Good looks never go out of style, but (thankfully, in some instances) “air hostess” uniforms do. TheLos Angeles Times travel section has published this great photo gallery of swinging stews from the “Style in the Aisle” exhibit at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.
The exhibit, which runs through May 30th, features flight attendant uniforms from the 1930’s through the ’70’s. Couture designers of the day, including Emilio Pucci, helped put fashion forward in the airline industry. Because no one should ever have to serve pretzels without the sartorial security of Go-go boots and a cape.
When a passenger said to me with a straight face that he had cat-like reflexes, I tried not to laugh. Only it’s impossible not to laugh when a person says something like this, and actually means it. FYI: I’ve been around a lot of passengers and I have yet to meet one with these kind of reflexes. At least not in this day and age of distracted air travel.
How did I meet my funny feline friend? We had just touched down at La Guardia airport in New York. While taxiing to the gate, I spotted him, a business man, sitting in the aisle seat of the last row of coach with a mammoth-sized computer resting on his lap, fingers typing away.
From the back of the airplane over the roar of the engine, I called out, “Sir, excuse me, Sir! “
Either he couldn’t hear me or assumed I was speaking to someone else. I unbuckled my belt and gently tapped him on the shoulder. “You’re not supposed to be using that right now.”
Fingers continued to peck at the keys. Eyes remained glued to the screen. “I thought we were allowed to use electronic devices after landing.”
“It’s okay to use your cell phone after landing, but not a computer. That should be off and stowed.”
On a mission, the fingers kept moving. “I’m….almost…done.”
Almost was not soon enough.
“Do you know why you’re supposed to have that stowed?” I asked. Finally the fingers came to a stop, and for the first time during the course of a two and a half hour flight, the gentleman and I made eye contact. “If there’s an emergency and I have to pop the slide and evacuate this plane, you’re going to waste a lot of precious time fumbling around with that fifty pound laptop! Do you think your neighbor wants to gets blocked in, or worse, whacked in the head? Also what if I need your help?!”
Sheepishly he smiled. “What if I told you I have cat-like reflexes.”
And there you have it. That’s how this passenger, a middle-aged man, became known as The Cat Man. As for his amazing reflexes, I’d seen them in action and I was not at all impressed. During the flight when I went to put a cup of club soda down on his tray table, I had to wait a few minutes for him to figure out what to do with the laptop. And the Blackberry. And the other Blackberry.
On a recent flight a first class passenger thought nothing of pulling out his cell phone and texting while I stood right in front of him demonstrating the safety announcement! Another chatted away in coach as we turned onto the runway. “I heard you!” barked a woman when I asked her to turn off a game boy. Now I had already asked her twice to put it away and I kinda-sorta needed to take my jump seat before takeoff, so now wasn’t a good time to discuss why she couldn’t keep it in “airplane mode.”
Last week on a flight from New York to Aspen, after the lights were turned to bright and the flight attendant in charge made the announcement about turning electronic devices off, stowing bags, and putting seat backs in the upright and locked position, I went through the cabin and row by row had to practically invite each and every passenger to do as they were told – not once, but a few times! No joke, my four year-old has better listening skills than most of the adults on this flight. And there were 124 passengers on board! Never in my life has it taken me so long to prepare a cabin for landing! Because some of these passengers had more than one electronic device in use, I couldn’t get their attention, and when I finally did, they still couldn’t grasp what I was saying. I had to resort to a game of charades. Try acting out “head phones off. Power down computer” twenty times in flight and you’ll know what it’s like to be me.
Now when I encounter these kind of passengers, I can’t help but think of my old friend and his not-so cat-like reflexes. But instead of laughing, I feel more like hissing and scratching. Just consider yourself warned.
Boston’s Logan Airport is one of 10 across the country to host flight attendant protests today. The American Airlines employees are pissed about compensation paid to the company’s executives.
Here’s the deal: flight attendants have had to stomach pay cuts, while executives have picked up a cool $100 million over the past six years. The flight attendants gave up $340 million a year in 2003.
I guess this is the difference between negotiating your own compensation and having a union do it for you.
American Airlines points out, according to the Boston Globe, that the largess doled out to the top dogs is incentive-based compensation, mostly tied to stock price. This isn’t unusual for the executive suite, as it requires the brass to generate value for shareholders in order to score big. So, the fact that the execs were able to rake in some dough means they rewarded shareholders first.
The airline also points out that its executives have only been paid 65 percent of their “intended compensation,” as the Globe puts it, over the past decade. Simply put: they have no choice but to take a pay cut when the airline fails to perform.
