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!

Probation & Prestige (Charlotte, NC)

Greetings, everybody! Sorry for the lack of posts here lately. I've had a great deal going on, and not just in the great blue yonder. Sometimes it takes a little while to breathe and reboot, and while I missed updating you on my wayfaring shenanigans, I definitely needed the break.

With that said, a great deal has happened since I last told you about the {Greek festival} Belle and I attended here in Charlotte. Rather than try to mash it all together in one post, I'll do several updates this week, in the order they transpired.

First off the list, Belle and I had recurrent training! As I mentioned previously, recurrent training is basically a day-long review of all the emergency procedures, drills, equipment operation, and medical training we completed {back in Phoenix}. Since we only graduated in March, we weren't terribly anxious about passing. What we didn't expect was to meet the lady who has not only been a flight attendant the longest with US Airways, but also of any other airline! Her name is Bette Nash, and she's {somewhat of a celebrity}. She started with Eastern airlines in 1961 and has been flying ever since. In other words, she is the senior mama of all the senior mamas! Back in her day, you were only hired as a flight attendant if you had a nursing degree, were stunningly beautiful, single and under the age of 28. After you were married, or got "old", you had to quit. How times change!

[caption id="attachment_704" align="alignnone" width="500"] Bette when she was my age, way back in the 60's. Picture courtesy of Post-Gazette.[/caption]

She was doing her recurrent training as well ( though she's been doing it so long its a wonder she doesn't just teach it herself!) Even though she's in her 70's (or maybe early 80's), she's still sharp as a whip, spirited and very funny. Belle and I asked to have our pictures taken with her, and she happily obliged. I was such a fan-girl! If I can manage to do anything for 50 years, I'll feel like I'm winning at life.

[caption id="attachment_706" align="alignnone" width="642"] Carmen SanDiego and the famous Ms. Bette Nash[/caption]

A whopping 5 days after our recurrent training was the end of our flight attendant 6 month probationary period. It's hard to imagine half a year has passed since that fateful graduation day, where we counted our lucky stars for making it through 4.5 weeks of training. Now we are finally full fledged, union represented flight attendants! As one senior mama whimsically told me one flight, now we'll basically have to murder someone to get fired. I don't know how true that is, but it was a comforting thought. What I do know is with this job, time flies like nobody's business and its still hard to believe I moved to Charlotte and am jetting all over the world. It's almost exactly a year since I applied to be a flight attendant, thinking it would be fun but I'd probably never hear back about my application.

[caption id="attachment_708" align="alignnone" width="642"] We made it![/caption]

At the probationary meeting, my supervisor let me read the letters from passengers over the months that I received in regard to the good job I was doing. One was from an elderly lady who took her first flight with us, and said I had taken good care of her and calmed her fears. Little things like this are so encouraging. I asked my supervisor for more information about commuting and getting a line, and he seems to think the proposed merger with American Airlines will help a lot with moving up in the ranks. We'll see whether that happens or not!  It was also really fun to see the other flight attendants from our class; we all were delighted to see each other make it to the 6 month mark and prove our mettle in the airline world.

Until next time, catch me if you can!

—Carmen