Are Cabin Crew Courses a waste of money?

There are so many courses for people aspiring to be Flight Attendants. Why should you do a Cabin Crew Course? Are Cabin Crew courses worth it?

Firstly there are hundreds of people that get Cabin Crew positions without doing Cabin Crew courses. You should try to maximise you chances of success without wasting your money.
For example
There is a page of testimonies from students on a popular Cabin Crew course website. One young lady had apparently studied really hard and got over 90% in her exam.
She must be super prepared for her interview, right?

Her photo on the site showed hair that looked like it hadn’t been brushed
It’s a little thing, but it would cost you an interview.

The advice “Hey girl you need to be neat and tidy at the interview” is probably more valuable than anything you would learn on a course. Seems like if you pay hundreds of dollars this is the least you can expect.

Being prepared for the interview is ALL that REALLY matters (did I emphasise that enough?).



Be prepared do your hair and read the minimum age requirements

What do Cabin Crew Courses teach?

The following is on the syllabus of a particular online course: “counting Passengers”

I’m going to actually give you this valuable skill for nothing!!…ready….

When you see 1 passenger, click the counter once. There you go – Free lesson one!

Maybe this is representative of Cabin Crew courses in general, they need fillers , and give you weeks of information that is simply obvious or irrelevant to your first main hurdle which is getting a job as a Flight Attendant.


Final Exam : count the passengers
The Case against Cabin Crew Courses

Why do a Cabin Crew Course when:

If you get a job the Airlines will train you properly
Some of these courses are WAY over priced
A lot of the material is just plain filler , stuff that’s obvious or barely relevant. Just check out the syllabus before you commit.
All you really need to do is get your head (with brushed hair) in front of the airlines. The rest is irrelevant.

Alternatives to doing a Cabin Crew Course
So what would I suggest as a replacement?

Well first look at where you’re deficient. Don’t know? We’ll come back to this later.

Do you have any First Aid experience? There are many free or cheap first aid courses that will serve you well and look good on your resume.

Do you have any service industry experience? Look at getting some!

Do you have a second language? If English isn’t your first language are you brushing up on your English skills?

Are you confident in the water? This is a must – go throw yourself in a pool! Or maybe get a swimming instructor to help build your confidence.

Learn some basic or advanced grooming / makeup skills.

Do you have any experience with interviews? Go take a practice interview for a non-cabin crew job.

There are plenty of free resources like my own www.newflightcrew.com which will give you much of this information without the hefty price tag.

There are some very good books written about all aspects of being a Cabin Crew. I have created a short list of recommendations

Are you then ready for an Interview? Well I think this is important, let someone appraise you. Go through the interview process and let someone appraise your online resume and answer any specific questions you have.

A day in the Life of a Flight Attendant

Get me to the plane!!
Day 1
5.30am Wake up. I said Wake UP!

I hate getting up so the 5:30am alarm has to be extra annoying for me but I have a 9 am flight to London so I have to move. Actually I’m pretty lucky as I live only 20 minutes from the airport so you can factor in an earlier wake up for my colleagues who live further out.

Very quickly I jump in the shower as this always help to perk me up. After which I moisturize generously as the plane is very dry and I’ll be onboard for hours. Then I dry my hair and style it. Since me hair is long, I have to wear it up and the bun is the easiest-as well as neatest- way to do so. I’m now very adept at creating this “do” so it takes me only ten minutes.

http://www.newflightcrew.com