What’s interesting is that a flight attendant quoted in the Globe’s story wants “some accountability.” She doesn’t realize, however, that it’s already there. The comp structure is designed for it.
Thai Airways International imposed body mass index and waistline restrictions on its 6,000 flight attendants last June. According to the Bangkok Post, all flight attendants, both male and female, were given six months to comply with the weight restriction. For female attendants, a BMI of 25 and a waistline maximum of 32 inches was implemented. The male attendants had restrictions of 27.5 BMI and a 35 inch waistline. To compute BMI, check out this handy calculator.
Those that did not meet the standards are now limited to domestic flights and same day service. They will be further relegated to ground crew if they fail to comply within a year. 41 flight attendants, 28 of them male, did not meet the guidelines and have filed a complaint with the Thailand Labour Protection and Welfare Department for the regulation which “violated their human rights, hurt their feelings, and decreased their incomes.” Although less than 1% of the Thai Airways flight attendant work force was affected, the Draconian measure has stirred up a debate regarding weight restrictions for flight attendants.
The vice president of products and customer services for Thai Airways, Teerapol Chotechanapibal, had this to say about the restrictions:
“…the regulation was aimed at improving the personality of flight attendants, who were an essential part of boosting competitiveness with other airlines, while their health had an impact on services and the safety of passengers. Flight attendants had to be agile and able to evacuate passengers from a plane within 90 seconds in the event of an accident. He said airlines worldwide had implemented similar standards. Stewardesses who are 160cm (5’3″) tall must not weigh above 66kg (145 lbs) while stewards who are 165cm (5’5″) tall must not weigh over 74.8kg (165 lbs).”
Asian air lines are notorious for hiring tall and rail thin flight attendants. A couple years ago, Air India even fired ten employees for being fat. I recall walking through Incheon airport in South Korea and passing a group of Korean Air stewardesses striding along the auto-walk like a gaggle of graceful storks. While I do not mind the inherent rule that flight attendants should be fit enough to assist with potential emergency situations, seeing an explicit weight restriction (an unnecessarily strict one at that) makes the whole enterprise feel cold, calculating, and inhuman. What do you think?
The flight attendant may be there “primarily for your safety”, but that hasn’t stopped them being included in a variety of sources to satisfy male fetishes. As early as the 30’s, the stewardess was used to market airline tickets.
Back when women’s rights were non-existent, the stewardess was not allowed to be married, had to undergo regular grooming inspections and underwear checks.
Back then, employment could be terminated for things like “a gummy smile”.
In the 70’s, times started to change, mostly thanks to the efforts of the Stewardesses for Women’s Rights – the first all-female national organization for flight attendants.
Before these changes, airlines would regularly advertise their airline by “pimping” their female flight crews. Slogans like “We Really Move Our Tails for You” and “I’m Carol, Fly Me” were considered perfectly acceptable ways to sell tickets.
In this article, we’ll take a look back at some of the ways flight attendants were portrayed in advertising for airlines, along with some sex scandals. 1930’s
In this 1930’s video (with recently added narration), the airlines knew no shame in using their female employees. It took till 1972 for this to change.
1960’s
In the 60’s, anything was still possible. Hugh Hefner filled his personal DC-9 with a weekly fresh lineup of eager bunnies, and the press loved it. There was no shame in showing off his party plane, or reporting on the kind of fun he had on board.
1970’s
The start of this graduation ceremony looks more like the opening scene of Miss Universe.
1980’s
By the 80’s, the flight attendant was back to clean cut and totally sweet – the mini skirt was out, and the professional smile was in.
2000’s
By the new millennium, competition was stiff – and the Internet made it even easier for passengers to shop around. People expected a bit more shock value from their content, so this made it perfectly acceptable to show off your good looking crew (again).
Pushing the envelope
Times have changed – it is once again considered totally normal for the flight attendant to show up in Playboy. The ladies pictured above contacted Playboy for a photo shoot after they were fired by their airline as part of a reorganization.
One of the larger inflight sex scandals of the decade…
The end result was more painful for her than for Fiennes, as she ended up losing her job, her house and any prospect of working the friendly skies again.
One airline that continued to play around with its staff is Spirit Air. Their “witty” promotions included mentions of “muff diving”, “MIFF’s” and DD’s”, flight attendants hit back through their union.
Apparently taking advantage of your staff does require it to remain semi-tasteful. Perhaps they should consider a calendar?