Regional vs. Mainline: A Flight Attendant's Perspective

When I was applying to be a flight attendant last Fall, my approach was to leave no stone left unturned. I applied to obscure little airlines and all the big 'uns that would let me leave a copy of my resume. At the time, I didn't really know the difference. They all flew airplanes and served beverages and would allow me to get the heck out of Dodge and see the world, right?

Well, sort of.

Regional flights attendants have the same uniforms, travel benefits, safety equipment and more or less the same job contract, but everything else is different. Because they are regional, they fly to smaller airports in smaller planes. We're talking the Embraers, CRJs and even Dash 8's. Little 50 seat puddle jumpers, as one Jumbo Jet pilot to told me. I fly with our regional partners all the time as I commute between Charlotte and Chattanooga almost weekly. As a result, I've gotten to talk to our sisters (and brothers) in blue, and have learned a lot about just how different the jobs are. There are some serious benefits and some disadvantages.

Advantages:

• Being regional is a tough job. Because they fly to smaller airports, their flight times are much shorter, and scheduling gives them more legs (take offs and landings) than mainline flight attendants who go to, say, Phoenix, LA and back to Charlotte. Longer flights are better because the most stressful part of the job is boarding and deplaning. We are literal cowgirls of the sky, wrangling people and their children into their seat and making sure they're strapped in safely. Dong this 6 times a day, as opposed to once or twice, is tough. As a result, their turnover rate is much higher. This is good and bad. The bad I will discuss below in disadvantages. The good news is this means if you stick with the job, you will achieve seniority much more quickly, and as any flight attendant will tell you...seniority rules. I talked to a regional flight attendant who said most of them who have stuck around for 3 months were getting off reserve and holding a line.


• Smaller planes means less people. Less people means less bags to stow, less snot nosed children who scream for the entire 90 minute flight, and definitely less mess for the ground crew to clean up once they decide to avoid your 2 trash collection runs and stuff their cups/napkins/banana peels in the seatback pockets.


• Shorter flights mean you are not necessarily obligated to do a beverage service. This is a somewhat controversial topic among flight attendants because some believe there is no excuse for not getting your lazy ass off your jump-seat and popping cans for 20 minutes. I am one such flight attendant who holds this opinion. If I can get up and serve drinks (as quickly as possible) to 187 passengers on a 50 minute flight from Charlotte to Raleigh and be successful, then you can do the same for that 40 minute flight to Chattanooga. I definitely judge a flight attendant who chooses to sit and read her magazine the entire time rather than atleast try to leave the impression of a courteous customer service experience. However, it isn't mandatory. Especially if there is even the mildest "turbulence."


• For me, a huge advantage is that my airline has a regional base in Knoxville, which is only 2 hours away from my hometown. Call me crazy, but a 2 hour commute is totally do-able for me, as opposed to the 5.5 hour drive from Charlotte. I would be home more, with a vehicle, even if I was making less money. To me, this is the most important advantage, and for awhile I almost considered quitting mainline and applying to regional just to be closer to the city and people I love.


• You only have to be 18 instead of 21 to fly regional. I'm not sure why this is, because you serve alcohol on both types of airlines, but one flight attendant told me she was going to apply to mainline as soon as she turned 21.

Disadvantages:

• Less pay. I think regional flight attendants average about $17-19  an hour whereas I made $21.47 an hour starting out the day I graduated training. This makes the difference of a few hundred dollars per month.


• As I mentioned before, there is a very high turnover rate. Regional flight attendants are worked til they are bone tired. The planes are smaller and less powerful, so when you hit a patch of clouds or a wind shear, you sure feel it. This makes people try to get jobs with mainline and leave regional behind as much as possible.

Mainline flight attendants operate out of the largest bases (Charlotte, Philly, DC and Phoenix being my airline's hubs) and get to fly internationally as well as domestically. There are between 3-8 flight attendants working a flight at any given time, as opposed to 1 or 2 on a regional flight. It's unusual to fly more than 4 legs a day, at most. We stay in nicer hotels, and have longer layovers. We get paid more, and have the option to sell credit cards and get $50 per approval of an application.

