My aunt has worked almost every frontline job for UA other than pilot and could not agree more.
Things to consider, airlines are known to go through massive rounds of layoffs when things start to go south at all, and even when times are good I have heard raises are virtually a joke unless you get an outright promotion

As for the nonrev travel, you need total flexibility. Basically it comes to looking at the loads on the company intranet and picking out a destination sometimes hours before the flight leaves

With that said there are people who still love working in the industry and that. Just make sure you know everything about what getting into and weigh all options. Best of luck
P.S. look around airliners.net and a host of other blogs and message boards frequented by airline employees to get more of a perspective.