Chances are when you go on vacation it starts with a flight. Today we’re joined by our friends Rosanna and Dave who are both Flight Attendants to share with us tips on how to fly like a pro.

Overview of Being a Flight Attendant

• The Primary purpose is passenger safety.
• How did your love of travel begin?
• Training as a flight attendant.
• Dos and Don’ts from flight attendants’ perspective.
• A crazy travel story as a flight attendant.

How to Contact Rosanna and Dave

• On the Web at: https://magicaltravelwithrosanna.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/magicaltravelwithrosanna

Question: What questions would you want to ask a flight attendant?

Please let us know in the All Things Travel Podcast Facebook group!

Where in the World is All Things Travel?

• Rupert, Idaho

Check out the complete list of where in the world you’re located.

Never Miss a Thing!

Subscribe to All Things Travel Show on your favorite app, so you never miss anything:

• Apple podcasts
• Stitcher
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• Amazon Podcasts
• iHeartRadio

Please share it with some friends while you’re here.

Check out the complete list of episodes.

Episode 013 Transcripts

Episodes are transcribed with artificial intelligence,s so there are likely some highly amusing translations!

Flying Tips from Flight Attendants + 2

Ryan: Hello and welcome to All Things Travel chances are when you go on vacation, it starts with a flight somewhere today, we’re joined by our friends, Rosanna and Dave, who are both flight attendants to share with us some tips on how to fly like a pro you’re listening to all things.

Travel episode 103 original air date, April 6th, 2022. Well, Shayne, we have some special guests with us here.

Shayne: we do.

Ryan: We have our good friends, Rosanna and Dave. Welcome.

Dave: Hello.

Ryan: Hi people.

Rosanna: For the

Dave: radio audience.

Ryan: Well, Rosanna Dave, why don’t you give yourselves a quick introduction for folks?

Rosanna: So I am a Rosanna and I have been a flight attendant for 21 years, all with the same company, mostly out of the west coast.

Dave: I’m Dave. I have been with four different airlines for approximately 13 to 15 years. Ish. I have to really think, no, I’ve been 10 years. This one’s 13, 14 years, 14 years before different airlines started as a ticket gate bag. Claim person at the airport that does it all. Yeah. And then Matt Rosanna and realized that could be paid more to serve coaching smiles or that’s what I thought I was doing anyway.

Rosanna: He didn’t like, he didn’t like getting sprayed with deicing fluid in the face and you know, Sub-Zero temperatures.

Dave: It was cool to . It was actually kind of cool at first then once it, once you do it for a little bit, know,

It’s like this side.

Shayne: wears off.

Dave: Yeah. It’s cold as heck. Molting hot liquid out of a hose.

And if you get it wrong, bad things can happen.

Shayne: True. That’s true.

Dave: And he

Ryan: to us from Oregon. Correct. All right.

Awesome.

Shayne: trials were, right?

Dave: no.

Shayne: Oh, the other Salem,

Ryan: Wrong town and Oregon way. No, that’s not right either. Okay.

Shayne: always get those confused.

Rosanna: I would say that though, we live in Salem, Oregon. Neither one of us fly out of Salem, Oregon, because it’s the capital of Oregon, but it’s one of the smaller cities. So I

Dave: asked him to leave.

Rosanna: And I don’t fly out of, out of Salem because we were only just over an hour from Portland. So my home base where I’m based is Portland, Oregon, but Dave’s is, and has been

Phoenix, and LA. So I have been.

Shayne: commute.

Rosanna: I have been also based in other cities. I was based in the Denver and Seattle and now Portland.

Ryan: So, and we’re already going off script as with the introductions. So even when you lived in Oregon, you were based out of Philly. So that commute from Oregon to Philly, I think we’re going to learn today. There are some crazy intricacies it comes to being a flight attendant, first Shayne, before we get to all that fun, I want to know where in the world is all Things Travel.

Shayne: Rupert. Idaho,

Ryan: all right.

Welcome Idaho.

Shayne: their first stop in Idaho and our long storied career.

Ryan: Now. Dave and Roseanne, have you ever flown out of.

Rosanna: we have flown in and out of several cities,

Dave: Boise, Idaho city, I think, I know. Wait, what are they going to one

Rosanna: falls?

Dave: haven’t been to any of those just boys. And I’m not even going to say why Boise sticks out. So. Yeah,

Shayne: an intricacy. We won’t cover.

Ryan: All right. All right. Well,

Dave: we won’t cover on air.

Ryan: Shayne, where do we want to meet our listener in Idaho?

Shayne: was thinking Sophie’s Chatterbox would be nice, quaint little diner on the square. And then

Ryan: like it.

Shayne: later we can catch a show at the historic Wilson theater.

Ryan: I liked that a lot. Well, welcome Idaho. Hey, do us a favor, reach out to Shayne or I either via email or on our Facebook group. Cause I’ve got a little, thank you gift for you being on the show too.

Shayne: And speaking of, thank you. We want to thank you for listening to our show today. If you want to make sure that you catch every show and never miss an episode, click that subscribe button, unless you’re in apple podcast, then click that plus sign, follow button.

Ryan: All right. So David Rosen. I want to know kind of at a high level, give us an overview of your position as a flight attendant, because my guess is what I’m thinking your position is probably very different than what your position is.

