Dear past, present and future Flight Attendants,
Can I get rich being a flight attendant and live the life? A resounding, yes to that! Rich if you are wise in managing your finances. Okay, that’s actually a generic answer which applies to any career you’re at. But what’s great about flying is that when you work more, you get paid more. The downside of that though is that your base pay is pretty low, which will be the basis of your gratuity or retirement pay when it’s time for you to clip your wings. Unlike in the corporate world, as employees go up the ladder, you can expect increments of financial freedom. And those who are lucky enough to reach the C-suite are most likely will be living a life of luxury. Well for flight attendants, I’d say that even if you don’t end up getting that much like a CEO, COO or CFO of a big company, you still get to taste that lifestyle of travelling as often as you want, experience fine dining, own branded stuff, meet celebrities, get invited to exclusive clubs or yacht parties, etc.
As a flight attendant, you don’t climb the corporate ladder per se, you kinda zoom up a short staircase. The layers of positions inflight are limited. This translates to low opportunities for career or financial growth. If you’re lucky to join an airline directly as an international cabin crew, your pay compared to other fresh grads would definitely be up the scale. Let’s find out where I’m coming from.
Flight attendants have multiple income streams.
(1) Basic pay or what you normally call monthly salary. You get this monthly pay regardless of how much duty or flight hours you take. You receive this regularly every 15th and/or 30th of the month, just like a normal employee.
(2) Productivity is the yummy part. You get paid per duty hour. It depends on the airline. For some, the meter starts when you check-in and ends 30 minutes after you arrive. For others, it’s chocks-off and chocks-on or take-off and touch-down.
(3) Per diem dictates the live like a king or a pauper dilemma whenever you fly — to save or not to save, to tour or not to tour, to shop or not to shop. One thing that I will never forget is what my dad who’s a retired Captain told me, “Never ever skimp on quality food when you’re on a layover.” Again, computation of this depends on the company. Flight attendants get this food (and shopping) allowance either in cash before they leave the hub or they get paid later on together with their base pay or salary. And this is based on the number of hours, days or number of meals you need to have in that outstation. And the rate will depend on the cost of living in that particular destination.
(4) Other perks would include raised per hour fee when there are delays, or some incentives when you take a flight on your days off. For flight attendants who are based in places where you’re considered an expat, such as in the Middle East for instance, you get accommodation allowance if you do not avail of what the company provides. Oh before I forget, you get transportation allowance as well. Otherwise, you get picked up and taken home to and from the airport or office whenever you’re on duty.
A life of luxury
So overall, compared to a regular employee, you would probably consider a flight attendant to have a life of luxury. After all, a lifestyle of dinner in Milan today and touring Paris after three days, then staying in Maldives over the weekend is not something an ordinary employee can afford.
But wait. so where did it get me now that I have clipped my wings after 27 years? Here is a fair warning. It’s not easy to embark on another career if you didn’t hone your skills while flying. I see lots of you getting inspired with all those flight attendants being featured here who’s able to make it big on the side. This is my advice. You have a lot of time to do other things as a flight attendant. I’ll tell you stories about my side hustles next time.
For now, I would like to invite you to make the most of your flight attendant passion by investing on yourself wether you’re waiting to become one, you just got retrenched or you’re currently flying, or someone who stopped flying by choice because you want to venture on other things beyond your comfort zone.
Flyhigh Manila partners with the National Innovators Initiative to empower Flight Attendants.
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