Pros and cons of being a flight attendant?

Reserve status for two years, I wish! Where I am at, you are on reserve for 5 years, and then you go to A/B rotation. Reserve one month, lineholder the next. That being said, I do agree with a1c, now is not a good time to be looking for a job as a flight attendant. There are few, if any, airlines that are currently hiring. The only one I know of that "might" be, would be Virgin America, based out of San Fran. Many airlines are currently furloughing (laying off) their f/a's, and they can't hire again until all the furloughed employees are called back, and given the option to come back to work. Where I'm at, these furloughs start next month, and the longest ones are almost 2 years. That's not to say they won't call them back sooner, they could, but it looks like the chances of that are pretty slim as of now. That aside as well, the job is great for the right person. If you don't mind being away from home a lot, working crazy weird hours, enjoy working with the public, and getting some time to travel...it's great. I've answered many questions on here about the pros an cons of the job. Do a search, and I'm sure you will find many of them! If you have any other questions, feel free to email me!

PROs: Seeing a lot of different places, working with new people daily (almost daily), and the flight benefits are awesome! Cons: Jetlag, crash pads, reserve status, seniority, job security, pay. If you made it to become a flight attendant because it's a hard job to obtain at this point in the aviaion industry, you'll be on reserve status for up to two years! That means you will commute to your base city, usually not where you live, and stay in a crash pad with a bunch of other commuting flight attendants/pilots. You're guranteed to get paid for 75 flight hours a month in most cases, though you may sit in your crash pad for the whole duration of your 4 day trip. On reserve status, you get the vacation relief lines and sick calls. It's not as glamorous as it sounds. Not to mention when airlines start laying off, and they do every few years, then they start at the bottom of the totem pole. You could be there for many many years as there are filght attendants with 30 + years of seniority flying today! Pay-wise it's not too bad depending on which airline you fly for. These days, the only airlines hiring are regional carriers and you mind as well not waste your time. We're talking like $15K a year. The pilots for regional carriers barely scrap $40K in some cases! But it's almost impossible to get hired fresh with a legacy carrier as most of them have layoff lists that they are recalling from back in 2001!! If you are looking for a career change, I would suggest an airline for sure, but in the airport or some other capacity. I work for an airline as a station manager in the airport, and I still get my benefits of flying, and I can go home at night! I used to be a flight attendant and after two years of flying, I gave it up because I wasn't getting off reserve status any time in this decade. Though I did have half the month off technically, I flew a four day trip here and and a few days off there. It was broken up. What finally did it for me was commuting to work. I had to leave a day early to get to my crash pad and check in with my supervisors. That took a day off of my time off. When my trips ended and I was tired of flying, I had to fly home! That's just my opinion, and I wish you the best in your career path!!

Its a great career to consider. This website should be able to give you some valuable information of becoming a flight attendant! www.FlightAttendantSource.com Good luck!

Don't forget all those passengers you have to deal with! I'm sure as a teacher you've had plenty of stupid questions so I'm sure you are used to it!