How to Become a Flight Attendant

Approximately 1,000,000 people per year ask “How do I become a flight attendant?”.  Each person who asks this question is an individual with unique personality, experience, education, and many other fine qualities.  In addition, airlines each have their own “custom” minimum requirements.  It is different for every person and each airline they have interest in.

There are two factors to consider when applying to the airlines:

1.  Minimum requirements are typically age and education related.  Airlines hire between ages of 19 – 21 as “minimum”.  Education required is a High School diploma or G.E.D.  Each airline will have additional requirements, and if you do not at least meet those, your application is not even considered.  Airlines also have height requirements (range is typically 4′ 11″ – 6′ 2″ and ability to lift luggage into the overhead bin).
2. Who really gets hired – training, age, experience, maturity, personality, education, location, and language skills all play into who really gets hired.  Someone who is 19, never traveled nor had a job before is going to be competing against someone with a travel degree and 10 years of experience.  Airlines will likely hire the person with education and experience.  Just because you do not have experience, doesn’t mean you can’t still get a flight attendant job.

Our school provides training and experience employers demand.  Airlines come from across the country to hire “fresh” graduates who do not have bad habits from other airlines and can be molded into model employees.

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Steps on How to Become a Flight Attendant

Flight attendant jobs are one of the highest demand jobs a person can apply to.  There are hundreds of bits of information and steps in the hiring process, therefore, it is best to have the training and a guide to help you successfully gain the experience and get through the hiring process to land your dream job.

1. Assess Your Personal Skills and Experience

Do you have prior experience presenting? That pre-flight briefing before takeoff…yes that will be you one day.  Do you have prior experience in aviation?  Do you know what IATA are used for and each code for the country?  Perhaps you have all the personal requirements and just need some experience.  If you like to meet new people, travel, and enjoy variety in your day, this job is for you!

TTA’s hands on approach is designed with feedback from airlines which is why employers trust our school and our graduates.

2. The Application Process

The application process for most airlines is quite intense.  Questions may feel confusing, intimating, and an application could take 1-2 hours to complete for a single airline.  It is common to provide a cover letter and résumé in addition to the application.  Since airlines receive thousands of applications, cover letters, and résumés, yours really needs to stand out.

Our school not only does these important things for you, but we spend time with you individually and teach you how to do it for a lifetime.  Only you can tell your story, TTA teaches you how.

3. Interviewing

If you are one of the lucky ones to get a call for an interview, you will arrive and likely find many people in front of you and a new group waiting to interview when you leave.  Each experienced airline representative has interviewed thousands of people and in 5 minutes has probably decided if you will be offered a position.  “What! My whole life is going to be judged by someone in 5 minutes?”  Sorry, but yes.  Professionalism, manners (airlines are “old school”), how you talk, how you sit, eye contact…everything is judged.

TTA’s focuses on helping individuals show the outside world, how wonderful they are on the inside.  We teach you how to go into the interview with confidence and help you outshine the other candidates.

4. Getting the Offer

Receiving your first job offer is an overwhelming experience.  The airline will require you to go through orientation and be trained on their own aircraft under their own policies.  If a flight attendant is already trained on a specific aircraft and changes to another airline with the exact same plane, they will need to be trained again under the new airline’s policy.  In addition, there is recurrent training enforced by the FAA that happens at regular intervals.

If this is your first time getting hired with an airline, they may or may not inform you that the offer may be temporary, until permanent.  Meaning that you could uproot your life, go off to training, fail out, and be sent home the next day.  Without prior training and preparation, 30% – 50% of those who begin their careers with the airline are sent home.  Violations can be tardiness, knowledge, attitude or any other reason.  Airlines do not like to waste their time and money on people who do not work out.  Until you get your first fight assignment, assume that the job is not permanent.

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Flight Attendant Benefits

The flight attendant benefits are one of the top reasons why people choose this type of job.  Specific benefits are different for each airline and may be different depending on how long a flight attendant has worked for their airline.  The most popular benefit for flight attendants is just the job itself.  Many flight attendants use their layover time between flights or their discounted travel fares to explore a new city or country.  There are times when a flight attendant job allows for a several day layover, which provides plenty of time to watch the sun rise or set over the ocean, explore historical places, or just sit and sip a cup of coffee on a cobblestone sidewalk.

Other benefits include: