13/06/2024
This is from a fellow travel advisor. Traveling this summer could be challenging!! Please read.
I was a flight attendant for 10 years and I have a lot of friends in the industry that are still flying. This is certainly travel related so I thought I’d share. AND yes all of my flight attendant (American Airlines) friends are planning on a strike if they don’t get a contract. It looks like Alaska Airlines flight attendants could be striking as well.
Be prepared.Summer of Hell Travel Tips, for my non-airline peeps!
🗣FYI (We may go on strike this summer)📢
**Just some good advice for those who plan to travel this summer: READ THIS PLEASE!!
Flying this summer is very ROUGH!!! I feel like as a Flight Attendant I should attempt to share some tips to get you through airline travel for the foreseeable future. ✈️✈️
1. Things are not good..... if its less than 7 hours - consider driving! I'm not kidding. There is nothing enjoyable about flying right now. On any airline. If you must fly, keep reading. 🚗
2. Download and use the app of the airline you are flying. You can do everything on it - get your boarding pass, track your bags, see your incoming plane, and change a flight. It sure beats waiting in the long line to talk to an agent! Trust me - Usually these apps will tell you a flight is cancelled before the crew even knows! 📲
3. Fly MUCH earlier than you need to - a whole day early if it’s important!! This summer we’ve all seen many people miss important things like weddings, funerals, cruises, international connections, and graduations. The tears are very real, for very real reasons, and there was nothing anyone can do! If you have to be somewhere, spend the extra money, go a day early. Have a glass of wine and stay in a hotel, enjoy your night not being stressed while everyone else might be. 🍷
4. ALWAYS try and fly the first flight in the morning so you have all day to be rebooked if the 💩 hits the fan. Yes, that means it might be a 3:00 alarm, but morning flights don't cancel nearly as often.⏰
5. This is not unique to this year, but keep in mind summer is thunderstorm season, especially if your connecting in DFW/CLT/ATL/MIA/NYC. A single storm can shut down a whole airport. We can't fly through them. Storms usually build as the day gets later. Book early flights! ⛈
6. Schedule longer layovers - Your 1 hour layover is NOT enough anymore. 30 minutes, not a chance. 3 hours minimum. 🏃♀️🏃🏃♂️
7. What you see on the news is an understatement. We are short staffed and overworked. Not just pilots and flight attendants, but also ground crews. Without ground crews there is no one to park the planes, drive jetways, get your bags on/off planes, or scan boarding passes. This causes many delays that snowball throughout the day. Sometimes HOURS.(Another reason morning flights are best!) 👀
8. When flight crews get delayed we time out. We can NOT fly longer than 15-16 hours. We go illegal. So it doesn't matter if you have a wedding to get to, when we are done we are done. The way things are now, there are no back up crews, so when this happens your flight cancels. (Now you are starting to see why those morning flights are best!) 😴
9. Big hub connections are rough (DFW/CLT/EWR/ATL/MIA/JFK). It can be literal hell. You have a 50/50 chance your flight will cancel or missing your connection if anything is late.
10. Be nice. As stated above, we are overworked and tired. Its very hard to help you if you are mean or rude and some will NOT help you. No one cares that you are going to miss your cruise if you are an jerk. So even if we can help, we will save our help for someone nice. Tensions are high. Patience is thin. If you act crazy - you will not be flying on our planes. We will leave you behind without a second thought. 🥰
11. Being drunk on an airplane is a federal offense, so don't overdo it. If you drink too much at the bar while waiting for your delayed flight, you risk not being allowed to fly at all. We are all too tired to deal with your drunkness when we have legitimate issues to deal with. 🍻
12. BUY trip insurance if you have a lot of money invested. I hate the whole idea of this, but I also hate the idea of losing money. Example: A flight yesterday waited over an hour for a gate. A family of 8 missed their flight to Rome. The only flight of the day. They were going to a cruise which they would now miss. They were all crying, there was nothing I could do. (Also a reason to fly a day early!) 🛳
13. Flights are FULL. If you buy the cheap seats you will not be able to sit with your family. It says so when you purchase your ticket!! Flight Attendants aren't there to rearrange the whole plane just so you can sit with your family because you tried to save $100 on a third party website. 💸
14. Speaking of third party websites and saving money..... Like I said flights are FULL. If a flight is oversold, and no one volunteers to give up their seats, who do you think is the first to be bumped? You guessed it, the family that saved a few $$ by using sites like Expedia, Kayak, Hotwire etc. 🤷♀️
15. Pack smart. Don't be "That person" Don't hold up boarding because you have your extenders open till they are busting and you can't figure out how to make it fit in the overhead. (Passengers are stressed too, they can be aggressive when boarding a delayed flight) 🛍
16. Take showers, brush your teeth, leave the perfume off, don't eat stinky food (caesar salad and tuna fish I'm talking to you!), and bring headphones. Trust me. These things sound basic, but add to stress on crowded planes. If you are stuck on the tarmac for 3 hours after a 4 hour flight, you will thank me for this. 👍🏼
17. Bring a sweater if you tend to be cold. So tired of half dressed folks asking to turn the heat up. NO. Wear clothes!! 🥶
18. Thats not water on the bathroom floor. For the love of God, PLEASE wear shoes to the bathroom!!! 🤮
19. Don't tell a Flight Attendant they look tired. We are and we know it! 😭
20. Happy Travels!
