Flight attendant career openings!-- Knowledgable answers only!?

Question

Been looking into it for a while. Im a 19 yr old college sophomore whose considering taking off this semester to get started on flight services. If anyone knows the name of all the Airlines in the United States and who happens to be hiring, then please fill me in. Thank you!

Answer 1

Here are some sites to begin your search: http://www.flightattendantcareer.com/
http://www.avjobs.com/
List of Worldwide private jet companies: http://www.legfind.com/SiteMap.aspx?SiteMap=Operators

Answer 2

I can't tell you who is hiring right now--- airlines do not have "help wanted" sections on their web sites so it is hard to determine that!

Start your search by identifying the hub cities nearest you. Hubs will be different for each airline--- I have three large airports within 50 miles of me, and each is a hub for a different airline or two. Airlines base their flight crews *mostly* from their hubs, which does not mean that you will not be able to join a flight crew based out of a non-hub, only that it will be harder.

Determine how far you want to drive to join your flight crew and subscribe to all of the newspapers in those areas. Also for the hubs in your area, subscribe to the newspapers from the home cities of those airlines--- for example, if you live near a Delta hub, subscribe to the Atlanta newspapers. Often airlines will put their Help Wanteds in the papers for their headquarters and not where they need the actual flight crew to be based. It is common for flight attendants to be "commuters." An FA who lives in Chicago may be part of a DC-based crew and will fly to DC to meet the crew at the start of a run.

There is not a lot of information published when airlines are looking for help. There tend to be WAY more applicants than jobs. Once you figure out which airlines have crews based near you, get the airline's Human Resources number and call regularly to check on Open Application dates. Some airlines call for applicants only once a year or so, and some hire more frequently. They do NOT tend to advertize their open positions so you will have to do some detective work here.

Also you might have better results looking with the smaller, regional carriers in your area; ones with codeshares with the legacy carriers tend to be better for career development. In my area, Republic Express is a busy regional carrier that codeshares with USAir. Not sure who it is in your area though! It tends to be a bit easier to get a job with the regionals.

All in all, this is not the easiest career to break into. You have to become almost a mind-reader to know when to put your application in; it may take months before you even get a callback (one friend who now works for United got her callback after almost 2 years); the interviewing process is convoluted and confusing; and, if hired, you must go away for training for at least 3 weeks, sometimes as long as 5, depending on the airline, and the training is either unpaid or paid at such low wages that you might be able to treat yourself to a movie when you get home. Be prepared to drop everything to go to training when called; you might get 2 weeks notice but if you decline the training when it is offered, you will have to start the application process from scratch.

If you have a friend who already works for the airlines, definitely leverage your relationship to get the insider info. That won't help you one bit to actually get a job but at least you might get a heads up on the hiring dates. Also talk to some junior FA's before you decide to take the plunge-- this is a very difficult career and people either love it or hate it. Wages and benefits are not very good; if you start as a junior FA making over $25,000/year, you're doing really well. Job security is low, and flight assignments for the junior FA's are not very good.

Not trying to discourage you--- I have many FA friends who love what they do--- just want you to set your expectations realistically!

Answer 3

Congratulations, its fun. You have to be willing to relocate to an airlines hub.
Continental will be hiring 700 flight attendants this year for their new 787's. go to their website:
www.continental.com
Express Jet which is:
http://expressjet.recruitmax.com/main/careerportal/Job_Profile.cfm?szOrderID=632&szReturnToSearch=1&szWordsToHighlight=

also mesa airlines express jet is also hiring.
Good luck