What's it like being cabin crew? On airlines like Ryanair?

RobitTV

I want to make this into a info and discussion thread so hopefully others can see what it is like having a job as cabin crew.

But aside from that I don't know what to do as a future career and lately cabin crew has interested me, I have researched a lot into the job and wondered about different things.

I heard about how easy it is to get into Ryanair, but I read the interesting stories about cabin crew treatment on Ryanair and the job itself with Ryanair is not the best.

Wondering if there is anybody on here currently working as a cabin crew member on any airline?

Is the job good? And is Ryanair still the same?

pclancy

Its a tough job with most of your earnings coming from commission, a long time on your feet and fairly basic employment conditions. But its a foot in the door and for some people a dream job so each to their own.

There was a recent discussion about Ryanair Cabin Crew life here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056218438

Take everything you read with a pinch of salt.

cabincrewifly

Ryanair is what you make it to be honest. I love my job. I've always had an interest in aviation. People are always very quick to knock Ryanair.

You have to be dedicated and prepared to work very hard. It's somewhere to start out to be honest. And it totally depends on your base too. They base you where they want. I was lucky to get my first preference.

Most of your earnings doesn't come from commission. It comes from flight pay. E.g if I did Dublin to London if its one hour flight you earn €16.25 before tax. You get a share of commission then for on board sales. You're only paid for you're Scheduled Block Hour. So from when the door is closed we're paid.

homerjay2005

cabincrewifly wrote: »

Ryanair is what you make it to be honest. I love my job. I've always had an interest in aviation. People are always very quick to knock Ryanair.

You have to be dedicated and prepared to work very hard. It's somewhere to start out to be honest. And it totally depends on your base too. They base you where they want. I was lucky to get my first preference.

Most of your earnings doesn't come from commission. It comes from flight pay. E.g if I did Dublin to London if its one hour flight you earn €16.25 before tax. You get a share of commission then for on board sales. You're only paid for you're Scheduled Block Hour. So from when the door is closed we're paid.

and how many hours of actual flying would most crew do in a day? if there are delays, does that mean you dont get paid?

a flight i was on a few weeks ago, was stuck in poland for 5 1/2 hours, so i assume the crew got feck all for that!?

cabincrewifly

homerjay2005 wrote: »

and how many hours of actual flying would most crew do in a day? if there are delays, does that mean you dont get paid?

a flight i was on a few weeks ago, was stuck in poland for 5 1/2 hours, so i assume the crew got feck all for that!?

Each day is different. You might do just two flights or anything up to six. You have a limit by law to fly a max of 900 flight hours per year.

Depends what contract you're on with regards to delays. If your agency crew you're only paid for flight hours so no pay. If your Ryanair direct crew you have a basic salary plus flight pay so basic covers delays and all that.

chessman

cabincrewifly wrote: »

Each day is different. You might do just two flights or anything up to six. You have a limit by law to fly a max of 900 flight hours per year.

Depends what contract you're on with regards to delays. If your agency crew you're only paid for flight hours so no pay. If your Ryanair direct crew you have a basic salary plus flight pay so basic covers delays and all that.

900 hours @£;16.25,hard to make ends meet on that.
are you banned from anything over 900 hours???????????

cabincrewifly

Well you've things like Aiport Stand By etc which is paid and we get commission too which all boosts it. There's ground duties too.

That's just the law you can't fly over 900 hours per year. All airline crew are regulated to this.

Tenger

cabincrewifly wrote: »

That's just the law you can't fly over 900 hours per year. All airline crew are regulated to this.

This 900 Block hours safety limit applies to all flight/cabin crew working in Europe (and I believe the US too) Time spent on the ground delayed or prepping does not count towards this total. There is also a limit of 100 Block hours per 28 day period.

So in theory you could reach your safety limit after 9-10 months and then have no contract work for 2 months. If you go over your 900 hours it could result in you losing your license to fly.




And it is this figure that MoL uses when he claims that his 'overpaid busdrivers' "only work 16 hours a week". 900/52= 17.3*



*Not really sure on his accountancy credentials there........

rugbyman

Thank you for the info Cabincrewlfly, most of these threads are inhabited by anti ryanair types.
Would you care to say how much your take home pay ,all in,was for the last 12 months,(or for any 12 months)


Now completely unrelated,

By the way, on Dublin Beauvais last night , Hostess (just realised that term may be a bit outdated) gave the spiel to the escape door people in row 16/17 in english as usual. Completely surrounded by French Rugby fans howling for the speech in French. No prob, she did it in French(dont think she was French) Over the next few mins they howled and chanted at her. Have a bit of French but not able to understand gutteral French/Rugby/Chant but the lady blushed, smiled and got a great round of applause.
Nice little experience.

Rugbyman