A while ago I was sitting outside at a coffee place, waiting for my friend to arrive. Because I was sitting by myself for a few minutes I could shamelessly listen in on a few conversations. One conversation clearly stood out. Two ladies were chitchatting away and just had to be colleagues cause the ‘convo’ went like this. ‘Oh no, I’ll buy that in Bangkok, it’s way expensive over here’. ‘Where did you get that belt? Mexico? Cute!’ ‘Oh, by the way, are you going to New York any time soon? Can you bring me something?’ ‘I was partying with Armin in Moscow the other day, so cool! Yes, we got VIP tickets’. If it wasn’t for me being in the airline industry as well this would all just sound pretty blasé! We flight attendants just live in a different world. For us doing a return flight to Milan is just as normal as driving to the next city and back. We have our own language, our own global shopping addresses, we are usually working when the rest of the world is sleeping and we won’t always come to your birthday party. Being in this industry is more a way of life than a job. Some other quirky flight attendant habits? Check them out below.
Rewards card?
Because we are away more than we are at home we also do much of our grocery shopping overseas we own all of the supermarket and drugstore rewards cards. They don’t call the Dutch cheap for nothing. Did someone say fifty percent off?
Public transport?
We don’t always have very long layovers. And sometimes we need to cram a lot of activities in a few hours. So we don’t have all day to sit in the back of a cab while stuck in traffic. Hence the Underground! Taiwanese or Hong Kong smart card? We’ve got them all.
Russian shampoo
It just so often happens we find exploded shampoo bottles in our suitcase or worse, the penetrating smell of nail polish or forgot to pack toothpaste again. That’s why you’ll find many different nationalities in our toiletry bag from Russian shampoo to Arab Nivea.
Fear of missing out
Missing out on food that is! We’re always in need of food. Especially when you’re staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night in lets say, the far East. You can’t really sleep well on an empty stomach so our suitcase is always packed with food like spelt crackers, hummus, rice crackers and somewhat illegally imported avocado. Switch on some HBO or E Entertainment and eat crackers in bed until you fall asleep at sunrise. Glamour is that you?
Do you guys always work together?
Ok, we have this thing. Pick 14 random strangers to form a crew, give them 5 minutes and it’s like they’ve know each other for ever! Every time, cause we have a different crew every flight. We are natural born socialites. We can talk to anyone. Old people, dogs, no problem. And often we tell each other stuff we don’t even tell our friends. Why? Because after landing you’ll probably never see each other again!
What time do we meet up?
Oh yes, we are the masters of making promises we can’t keep. During the flight we will make all kinds of plans to go sight seeing or to do tours. However after a good night sleep and by the time we’re sitting at breakfast it turns out half cancelled. Making restaurant reservations? ‘I think I will join you’ usually means ‘no’. So make reservations at your own risk!
Early birds and chatter boxes
Oh and we never meet up with you before 11 am and sorry if we call you during a work day to chit chat, we tend to forget that most people work from 9 to 5.
So next time you’re sitting next to a couple of flight attendants and you happen to pick up on their ‘blah blah’ conversation, take it with a huge grain of salt, they don’t know any better…
xx Mishanou