Shayne: Now was that pun intended

Ryan: High-level overview. Ah, whatever.

Dave: I didn’t even catch that pun

Rosanna: until you said

Shayne: we have, yeah.

Both

Rosanna: Robin.

Shayne: seat.

Ryan: 40,000 few or foot view.

Rosanna: Well, I will say that our number one priority and the reason that we still exist on the airplane is safety.

Ryan: Okay.

Rosanna: If if it wasn’t for safety, the airlines would probably re you know, replace us with the vending machine, but we are there for safety. That is our primary function

is to provide.

Ryan: and the cabin, if you will

Rosanna: We are the safety of the passengers during boarding, at cruise, during descent and on arrival, we are the safety professionals on board.

Ryan: not just to get me my ginger rail.

Dave: Nope,

Rosanna: no, because they could have a vending machine for that and they could probably make a few more bucks, you know, sticking cash in the vending machine all day long.

Dave: That’s flight attendant, snow, the aircraft insight inside the aircraft.

Shayne: Yeah.

Dave: it inside and out. know where everything is, all the emergency equipment we need.

We know all of our procedures and stuff. It’s if you guys, if you know CPR or anything like this, the more you train, it becomes

Ryan: yup.

Dave: So when we have a medical emergency, most people don’t realize if you have a heart attack or your heart stops, you have four minutes to shock your heart before not getting it back.

We have four minutes to get an AED on you and shock you. If not, you don’t come back. Well, think about all that happens when someone has a heart attack and all the panic and all this kind of stuff, flight attendants, plow through all that, to do just like an emergency a paramedic would or an ER, doctor RMS.

You know, it’s not just about if we wreck or where we land or anything, this and operating doors and other equipment. There’s a lot more that goes on.

Rosanna: Could happen in flight. Yeah.

Dave: People see us serving those Cokes and smiles. I know, but our primary job is

Rosanna: that

Ryan: Sure. Sure.

Rosanna: not there for a good day. We’re there for someone’s bad.

Ryan: I know. I hear ya. I hear ya.

Shayne: In addition to serving our drinks and teaching us what we need to do in case of emergency, is that also kind of a procedural routine thing to get the passengers on a routine where they feel the order and feel the comfort of knowing that the situation is under control.

And we can just enjoy the flight.

Rosanna: Exactly. And that’s why we’re, that’s why we’re in a uniform. First of all we are those to be looked to in the case of an emergency or any kind of incident, they can quickly identify. And look to us for guidance and and starts obviously, during boarding, we are doing things like we’re looking for able-bodied passengers in case of any kind of an emergency or incident in the aircraft.

We also preflight the aircraft before passengers get on we’re checking all the safety equipment. We’re checking the safety of the aircraft. the seat pockets for the proper safety cards that will show you all the emergency functions of the. We’re checking the fire extinguishers, we’re checking the AED.

That’s onboard. We’re checking all of the emergency equipment before passengers even come onboard. And then as they come on board, we’re checking for able-bodied passengers. Then we’re checking our exit seat occupants, making sure they meet the criteria and providing assistance to people that may need special assistance to board the aircraft, or, you know, be comfortably seated providing briefings to passengers that come on board with the assistance of another person.

And a small children that are traveling alone. And then we’re also prepping things like food and meals and things that are going to be provided on the flight. But it all starts with the safety of the aircraft. Everything else being secondary.

Shayne: I have to

Ryan: sure.

Shayne: did not know that you all that. amazing.

Dave: Yeah. A lot of people don’t and the safety demo is also it’s a federal aviation regulation is something that The FAA requires of all airlines that we do, like the seatbelt, like who has not, like, I guarantee you that there has, is not a person that has not operated a seatbelt before, but because there could be,

Rosanna: they require it.

And I do find people every once in a while that can’t figure out how to get it off. Even though

they’ve been in the car before I showed them how to do it and they’ll stop me and say, Hey, can you get my seatbelt off?

Shayne: now, do you mind those of us who are just reading or something and not paying attention to the

Rosanna: Definitely not

Shayne: Okay. Okay.

Dave: 9.9, 9% of our passengers.

Rosanna: Yeah.

Shayne: that would be asked. Yes.

Rosanna: We think the passengers are just hearing what wa.

Ryan: So I’m interested. Where did your love of travel come from?

Rosanna: Well, I traveled a lot as a child, lots of Disneyland vacations, and we live about a 15 hour drive from Los Angeles and that’s where I grew up. And we would go other year we would drive to Disneyland for spring break. And I loved to do that. I loved the drive. I loved the road trip. I loved visiting Disneyland.

Pre California adventure and staying in one of those little Peter pan motels across the street. The lots of camping, lots of national park trips. And I always loved to travel, but all the travel I did as a child was in a vehicle. parents didn’t fly anywhere. a large family, it just wasn’t really feasible to fly at that time in the eighties, early So we drove everywhere and when I was in high school, I got on my first flight and it was a high school trip to Washington DC. And after that trip, I decided I was going to fly everywhere. I wanted to fly all over the world. I wanted to see it all. I had been to all the places you could drive to. And now I wanted to be in all the places you could fly to.

I wanted Europe and the Caribbean and and I think I’ve hit a lot of the places that were on my bucket list already. So I have to come up with a new bucket list.

Ryan: cool.

Dave: For me, I was a military brat about every year to two years, we’d moved. So I’ve probably lived in more states than most people have visited.

So I was on a plane every year, guaranteed. If at minimum, we were flying to Reno to go see my mom’s family every summer. And the travel just kind of stuck with me. You know, it was like when you were born and raised into you’re moving in, you’re consistently changing where you are and all that. It’s just kind of like in there.

And then when you try to get, even now, like I’m in Santa Morgan, we’ve been here eight, nine years, nine years. And I’m like answering. I’m like, okay, I’m getting bored of this place. So travel was easy for me to figure out.

of course, like, you know, everyone has their bucket list.

I want to see that I want to do this. I want to do that. You know, I’ve lived in Alaska. And when I say lived in Alaska, if you look up Delta junction on the Alaska map is in the middle of nowhere population 100 still to this day 100. It was for Greeley, Alaska, and then I’ve lived as far south as Florida.

I was born in Concord, Massachusetts, been living out in Nevada, California. I’ve lived all over the United States. So I was like, of course I’ve got experienced the rest of the world. Right? So hands down, travel. Easy choice.

Ryan: Awesome. So talk to us about the training to become a flight.

Dave: Each airline is different. I don’t recall. I think my training when I was at horizon. Three or four weeks. The

Rosanna: minimum training for a smaller airline is going to be at least three to three and a half weeks. And

Dave: at American right now is I think we’re at six weeks. I think like Delta goes up to eight weeks.

And during that training, you are not paid. Some airlines put you up in a place during training others. Don’t you have to do your own food for most airlines.

Rosanna: It’s an intensive.

Ryan: An internship.

Dave: Yeah, it’s

Rosanna: more like it’s more like airline bootcamp. I would say it’s very, all your

Dave: tests must be passed with a 90% or greater, or your sit home.

You

Rosanna: have a test every day over things like emergency procedures, emergency equipment how to respond in a medical emergency, opening the aircraft’s doors. And there’s a test every single day. So you may have class. 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM every day. But you spend the whole night studying for the next day is test.

So it is definitely very

Dave: cramming for your midterms and finals, but it’s like cramming

Rosanna: for finals every day. Definitely an intensive program.

Dave: Yeah, we

Rosanna: don’t really know what all the airlines train, as I would say, their training is probably fairly standard across the board because it’s federally regulated.

Dave: So the FAA sets align and then the airlines have to meet or exceed it.

Ryan: Gotcha.

Dave: Most airlines exceed it. So each airlines training is different in one way or another.

I wouldn’t say one’s better than the other, especially safe in safety terms. I would never say, oh, well we do it this way. So we’re better. No, especially safety-wise I wouldn’t put that up.

Ryan: There might be a difference in how you approach customer service or protocols with that, but not, we’re not, when it comes down to what Rosanna was saying, you know, this is our actual job.

Rosanna: Right. Yeah. The customer service training, I think at most airlines during ground school is minimal because you’re going to do customer service training. Once you get on the aircraft and even that’s going to be pretty minimal. So the ground school portion is basically a lot of. Information not customer

Dave: service.

I agree with her, but there is a a way the airlines kind of shift through people. And I mean, they don’t need the customer service training. Now, honestly, if you look at things anymore, like, you’ll think, oh my God airlines really need customer service training, but They have a hundred positions open for flight attendant and they have 50,000 applicants.

So they’re not high. They’re not looking for someone that’s never been in a customer service oriented job. You know, a lot of this stuff anymore. Like, you know, no, no flight attendant. I don’t think there’s a single fight. Jeanette gets onboard and goes, you know, I just want to be crappy at customer service.

I don’t think anyone does that. I really think that’s but the honest truth is it weighs on you? Of course the airline making schedules really difficult. I mean, this goes in, this kind of goes down a rabbit hole a bit, but there’s that then now we have the mass mandate set that we have to deal with. And of course, you know, everyone has their points and then you’re just going to snap officially look at that jet blue guy that pop the beer and pop the slide is slid down that like he had it, he was done with customers abusing them.

So there’s only so much abuse you can take before. Well, that lines crossed.

Rosanna: But as far as training, I think something I would mention about training is that when you get hired at any airline, they have to put you through that airlines ground school, which is what we were talking about. Like being about three to six weeks, you don’t have to have any education in aviation before that to be hired.

And I know here in the Pacific Northwest, there was a school called the international era academy and they taught a bunch of different airline careers. And some of them were even, they taught you how to be a travel agent back in the day when there was a lot more brick and mortar travel agencies, but they also did travel or flight attendant training.

And the airlines think that those types of colleges are a complete joke, because anything that they want you to know, you’re going to learn in your initial

Ryan: They’re going to, they’re going to train you the way they

Rosanna: Yeah. So

Dave: to add onto that, like, I’ve been with four different airlines now, and three of them granted were merge and one was with horizon. So when you do that like I was with horizon, they had one way to do it.

And when I’m, then I went to technically, it was America west, and then it merged to us and then. Every single airline did it differently. And I had to learn each different one differently. And it’s when you have something drilled into you and you’ve got like a routine and you’ve got it memorized. And then all of sudden they’re like, okay, now you have to change it.

That’s not an easy task. So that’s why airlines thought those places were jokes because all they’re having to do is they got this great candidate, but now they have to retrain them.

