A video shows inside the secret airplane bedrooms where flight attendants sleep on long-haul flights

Flight attendants are some of the most underrated hard workers of our time. To some it may seem like an easy job, however, there are a lot of unspoken obstacles that flight attendants face. There’s a lot to know about the safety of your passengers as well as the plane. In addition, depending on how long the flight is, they may have to stay at their job over night. This video shares the secret airplane bedrooms for flight attendants during these long commutes.

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Secret Airplane Bedrooms

It takes a lot of effort to make sure that the entire plane is happy especially on long flights. If you’re going to keep your sanity as well as a healthy sleeping schedule you’re going to have to take turns with your coworkers. Luckily, there are planes designed with their own secret airplane bedrooms. If you’ve noticed some flight attendants missing, they’re either sleeping above or below you. Furthermore, most secret airplane bedrooms are built behind the cockpit. Secretly nestled above first class or sometimes placed below passengers. Flight attendants are able to access these bedrooms through secret stairwells that appear as if they were tiny closets.

Secret airplane bedrooms come in all shapes and sizes. Some are bunk beds while others are personal beds that have dividers for privacy. There’s even seat belts attached to the bed for flight attendants to secure themselves safely in case of an emergency or turbulence. This video taken by travel analyst, Zach Griff, gives a sneak peak of what it’s like inside these secret airplane bedrooms. (1)

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Griff enters the tiny closet like space that has a staircase inside. Leading to the hidden upper part of the plane that reveals where the flight attendants sleep. As you can see, these rooms aren’t exactly big by any means. Luckily, the airplane that Griff is in has enough room for six individual beds. They are meant to be convenient little areas for the plane workers to get some rest. Although it is extremely compact, each bed gets it’s own privacy curtain. Additionally, each bed has hooks, a reading light, personal storage space, mirrors, and sometimes even pajamas. (1)

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The Life Of A Flight Attendant

For Kat Kamalani, there’s a lot more to it than just sleeping on the job. In fact, there’s a lot of undesirable first-starter hurdles all flight attendants must go through. After working as a flight attendant for five years, she has learned quite a bit about the suspended-in-air lifestyle. Some people think that flight attendants are just being paid to go on vacation. This is anything but the truth for beginner flight attendants. Although most of the time attendants will stay up on their phone while they wait out the rest of the flight.

However, they must rotate to give each other a chance to breathe. It’s also based entirely on seniority too. If you haven’t worked as a flight attendant for very long, you end up with all of the harder shifts. Which often means taking the red-eye flights, doing multiple short-route flights, working holidays, and working for more than 15 hours at a time. Flight attendants who have more seniority also get to decide how long their layovers are and when their desirable sign-in times. Additionally, Kamalani explains how lonely these trips can get.

“You’re flying to these amazing places and you’re seeing all these amazing things, but you’re doing it by yourself,” Kamalani explains the feeling of long flights by yourself. “You’re not having anyone there seeing it with you.” (2)

It’s not exactly the glamorous job that everybody makes it out to be. If you’re living a single life and love flying then this might be what you’re looking for. In addition, you wont be seeing any seniority benefits kicking in until after 20 or 30 years of service. Not to mention how long the training courses are to become a flight attendant. You’ll have to endure a eight-week training course that lasts six days a week for 15 hours a day. (2)

What We Can Do As Passengers

Having all of this said, it’s good to be mindful of the flight attendants on our trips. They’re working extra hard to make sure that you’re comfortable and have everything you need to enjoy your flight. Please be considerate of them and listen to their instructions even if you’ve heard it a million times. You can imagine how tedious and frustrating it must be to have to tend to multiple patrons on multiple flights. Additionally, you will have to score a 90% or higher if you want to pass the pre-requisites of being a flight attendant. It’s not just about passing out drinks and serving people snacks. Customer service on an airplane goes a lot deeper than that. (2)

These people are trained to help in any situation that’s considered an emergency. Flight attendant can safely evacuate people from the plane, put out any fires, give medical aid, as well as how to manage a belligerent passengers. Do not take them for granted because they could be the one who helps you in your most vulnerable time of need on an airplane. They are also the ones that have the power to kick you off a plane if you’re too disruptive. Flight attendants are trained to recognize potential threats that could hinder the peaceful flight.

If boarding the plane seems like it’s easy, it’s because you’re listening to instruction and letting the flight attendant do their job. It’s up to us to make their lives a little easier by being mindful and doing what’s instructed of us.

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