Many people dream of becoming a flight attendant and getting paid to travel all over the world and experience different places, cultures and food — but relatively few of them actually realize that opportunity because it is a very popular occupation, as only a small percentage of applicants actually are chosen…
One Day of Flight Attendant Training for $299 While Helping to Fight Cancer
…and if you are chosen, be prepared to spend several weeks in intensive training.
What is that, you might ask? Why should a trainee for a position as flight attendant go through several weeks of training just to learn how to serve food to passengers and sit for the remainder of the flight?
If you actually asked that question — although I am certain that you did not; but if you did — you have the opportunity to put your money where your mouth is and sample the rigorous training which a flight attendant must endure, as a mere $299.00 will get you an exciting full day of Road Warrior Training at the world headquarters of Delta Air Lines in Atlanta, which is adjacent to the international airport.
You likely have seen and heard the safety demonstration literally hundreds of times during your travels and read those safety information cards in the seat pockets in front of you over the years. Now you can be instructed by professionals who have many years of experience at a state-of-the-art training center while you simultaneously better understand the actual responsibilities of a flight attendant. Take this rare opportunity to attempt to see if you have the skills to be a certified Delta Road Warrior — and help to fight cancer in the process.
Registration Details
The fee to attend Road Warrior Training is $299.00; and it is limited to the first 25 people who register. Once you have registered, your fee cannot be refunded for any reason — even if you cancel; substituting or transferring the registration to another participant is not permitted; and switching dates once registration is complete and processed is not allowed.
Road Warrior Training starts on Saturday, June 8, 2019 at 8:30 in the morning. If you register to participate, be prepared to be exhausted, as you will spend the entire day at the training center — likely not ending before 3:30 in the afternoon. Breakfast and lunch are included with Road Warrior Training at no extra cost.
Delta Air Lines no longer offers the Road Warrior Training course other than to its employees, so this day of training is an opportunity you will likely not want to miss; and 100 percent of the proceeds from this event will support the American Cancer Society — specifically, the team known as Gretchen’s Gazelles.
About Gretchen and Gretchen’s Gazelles
Gretchen’s Gazelles is but one of the teams which will once again participate in the Delta Jet Drag this year on Friday, May 3, 2019. The team participated in the Delta Jet Drag on Friday, May 4, 2018; and members of this team have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years.
The effort is in honor of Gretchen, who is the daughter of Jane Mitchell. Gretchen lost her life to cancer at only 33 years of age.
“Gretchen was a young, healthy mother of two girls before she was diagnosed in May 2013”, Jane Mitchell — who is a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines — has said in the past. “She fought this horrible disease with such strength and determination. Gretchen’s outcome was looking better in 2014 after several treatments and she was continuing to live life to the fullest. In 2015, she received news that her scan was not clear and the cancer was back. After consulting with several doctors and trying some new treatments, there was ultimately nothing that could be done to stop the cancer growth. Gretchen passed on July 7, 2015, leaving behind many loving family members and friends. Her life touched so many people while she was here and even more since she has passed. I will continue my efforts on Gretchen’s behalf in the hopes that another family does not have to endure this grief.”
You might have also heard about Kenneth Gorelick — who is better known professionally as Kenny G — serenading surprised passengers during an impromptu performance aboard an airplane operated by Delta Air Lines from Tampa to Los Angeles on Saturday, April 22, 2017. Flight attendants asked passengers to help raise $1,000.00 for Relay for Life — but within approximately five minutes, passengers helped to raise greater than $2,000.00 for the American Cancer Society. The flight attendant in question was none other than Jane Mitchell; and the team was none other than Gretchen’s Gazelles.
Gretchen’s Gazelles finished in 2017 as the top fundraising team of Delta Air Lines and placed ninth in the United States. Additionally, the team was recently recognized as an American Cancer Society National Team of Excellence.
What is Involved in Road Warrior Training at Delta Air Lines?
The Road Warrior Training program has evolved over the years; and it is not accessible to the general public anymore — which means that this is an even rarer opportunity than it has been in the past. Although Delta Air Lines has the right to change any aspect of the Road Warrior Training program, activities and topics which have been offered to participants in the past have varied; and the activities and topics which are discussed in this article may or may not be offered on the upcoming day.
Here are some photographs from Road Warrior Training sessions in the past, which gives attendees a mere microcosm of the training through which a flight attendant must endure — and gives you an idea of what to probably expect if you decide to participate.
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. They do not particularly like when you do that.
You must know how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation properly on a passenger in the event of an emergency, as you could literally save the life of a fellow human being. A veteran flight attendant demonstrates on how to do it correctly without causing additional injury to the distressed person.