Ryan: Yeah. Gotcha.

Dave: more difficult.

Rosanna: It does. I still think it goes a long way to have some sort of an education. Either a two year degree or a four-year degree is helpful, especially in looking like a good candidate to be hired, but it’s not necessary.

They generally want to see two years of customer service experience, but any kind of education you have is definitely a bonus in at least getting an

Dave: interview.

Shayne: So David with each merger, did you have to re attend the bootcamp style training?

Dave: No. So no

Rosanna: integration training. We did

Dave: have integration training. Most of those web based. And then we went to, there might be an additional day of our recurrent and we do recurrent every single year to learn the new way and all this kinda stuff that is like a buffer period for those that are already hired in here.

Rosanna: When you wish to, you might bring on aircraft that the airline was not previously flying so that the flight

Shayne: Hm.

Rosanna: on one half of those are going to have to learn the other aircraft.

Shayne: So you have a little different procedures for each

Dave: Oh yeah. Every aircraft has its own procedure.

Shayne: Wow.

Ryan: So do flight attendants in depth, kind of having their own, their favorite air airplanes to work on.

Rosanna: Definitely.

Dave: Definitely just as like pilots, dude, we all have our favorites. I mean, it’s kind of like driving a car. You’d have your

favorites.

Ryan: Yeah.

Shayne: It is that usually universal? Are there certain ones that, is it kind of a mix of

Dave: Oh wait. Oh, it’s just a mix. It’s a personal.

Rosanna: My airline used to fly an aircraft that was a smaller craft of 37 Cedar and only had one flight attendant. And and it was called a dash eight and the flight attendants and pilots at fluid. They were often referred to as dash track. Except instead of flying a jet, there were, but there are a ton of flight attendants and pilots that preferred that aircraft, for flight attendants, because you were the only flight

Ryan: Yeah.

Rosanna: meant you could do things your way.

didn’t have to confer with another flight attendant on how the service is going to be conducted. You know? So if that flight attendant felt like just going way out of her way, I mean, You know, eight refills on a 45 minute flight because it’s the flight attendants show that one flight attendant would run the show

Dave: where she says that I want everyone to know that doesn’t mean that’s company policy, but that flight attendant did that on her choosing. Otherwise I could get on a plane and be like, what Rosetta said, a flight attendant can choose to do eight.

Shayne: every 15 minutes. I

Rosanna: Well, you know, get on my plane and you might get a refill. You say

Dave: that, but when you run out.

So.

Ryan: There you go.

Dave: Our job is what exactly. Both of you thought, like you didn’t realize how much, what actually is behind the scenes, but that is our job. Our

Ryan: So right. Sure.

Dave: And smiles.

Shayne: what are some travel do’s and don’ts for passengers, from your perspective,

Ryan: us the.

Shayne: Dirt. Derek, What

Dave: I’ll start. Cause I’m good at this. This is I could do this all day. In fact. So I mean, honestly though, it’s it comes down to society. Okay. So put yourself in the shoes of the passenger behind you or in front of you. Okay. That those are the do’s and don’ts for example, ladies. I know your hair’s long, some of your hair’s long, and you’d like to flip it up and then put it over your seat.

But guess what? You just put your hair probably in my drink, in my food or in my face. that’s just rude

Shayne: Over

Ryan: know what, Dave, I have never had anyone in front of me do that ever,

Dave: watch. It’s going to happen. Yeah.

You’re going to land, I’m going to see you in Mexico and you go back, David happens and I’m like, yeah. So, oh,

Rosanna: you

Dave: got it. You got a water bath. I’ve seen people take their shoes off and kick their feet up. Like if they’re sitting on the window onto the arm, rest of the person in front of them, knees against the back of the seat in front of you like all of those things bothered those passengers around you.

And it’s just simple societal thing. Would you do this to someone else? Just so you could be comfortable and you don’t care about those around you. You know that there’s a reason. Those, you know, I’m sorry for everyone in Karen right now, but there’s a reason millennials and millennials, they’re all of them have started that whole thing.

Oh, don’t be a Karen. Well, the Karens are the ones doing these things. It’s because they think that they’re almost narcissistic. Don’t be narcissistic. It’s as simple as that, you don’t think about everything around you. Well, if I put my foot on this guy’s armrest and take my shoes off, is that person going to be angry?

Of course the animal smell your feet.

Ryan: So, let me ask this. If I have a neighbor that does that, do I reach out to you as the flight attendant? I handle it myself?

Rosanna: That’s a really sticky, wicked, you know, because yeah, in a perfect world, you would ask the flight attendant. Also, it makes you come off like a tattle tail. So, I mean, you don’t want to, everyone to look around you going, you know, that we’ll tell, you can just say to, I would just say to that person, Hey, would you mind?

Dave: I would say. And Rosanna, and I might differ on this. So when it comes to like, you just, that must, that question was so perfect. Actually, like you pointed out to the flight attendant or handle yourself. Well, the fight is going to, we’re not a teacher, we’re not a principal. We’re not, you know what I mean? Our job is to be there for safety and security.

I mean, we can ask a passenger for you for this, that, or the other thing, but we cannot make someone do anything well, not

Rosanna: unless they’re violating a law and then we have other procedures that we would have to

do, but.

