Want to Be a Flight Attendant? Read This First…

Do you want to be a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines? If so, “this could be your chance as Delta is accepting applications over the next few days for the position of Flight Attendant”, wrote The Weekly Flyer in this article posted at the Points, Miles & Martinis weblog. “The interviews will start in September to fill 8-week paid training classes in Atlanta starting in January 2015.”

Want to Be a Flight Attendant? Read This First…

…but you better know what you are getting yourself into. Sure, the obvious love for travel certainly is important — and I am sure you would not be visiting BoardingArea if you did not enjoy traveling.

However, it is not just about working long hours, nights, weekends and holidays, commuting, and being junior — nor is it just about how your home life will be difficult and your personal life will suffer. You must enjoy interacting with people as a representative of Delta Air Lines — and you must do just about anything for the job.

That last statement is certainly true. Delta Air Lines offers a course known as Road Warrior Training, which cost $300.00 for the day depending on content, if I recall correctly — and I have been through variations of that training several times. In fact — whenever I travel — I always alert the members of the flight crew that I am what is known as an “able-bodied traveler” who can assist them in the unlikely event of an emergency situation.

The part of the job you see flight attendants perform is a mere fraction of what they do and what they need to know. There is a reason why being trained as a flight attendant takes eight weeks — and that reason is that you better know what you are doing when performing the duties as an official flight attendant.

In addition to greeting customers, placing announcements aboard the aircraft, ensuring that bags are stowed properly, and serving food and beverages in the proper manner — it is not as easy as you might think — you must also know what to do in the unlikely event of an emergency.

Here are photographs from a Road Warrior Training session, which gives attendees a mere microcosm of the training through which a flight attendant must endure:

Even with the advent of in-flight safety videos, you must still know how to perform the flight safety demonstration in case the in-flight entertainment system aboard an airplane malfunctions — or if one is not present at all. Oh, and please do not take pictures of the flight attendants as they perform their safety demonstrations.

You must know how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation properly on a passenger. A flight attendant demonstrates how to do it correctly.

These mannequins help flight attendants defend themselves should they encounter an aggressively unruly passenger.

One member of the training class attacks a mannequin in a manner designed to disable an aggressive passenger.

You need to know how to properly unstrap yourself from the jump seat and open the aircraft exit door without injuring yourself.

Have you ever opened and removed the window at the end of the emergency exit row of a Boeing 757-200 aircraft?

I hope you will never have to put on oxygen masks in the unlikely event of an emergency; but these “passengers” are having fun.

How to exit the aircraft in case of emergency — either by an evacuation slide on land or during a water ditching.

What do you do once you are in the water after leaving the aircraft?

Summary

I will save the rest of the water ditching photographs for a future article.

While most — if not all — participants of a Road Warrior Training session at Delta Air Lines have fun; the day can be very tiring, as there is a lot to do…

…and again, what you have seen here in the photographs is a small portion of what flight attendants are required to know in order to perform their roles properly — and Delta Air Lines is incredibly strict on protocol and safety.

Once hired — and that is not something easily accomplished — you will be tested on a regular basis. Fail your testing and you could very well be terminated from your job as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines.

If you are still excited about becoming a flight attendant after all of this, then I encourage you to apply for the job as a flight attendant of Delta Air Lines.

All photographs ©2013 by Brian Cohen.