that I think there might be peculiar with that. But sometimes because shipping a body is very expensive, it can run into the thousands and thousands of dollars. Some people say, well, it'd be cheaper if I just bought a plane ticket or put my mother in a garment bag and just smuggle her body on board and took her where she's going to be buried myself. Yeah, that a guy got caught doing that Miami.

Wow, maybe he did have the flu.

No, he was dead.

No, I mean maybe that's how I died.

Oh, maybe he previously had the flu. Yeah, it could have been. Like there's a kernel of truth to what we just said.

That's it.

Oh, and don't order to diet coke because apparently it takes the longest to stop fizzing on a trolley.

Okay, that's science.

If you want to know more about flight attendants, just chat up a flight attendant. I'm sure they'd love to tell you some great stories. And in the meantime, it's time for listener.

Now, I'm gonna call this PSA about the flu because we had someone Courtney Harmouth who was Askani who says this, Hey, guys, want to basically give you a PSA about how dangerous the flu can be. In twenty twelve, it was a healthy high school freshman was suddenly stricken with a horrible digestive distress, chills, fever, coughing. After a week or so, my parents took me to the GP and I was told to go to the hospital for observation and get an IV. What was supposed to be one night turned

Oh my gosh.

That first night my vitals went crazy and I ended up having to be kept in my local hospital for two weeks. During my say, I developed pneumonia as a complication. Soon after that, fluid began to fill my lungs and I had to be helicopter to a larger hospital in Madison. She said being in the helicopter was.

Pretty sweet though, oh really.

Yeah, even though you know she was being.

Sick and a helicopter would not be comfortable.

I think she's a bright side person.

Okay.

For about twenty minutes, I was only taking in about thirty percent and oxygen. My parents were told I could have brain damage or may even die. On my arrival to the larger hospital, I was immediately put to a medically induced coma for eleven days. Oh my god, I was finally taken out of my coma. I had atrophied and weigh of measly ninety five pounds at twelve years old. I had to relearn how to walk, write, and use

A lot, Cordney. Glad you made it through that one. That was a pretty scary.

Yeah, we said the flu could be dangerous, so you have it.

Cordney just proved it.

Everybody.

If you want to tell us a great story that is harrowing and amazing, we want to hear it, or if you have a good flight attendant story that's a good one too.

You can send us an email.

The Stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

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