Dave: I mean, when you ask a flight attendant for something like that, it’s kind of, yeah. It’s like, okay, well I’m not that person’s parent.

I don’t control them. I can’t, not much I can do other than ask. Just like you could. And all you’re doing is passing that uncomfortableness to the flight attendant. Who’s trying to do their job.

Ryan: Gotcha.

Rosanna: something like that.

If you couldn’t, if you couldn’t address it on your own, like if you felt very uncomfortable or if the person just blew you off, one thing I wouldn’t do in that situation, because you’re just going to make it worse is I would not push the call

Dave: button.

Ryan: Repeatedly right. Repeatedly pushed the call

Dave: Well,

Rosanna: I think that though, if you push

the call button,

Ryan: row, right? Rosanna.

Rosanna: If you push the call button, I don’t care if people push the call button, but if you push the call button and I come to your road, you’re going to have to tell me what’s going on. And then it’s this big thing. Right? But it’s, if something like that was going on in and you weren’t able to get it taken care of on your.

As you head to the restroom, I would maybe just mention to the flight attendant, Hey, this guy is doing X, Y, and Z. You know, what do you mind? Maybe just passing by his row. And if you see him doing it and you think it’s not okay, maybe you say something to him, it just prevents it from blowing up into a big thing.

Like if you push the call button, then you have to tell me everything. you do look like a big

tattletale to everyone that.

Ryan: making an issue when maybe it could have been resolved with a simple ask.

Rosanna: Yeah. And quietly kind of a thing.

Shayne: And if all else fails, accidentally spill your bloody Mary mix on them.

Rosanna: Well, you know, make sure you’re traveling with duct tape because I hear that’s really effective.

Dave: It’s always in my bag. I totally two guys do.

Shayne: That’s

funny.

Dave: him. We’re going to go to Mexico. Now, I’m going to show you I’ll pull out of my bag. I have a huge thing of duct tape.

Rosanna: I would, you know, when you heard those reports of the duct tape incidents, I have never heard anything like that in my life.

I can’t imagine that flying at my airline, but I will tell you that I have flex cuffs on board and I am not afraid to use them. Don’t make me go

Dave: get them.

Ryan: So what other do’s or don’ts.

Rosanna: We were talking about we’ve talked about before is when the flight attendant is approaching your road to do a service or to talk to you. If you’re in an exit seat, if you would please take out at least one of your headphone earbuds.

Ryan: I’m very guilty.

Shayne: the music stops.

Dave: I was too. And I’ll tell you, so like Rosanna pointed that out to me that I did that.

And I was like, but I hear him just fine. She’s like, it’s just rude because, and here’s the thing is what happened was she pointed it out and I’m like, I’m not going to do that. I hear him just fine. And I was just thinking my perspective. Well, then I was working like the following week and someone didn’t take their butts out.

And it’s really frustrating when I now have to project. Do they want something to drink and like take year, but I’m like, oh, okay. So now I do it all the time. So she is a

Rosanna: hundred percent, right. You don’t have to take all your headphones off, but you could just give me an ear that way. I know you hear me.

really bothers me is if you leave both of your earphones in and I ask you, would you like something to drink? And you still have both of your phones in and you said, what? And then I say, would you like something to drink? What dude? You know that you can’t hear me? Why don’t you take an ear? I

can’t take it out for you.

I should just reach over and start taking them out of people’s ears. I mean, that’s definitely

Dave: one way to do it. I mean, if you want an assault charge in today’s world,

but I could just imagine that.

Shayne: on maybe just some sort of brochure on courtesy, right? table is someone else’s back. Your bag is someone else’s table. You’re sharing an arm rest.

Rosanna: When someone needs your attention,

Shayne: yeah.

Dave: comes down. It all comes down to what I said. It’s about society and respecting society around

It’s not about

Ryan: No, I like that.

Rosanna: a big hot button.

Dave: This is something I’m going to give a secret, a tip to two people specifically on planes. If you were sitting in the aisle or you are sitting in the window, the two armrest in the room. Should belong to the middle person you deal.

Ryan: stave.

Dave: Yeah.

Shayne: is mine.

Ryan: need, we don’t need to share that. Tip that’s an

Dave: You can look, you can totally open that dialogue and it makes it much simpler, but oh, do you want the arm rest? Do you mind if I rest here, you know, and like, I know your is there, but do you mind if I rest mine here? So this, cause there’s not that awkward touching them, like, are they worried about this? But honestly, if you are in a middle seat, it’s it comes to society thing.

They’re stuck in the middle of the leasing you could do to be courteous is let them have

Shayne: the math

Rosanna: if you’re sitting on the aisle because you wanted to be on the aisle, don’t you dare eyeball me with my three. Okay. Because I’m going to get up to go to the bathroom and you’re going to let me up because you wanted the

Dave: aisle.

Shayne: Well, that’s something I always do. If I have an ILC, I’ll always tell the middle of the window seat. hesitate to get up. If you need to get up, I’m going to get up a couple of times. If you need to get up, do not hesitate to ask.

Dave: I’m a window kind of person. I want the window, cause I can lean against it. I could snuggle with it and I don’t feel weird in any way about it. And I usually don’t need to get up. So I could just, that’s my like extra space, even though it’s a wall and it’s not space, but like, you know what I mean? Like if you’re in the middle, I can’t lean one way or the other.

