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Flight Attendant Friday: Sleeping on the Plane

by Mary Jo Manzanares on February 15th, 2008

Welcome to another Flight Attendant Friday - at time for me to answer the specific questions that you have about the job of working as a Flight Attendant.  Pretty much everything is fair game, so if you have a question about what it’s like to work at 40,000 feet, you can leave in the comments or send me an email.

On to another question now —

Q.  Do you get to sleep on the plane?

A.  The simple answer to this is no.

Even if it’s a red-eye (an all night flight) the crew is required to stay awake and alert.  It may be tough sometimes, but falling asleep on the job is ground for termination with more U.S. carriers.

There are exceptions to everything, and to this rule as well.  Some carriers operating international flights of lengthy duration do have a designate rest period for crew members that allow them to sit down and rest. The precise details about what is permitted varies among carriers, and depends on the flight details and staffing.

Basically, though, while all the rest of you may get to sleep, we’re at work.  It can be hard to learn to work all sorts of different hours, but it’s part of the job.

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POSTED IN: Air Travel, Flight Attendant Friday