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If you told me to guess whether Hell had frozen over with flying pigs overhead or Spirit Airlines would somehow make a move like this, I would have bet the farm

If you told me to guess whether Hell had frozen over with flying pigs overhead or Spirit Airlines would somehow make a move like this, I would have bet the farm on the former. But in all seriousness, friend’s mom is a flight attendant for a major carrier as a sort of “semi-retirement” career. I can’t believe the stories she has to share when we see her. They are so underpaid and overworked. She likes the free travel though so I guess that’s something. She also has a pretty sarcastic personality and does a good job rolling her eyes at bullshit. Some horror stories: - Having to stop a couple from actively fornicating in their row (not even in the restroom) - Being handed a leaking poopy diaper for her to “do something with” - Routinely being harassed, sexually/physically/mentally

sneak 5y ago
> They are so underpaid and overworked If they were either, they would stop showing up. Which is what happened, at one airline. Which is why the pay went up. It's a little bit ridiculous to complain about low wages for a job in a thread about an employer tripling wages to ensure that the job in question is staffed.
- caminante 5y ago
  Adding on, the aforementioned worker is semi-retired and gets travel perks as part of the package. I don't know what the value of their travel is, but it seems fair to consider that part of their pay (used or not).
  - maxerickson 5y ago
    The fair value of an unused travel perk would be $0, no? Like health insurance that doesn't get used is valued well above $0, but it's providing risk mitigation. A travel perk isn't risk mitigation.
    - flyinglizard 5y ago
      An option contract on free travel would be worth significantly more than $0.
      - landemva 5y ago
        The travel is standby for flight attendants, so they don't go if flight is full. Though sometimes they take a folding seat. A few years ago it was $10,000 a year to get added as pilot's family member for that travel perk. I don't know how that may have changed over the past couple years. I did not understand why the carriers allowed that.
      - maxerickson 5y ago
        Oh, is that how they structure it?
        gruez 5y ago
        It's not literally an option contract, but it's to point out something has value even if you don't exercise it.
    - KingMachiavelli 5y ago
      Sure but there are enough people who want & use the travel perk for it to be effectively part of the compensation. If you don't want that or can't use it then a career as a flight attendant is probably not very attractive. You could make an argument that COVID has made it difficult/impossible to use that perk so perhaps that perk really is worth ~2x the salary.
    - caminante 5y ago
      Why assume a travel perk isn't risk mitigation, i.e. avoiding the spot price of a trip you wanted? You're conflating common usage of "value".
- mym1990 5y ago
  - pxmpxm 5y ago
    It's peculiar that left leaning people profess that supply/demand based systems work only in circumstances that line up with their preset beliefs (or more accurately, the narrative they are to express); almost certainly a cognitive dissonance avoidance strategy. Eg: Shortage of Y increases prices of Y and higher prices of Y drive consumers to substitute Y with X but not XY get paid more than XX for same work, and higher price for XY drive employers to substitute XY with XX
    - yodon 5y ago
      You're making unfounded assumptions to believe you know the poster's political leaning. All people you disagree with are not by definition "the other side" politically.
      - pxmpxm 5y ago
        Rather than anything related to my personal views, there is a pattern of what I mentioned above coming from people that identify as progressive; and certainly the narrative that I alluded to(and the broader idea behind it(1) ) is a progressive cause of late. (1) The notion that certain special-cause voluntarily participated activities are per se exploitative, and others are not, even though the underlying economic mechanics are identical for both categories. It's got all the hallmarks of back-fitting rationale to the narrative. Interesting, though, that everyone seems to have taken "left leaning people" as some sort of invective.
        yodon 5y ago
        No one took it as an invective, they simply took it as an unfounded assumption about the political viewpoint of the other participants in the thread on which you were commenting.
    - Retric 5y ago
- TheGigaChad 5y ago
- reificator 5y ago
  > It's a little bit ridiculous to complain about low wages for a job in a thread about an employer tripling wages to ensure that the job in question is staffed. It's a little bit ridiculous that their pay is so low that increasing it enough to keep it staffed means triple. If your employer started getting desperate could they offer 3x your salary? Would they need to come anywhere close?
  - bobthepanda 5y ago
    It is double pay through the next four days, so it's not like they're double salaries for new hires. (It's also double pay; the headline has been corrected.)
  - b9a2cab5 5y ago
    Double pay is quite common over the holidays for any hourly role. Flight attendants are unionized so they're far from making minimum wage. This article is really not news, every decent company pays double time over the holidays.
    - reificator 5y ago
      At the time of the comment it was triple, not double.
  - astura 5y ago
    3x my salary for a week? Definitely. In fact, I've gotten more than that as a end-of-year-good-job-we-did-it bonus.
MuffinFlavored 5y ago
> They are so underpaid and overworked. Care to give any specifics? A quick Google shows flight attendant salry in the US can range anywhere from $17k/yr to $120k/yr, with an average answer closer to about $32k-$50k/yr Can you define overworked? How many hours a week is your friend's mom working a week? 40? 50? 60? If she's working 60 hours a week for $40k/yr, I would say she's partially to blame. It's up to you to not let your employer take advantage of you.
- beeboop 5y ago
  This comment is really lacking in compassion. I hope you realize eventually how crass it is to blame an employee just trying to feed and house themselves when they're faced with abusive or exploitive employers.