Ryan: I agree with you, but I like having the independence of being on the aisle.

Rosanna: Yes, I

do too.

Ryan: I can decide, even though I’m going to get slammed in the shoulder, 16 times during that flight,

it, you know, I’d rather be able to get up

Rosanna: when the flight attendants are rolling the cart through the aisle, you really need to make sure you are tested.

Dave: And a couple of people have to pass each other right. By your seat. And you get a nice butt right? In your face.

Shayne: There’s always

Rosanna: I would say that as far as what flight attendants, you know, things that would surprise people or whatever about being a flight attendant is we can spend almost as much time.

As a passenger, as we are doing our job duties as a flight attendant, because a lot of our flights are repositioning or returning to our home base. So we have a lot of perspective as a passenger, as well as a flight attendant because we are professional past.

Dave: From Portland, Oregon to Philly. So my commute was two flights and eight hours of flying just to go through and that’s

Rosanna: a commute, but we also do something we call deadheading.

Deadheading just means we’re passengers and we’re being moved to wherever they need us. And we often spend a lot of our day deadheading. So we are professional passengers in that capacity as well. So we have a

Ryan: interesting point. I hadn’t thought of that.

Shayne: When you’re a passenger, do you typically order drinks on flights?

Dave: We’re technically working crew I’m deadheading,

Shayne: you’re just on vacation or something, when you’re flying somewhere, do you seeing,

Dave: if I want

Rosanna: a drink, oh,

hell yeah, we sure as hell.

Ryan: ’cause you’re not on the clock in any

Dave: I was trying to point out that like when I’m on a plane, I’m

Rosanna: thinking when we’re on vacation. Yeah. We would definitely like, especially if we’ve been foreign that red wine in first class all month now we can finally get a chance to taste it. Heck yeah, we definitely, but not if we’re deadheading, if we’re on company time, then we can’t have alcohol, but we are still served snacks and beverages, just like the rest of the passengers.

Ryan: Gotcha.

Rosanna: So if we’re serving something horrible, we know it because we’re texting.

Ryan: I always say yes to the checks mix. I always say no to the brownie brittle. I’m just saying oh, it’s terrible.

It’s terrible.

Dave: was like saying to make the busy popcorn was not as good as you thought it was.

Rosanna: The brownie brittle is so

Dave: good.

Ryan: Anyway. Okay. So last question in this area, when it comes to of working with your flight attendant, understanding, you know, the pro tips, giving your flight attendants gifts. So like peep I’ve seen people bring goods or things like that, like from a store and also to. Are those expected are those are like, how does that factor in those two things?

Dave: So try not to bring, try not to bring in. If you’re going to bring your flight attendants, anything don’t bring anything that could have been tampered with. So don’t bring them a

hot

Ryan: they’ll bring donuts from a

Dave: or, yeah, don’t bring them McDonald.

Ryan: creepy to me.

Rosanna: It would have to be something individually wrapped. So no, it

Dave: doesn’t have to be, it doesn’t have to thing as you bring something like donuts, right.

If it’s in a steel box straight, that most people will probably eat it. Even if it’s not some people might. The thing is vitamins also very wary of things like that. Cause one safety and security, someone could be trying to poison them, drug them, whatever. Like me, I’m just a little bit OCD like that.

If something. Access the food. I don’t want it, but I’m like, you’ll see them bring, people will bring candy, all that kind of stuff.

Tips are across the airline, not allowed. Does it have. Yeah,

Rosanna: my airline’s policy on tipping is we are a union and it is frowned upon because it could be also considered a kickback tipping in cash, not food. But the policy is also that we are to refuse. Up until the point that it would be rude to the customer to continue. So if you just keep trying to give me a $5 bill and I’ve said no, and I’ve said no repeatedly at the point that it’s now being, I’m being rude, then I would have to accept it.

But I think generally across the board it’s frowned upon, but Hey, we will take food in a sealed package. Like

you want to bring some Snickers bars where it’s like,

Ryan: know. Good to.

Dave: people don’t realize. Usually people work. You’ll work your eight hour days, you guys get two fifteens and a 30 minute lunch, five minutes don’t we work under the railway labor act, which is, let’s just, there’s no rules really regarding it.

So the unions are the only thing that causes us to have breaks or anything like that. So when you have a. And this is something that’s crazy, but we don’t give chance to eat, grab food and all this kind of stuff. So if you see five to 10, it’s like, they’re like eating in the galleon sevens. Cause that’s probably the only time they’ve had to eat.

So snacks are always welcomed, all that kind of stuff. And of course it makes us happy who is happy, giving me

Rosanna: food. I’ve had some people bring it like a star, but like small Starbucks cards for each of the crew. And that is so sweet. Yeah. But

Dave: that’s just my Starbucks addiction and that’s

Rosanna: of a

Dave: Starbucks.

Ryan: Because as flight attendants that live in airports, you’re never around a Starbucks.

Dave: Never. Yeah. I mean, I mean, come on. How many people, like, especially if you’re working a really long day, like I’ve had days and I’ve had flights of course, 16 hours flying to Greece and everything, but but I’ve had days go as long as like 16 hours with multiple legs a day dealing with multiple different people’s sporting into planning.

Had no time for myself. Sometimes that coffee is the only, that gets me through.