In conclusion, I think I got the (slightly) better end of the deal by lucking out accidentally picking mainline, but I love the idea of the autonomy of just me, the pilots and a small cabin of passengers. Maybe if I held a line, I could pick all the Chattanooga flights and get to be with my friends more. Le sigh.

Sometimes traveling all the time makes you realize how much of a homebody you really are!

The Treacherous Twenties

When asked what was the most awkward time period of their lives, most people would probably tell you high school, or just their teenage years in general. Why? The sudden growth in height leading to excessive clumsiness as our balance adjusts, the onslaught of hormones, uncertainty of who we are and what we stand for, peer pressure, acne, insecurity. The list goes on and on. Here's the irony: high school wasn't remotely awkward for me. Sure, it had its moments, but they didn't crush my spirit and send me home to cry myself to sleep.

I used to wear crazy earrings every day, and I remember this one girl teasing me about a particularly "out there" pair. I think she went so far as to call them ugly. I recall smiling and responding to her comment by telling her that she looked lovely that day. Eons later at our 5 year class reunion she told me that there was no snarky or mean response that could have crushed her more and she admired me for taking the high road and being "better than her."

I was smart, had good grades, had a fun group of oddball nerd friends and a fantastic (or so I thought) boyfriend who was in college. Life was good. And then, I walked across the stage at Memorial Auditorium in May 2006, and was asked a very impertinent question at my college orientation:

"What do you want to do with your life?"

High school had been easy because I always knew, without a shred of doubt, what was next and exactly how I could meet or exceed a goal. My life was sequestered into a series of tests, class bells, deadlines and weekends. This college business was entirely new because all of a sudden the only real authority figure holding the reins on my destiny was me. Worse— I didn't fully realize this earth-shattering transition. I was still very much a woman-child, without any clue what weight the decision of picking a career would mean. I started out in Graphic Design, since I liked to doodle in the margins of my notebooks and I had gotten some compliments on my artistic ability. You heard me right: I was prepared to pursue a career in something because I liked to doodle. O_o

I quickly realized my classmates' talent for design and migraine-inducing amount of attention paid to detail far surpassed my own and decided to change my major to an avenue I knew I excelled at: writing. I threw myself into journalism headfirst and covered a lot of ground; I became an editor of the student newspapers, and successfully completed 5 professional internships before I was a junior.

Then, out of left field, the economy crashed in 2008 and the prospects of holding a job as a "whipped cream" major plummeted. I remember a Professional Writing teacher having us pretend we had just graduated and were looking for jobs, and I found absolutely nothing in Chattanooga that I was qualified for and paid more than minimum wage. It was definitely a sinking moment of truth; all that work, all that time was for naught unless I wanted to move away or go to grad school for a (only slightly better) shot at success. In retrospect, if I had sucked it up and taken a grueling midnight to 5 am position at a news station, and then parlayed that experience into a journalism position at the paper or a local magazine, I could have made it. But I didn't want "maybe if you work hard it will pay off. But maybe you just wasted 4 years of your life for a useless major".  I wanted my effort to yield plentiful fruit. I wanted security.

This is a central theme in the life of Beth Warren. Security vs. The Unknown. During the course of my treacherous twenties I have swayed between the two like a pendulum. When I found out the dismal prospects of my current major, I went to the local student counseling center and took a career placement test based on my personality and proficiencies. My results were surprising; among the "ideal career" for me was accounting, counseling, writing and nursing.

"Accounting?" I thought ,"really?"

Then I looked at the annual salary of an accountant, as well as the stability of the finance industry and decided it was definitely worth considering. It wasn't easy; in fact I recall a teacher in Intermediate Accounting saying that it was his goal to try to pass as few of us as possible because he wanted to weed out the students who didn't really plan to put in the effort to understand the tricky concepts. I loved it and thrived on the challenge. Unfortunately, as I got out into the working world as a staff accountant, I had a few unpleasant realizations:

a.) The lack of variety in my day to day tasks, unless of course I wanted to go back to school and get my Masters/CPA. At the time, the thought of going abck to school was about as appealing as getting beaten with a dead fish.
b.) After spending 6 years in college, I had never actually left Tennessee and seen the world. I ached for "the great wide yonder," and seeing what was outside of my familiar little bubble.

