I worked as a flight attendant in the 90’s and I’m going to share my best flight experiences

Carolina is a former flight attendant. Today, she is 51 years old and has spent 28 years working “in the heights”. Now, she has a blog, where she shares memories and little secrets of her profession in the 90s and analyzes what has changed in the aviation business over time. Carolina calls herself a “retired commissioner”, but the way she approaches the subject would make many current bloggers jealous.

We, from awesome.club, we read the stories of the former commissioner and, with her permission, we publish the most interesting ones here. Welcome aboard!

He couldn’t skip the queue to go to the bathroom — “And do you know who I am?” Did not receive the desired amount of chicken — “And do you know who I am?” Extra blankets were only given to women with young children — “And do you know who I am?” There is only one highest authority on board: the Captain. After him, the co-pilot and then the rest of the crew. All passengers are equal, that is, they are served according to the rules stipulated for each class and the needs of the moment.

“You will lose your job” is the second stage of “And do you know who I am?” The reasons are the same: you didn’t get what you wanted; was not allowed to stand as the plane descended to land; he was called out for making too much of a mess. Like me, my colleagues were almost “fired” on every flight. Sometimes, because of restless people like that, we had to change positions to avoid further conflicts. That is, the steward who should be “fired” would go to the kitchen to no longer serve that person. We still joked telling everyone in the hall: “Don’t worry, that person is no longer working with us”. After this announcement, the troubled passenger would soon let out a laugh and calm down.

fly in business class it is really very comfortable. The seats are spacious, the passenger can have a good rest, as well as enjoy the elevated service. But the price for all this stewardship is also considerable. For this reason, most of the executive seats are vacant, and these empty spaces attract the attention of some economy passengers.

Just turn around, and there he is sitting. “I’m going to rest just a little bit here, I’m not feeling well”, close your eyes and take a deep breath. If this happens before takeoff, no problem, we call the doctors. And what a miracle! The passenger soon felt better, was able to get out of business class and take his place. In economics.

There are those who like to claim their rights. “This seat is not occupied, I have a right. What’s the difference for you?” Same situation: if the plane hasn’t taken off yet, and the person gets more and more aggressive throughout the conversation, you need to ask for help. However, if we are already in the air, it will be necessary to keep insisting until the person complies.

“I always fly business🇧🇷 For example, in check in they tell me that there are no vacant seats, but if I find one, I sit down and that’s it”. Certain people use this argument saying that they don’t want to “break tradition”.

still others claim they paid, or “arranged” with someone, or know any of the bosses.

There are still those who don’t demand anything, but insist on “fixing it”🇧🇷 These are the passengers who “accidentally” end up sleeping in the business class and even pretend to be snoring – thinking that the flight attendants will be sorry to wake them up. And every time it’s the same thing: “Yes, yes, I’m sorry, I fell asleep.”

Sometimes another case: passengers traveling with family🇧🇷 The father is in executive, the others, in economy. If there are empty seats next to the parent, they will certainly try to sit there. Children are usually the first to attack. Then the older ones. If the flight attendant takes pity and leaves a child on executive duty, for example, the parent will start demanding that their child receive the same high-level service. In these cases, we have to ask the child to go back to economics.

As a general rule, parents accompanied the child to boarding and someone picked him up after landing. However, during the flight, the minor was under the guardianship of the flight attendants. Back when even landlines were a rarity, children traveled alone a lot. And, often, the crew was not even informed in advance. Girls and boys were simply taken to the boarding gate and then we understood the situation: here is the parental consent, the ticket, the other documents and have a good trip! It wouldn’t be so problematic if it was just one minor, but what about when there were several? What if they were too small? Yes, not only teenagers flew alone, but also children of 3 or 4 years old.

One case stands out from the rest. A 6-year-old girl got on the plane alone. We received a block of documents and a request: take her from one city to another. This was before the age of the Internet and cell phones. supposedly, who would receive it would be the grandmother. But the woman did not appear. We didn’t know what to do, so we took the girl to her grandmother’s address on our own. We arrived at the place and knocked on the door: “Hey, open up! We brought your granddaughter.” The answer was: “What granddaughter ?!”