Ryan: Yeah, sure.

Dave: But that’s beside the point. So yeah, I would just say, if you’re going to bring your flights into something, make sure it’s in a still container, maybe a gift card, whatever like that. But most flight attendants won’t touch something.

Like if you try to bring them a bunch of McDonald’s hamburgers, but most airlines,

Ryan: Yeah. Gotcha.

Rosanna: it.

Ryan: Sure. No,

Dave: it.

Ryan: totally get it. Yeah. Yeah, no, those are just the, both of those things are things that I’ve seen on planes. I’ve never done that myself either with tipping or offering a little gift. And I just kind of wondered that was something that I was missing, but this is good advice for.

Dave: Most of the time when you see people, most of the time, I’m not going to say all the time, but most of the time when you see people bringing candy and stuff like that for five tunes, it’s another crew member, right. Or airline personnel, because we know the life, we know what they’re going through. That’s just gets you to your day.

Let me know if you need something. Sometimes

Rosanna: our frequent flyers will bring something to, and that’s just become their routine. Like we have a lot of million milers and a lot of those guys, they just, they fly all the time and they see us all the time. And a lot of times those are the people that will bring us like something little because they see us so much.

And I mean, it’s just like a nice courtesy, but I would say when Dave and I fly on our budget, To go on vacation. What I usually do is I pop into the dollar tree and get a couple packs of, you know, the individual like stickers or whatever. So it’s like an eight pack of Snickers and I might buy a couple packs.

And so I have like one for the flight going. And one for the flight coming back, your typical domestic flights are going to have anywhere between two and eight flight. I said minutes. So if I get an eight pack, I got enough for everybody. And

Dave: it’s actually not hard to. 90% of the time when you were flying, you’re going to have four or five attendants on the flight.

90% of the time. It’s actually three to four domestic domestically, and even Mexico, Canada, three to four, it could be lower, but three to four is going to be your 90% range. So anything greater is unlikely, but you’ll know it because if you’re on something that’s a wide box. You’re going to have a minimum of eight flight

Rosanna: attendants.

You’re going to have at least one flight attendant for every 50 passengers on it.

Dave: You can do that too, but mostly think about doors for four, four passengers. Easier to think about doors, right? If there are eight doors, there’s four or five attendants, one flights unit for two doors. So, but on a wide body, it doesn’t work that way because we need 1, 5, 10.

So it kind of works that way, but see it on an ongoing internationals. So see, this is where it becomes by the tenants become preference of things.

Ryan: Well, you knew when we asked you to be on this show, you knew this question was going to come up. know, Shayne and I love travel stories. And I bet each of you, as much as you can share, what’s a crazy story. That’s happened to you on your job as a flight attendant.

Dave: Have you thought of, when do you want me to go first? I’ve got lots, but I’ve got one specific. I thought about this because I wanted to, I want to make sure I had a good one and it was appropriate. So. This one actually is recent. I was flying LA to Miami and we had a lady that the flight was insanely late. I don’t know it wasn’t LA Miami. Excuse me. I apologize. It was where does what does Brian and Amber live st. Louis. It was St. Louis. It was insanely late. The plane was insanely late. And when it finally got in and everything, they were trying to rush everyone on. We were trying to make up time, all that kind of stuff.

between all of that, this lady got on a need related. Well, the problem with getting on a knee abbreviated is when you go up to 40,000 feet, even though the passage, even though the passenger cabin is pressurized your blood thin. So therefore, if you were, let’s just say you, you blew up 0.08 on the ground.

That’s probably going to triple in air, which now becomes a medical issue. So this is why you cannot board

inebriated. Well, somehow this lady slipped by. And she was one of those anti masters. Well, I don’t make the rules. We don’t make the rules. I was the lead flight attendant. So mostly I had to deal with it.

This lady was inebriated. She was trying to not keep her mask on slide and tenants had asked her over and over again, we don’t want to deal with this. We do not want to be your parents and hold your hand. We have to do what we’re told to do. And I kept, we kept, they kept asking her, they finally got me involved.

I went and asked her nicely, my book, will you please keep your mask on for the remainder of the flight? have minutes till we landed my. She wouldn’t. And then at one point she took her mask off and purposely broke it as if we don’t have extra masks,

Ryan: Oh, there’s

Dave: like, right.

Ryan: on

Dave: In front of me, she just went like this and went and snapped it.

So I got her another mask and I’m like, you need to wear this. And if you continue this problem, I have to call the police. And when we land, you will be met by the police. So she put it on and this has said, At this point, I have to become like a parent and a babysitter. I walked three steps behind there, turn around and look at her and I watched her take it off and break another one.

So I get another mask. I bring it to her and I told her ma’am you are becoming a big problem. The captain has informed me to tell you I had to go talk to the captain. At this point. The captain told me to tell her all this stuff and to specifically relate that it was from the captain did. And. She just kept doing it.

I live in a drop my dad with I’m like you are a issue and I was clapping my hands and she’s like, I’m sorry. So when we landed, I had to have her arrested.

And it just sucks. No, well, you say good for me, but that’s you have no idea how much work is now behind the scenes on that, that I have to do all because an adult can’t mask on do paperwork, children come on and their master perfect.

