7 ms·
The Declining Hotness of Flight Attendants
- IanMikutel 15y agoSo who else thinks Richard Branson read this and sees opportunity for Virgin Air?
- gaius 15y agoAFAIK Virgin is no less unionized than BA.
- Corrado 15y agoBranson is just the type of owner that could use employee attractiveness to differentiate his product from the others. As I see it now, the airline industry is in a sad shape, expensive, homogenous, and bland, not to mention treating their customers like criminals. It needs something to make me want to get back on a plane. Attractive attendants might do it.
- mseebach 15y ago> It needs something to make me want to get back on a plane. For me it's getting to my desired destination quickly and without too much discomfort. If I want to have hot women serve me drinks, I'll go to a burlesque club.
- baudehlo 15y agoWhen Virgin Atlantic started their FAs were young and very pleasing to the eye. However they are also unionised, and as such will suffer the same fate as the rest of the airlines.
- wrs 15y agoOn my first Virgin America flight (very soon after they started) the flight attendants were unusually attractive young women, one of them especially so. A lot of heads would literally turn when she went by. I overhead someone asking her how she got the job and she said "I was recruited." So that's one data point...
- egeekuk 15y agoI believe they are already exploiting this, see their 2011 advert that was shown on TV in the UK - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbib-A6NpW8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbib-A6NpW8 Also, their 25th anniversary one (2009) takes a similar track.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- jimbobob 15y agoI would be interested to see what makes the Asian airlines different... it seems as though flight attendants there are usually younger and quite attractive.
- gcp 15y agoI think the article exactly explains it's less labor laws and unions?
- montecarl 15y ago"It's because the domestic labor market lets them get away with it, and ours doesn't."
- minikomi 15y agoI used to teach English in a stewardess school in Tokyo. It is a VERY sought after position for young ladies just out of high school or short-term language school. Competition is so fierce, they even teach them how to do their make-up, part their hair, tie their scarf and ENTER THE ROOM and BOW depending on which airline they are applying for. I'd guess it's: competition due to being seen as a glamorous job leading to a stream of young, attractive new recruits + it not meeting such expectations + (at least in Japan) girls wanting to get married by 25 and, having English under their belt and a "desirable" job, achieving this goal and stepping down to be a salaryman's wife rather than staying on until they're "less hot".
- nandemo 15y agoIt's not only a glamorous job, it's a very well-paid job in comparison to the average OL ("office lady"). In fact, the average stewardess annual salary is higher than the average (male) salaryman's. So I doubt that the average stewardess is the type that is desperate to get married by 25 (which would likely imply marrying a guy who makes less than her!), though you have a point in that when they do get married they'll most likely retire.
- 15y ago
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- jrockway 15y agoIncidentally, can anyone else believe that the American airlines let these unions happen to them? They can't even promote employees for good performance anymore; there is only one criteria that employees are evaluated on, and that's time in that job at that airline. Change jobs and you're back at the bottom. Change airlines, and you're at the bottom. The end result is that the flight attendants that choose the "best" routes (longhaul international) are the ones that care least about their job: they're at the top and they don't need to do a good job to stay there. Ironically, that's where the money is spent, and the people spending that money therefore get worse service. It's no surprise that anyone who pays for their own flights chooses the Asian or European airlines. (My experience flying international first class on AA is that it's barely worth the taxes on the free flight. OTOH, when my company paid $10,000 for a flight to Singapore on Cathay Pacific, it was worth every penny.)
- notauser 15y agoMy understanding is that the "best routes" are not necessarily international routes; they are routes that offer the most paid hours per hour spent at work. Cabin crew only get paid from the cabin door closing to the cabin door opening. Therefore longer routes tend to be better because messing around on the ground is roughly constant no matter how long the flight, so the longer the flight the more paid hours there are per 'free' ground hour. However there are several factors fighting this: - Layover time in a foreign city. Some destinations have bad flight schedules so you might end up with a long unpaid layover. - After a few years of layovers in Paris it probably doesn't seem as exciting anymore so you aren't as willing to satisfy time at home for it. - Domestic flights (especially on smaller planes) take less time to fill up, so crew can arrive closer to 'cabin door closed' time. - Not all cabin crew live near an international departure airport, and they don't get paid to commute. Also they don't get put in first class when flying as a NONREV anymore thanks to free elite upgrades. Therefore it varies by airline but some domestic or short routes may get very senior staff because they happen to match up with personal schedules, and some international cities will get junior staff because the schedule or paid-vs-free hours ratio is bad.