sneak 5y ago

> They are so underpaid and overworked If they were either, they would stop showing up. Which is what happened, at one airline. Which is why the pay went up. It's a little bit ridiculous to complain about low wages for a job in a thread about an employer tripling wages to ensure that the job in question is staffed.

caminante 5y ago
Adding on, the aforementioned worker is semi-retired and gets travel perks as part of the package. I don't know what the value of their travel is, but it seems fair to consider that part of their pay (used or not).
- maxerickson 5y ago
  The fair value of an unused travel perk would be $0, no? Like health insurance that doesn't get used is valued well above $0, but it's providing risk mitigation. A travel perk isn't risk mitigation.
  - flyinglizard 5y ago
    An option contract on free travel would be worth significantly more than $0.
    - landemva 5y ago
      The travel is standby for flight attendants, so they don't go if flight is full. Though sometimes they take a folding seat. A few years ago it was $10,000 a year to get added as pilot's family member for that travel perk. I don't know how that may have changed over the past couple years. I did not understand why the carriers allowed that.
    - maxerickson 5y ago
      Oh, is that how they structure it?
      - gruez 5y ago
        It's not literally an option contract, but it's to point out something has value even if you don't exercise it.
  - KingMachiavelli 5y ago
    Sure but there are enough people who want & use the travel perk for it to be effectively part of the compensation. If you don't want that or can't use it then a career as a flight attendant is probably not very attractive. You could make an argument that COVID has made it difficult/impossible to use that perk so perhaps that perk really is worth ~2x the salary.
  - caminante 5y ago
    Why assume a travel perk isn't risk mitigation, i.e. avoiding the spot price of a trip you wanted? You're conflating common usage of "value".
mym1990 5y ago
- pxmpxm 5y ago
  It's peculiar that left leaning people profess that supply/demand based systems work only in circumstances that line up with their preset beliefs (or more accurately, the narrative they are to express); almost certainly a cognitive dissonance avoidance strategy. Eg: Shortage of Y increases prices of Y and higher prices of Y drive consumers to substitute Y with X but not XY get paid more than XX for same work, and higher price for XY drive employers to substitute XY with XX
  - yodon 5y ago
    You're making unfounded assumptions to believe you know the poster's political leaning. All people you disagree with are not by definition "the other side" politically.
    - pxmpxm 5y ago
      Rather than anything related to my personal views, there is a pattern of what I mentioned above coming from people that identify as progressive; and certainly the narrative that I alluded to(and the broader idea behind it(1) ) is a progressive cause of late. (1) The notion that certain special-cause voluntarily participated activities are per se exploitative, and others are not, even though the underlying economic mechanics are identical for both categories. It's got all the hallmarks of back-fitting rationale to the narrative. Interesting, though, that everyone seems to have taken "left leaning people" as some sort of invective.
      - yodon 5y ago
        No one took it as an invective, they simply took it as an unfounded assumption about the political viewpoint of the other participants in the thread on which you were commenting.
  - Retric 5y ago
TheGigaChad 5y ago
reificator 5y ago
> It's a little bit ridiculous to complain about low wages for a job in a thread about an employer tripling wages to ensure that the job in question is staffed. It's a little bit ridiculous that their pay is so low that increasing it enough to keep it staffed means triple. If your employer started getting desperate could they offer 3x your salary? Would they need to come anywhere close?
- bobthepanda 5y ago
  It is double pay through the next four days, so it's not like they're double salaries for new hires. (It's also double pay; the headline has been corrected.)
- b9a2cab5 5y ago
  Double pay is quite common over the holidays for any hourly role. Flight attendants are unionized so they're far from making minimum wage. This article is really not news, every decent company pays double time over the holidays.
  - reificator 5y ago
    At the time of the comment it was triple, not double.
- astura 5y ago
  3x my salary for a week? Definitely. In fact, I've gotten more than that as a end-of-year-good-job-we-did-it bonus.

MuffinFlavored 5y ago

> They are so underpaid and overworked. Care to give any specifics? A quick Google shows flight attendant salry in the US can range anywhere from $17k/yr to $120k/yr, with an average answer closer to about $32k-$50k/yr Can you define overworked? How many hours a week is your friend's mom working a week? 40? 50? 60? If she's working 60 hours a week for $40k/yr, I would say she's partially to blame. It's up to you to not let your employer take advantage of you.

beeboop 5y ago
This comment is really lacking in compassion. I hope you realize eventually how crass it is to blame an employee just trying to feed and house themselves when they're faced with abusive or exploitive employers.