mcgahat

I have never met ya.....but I am willing to bet that you are lucky your employer doesnt hire based on the younger and more attractive criteria (if not now then give it time ). Nicer, that should not only be a part of an airlines hiring criteria but also as a part of the review process but we can see it probably isnt a part of either on most! You know, you may need to switch to the Hooters air program, probably be much happier with their flights.

AS Flyer

Oh brother. So, in your eyes, what exactly makes a job "worthy" of being a career? I mean, if we shouldn't try to make this a career, then what is it that you think we should do?

AA Eagle F/A's top out after 12 years at $24,426, and that's assuming they work the maximum allowable hours per month. These people work 14 hour days and can be reassigned to 16 hours once they've checked in. They can be scheduled with as little as 8hrs "block to block" rest (transit time and boarding and deplaning time are not included, which can bring it down to as little as 5-6 hours actually "behind the door"). They clean the planes, they cater their planes and they don't get crew meals so they must find time to get some food when they can or bring their own, with no refrigerated facilities to keep them (not easy on a 4 day trip). Whether YOU think this job is worthy of a career is irrelevant (who says your job is worthy of a career?). These people work extraordinarily hard for their money and deserve to be compensated fairly.

FWAAA

Of course it doesn't matter whether I think it is a career position - what matters is how much the employers need to pay to get qualified people to do the job (you know, the marketplace).

First clue of a non-career position? The fact that there's no shortage of youngsters turning 19 or 20 years old each and every year who are qualified to do your job after a short training course. That's the biggest clue.

Don't take what I'm saying personally, AS Flyer. It's not directed at you. You should strive to be paid as much as you can convince your employer you are worth.

How hard FAs work has very little to do with how much pay they can extract. Their crappy working condition? Nobody cares. The legacy airlines certainly don't.

It was a good run while it lasted. Decent pay, exotic locales, the promise of a pension, etc.

But those days are over. B6 is having no trouble hiring flight attendants for their low wages.

And American Eagle has had no difficulty whatsoever in attracting plenty of 19 year olds to work for their slave wages.

Best of luck, AS Flyer.

pinniped

I agree. If airlines cannot find people willing to be FA's, then they cannot operate. The fair wage is the wage at which they can find enough qualified job candidates to fill out their employment needs. (Whether it is minimum wage or $2 million a year is immaterial.) Based on totally anecdotal evidence, it sounds like they are already at that level, and these morons at DFW can easily be replaced by others who want to do the work.

AS Flyer

It's true, for every one of them, there are probably 10 more that would take the job for what they already make. The quality of those 10 people, well, that remains to be seen. I would think that this would interest the traveling public. Apparently, they don't care how they are treated as long as the fares are low.

pinniped

My guess is that the quality of those 10 people is roughly the quality of what we get now. I don't think that's overly good or bad...it's just what it is. It's not like I need the FA to be a sommelier. Just hand me a diet coke and keep the fares low.

I don't think I'm offending people who work in the industry when I say that: it's the path the industry itself has chosen to take. I don't get four-star restaurant service like I did in the 1970's, but I do get MCI-Europe roundtrips, plus a big enough pile of bonus miles for almost another free trip, for $400. That's a good thing. Air travel is a commodity, and we, the consumers, benefit from that.

BenjaminNYC

Oh please give me a break. It's an business, not a socialist handout machine. If these FA's don't like the wage they're earning in the job, they can go get a different job, perhaps in a different industry. Simple supply and demand. If there are many qualified people who want a job at it's current pay level, then there is no reason to increase it. Since this is the case, AE does NOT need NOR SHOULD THEY increase the wage.

justageek

Let's not be too hard on the FAs for not understanding the concept of a labor market. Folks in many other industries are equally clueless, e.g. my industry (computers) where people are still in denial about the fact that folks in India are just as smart and are willing to work for a fraction of what my colleagues and I in the U.S. have come to believe we "deserve" in terms of compensation. (Just for the record, I'm simply a "worker bee"--not a manager, supervisor, etc.)

The airline industry is just part of a larger picture. The sad part is it is exactly the workers who are in denial--looking for their union or the government to "protect" them--that will be least able to cope with reality, because they don't see the situation for what it is, and are still living off of 20th century notions of what they "deserve."

WRCSolberg

That's exactly what it is, supply and demand. I'm sure there are plenty of 18-19 year olds out there that would covet a job as an F/A, even if they are making dirt. It's like the fast food industry, there are plenty of 15/16 year olds out there willing to flip burgers for minimum wage so the restaurants can get away with paying them minimum wage. Unfortunately F/As have no leverage in union negotiations because being an F/A isn't a skilled position. They can train people for the position in less than a month. The only thing they have going for them is the sheer size of their work force and the disruptions that a strike would cause.

And if you think about it, the whole industry is starting to go this way, and not just with the F/As. A regional airline FO is lucky to make much more than $22k, and look at the responsibilities they have. Jetblue's pilots aren't even unionized etc., you can see where this is going.

HKG_Flyer1

Guess I wasn't clear. When I used the term "competitive," I meant that there was a lot of competition for the FA positions available, not that the pay was the same as other hiring carriers (although I suspect that AA would have to offer a competitive wage, otherwise they wouldn't be able to attract talented people such as my friend).

seaskybound

For perspective what is the max slary of a mainline AA FA and purser? Can AE FAs move to AA?

LarryJ

They, however, having some difficulty keeping them from driving around the airport honking horns and displaying signs.

I'd prefer to fly on an airline where the employers are paying more attention to doing their jobs and serving the customers than to fighting with the company.

tismfu

I saw this on the 6 o'clock news. I cannot believe they would spray paint their VEHICLES for this! Bright neon yellow, to boot! Perhaps it was a water-based paint?

martin33

exactly what was said in the quoted part of the post-- that AE FA is effectively a job that is "dead-end"--- worth doing for a few years to get experience and see the country, then move on... it ain't capable of supporting career expectations, and the traveling public certainly doesn't care one way or the other.

zsmith2

Well, AE FA's contract has been expired for the last 5 years and is still in negotations. New hires start off at $17.42 an hour....remember the clock starts whenever the brake is released until the time the brake is pulled. There is an extra $1.00 per diem for overnights. There is a 75 hour guarentee for the month and are pretty much on reserve for a year. Does this sounds very attractive to you?