How to become a flight attendant in 2024 is one of the trending questions today among job seekers. So I am here to make your career path much easier.
Almost everyone fired this question, how to become a flight attendant in a reputed airline? So I came up with this detailed article.
Becoming a flight attendant is not an easy task for most people. This is due to the lack of understanding of the requirements and interview process.
How to Become a Flight Attendant 2024
I devised 6 simple steps to become a flight attendant in any airline.
1. Know Your Job Nature: Flight Attendant Job Description
Let’s see these steps to becoming a flight attendant in detail.
Flight attendants are the real faces of every airline. So they play several roles to satisfy the customers. Flight attendants are the only role in retaining existing customers and increasing new customers. Hence flight attendants are more important than others in the airline’s job.
Here is the complete job description of a flight attendant.
- Assist customers in their onboard medical situations.
- Have to bear the environmental effects of dim lighting, G-forces, high noise levels, dry air, and turbulence.
- Maintain a professional look United airlines grooming and uniform standards
- Make sure to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations
- Must prepare and serve snacks, non-alcoholic beverages, and meals to passengers. Able to do onboard sales of food, liquor, etc.
- Perform duties within the limits of aircraft cabins and galleys
- Prepare and serve meals, snacks, alcohol, and non-alcoholic beverages and conduct onboard sales of food, liquor, and duty-free items.
- You must be punctual at work.
- Have to assist customers physically.
- Have to provide world-class customer service.
- Have to show a caring nature to the passengers.
- I have to work independently as well as in a team.
- Make customers feel safe and comfortable.
- Must follow united airlines grooming guidelines.
- Must possess a strong work ethic.
- Must possess good communication skills and be kind to customers.
- Should take responsibility to resolve conflicts.
- You should be friendly with your co-workers.
- Must maintain a healthy lifestyle.
- Always free from alcohol abuse and illegal drug use.
- Provide leadership and maintain order during high-stress situations including aircraft evacuation, security threats, delays, severe weather conditions, and turbulence, etc.
2. Go Through the Job Qualification and Requirements
To become a flight attendant, first of all, you have to know the qualifications and the desired requirements. If you failed to meet the requirements, then you have to correct those mistakes and apply for the job.
Here are the basic requirements to become a flight attendant!
- A High School Diploma or General Education Development (GED) or Equivalent is a must.
- Exhibit proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking English.
- Age should be at least 18-21 years old.
- No facial piercing is allowed.
- Visible tattoos are not allowed while you are in uniform.
- Must be able to walk comfortably and stand for a long time.
- Able to lift up to 50 pounds from the ground to above the shoulders
- The eye test is also important at JetBlue. Vision corrected to 20/20.
- Able to reach 6’3” feet without shoes.
- Should have a valid passport or equivalent travel documents.
I covered the detailed flight attendant requirements in a separate article. Check it before applying for the flight attendant job!
3. Apply For The Flight Attendant Job
Becoming a flight attendant is an easy one after you have the qualification and meet the requirements. Now you can just apply for the job online.
Remember, NO NEED TO PAY to apply for a flight attendant position.
Note: Before I proceed with the interview process, I like to tell you one thing. There is NO TRAINING is required prior to the application. No airlines need the prior training or the hiring officer will ask that. So don’t waste your time and money in the third party training programmers. Once you are selected, airlines itself will provide you training.
Just go to the careers page of the airline and check for the openings. If there is any vacancy, apply for it. Most of the time you can see the positions vacant. Day by day, there is an increase in in-flight services and operations.
If you want to search for openings, here is the easy search box for you!
Remember, you have to submit your resume to apply for the post. A resume is very important since it only introduces you to the hiring officials. If you impress them with your resume, you can get more chances for the next round of interviews.
4. Interview Process
How to become a flight attendant without an interview?
After you apply online, check your emails frequently. Since airlines contact you only via email. Moreover, check the spam emails too. Since some of the airlines, the mail is considered to be spam.
a. Online Assessment Test
Some airlines have an online assessment test during the submission of a resume. This is 20 minutes test about your attitude and the basic interview questions. This online assessment test does not apply to all airlines.
b. Video Interview Over Phone
Once they shortlisted you, you can get the mail for the next round of interviews. Most probably the second round is an assessment test via phone. We often say this test is a video call interview.
c. Group and Face-to-Face Interviews
Once you are shortlisted in the video call, you are asked to come to one of the base locations of the airlines. There you can get the group interview followed by the face-to-face interview (f2f).
The group interview is used to test your skills to work as a team. You have to maintain a constant smiling face and be charming to others.
Next the face-to-face interview. This is the final and important one to becoming a flight attendant. This round is not easy, a little bit tough. In this round, they will ask you questions to test your reaction to a particular situation, attitude, and behavior.
5. Document Verification and Background Tests
These tests are important to check whether you are fit for the flight attendant job or not. Further, they will check you have valid documents to work in the United States. So this round is a cakewalk for you!
a. Documents
- Should have a valid passport or equivalent travel documents with applicable visas.
- If you are a US passport holder, then you must have a minimum of 32 months validity remaining at the time of application.
- Must be authorized to work in the US.
- Have proper authorization to work in line with the Immigration Reform Act.
- Make sure to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
Are you wondering why the above documents are needed to become a flight attendant? This is a flying job. There is a chance that a suspect got this job and flies away from the country. Then it is difficult to catch that person and it’s vulnerable to the nation’s security. So airlines need a clean employee profile to work with them.
b. Flight Attendant Pre-Employment Tests
- You must pass a pre-employment drug screening test and alcohol testing.
- You must be willing to fulfill pre-employment checks mandated by the TSA and the Department of Transportation.
- Also, you must pass a background check such as DOT fingerprint-based criminal history records check.
- As usual, you have to pass a 10-year work history check.
6. Training To Become a Flight Attendant
Wow! After the background check and document verification, you are almost in!!! Becoming a flight attendant is almost confirmed.
You are asked to attend the training in any one of the base locations. The training period may vary from airline to airline. So the expected training period is 3-8 weeks.
They will train you about how to behave towards customers, how to solve conflicts, how to coordinate with others, etc. during the training hours.
But be sure that you have passed the training. They reject the candidates who have not passed the tests during the training. (This is happening in a rare case. So be cool)
Once you have completed the training successfully, you are assigned to any one of the base locations in the United States. You should be ready to immediately move or relocate to the base location.
NOTE: Candidates who have applied for a flight attendant position in the last 6 months will not be eligible until that time elapses.
That’s all about the procedures to become a flight attendant. You have to focus only on the interview questions and resume preparation.
I hope the tips about how to become a flight attendant help you! Prepare well and be selected as a flight attendant at a reputed airline. I like to see you soon at the airline.
Good Luck with your career!!!