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, anyone else, or any part of the airplane.
This procedure must be done as quickly — yet as carefully — as possible.
Have you ever opened and removed the window at the end of the emergency exit row of a Boeing 757-200 aircraft? Have you ever wanted to know how to open it — or similar windows on other airplanes? This may be your opportunity to find out…
…and you may be surprised as to how heavy are those window exits, as once you remove one, you must place it a certain way on the exit row seats so that passengers can exit the aircraft as both quickly and safely as possible.
Hopefully, you will never have to put on oxygen masks in the unlikely event of an emergency; but these “passengers” are having fun.
Remember that you should place the oxygen mask on yourself first before attempting to help others — and this can apply to other situations in life as well.
These photographs demonstrate how to exit the aircraft in case of emergency — either by an evacuation slide on land or during a water ditching. This is one time where you can inflate that life vest and leave the aircraft either way while having fun, as doing so aboard a real airplane can get you into serious trouble.
Did you know that commercial airplanes have inflatable rafts for its passengers — as well as tarps to shield occupants of the rafts from the sun or precipitation; and can also help to collect drinkable water from rain?
Do you know what to do once you are in the water after leaving the aircraft in the event of an emergency?
Incidents of water ditching — which is when an airplane lands in the water in the event of an emergency — are so rare in commercial aviation that they occurred only 21 times in the past 67 years, so you will almost certainly never experience a real incident. Of course, any pilot or member of the flight crew will tell you that 21 water ditching incidents is 21 times too many.
The best known of these 21 water ditching incidents is when an Airbus A320 aircraft — which operated as US Airways Flight 1549 — successfully ditched into the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey on Thursday, January 15, 2009 after it reportedly struck a flock of Canada geese during its initial ascent shortly after departing from LaGuardia Airport. Two of the birds were killed; but all of the 155 passengers and members of the flight crew who were aboard the airplane survived and were rescued by various watercraft despite freezing temperatures.
I intend to post a series of photographs pertaining to what to do in the unlikely event of a water ditching in a future article.
Want to Be a Flight Attendant? You Might Want to Think Twice…
Do you think you have what it takes to become a flight attendant?
You might not want to answer that question until after you have experienced this unique opportunity — and 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.
“It’s heartbreaking when what you love becomes who you hate.”
Kara Mulder is a flight attendant and has been one since 2009; and she expressed her emotions openly in an article titled Tears on the Jumpseat.
Here is the opening paragraph — also playing the role of excerpt — from that article:
Amidst the darkness, I sat silently, feeling the forward momentum of the aircraft propel the jet down the runway and on a trajectory to cross The Atlantic. Somewhere between 2.5 yrs, a leave for fatigue, hundreds of long-haul flights, a couple of situations of sexual harassment, wonderful colleagues, amazing friendships, a few pounds gained, incredible experiences, I was losing hope. Or I already had lost it. Amidst the darkness — with a crew member on the jumpseats to my right and left — tears slid softly down my California suntanned cheeks. With each drop of salty liquid, I begged the universe to take me anywhere but here. I begged the universe to help me escape this company and this place. I begged the universe to make all of this stop. The destinations no longer seemed appealing. It could be Stockholm or Stockton, California for all I cared. I just wanted to go home. I just wanted a home. I just wanted a life. I just wanted everything that I couldn’t make this life give me.
After seven years in a profession which unexpectedly became her career, Mulder has since been expressing her thoughts in rethinking a job in which thousands of others eagerly await the next opening. Other articles she has written help to fill in the void which led to those tears on the jumpseat — such as this poignant article where she wished that she was not leaving after spending the day with the man who kissed her goodbye after an “incredibly fun week” in total.
Becoming a flight attendant 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 the airline — and you must do just about anything for the job.
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.
In the event you are actually hired as a flight attendant — and that is not something easily accomplished — the hard work does not end, as you will be tested and retrained on a regular basis. Fail your testing and you could very well be terminated from your job as a flight attendant.
Summary
Delta Air Lines once offered 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 multiple times. In fact, I always alert the members of the flight crew whenever I am a passenger aboard an airplane that I am what is known as an “able-bodied traveler” who can assist them in the unlikely event of an emergency situation.
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, the photographs which you have seen in this article are 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.
At the time this article was written, 16 slots are still available; so be sure that you register for this full day event as soon as possible if you are interested in participating in Road Warrior Training at the world headquarters of Delta Air Lines. I highly recommend it.
All photographs ©2013 by Brian Cohen.