Security in a career path, while comforting, was not very appealing in lieu of my lack of world experience. Hence, the pendulum swung back again and I applied to the airline industry. The rest, as you know, is history.

Now, almost exactly a year later, I sit with much more experience. I have flown all over the world, seen amazing things, and had my comfort zone blasted into a thousand tiny bits with a combination of jet fuel and enthusiasm. Its been a crazy adventure, and I'm so glad I took the opportunity when it was there. However, I can sense in myself a need for....wait for it....more stability. The next chapter lies ahead and I'm very excited to get to share it with you all soon.
In the mean time, here are some fun throwback pictures from my not-so-awkward high school days and the beginning of my ever-so-awkward college days!

[caption id="attachment_757" align="alignnone" width="604"] Me in college, Fall of 2006 with my little brother, on the day I moved into my new dorms at UTC[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_758" align="alignnone" width="604"] My 2005 prom dress and my "glass slippers"[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_759" align="alignnone" width="604"] showing off the kitchen and entryway of the dorm[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_760" align="alignnone" width="604"] lounging on the couch[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_761" align="alignnone" width="604"] Me and some highschool friends at Coolidge park one weekend[/caption]

 

 

Winged Whimsy...Monthly?

Hello everyone,

I'm sorry  for pretty much falling off the radar this past month. Apparently spam bots have found my blog and I get several random comments every day. Usually in Chinese, or talking about some miracle drug. If any of my fellow bloggers know of any good Wordpress compatible spam filtering programs (and especially for my email subscription service MailChimp) please let me know.

In the mean time, I have been up to everything and nothing in my flight attendant gig. I'm currently working on a post about this 20-something inertia, but for now here are some pictures from my life's shenanigans.

[caption id="attachment_717" align="alignnone" width="642"] Darcy and I went camping in Kentucky with some outdoorsy friends. Here we are cooking a tasty stew from scratch.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_741" align="alignnone" width="642"] Cumberland Falls State Park in Corbin KY[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_734" align="alignnone" width="642"] I got a trip to the Mall of America in Minneapolis[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_743" align="alignnone" width="642"] The mall has its own underground aquarium. The tank has a tunnel that lets you experience the marine life 360 degrees around you![/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_742" align="alignnone" width="642"] Poseidon was feeling a little....detached[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_739" align="alignnone" width="642"] "Hello, I'm a friendly turtle guy. Wassup?"[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_746" align="alignnone" width="642"] An amaaaazing sushi restaurant inside the Mall of America[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_723" align="alignnone" width="642"] there was an entire store dedicated to products made from llama fur. No joke.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_719" align="alignnone" width="642"] Darcy and I at the Hamilton County Fair car show. Good times (and beautiful rides!)
Thanks mom for the picture![/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_745" align="alignnone" width="642"] One of my best friends, Jennelle, had her engagement party at my family's house. Good times were had by all.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_728" align="alignnone" width="640"] Another one of my best friends, Hunter, met me in Charlotte as he was on his way to NYC. It was one of the first times that I saw one of my Chattanooga friends in NC.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_727" align="alignnone" width="642"] This was in Detroit; someone put the tampons next to the baby changing station in the ladies' room. I concluded that the janitors must have been men.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_726" align="alignnone" width="900"] Hanging out with my flight attendant friend Schyler in Cleveland, OH. It was the first time we ran into each other at the same time and place since we work for different airlines. Although we only got to see each other briefly, it was super wonderful getting to give her a hug.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_725" align="alignnone" width="480"] I got a cavity filled. At this point I was high on the happy gas and totally down with a photo-op.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_724" align="alignnone" width="642"] Delicious bar-b-q in Syracuse, NY. Who would have thought those yankees can cook Southern style so well?[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_729" align="alignnone" width="642"] Nomatter where I go, my favorite pub in Chattanooga is still the best venue.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_730" align="alignnone" width="642"] Halloween party at Darcy's house. I'm the German beer maid on the far left, and he's the handsome vampire.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_740" align="alignnone" width="642"] While I was overnighting in NYC, I was attacked by bed bugs. This almost deserves its own post, because it was one of the most terrifying (and itchy) experiences of my career.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_747" align="alignnone" width="642"] hanging out with my dad's cat Spook (aka bed kudzu)[/caption]