Corporate Flight Attendant Jobs - An Alternative To Commercial Airlines
If you want to be a flight attendant with an airline, you might be better off - financially, at least - working on the ground.
There are many perks to the job: having the freedom to fly around the world visiting different countries, seeing new cultures and meeting new people. But there are also downsides: long hours in front of a computer designing routes and times for passengers; long hours in front of a computer booking flights online; being responsible for scheduling and delivering crews (and dealing with any issues); being harsh on crews when they violate company policy; attending mandatory meetings that take up time from your schedule.
If you're considering becoming a flight attendant with an airline, there are some things you should know beforehand.
Flight attendants earn starting salaries of about $25,000-$35,000; if you're able to move up the career ladder quickly, that can go up to about $50,000. Flight attendant benefits include health insurance for domestic partners and five weeks of paid vacation each year. But as with most jobs where the employee is not an owner of the company and works under a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), there are many restrictions on what you are paid and how much time off you have. Many flight attendants don't last more than a few years before they decide they need to take a different route.
There's a lot of travel, but you don't get paid for the time between flights and if you have to cancel your vacation plans because of an on-call shift, you lose that time. If you're late for a flight, you're demerited (i.e., given a bad performance review). If your check-in or bag-check assignment isn't up to par, you're demerited. So even though it's a guaranteed schedule, there are plenty of ways to lose your job and not be able to afford health insurance.
Some flight attendants we spoke with said they would never go back to working for an airline again except as a hobby (i.e. flying on their own time to their destinations of choice). The benefits are usually not enough to make up for the loathing of the job itself.
Here are a few numbers you should know about commercial airlines:
In 2011, United Airlines was ranked number 14 on Fortune's list of top 100 employers. (It's lower now, as it was revealed that they overcharged employees for health insurance and lied about paying overtime.) Last year they were ranked #38, which isn't much better. You can make your own judgment based on these numbers. United Airlines employs 38,000 people worldwide - baggage handlers and mechanics included. Their pilots average $200,000 a year. The main reason they're so high on the lists is because they have their own aircraft (and thus their own jets, uniforms and bottom line), and they fly globally instead of only in the US.
There are some ways to get paid more as a flight attendant, such as moving over to corporate flight attendant jobs . In these jobs, you're a sort of travel agent for executives and executives-in-training from Fortune 500 companies. Instead of flying from city to city between flights and working for someone else's schedule, you book your own flights for your clients. If you work for a busy client or can keep up with their schedule (i.e. put a lot of people on planes each day), you can make a lot of money. Some corporate flight attendants we spoke with say they can make close to $100,000 per year without moving up in the airline system and having fewer hours of their own time.
Think long and hard before you decide to become a flight attendant with an airline. If you make it in, enjoy the perks as they come but be ready to put up with some long hours and demerits. Before long, many flight attendants want out of the job entirely - or find work at another airline that's not as demanding.
If you're looking for an alternative, read on for information about corporate flight attendant jobs .
A Corporate Flight Attendant Job is an Alternative to Commercial Air Travel
Your job is to book flights and hotels for your clients and get them to their destinations on time. As a corporate flight attendant, you are the travel agent for your clients, which means you don't work for one airline or region but instead you work with all airlines and regions to find the best deals on flights and hotels. This can be very lucrative if you are booking for high profile clients who are willing to pay a premium for your service . You can also book the flight yourself using frequent flier miles if it's a trip where you won't be reimbursed. For example, you can save your miles for trips that are for your own personal use, or for family members or friends.
The downside to the corporate flight attendant job is that you usually have to pay the taxes and fees on the flights yourself . You also have to book hotel rooms. In addition, you can't control when your clients fly - they don't take vacations in order to fit your schedule. So if you're used to booking flights at a certain time of year (i.e., Christmas vacation), it's not always possible when working corporate flight attendant jobs. And if you're used to having weekends off, this isn't a possibility either - because with corporate flight attendant jobs, every day is a work day.
The typical corporate flight attendant job is to fly from city to city via commercial airlines, picking up clients and dropping them off, and booking flights and hotels for your clients along the way - in essence taking care of everything but their ground transportation. Some of your time (usually 30 minutes) will be spent checking in at the airport, putting a bag through security and doing paperwork.
The compensation package for a corporate flight attendant can be lucrative, especially if you're booking for someone who is willing to pay a premium for your service . You can book your clients' travel through various airlines, including United, American and Delta.
Check out the opportunities in this list of the top 100 companies that hire corporate flight attendants.
Commercial Flight Attendant Job Market
There are many flight attendants looking for work these days. Though it's not an entry level job, there are many benefits and perks available to you if you've been a flight attendant before or are willing to put your time in as an independent contractor after being with an airline for a while. You can move up in seniority and get more money, but at some point you're just not wanted anymore (kind of like being fired from a regular job).
A typical flight attendant job with an airline will be around $27,000 a year (including tips) if you're on reserve and only fly one week out of every two. If you are flying more frequently or becoming active in the union, it's not uncommon to make up to $50,000 per year on the seniority scale. You can also easily make over $100,000 working for an airline as a pilot or even a flight attendant/pilot combination (i.e. if one person is in the pilot's cabin and another is in the flight attendant cabin).
The issues many flight attendants face is the schedule which can keep them from spending time with their families .
Conclusion: If you want to be an airline pilot - fine. That's a great job. If you're interested in working for a commercial airline, the market is very competitive. There are hundreds of applicants for every position, and union rules on seniority make it difficult to move up in rank because of politics on the union side so they can keep their own jobs (and not let them go).
What's the solution? If you really want to work with an airline, consider being a corporate flight attendant. A corporate flight attendant is just like a regular flight attendant except they are working directly for your clients instead of flying under someone else's schedule.