Originally Posted by channa
The job requires what, a high school diploma and 2-3 weeks of training? The cost of the training is paid for by the company, so it's not like a skill that the company has to pay a wage premium for.
Seems to be very similar requirements to any sort of service job -- restaurant server, cashier, sales clerk at a dept. store, etc.
Two points I would like to make.
1. You may be right about the service job description but FAing has become a carreer for a lot of them. As you age (both as a person and a FA) you expect higher pay and benefits. A FA that might have cost ~$30k twenty years ago now will cost you $60k.
2. One important point is the supply and demand. If the system can absorb 6,000 out of work FAs tomorrow the FAs have the upper hand. If only 100 get a job the airlines have the upper hand.