An adult comes on is below their knee. Look, I get it. All right. None of us want to wear the mask, but this is, it’s not my fault. I didn’t make the. I just have to do

Rosanna: this. That kills me like a two year old can where I have two and a half year olds wearing their mask for four and a half hours. And they’re not giving anybody a problem.

And then Dole at

Dave: like, don’t take it out on the flight attendants. That is not the place for you to stand up for yourself or anyone else because you know what people are trying to get to their place. And if we have to divert, because you’re not wearing your mask again, it comes down to it’s about us as a whole.

Yeah,

Ryan: Yeah.

Shayne: effort.

Dave: exactly.

Shayne: And if another passenger had needed some sort of attention, you might’ve missed it because she was drawing so much of everyone’s attention.

Rosanna: Right. And that’s where the federal law comes in because now you’re interfering with a crew members duties and that is actually a federal offense. That is a felony federal offense. I’ve had a few issues like that, and I had a. You know, conversations where the FBI would have to call me to find out what happened.

Not necessarily mine were not masking issues, but with issues of passenger onboard. So the crew members have to talk to the FBI because if you interfere with a crew members duties on board, that is a federal offense,

Shayne: offense,

Wow.

Rosanna: will meet the passenger and deal with it. But ultimately it’s the fed or the feds that charge them.

Dave: Yeah. So that’s the story I choose to tell I’ve got many others,

Shayne: We’ll save those for the EMR.

Rosanna: but I have so many that they just swim around in my brain and I can’t pull one of them out, but I, I did think of. And it’s also very recent and I have had other people arrested as well. And those are all lots of fun stories. None of them were mask issues. Most of my passengers have been fairly compliant with the masks, but you know, that is a problem right now.

Nobody’s going to be sad to see the mass mandates go away because it’s just a huge problem. But recently before the most recent service animal changes. Now, there are some new policies and regulations regarding having a service animal onboard. I had a passenger service animal

Dave: bites me

Ryan: oh,

Dave: their

Rosanna: weight carries air quotes,

Dave: service

Animals.

Shayne: are allowed on this show, by the

Rosanna: Air quotes, service animal somebody’s BS service animal.

Dave: That’s my emotional support. Animal Paris Hilton, accessory.

Rosanna: Yeah. And that was an issue where I just, I needed to get a passengers attention that was sitting on a window seat. And I just, I reached out my arm and I was like ma’am and the dog lunged at me a bit.

Ryan: Wow.

Dave: that.

Rosanna: And, you know, lots of paperwork, nobody wants to deal with

Dave: that. It cuts into our time, you know, we have to. So when something happens like that, like a mass, we now have to file, pick work with the FAA, company, and our union, all this kind of stuff has to be involved and we have to file. We actually have a time limit on how to file when to file.

And so it, you cut into our sleep time on an overnight. It could end up cutting into trying to get home, all this kind of stuff.

Shayne: Wow.

Dave: it’s dramatic. I’m like, it’s just so much easier if people would just

Rosanna: do what they’re supposed to be on that, on the service animal note, please just don’t bring an animal on board.

That’s not a service animal to roam the aircraft.

It’s

Ryan: mean, you’re in no way speaking again, service animals. That’s

Rosanna: No. I’m apples that,

Dave: yeah.

Ryan: friends who get bogus letters so that Fifi could fly with them to New York city and all that stuff. And yeah, it’s, they’ve ruined it for everybody

Dave: it’s, you know, what’s really sad is, you know, I have friends that have PTSD from going to Iraq, go into Afghanistan and they have a PTSD. And then these people walking around saying it’s an emotional support animal, which is that’s technically what a PTSD dog is trying to claim the same thing.

Right? You are just honoring every service member or anyone who actually needs that has a medical need. So keep that in mind when you do things like

Rosanna: that. It causes a problem in a lot of different ways. I have had, obviously I’ve had that dog bite me. I have also had dogs attack each other on board and a trained service animal would never attack an, a person or a dog like that.

So you know that they’re not real service animals when the dogs are lunging at each other or lunging at people. So it’s just dangerous. We allow. On board. We allow pets in the cabin in the eight carrier, and we allow pets in the cargo. That is an extra charge, but my gosh, if you can afford the flight, you can afford to pay the few bucks.

If you want to take precious little Fido with you, they can come. They are welcome to come.

Ryan: Well, David Rosanna. Thank you so much for joining us today. If people are interested in reaching out, because you’re not only flight attendants, you’re also travel advisors with Creating magic Vacations. If They want to pick your brains about travel maybe it’s the Idaho, maybe it’s to Philly, maybe it’s to Oregon who knows all these cool places we’ve talked about

Shayne: Rupert Idaho.

Ryan: How

can they reach out to you?

Rosanna: We have a website, which is MagicalTravelWithRosanna.com, R O S a N N a Magical Travel with rosanna.com or also email either one of us at our name’s rosanna@creatingmagicvacations.com or dave@creatingmagicvacations.com.

Ryan: Great. And Shayne we’ll put that in the show notes as well.

Shayne: And we would love to help you plan your next step. Amazing vacation. We are both travel advisors with Creating Magic Vacations. You can reach out to us at R Y A N at CreatingMagicVacations.com or S H A Y N E at CreatingMagicVacations.com.

Ryan: Most families are confused and overwhelmed. When planning a vacation, work with you to plan a perfect trip your interest, saving you time, money, and stress.