The stereotype: Nordic beauty, coffee tea or me…
The modern reality: Average people, older, plain, short, plump?
My reaction, staying at a hotel near an airport and stopped in my tracks by apparent fashion models in airline livery…
But I hear its actually a pretty sucky life!
Facts? Fantasy?
My Point? Bemused random thoughts.
As a former frequent flyer. I really don’t give a fig what they look like but is the ‘service’ commensurate to what I am (or the ‘firm’) is paying for.
Worst cabin service ever. Boarding a UN contracted Mi-26 in East Timor (now Timor Leste). Loadmaster with thick Slavic/Russian accent:
“Listen out for safety brief… We crash, we die. Get on.”
Best sort of safety brief … at least it’s honest 
Like most service jobs, it depends on where you work.
There are many low cost carriers out there where cabin crew conditions leave a lot to be desired.
And then there are major airlines who hire cabin crew by looks, have make-up schools, weight limitations and even dormitory living conditions.
Some make a decent salary while others are barely making a living.
For most cabin crew, at least in europe, it’s just a regular job and career.
The stereotype cabin crew is someone showing you how to use a simple life vest and use your safety belt buckle and then serve coffee and tea.
In reality, cabin crew are first responders, there to ensure the passengers safety. They have to be able to work as a team but also be able to make independent decisions, keep their head cool and be able to lead the passengers in a crisis.
Yes it always pays to be nice to the people who are responsible for your safety. But, manners and politeness can also score you a ‘spare’ first class meal and small but very nice bottle of Red, even though you are flying ‘cattle’ class 
My ex worked for JAL so uh…yeah it kinda was sucky. Aside from the times she actually got to enjoy any locations during rest periods instead of sleeping through them all, she had:
Most of the time she spent with me she was either sleeping or stressed out.
I hate flying! I mean, yes, I do it for a living. And also, yes, I do it for fun. It’s the “flying” defined by riding in the back that I loathe. So much so that often my family would travel without me. My livelihood depends on people doing it; but for the life of me I don’t know why any sensible human would sit passenger on an airplane. Sleeper on Emirates? Gulfstream Global Express? Doesn’t matter.
Misery.
Except…
Back in the 90s I was asked to fly an A320 back home from Stansted. The airplane was just finishing a “heavy” check and would be ready “any day”. No FO traveled with me but I was told that one of our Irish pilots would zoom over when the plane was ready to be test-flown. Who DID travel with me was my boss, a minor Texas oil brat who recently decided he wanted an airline. I don’t recall why but we flew to Amsterdam first. I stayed in AMS for two nights while Tommy gambled in Rotterdam with some fashion house guy whose name I also forget. When Tommy returned to AMS we were to fly together to STN. There’s a point to this I swear.
Our flight was on Suckling Airways and it was by far the most pleasant passenger flight of my career. Suckling (apparently, as I had never heard of them and they didn’t survive long) was a rich Brit who, like Tommy, wanted into the airline biz. He bought a handful of tiny Dornniers and would serve odd little routes like AMS-STN (a 30 minute flight). Everything about the service was high-class and cheeky. The logo for the airline was a pod of little piglets sucking on a fat sow’s teats. This logo was on the fancy doilies that were placed under the real china used for tea and coffee. The safety card included a brief explanation of the airline including details on how the flight attendants are selected. First there is a height requirement: 5’3”. That was a MAX height! Mr. Suckling wanted no girls stooped at extreme angles during service. There were other requirements of course but that’s the one I remember. Our attendant was a knockout and sweet as the warm pastries she served on that same logo’ed china. I fell in love extremely easily back then. Tommy, who flew corporate way more than airline, agreed that this flight was an outlier.
Two more weird things happened. I stayed in Cambridge for a week waiting for the damn plane before the company gave up on it and sent me home. With me was an envelope for $10k, a portion of what Tommy had won gambling. $9900 actually because 10k or above requires a US customs declaration and is taxed on the spot. I had to wire him the money the moment I got back to Chicago.
Well, that was a long-assed story just to talk about a lovely 5’2” flight attendant who still takes up precious brain space 28 years later.
Did you feed any passengers into a wood chipper? 
Ha, mostly it was civilized. But the lady that threw her salad at me, and she had a pretty good arm, hitting me square in the chest from the middle row of an L-1011 MIA-JFK, probably deserved similar treatment. I also got sucker punched in the face by a psycho lady who came through the curtain into first class angry, because I didn’t let her speak to the doctor on the flight. She had yelled at me earlier, “I know that there is a doctor on every flight!” She spent some time working her way through the criminal justice system. 
I’ve seen this photo before and my first thought now is the same as it was then. You are holding the lovely lady on your left like you casually would a coworker to capture a fun moment. But there’s something to the bombshell on your right. It’s almost a caress. Let’s start with that!
You know, what happens on layovers, stays on layovers. But my memory of that photo is that the it was their idea, enjoying new airplane smell on a recently delivered A300, heading to LAX from MIA. The trip out was usually pretty good, but was a night coach coming home after a 24 hr layover. I scare myself thinking about driving home after those all-nighters, pinching my cheeks to stay awake.
One captain that I flew with on that trip never drank coffee. I don’t know how he did it. But he was a runner and swore that he managed better without it.
I was waiting for you to see this thread. 
Was yammering about something similar recently, re; the cost of flying. It’s freaking dirt cheap compared to the 70’s and 80’s. I don’t know how they do it.
Adjusted (US dollars) for inflation it seems like it’s $25 to fly from, say, Atlanta to Austin. The gist of the conversation was, “the price used to keep all the riff-raff away”.
Subjective of course - for us ‘normies’ it was a Big Deal to fly back then. I put forth the side-hustle the airlines do, or appear to do, with C-Card companies and other non-flying entities and such. Just an impression.
I miss the days of showing up at T-minus 10 minutes to push-back, waving my ticket to the agent; scrambling through the doors for a seat; settling in with a T.V. dinner (comparably speaking); and just getting there with no drama.
Still beats driving from ATL to AUS though - that’s flippin dangerous!
Just the opposite here, Domestic flights are crazy expensive. I was speaking with my parents only yesterday. They usually visit this time of year (it is my birthday next week) and drive down from Brisbane. Depending on the route it is approx 1500km by road but they take a few days in their ‘RV’ and visit other friends along the way.
This year they were thinking of flying down. Brisbane to Canberra return for the two of them was going to cost a bit over $2000.00… and that was with a ‘budget’ airline that arrived and departed at stupid hours.
