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The Declining Hotness of Flight Attendants

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Declining Hotness of Flight Attendants

#41

Post by JoeAltmaier »

elliottcarlson wrote: post #39
jbellis wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet... there's an awful lot of Mac users on HN.

The amount of jobs listed on HN that are geared toward Mac users is quite sad. Not that anyone is saying "Mac Only!" but, there have been quite a few posts that simply ignore that there are skilled developers using other platforms. When I've brought it up in the past it seemed that my opinion was quite unpopular though. Ironically, I am the only developer at my job not on a Mac. Sure I get some jokes at times, but I…

I'm puzzled as you seem to be. I've had to work on many platforms. Mac tools are immature, buggy and frustrating. The frustration may be due to my unfamiliarity, but the rest is not.

If so many use these tools, they should be more mature. I conclude that only a vocal minority actually develop on the Mac.

Re: The Declining Hotness of Flight Attendants

#43

Post by spodek »

krolley wrote: post #25
spodek wrote: post #20

"...as much as male customers might have enjoyed the eye candy..." Statements like this, in the article, annoy me. Men aren't the only sex that prefers looking at attractive women to unattractive women. Men and women may have different motivations for our preferences of whom to look at, but we all have the preference.

I don't understand. As a man, would I prefer to be served by a hot man or an ugly man. Honestly, I don't really care. I can't say the same thing for women, however.

Here's another way to look at it...

Cosmopolitan magazine is bought almost exclusively by women.

Cosmopolitan magazine always has women on the cover and they are always attractive.

The point is that not only men are motivated by attractive women to spend money.

Your analogy to men is less relevant because attractiveness in men depends less on physical appearance.

Re: The Declining Hotness of Flight Attendants

#44

Post by itsnotvalid »

I still find flight attendants young and attractive (a present fact, not some dream or whatsoever). The thing is, it's just not so happening in US airlines, but in Asian airlines. Policies on age requirement have let the state as is, even there are also unions in those airline companies.

Re: The Declining Hotness of Flight Attendants

#45

Post by officemonkey »

hessenwolf wrote: post #29
officemonkey wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm saying is "hotness" doesn't have a bearing on customer service. I don't care if my cab driver, dry cleaner, and barrista are good looking. It's about as relevant as promoting programmers based on what kind of funny t-shirts they wear.

"Hotness", is created, not given, and a committed customer service employee will perform at least the minimum self-maintenance to make them selves not unattractive. I have never worked a customer service job where a neat appearance (or cool, if at a certain kind of place) was not necessary.

>committed customer service employee will perform at least the minimum self-maintenance to make them selves not unattractive.

I absolutely agree.

But the article bemoans the lack of "hotness", which I feel is incredibly sexist, no matter what sex the flight attendant is.

Re: The Declining Hotness of Flight Attendants

#47

Post by baudehlo »

IanMikutel wrote: post #2

So who else thinks Richard Branson read this and sees opportunity for Virgin Air?

When Virgin Atlantic started their FAs were young and very pleasing to the eye. However they are also unionised, and as such will suffer the same fate as the rest of the airlines.

Re: The Declining Hotness of Flight Attendants

#48

Post by wrs »

IanMikutel wrote: post #2

So who else thinks Richard Branson read this and sees opportunity for Virgin Air?

On my first Virgin America flight (very soon after they started) the flight attendants were unusually attractive young women, one of them especially so. A lot of heads would literally turn when she went by. I overhead someone asking her how she got the job and she said "I was recruited." So that's one data point...

Re: The Declining Hotness of Flight Attendants

#49

Post by nandemo »

jrockway wrote: post #35
nandemo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not only a glamorous job, it's a very well-paid job in comparison to the average OL ("office lady"). In fact, the average stewardess annual salary is higher than the average (male) salaryman's. So I doubt that the average stewardess is the type that is desperate to get married by 25 (which would likely imply marrying a guy who makes less than her!), though you have a point in that when they do get married they'l…

I've always wondered about this, because I've been very surprised that people that can speak so many languages are serving me coffee on an airplane. But if the pay is better than sitting in an office and translating instruction manuals or whatever, then it makes perfect sense to me. (FWIW, I've never been on an AA flight where all the flight attendants seemed to be able to speak a language other than English, but eve…

(not sure if you're even gonna see this)

I think you underestimate the relative skills/responsibilities of flight attendants vs. female Japanese office workers. They former are trained in airplane security and first aid. The latter are just administrative assistants -- even the few ones that can speak English aren't trained to be translators, for instance.

For what is worth, I use US or Canada airlines because their Tokyo-N.America-Sao Paulo flights are way cheaper than the good Asian ones (as in U$1500 instead of $2000).

Re: The Declining Hotness of Flight Attendants

#50

Post by egeekuk »

IanMikutel wrote: post #2

So who else thinks Richard Branson read this and sees opportunity for Virgin Air?

I believe they are already exploiting this, see their 2011 advert that was shown on TV in the UK - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbib-A6NpW8

Also, their 25th anniversary one (2009) takes a similar track.

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