Glen Whitman argues that hot flight attendants were an odd result of airline regulation and it was deregulation that caused flight attendants to be like everybody else. Megan McArdle argues that it was feminist shaming, unionization, and anti-discrimination law.
True story… longer ago than I would like to admit, when I was about 24 or so, I applied for a job to be a flight attendant. I was pretty hard-up for a job and I figured that if I was going to enter customer service, cooler on a plane than behind a counter. Besides, it might give me something to blog about. Given my comparative lack of experience in customer service in general, I figured there was no chance I would get a call back. To my surprise, I did.
So I showed up on interview day. There were about twelve people in the lobby and three more in line. I waited my turn. However, when I got up to the front and told them I was there to interview for a flight attendant position, I got a strange look. She paused and said, “I’m sorry, we can’t hire you for this position.” She went on to explain why in under ten words. She then asked which applicant I was so that I could be removed from the pile.
So the question is… why? Does anyone want to take a stab it it?
Does it have anything to do with whether you could safely fly sitting in the jump seat?
Or was it the pentagram that was still freshly-carved on your forehead?
I dunno, is the general demeanor you had at the time well represented by your Gravatar?
Too tall?
Prosthetic arm that would prevent you from pointing to the emergency exit?
You’re one of those yelly people who doesn’t talk at a volume under “8”?
My guess is the opposite of Jaybird’s — too short.
Longer odds, I know but I’m going with the less-then-ten words were
“… we were hoping you’d *fly* the plane. This way please.”
Jaybird got it. I’m 6’5″ and there is a height limit that I well exceed. The issue wasn’t sitting, I don’t think, as much as the fact that I can’t even stand in a lot of planes. It’s something I never really noticed or thought that much about until the above incident.
Which is still kinda weird, because it wouldn’t have excluded you from being an Air Force crewmember, for instance. And at 6 ft+ myself, I don’t think crewmembers that are maybe 100 lbs soaking wet are particularly useful in many emergencies.
(I have a weirdly strong antipathy toward flight attendants, finding them the most over-entitled profession there is. Even in just that industry, everyone else either works harder or is more important. If I had my druthers, I’d rather they just put vending machines on the plane)
(yes, I dated a flight attendant once)
He’d be too tall for a fighter pilot cockpit, although there are those hardy souls who were so enamored of the idea that they corkscrewed themselves into same. The ideal height I’m told is about 5’8″, so Top Gun Cruise would have been a tad short but in the ballpark.
Before I got my Subaru, I had a Ford Escort. A wrong shift of the legs and my knee changed the radio station.
I had actually vaguely thought that my size would be to my advantage. All “large and in charge” and such.
(I have a weirdly strong antipathy toward flight attendants, finding them the most over-entitled profession there is. Even in just that industry, everyone else either works harder or is more important. If I had my druthers, I’d rather they just put vending machines on the plane)
I’ve always thought that, too. That said, they do know how to inflate those door chutes, not to mention open those doors themselves. That’s why I always paid attention to their safety lectures.
Anyway, aren’t all the hot chicks working as pharma reps now?
FA’s work with the public. If that isn’t a hard job to mollify people who either complain about how bad the food is or then complain about not getting any food and help people shove bags that are clearly to big for the overhead compartment into the damn compartment and then have to polity listen to all the various complaints from reasonable to spoiled and then know that their skin and boobs aren’t high enough quality for the flying public…….well if that isn’t a hard job then i’m not sure what is.