![]() ![]() In 1970 it became illegal to fire Flight Attendants because they got married, became pregnant or they exceeded 32 years of age. No, flying hasn’t changed much but the practices in hiring have. You ask the question about the Flight Attendant job not being glamorous but your points suggest your really asking why “Flight Attendants” aren’t glamorous, suggesting it’s because they are old. Seems to me the title of your article is wrong. As Gary put it, there is less competition for talent. Yes, the standards for JL, OZ, KE, NH are high, but they don’t exist in a vacuum. In a hierarchal society, it’s a totally different power dynamic when a supervisor is managing a young inexperienced employee without kids vs an experienced employee with children or grand children. For countries with severe population aging, they sure like to push out their older workers. This is hardly a favorable environment for women.Īdditionally, there is quite a bit of age discrimination. Advancement is often driven by loyalty as well as fraternizing with male colleagues after hours with female sex workers present (e.g., karaoke bars). If they are, they’re often connected to the family with controlling ownership. Women are not commonly found in leadership. In practice, there are severely less career options available to women. South Korea and Japan have old school gender norms and weak discrimination laws. The gender pay gap in South Korea and Japan are among the highest in the developed world. There’s more competition for talent that would once have joined an airline.ĭoes this account for why the flight attendant role is less glamorous than it once was? A lack of options for women also meant airlines were ‘punching about their weight’ recruiting candidates for the job who now may do something else. Flight attendant was a ‘way out’ and what was more liberating than soaring in the sky enroute to exotic destinations? Now women are business travelers too with many more options. The glamour era of flying was an era where social norms kept women out of many other careers. It’ll be controversial to say, but most people don’t consider older flight attendants to be as glamorous as younger ones. The average age of a crewmember is much higher than it used to be. airlines expanding only a few percent a year they just need to do a little more than replace retiring crew. People are paid by seniority, the longer they stay around the more they make, so it’s rare to leave the job. Airlines aren’t growing, and unions lock people into jobs.There’s nothing glamorous about being squeezed in next to a seatmate spilling over into your seat and clipping their toenails while you try to eat your buy on board sandwich. The number one thing that determines customer happiness with a flight versus frustration is having an empty seat next to them. The ‘cost-plus’ mentality, where airlines were permitted to raise fares (after a ‘rate case’) meant that higher labor costs just got passed on to consumers, so union jobs paid well. As long as airlines flew they made money. ![]() The government view was that airlines needed to be profitable to be safe, so they prevented competition and artificially kept prices up. The ‘regulated era’ wasn’t about protecting consumers, it was about ensuring airline profits. Government no longer protects airline profits.It was glamorous when it was expensive and limited, something people could only aspire to or only do on very rare special occasions. Perhaps the Concorde was glamorous, but that’s not even flying anymore and travel is therefore slower than it was between 19. Not only that, it really hasn’t fundamentally changed that much. There are six things going on, though I’d love to hear thoughts in the relative role that each plays or if I’m missing any factors? You can’t say the same about today’s American, United, Delta - or Spirit – crewmember. The Pan Am and to a lesser extent TWA flight attendant was culturally iconic. Being a pilot was once glamorous, I wonder if the relative status of pilots has fared better than flight attendants? Some of the same effects have influenced the way we regard pilots today versus 40 years ago, although there are additional factors that have made serving as a flight attendant fall in status even more than flying up front. The piece suggests airline jobs are no longer as glamorous. Without government protection for airlines wages haven’t grown. Flying has become more small-d democratic. The argument is that the law disfavors unions, and consumers demand low prices.ĭeregulation has meant more people have access to the skies thanks to lower prices (the government used to mandate high prices most people couldn’t afford). Reader Jeff passes along an older piece suggesting reasons ‘we’ ruined airline jobs. ![]()
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