Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Images
Topics: Travel, TikTok, Flight attendant
Britt Jones
Travelling comes with its particular gripes that you won’t face anywhere else, such as having to struggle to put your luggage in the overhead cabins without help.
Picture this: You’ve got a rucksack that’s the last bag to go up in the cabin, but you can’t see how on Earth it’s going to fit. If you put it underneath the chair in front of you, it’s going to spill out onto the aisle, so you have to make it work.
With everyone in their seats already, you catch the eye of a flight attendant who is waiting for you to finish, and you flag her down.
When you ask her to assist in trying to smush your bag into the overhead locker, she replies that she can’t help you.
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Now, you’re p*ssed.
However, even though it’s annoying that you’re struggling solo, there’s actually a reason why she couldn’t have intervened.
A flight attendant who shares the secrets of the job on TikTok has explained the exact reason why she’s not able to assist you.
Cierra Mistt, your friendly neighbourhood flight attendant, shared that the crew do not get paid until every passenger is on the plane and the doors have been closed.
So, is it because she’s not technically receiving funds?
Nope.
She said: “That being said, there’s a reason why we tell you we cannot help you lift your bags up. If we get hurt, we don’t have workers’ [compensation] because we’re not on the clock yet.”
However, there’s also more to this than a technicality.
Flight attendant Kat Kamalani was reported by The Mirror as saying: “Everyone thinks it’s the flight attendant’s job to lift your luggage into the bins, but it’s not.
“Actually, our airline, and a ton of other airlines, tell you ‘do not do this’ because you get so many injuries from it. And you’re not even covered.”
People in the comment’s were sympathetic to the situation and were confused about why flight crew don’t get paid as soon as they step foot on the plane.
One person wrote: “The pay situation sucks. You should be getting paid the moment you step foot on that plane not when the doors close.”
Another person took aim at the US, assuming that this was a common practice in the country: “Not helping with bags because you not on the clock. That’s an American thing. Because’Merica.”
As it turns out, that’s not the only secret she’s been spilling from the flight industry.
There’s actually something else flight crew are able to do that’s probably worse than not being able to help you with your luggage and that’s having the power to open the lavatories from the outside.
That’s right.
According to the TikToker, there’s a secret switch they can flip on the door which opens it at any time.
According to Mistt, this is purely so that they can help any passenger who appears to be in distress or in need of assistance.
So, don’t be afraid of anyone randomly opening the door like you are when you go to the loo in one of those rotating contraptions on a train.