- kolektiv 15y agoI don't want to fall in to a Reddit like trap of [citation needed] as a reply, but what in this article leads you to believe that airlines can no longer promote employees for good performance? I don't know if you're saying it's a bad thing that airlines can no longer fire the recently un-hot, I'll give the benefit of the doubt and assume no. Do you think that the service being better on the airlines you mention has any real link with hotness, or just incidental correlation?
- mseebach 15y agoWhile the current "un-hotness" of flight attendants might be union driven, I'm fairly certain there's another dynamic that would kick in if unions go away: It's simply bad business to fire/not hire good employees because they don't live up to a certain aesthetic. As the first analysis notes, people probably aren't willing to pay much, if anything at all, for hotness, while competence might be valuable.
- andrewcooke 15y agoamazing as it may seem - it might be in the best interests of unions, airlines and society in general to have more stable, professional jobs.
- brudgers 15y agoThrow in greying American demographics, the majority of college graduates being women, an understanding of the costs associated with hiring and training personnel, and the work environment changing from Pacific Clippers to Cattle Cars and the change is unsurprising. Oh, and don't forget the rise of the MILF meme.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- spodek 15y ago"...as much as male customers might have enjoyed the eye candy..." Statements like this, in the article, annoy me. Men aren't the only sex that prefers looking at attractive women to unattractive women. Men and women may have different motivations for our preferences of whom to look at, but we all have the preference.
- krolley 15y agoI don't understand. As a man, would I prefer to be served by a hot man or an ugly man. Honestly, I don't really care. I can't say the same thing for women, however.
- nck4222 15y agoIt's more subtle than that. Studies have shown that babies prefer gazing at attractive faces rather than average faces. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3631018.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3631018.stm
- spodek 15y agoHere's another way to look at it... Cosmopolitan magazine is bought almost exclusively by women. Cosmopolitan magazine always has women on the cover and they are always attractive. The point is that not only men are motivated by attractive women to spend money. Your analogy to men is less relevant because attractiveness in men depends less on physical appearance.
- elliottcarlson 15y agoBut keep in mind, the article is clearly outlining what was the mentality in the 70's - and mentions that one of the forces included outrage from feminist groups. The average business traveler in those days, and thus the most important clientele of an airline, were men - and catering to the "needs" of those men is what made them money.
- blackiron 15y agoRisking to be downvoted. this article is worthless without pics.
- airlineuser 15y agoFrom talking to senior flight attendants about how things used to be in the old days, I think the blogger is correct that strong unions are the reason for this change in the composition of the flight attendant work force. As to why you see younger attendants on short flights, that's because long flights are more desirable for senior flight attendants. The way the flight bidding system works, a senior fa can fulfill their monthly flying hours quota by working 8 days of trans-Pacific flights at the start or end of a month, leaving the rest of the month free.
- rjbond3rd 15y agoSouthwest Airlines is employee owned and operated, and service is a lot better (and friendlier) as a result. They love their jobs, and they care about the experience. That is much more important than physical appearance.
- Hisoka 15y agoI personally prefer the flight attendants to be cute, or pleasant to look at, mostly because I (as well as many others) sometimes get really scared at random times during a flight. Looking at these attendants for a moment gives me a more calming feeling than looking at someone who is not as attractive.
- jleyank 15y agoTwo thoughts came to mind: (1) WTF is this doing on Hacker News? (2) If people are so uncomfortable with unions and labor laws, are they willing to go the Soylent Green factory when they hit 30, fail to ship or have medical issues?
- itsnotvalid 15y agoI still find flight attendants young and attractive (a present fact, not some dream or whatsoever). The thing is, it's just not so happening in US airlines, but in Asian airlines. Policies on age requirement have let the state as is, even there are also unions in those airline companies.