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Flying With Granny
James Wysong · August 1, 2004

How many times have you boarded a flight and discovered that the elderly lady you were about to help to her seat was actually one of the flight attendants on your trip that day?

Come to think of it, whatever happened to "Fly Me," or "Coffee, Tea or Me"?

Today it's more like "Help Me," or "Coffee, Tea or Geritol".

It's not like the typecast stewardess - the lovely young women always looking for that pilot to settle down with. This is real life. These are the women who turned a part-time, single, young female-type job into a life career for anyone.

If you happen to board a flight with older crewmembers on it, it is probably a senior flight. It is worth a lot of hours, not too much work, or off to a popular destination.

Why are they so ... old?

There is currently no age limit, thanks to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. So those young "Fly Me" girls of yesterday are still flying and enjoying a career. The only test of ability comes with a safety refresher course each year. They have to be able to open a door in a mock evacuation, and complete a simple written test.

Foreign airlines are allowed to discriminate on basis of age, which is why you see the younger flight attendants on airlines such as Singapore and Virgin. Qantas airlines even ran a billboard ad in Australia showing an elderly flight attendant serving coffee on a flight. It said, "Fly United and fly with your grandmother." Maybe it was in poor taste but last time I was on a trip to Sydney, it was all so true.

There is no real reason for them to retire and now with airlines like US Airways and United cutting off future pensions, the ages are bound to rise. Many flight attendants are just plain irritated that they are at retirement age, and can't afford to.

I know a flight attendant in Atlanta who is 77 years old and still working. She looks as though she needs the cart in the aisle to hold her up. While people may think that it's cute, I wonder if she'll be able to save your life in an emergency.

Somehow, I think not.

I also know of a 66-year-old flight attendant from San Francisco who died while working a flight. It happened during take-off. She was discovered a half an hour later, still strapped to her seat. It was determined that she died of natural causes, which is a bit frightening.

It's especially sad because her flying partners applied for under-staffing pay, because a replacement wasn't provided. Have they no respect for the dead? (Frankly, the other flight attendants were fully entitled to it, and I'm sure the deceased crewmember would have wanted it that way.)

While I am proud of these senior flight attendants, the age maximum is getting a bit out of control. How nice or bitter they are makes no difference. I think there is a growing consensus that there should be a mandatory retirement age of sixty-five. The pilots have to retire at sixty, and flight attendants are in an equally demanding safety-related profession.

A flight attendant's job is now considered a career for many. Both sides - management and flight attendants - need to meet halfway and decide on a mandatory retirement age, with a better retirement system or planning. The way things stand now, if a crewmember retires, she or he feels like they are surrendering, and management has won, so they hang on as long as they possibly can.

Everyone is supposed to enjoy the golden years, not fight their way through them. I know I don't want to be in the aisles at 70 shouting, "Beef or Chicken!"

(By the way, next week I', going to answer your questions about air travel. I encourage any and all questions. Please e-mail them to me. There are no stupid questions apart from "Where the mile high club applications are onboard?")

James Wysong has worked as a flight attendant with two major international carriers during the past fifteen years. He is the author of the "The Plane Truth: Shift Happens at 35,000 Feet" and "The Air Traveler's Survival Guide." For more information about Frank or his books, see his Web site or e-mail him.