The address they gave us was wrong. Nobody was waiting for us in that house, not even in that neighborhood. We went out asking the neighbors, knocking on doors. Nobody knew anything. Well, we’re back. Finally, we had to send the girl back to the city of departure and notify her parents.

Still in 1991, we were informed that our airline would start flying abroad. Management asked who would like to take English classes, and I immediately agreed. However, obtaining a complementary education was not as simple as I imagined. Every time I asked, management rejected my application. The initial justifications were that I still did little work. Afterwards, that there were no groups available. I also heard that I should study on my own, but that was almost impossible at the time. If someone from my city managed to work on an international flight, then it was because they knew someone influential.

My first international flight opportunity only came in 2009. Along with my colleagues, I went through the Moscow aviation school, where we had about 300 academic hours of English. I paid for everything with my own money. The company did not refund me anything. They said it was a voluntary choice: if you wanted to travel abroad, you had to pay the consequences. Nowadays, most airlines pay the costs of training their employees.

We served meals, and the menu was light: tea, coffee, omelette or stew of your choice. Passengers were quickly deciding what they wanted. Then, it was the turn of a very mysterious middle-aged man. He was quiet, but you could tell he wanted to order something. We explained the menu again, and he replied, “Look, actually, I’m used to having two glasses of milk every morning. You can go get it!”

We even had milk, but only as an addition to tea or coffee, as the quantity was quite modest. We clarified the situation politely and even promised that we would offer you milk if there was any left over at the end of the service. The man agreed but didn’t order anything from the menu.

The service is over, and so is the milk. But we managed to fill a glass. Two, no. That was reason enough to make the passenger enraged. The gentleman screamed with rage, something like “I made it very clear that I wanted two glasses of milk.” The man even tried to break into the kitchen for the rest of the flight, demanding more milk. He tore, too, the curtains of the hall…

In the 1990s, in-flight meals were served in reusable bowls. We took food out of containers and placed it in bowls, which were then wheeled down the aisles on carts.

I don’t remember the passenger’s face well, but she had a different hairstyle. We passed delivering the food, the plane was rocking a lot. Stronger turbulence, and a rice rain fell straight into this woman’s head. In response, instead of getting stressed, the passenger just closed her eyes and let my colleagues and I clean her hair, picking up the rice grains. Wow, it was close…

After twenty minutes, we took the carts again. And the situation repeated itself in exactly the same way! Again, turmoil. Again, rice in the woman’s hair. I thought this time we wouldn’t escape. But I was wrong. The second time was the same as the first: you didn’t even seem to care🇧🇷 I tried to get all the rice out, but I couldn’t get it all. And we both knew it.

Once, a young couple was flying with a child on their lap. The baby cried and cried, non-stop. Parents basically ignored our apprehension. After four hours of flight and crying, we tried to offer help in a more incisive way. It turned out that the child was hungry. Not just hungry, but famished: she had last eaten before take-off, at the airport, which is to say over six hours ago.

The young parents, of course, had not brought food for the child. The strange thing is that both of them didn’t seem to care about it, because during all the shouting, they just enjoyed their meals, not showing any concern. They also did not consider offering some of their own food to the baby.

After witnessing this situation, the entire crew was extremely uneasy about what was happening. We tried to look for other passengers with infants, but there was no other infant on board at the time. However, a miracle occurred! On that flight, there was a woman who was carrying infant formula for her granddaughter. So, we dilute the mixture, which was given to the child. After she ate, she immediately stopped crying and fell asleep. Of course, we asked the parents: “How come you didn’t bring anything?!”, to which they just smiled and said thank you, evading the question.

Passengers think of all kinds of things. How about stretching in front of someone? Easy! And how about in front of the flight attendant? Even better. How it happens: usually, between one process and another, the commissioners can sit in their seats. Then, suddenly, a person “materializes” in front of us and starts to… stretch…