Thousands apply for American Airlines job openings

(CBS News) ATLANTA -- American Airlines announced in October it was hiring 1,500 new flight attendants. Twenty thousand applicants responded -- so many that American stopped taking resumes after eight days. Candidates had to pass a telephone interview before being invited this month to the airline's world headquarters in Fort Worth.

Yoon Eom

/ CBS News

"I was unemployed for over a year," says Yoon Eom, a 25-year-old college graduate who is also a new U.S. citizen.

But at her interview, she had a competitive edge: she speaks English, Spanish and her native Korean.

"They're launching a direct flight to Korea starting in May, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is my only chance,'" she says.

The 20,000 applicants include many college graduates who have had trouble finding work in a tight job market.

American will pay its new flight attendants, on average, $23,000 a year. They'll have to work longer hours and pay more for medical benefits than flight attendants who've recently retired from the bankrupt airline.

American Airlines CEO: Turnaround nearly done
Bankrupt American Airlines expects to hire 2,500 pilots
American Airlines hopes to hire 1,500

Laura Aranda

/ CBS News

Laura Aranda is 45 and ready to try something new.

"Unlike an office setting where you go in and it's the same thing, same thing, same thing, this is a new experience every day," she says.

She's an administrative assistant willing to take a $10,000 pay cut to become a flight attendant.

"You always want to get paid more, but if you love what you do, then money is just kind of something that's back there," Aranda says.

American emailed Aranda today: she got the job. The airline has also hired Yoon Eom. They'll both begin nine weeks of training next month.

Delta Air Lines, headquartered in Atlanta, announced last week it was hiring 400 flight attendants. Delta has had 22,000 people apply so far, two more every minute.

[ringes70]

Whats with the korean ET speaking spanish???? Thats an insult to Hispanics and spanish people.

[crew4jets]

You know, the year I was hired, my airline had 100,000 applications, interviewed 10,000, and hired 1,000. And now, 35 years later, I still consider it the best job I ever worked.

All of the things the previous posters have commented on as the bad part of the job, pale in comparison to going to the same office every day, working with the same people every day, sitting in the same traffic to/from work every day, etc. At least when I get off work for the day, I'm in Paris or Hong Kong.

Tim Kirkwood, Author
THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT JOB FINDER & CAREER GUIDE

[flyjet777]

Not What it Appears To Be

The reason so many folks want to become Flight Attendants is because most people have a seriously skewed, and sometimes downright bizzarre idea of what the job entails. It is not pouring Cokes, meeting celebrities, and seeing the world for free. It is 16 hour work-days. It's $19,000 first year pay. It's being on call 24/7 for a few YEARS. It is 8 hour layovers in Peoria. That's followed by a day flying Los Angeles to Chicago, Chicago to Washington D.C., Washington D.C. to Miami, and, finally, Miami to Orlando - all on 5 hours of sleep. It is months of initial training, getting up at 4 am to attend training for fire fighting, cpr, treatment of strokes, seisures, air sickness, diabetic comas, endless security procedures (thanks al Qaeida), evacuation procedures/commands for every specific door on every plane in the fleet for land evac's or water ditchings, sea survival, international travel laws, serving First Class on regular domestic flights, on transcontinental flights, on flights to the Far East and trans-Atlantic (though you'll never fly those routes), how to deal with intoxicated passengers, how to use the unbelievably complex airline computer systems, etc, etc, etc. You'll finish each day at 8pm, rush to your hotel to study rheams of data and either eat or sleep (your choice) ready to do it again at 4am the next day. Did I mention you must get a minimum of a 90% on each test/drill/quiz per the FAA or you get to pack your bags and go home. Then each year you get to go back to training to do it all again in a condensed version. You must turn your person over to the airline and come at their beck and call at 2am to fly away for 4 days. You get back and the next day you must fly an all-nighter (don't be caught falling asleep or face termination). You fly with different people every trip and it's extremely rare to fly with the same person twice (ever)making it a very lonely profession as well. You can give up making plans with friends and family, and you'll have to give up all of your hobbies for the first few years while on Reserve. I guess what I'm getting at is that it's a bit of a committment. Good luck new-hires!

[OnTheCrown]

That must mean they have a high turnover rate otherwise people are willing to do it regardless...especially if you are currently unemployed.

[loveoflife]

Hello,
Yes you do have great benefits, travel, etc...
However you deal with passengers that you have to take drinks away from them, fight roaches in your suitcase or in the plane, if it is not cleaned properly.

This is a good job if you can get in. AA will only choose about 100 flight attendants from 20,000 applicants.

If you are older they might higher you , take a chance & try.
Your interviews will be hard, first as a group, then a break, measure you if you can reach the over head bin, then another group meeting, then finally a one on one interview.
If you speak more than one language they might hire you, not for sure.

Just make sure you have all your papers in order. Do not drink wine on your flight down, or eat Poppy seeds muffin.

If you pass they wil test you in a jump seat, memorize airport codes & cities, GMT time you will have to memorize this & where every city is.

If you can fly to 35,000 feet without your ears popping you have it made. Also if accepted you will go through training. This training consists of opening the heavy Exit door, jumping into water & rescuing people, if you are on a 25 minute flight you will have to know how to move fast to get sodas, pretzels out fast.
You will also be trained -if someone is on the plane how to do CPR, if a child vomits how to clean it up,
how to detect a person who is not to be on the plane..

Good Luck to all of you
you can pass the interview, then there is training which is gruleing, reading & memoriing your Faa manual, tests every day

LoveofLife

[jsf14]

At the interview do they have to show they can act as tired and irritable as AA flight attendants do, or does AA figure the job will teach them?

[varigdc10]

Airlines do not allow tips for flight attendants, why not? I think they should allow tipping, like this FA can make more money with no additional costs to the airlines, and everybody is happy.

[Furloughed2001]

Test

[Furloughed2001]

I hope American considers FA that fell off the recall list in 2006 that want to return to AA that were furloughed in 2001.

[flyjet777]

If American Airlines had a soul they might. But as they are a normal ruthless American corporation, I can assure you they don't even remember you.

[Furloughed2001]

Test

[geaux_tigers7]

My mother is a flight attendant for American and she averages between 80-90k a year flying international. I'm gonna remind her about this article when she complains about her job.
Also, fyi, these new hires will be working domestic. International is very competitive and seniority determines who gets it. It does help a ton if you can speak multiple languages.