Interested in becoming a F/A

[flychick27]

I was just wondering with the low first year pay how do you guys manage to live off of it? Do you have income from other sources? I am looking into becoming a F/A but a little worried about lack of funds. I live in the Houston area so I'm looking into Continental, XJet, and CHQ. Is it easy to pick up more time than the monthly guarantee? Thanks for any info!

 

[CHQFA00]

Maybe I've been drinking too much of the blue cayon kool aid, but I would look into Southwest. Right now it's about a 4-5 month wait to get into Houston (if I'm wrong, please, someone chime in and say so).

I worked for CHQ and I am litterly making the same amount of money my first year at Southwest than I did my 5th year at CHQ. CHQ is also going through some major problems right now as far as treating there employee's fairly. They are not abiding by the contract, the QOL has taken a nose dive and most of my friends that are still there are ready to jump ship.

Southwest also has a great profit sharing program, 401K, insurance, etc. Most of these thing you will not find at a regional such as XJT, CHQ, Mesa, etc. As far as Continental goes, from what I saw at the open house I attended, they are a good company, but I was a little unsure of whether or not they are prepared for another 9/11 if it happened. Having said that, I needed better job security, however, when your in the aviation world, there is no such thing. Also, they were telling me that there is usually a 5 year wait to get into Houston, so you would have to be based out of Newark (again, this can change, and if it has, someone, please chime in).

Southwest is hiring like crazy, although the wait for class is about 5-6 months after interview and the background check.

Good luck on whatever you choose!

 

[flychick27]

I haven't done much research on SWA, so thanks for all of that information. What are the travel benefits with SWA. Do they offer travel discounts with other airlines to fly internationally since they don't?

 

[CHQFA00]

SWA travel bennies are pretty good. You, your spouse, your children and your parents have FREE standy by passes. They also have travel agreements with other airlines. Some are just the standard $25 a leg. Some are ID90's (you pay the 10% of the fair plus taxes). They also have contracts for standby travel for international carriers. Granted, it's not as easy as having Delta flight bennies, listing yourself, paying the taxes and going. You have to go through the travel department, but it can take as little as a week or so to receive these tickets.

 

[Fisheress]

Flychick, I just interviewed w/Xjet and start training on the 23 of this month here in Houston. Looks as if I may be based in San Antonio. HOPE SO! Anyway wherever they base me i will put in for a transfer right away. Tey are hiring like crazy too. You would not beleive how many people they put through there last week! good luck....

 

[turboshark]

flychick, also check out netjets (www.netjets.com) as a flight attendent. this is first class work, you can deal with 1-18 passengers instead of 150 passengers. hope this helps, if i had a daughter that wanted to be an f/a, i'd send her to nja. prior f/a experience may be needed but im not sure...so check it out.

 

[pgcfii2002]

Are you hot?

 

[Indy319FA]

I was just wondering with the low first year pay how do you guys manage to live off of it? Do you have income from other sources?

Ramen Noodles......

Its hard to work another job when you are on reserve. Once off reserve you should be able to hold a second job. But with the amount of open flying at CHQ right now you can work up to 6 days a week if you want.

I am looking into becoming a F/A but a little worried about lack of funds. I live in the Houston area so I'm looking into Continental, XJet, and CHQ. Is it easy to pick up more time than the monthly guarantee? Thanks for any info!

CHQ is hiring like gangbusters right now. I transferred to CHQ from Republic a couple of months ago. My class had so many people from Texas in it I thought I was in Houston. Just about everybody that wanted Houston got it, and those that didn't were able to transfer there within a month. Also opening a base in Corpus Christi, and there are many in Houston who will be heading there.

Only advice I would give you about Expressjet vs CHQ is you don't get paid anything at Expressjet until you finish OE. At CHQ you get per diem ($38/Day) plus minimum wage for every hour you are in class during training. You usually don't get a check till you finish but its around $1300, and that beats nothing. Also health insurance starts at 30 days with CHQ vs 6 months at Expressjet. Flight benefits on Continental start at 3 months for CHQ and 6 months at Expressjet.

Good Luck...

 

[Sarag79]

I got full flight benefits at XJT after 3 months and you get 2 passes a month and unlimited jumpseating until then. You don't get paid through training but you do get free meals and obviously hotel. I don't remember when my health insurance began though. All the flight attendants I know at XJT are happy though. It's a good company. I don't know much about CHQ though. XJT is hiring a lot right now and their training and interviews are done in Houston. CAL and SWA are really good companies too. It just depends on what you're looking for and what's important to you. The best way to find out is do some reseach online ( flightattendants.org is great) apply and attend the interviews to get really up to date and accurate information. All the interviews will have an information session with a question and answer portion at the beginning.