Training, reserve and hotels. The three most common questions that I receive are, “Does the company pay for your hotel on layovers?”, “How long is training and is it paid?”, and “What is reserve?” I will be happy to answer all of those questions for you. This is an exciting career and lifestyle but there are times where you can find it hard to make plans if you don’t know your flying schedule. First let’s cover training.
Training
The reason I advise anyone applying for this position to not do a course through a third-party is simply because it can cause you confusion. Each airline has its own FAA approved training curriculum for its safety procedures. These procedures are drilled into your head and repeated throughout training so that you learn them and know them, should you need them. If you take a course through a third-party company, they will teach you their procedures and then you will have to “un-learn” those when you go to the airline that hires you. They really don’t increase your chances of getting hired with any particular airline,. My advice is to save your money.
As for whether or not your training is paid, it just depends on which airline you get hired with and whether that is something they offer. My suggestion is to plan on being without a paycheck for four to six weeks and have your budget set up for such. I borrowed from my grandfather at the time that I went through my initial training with TWA for six weeks. I do know that PSA does offer paid training.
Reserve
What is reserve and do I get paid for being on reserve? The answer is a bit of a mixed bag. Many flight attendants look at reserve as a negative thing. Reserve is when you don’t have a month of trips scheduled on your line (monthly schedule). Instead you have days that you are available to the company and “on-call”.
Each company has their own contractual reserve systems and they vary from airline to airline. You will still have set days off in that schedule but on the days that you are available to the company, you will be on-call and could end up anywhere. Flight attendants see this as a negative because they don’t have control of their flying and don’t know where they will end up from day to day.
But you can also look at reserve as a way to fly trips you might not otherwise fly either due to your seniority or destination. I went to Paris, London and Honolulu when I was on reserve. When I was flying for the regional airline, I went to some neat cities I would have never thought about going to. Again, this career is an adventure.
Hotels
When you layover in a city, the airline will have a contract with certain hotels in each city. The airline will cover the expense of the hotel. You will receive a per diem for each hour you are away from your base (more on that later). Layovers that are short are generally labeled “Airport Layovers”, and layovers that are considered to be long are labeled “Downtown Layovers”. Each airline has their standards set contractually as to what is short and what is long.
Conclusion
This is the basics of training, reserve and hotels. I hope this article helps clear up any questions you might have. If not, please remember to email me at professionalflightattendant94@gmail.com and I will be happy to answer any questions you might have. For more trip reports and an insight on what I do on my layovers please visit theketotraveler94.com.
Jason.
