“I could never go back to working down the back. It’s like a zoo.”
“Oh really? I can’t stand how uptight it is up the front. You have to lay it on so thick and kiss arse”
Is there a difference between working in the main or the premium cabins on an aircraft? Most definitely! But the preference depends on who you ask. There are benefits of each, and sometimes it really depends on the day and the passengers.
For now my personal preference is economy, and there’s quite of a bit of information out there that flight attendants generally prefer working in this section of the plane. But it really does depend on who you ask. There are senior business class flight attendants who wouldn’t be seen past the business class curtain and ‘coach roaches’ who much prefer the ‘take it or leave it’ mentality of economy and hate the pretence of the premium cabins.
Why Business Class Can Be The Better Option
In business class you have a higher crew to passenger ratio with usually around 28-42 passengers, depending on the aircraft. Depending on the amount of seats in the business cabin, there will a minimum of 3 crew, and often up to 8 on an aircraft like an A380.
Here’s why business class can be more rewarding and enjoyable:
- Get to deliver a better service – Allows you take pride in the job delivering a quality restaurant style dining experience, from silver service, plating and garnishing and serving wine.
- Allows you engage with passengers on a more personal level. You can spend more time with each passenger. Sometimes you get to meet celebrities and people with very interesting backgrounds.
- Less people means on busy long haul flights the shift is easier on your body. Many business flight attendants say they don’t feel as wrecked after a full flight as they would if they were economy.
- Less random issues to deal with such as medicals, seating issues, cleaning up bodily fluids and other rubbish.
- Calmer, quieter environment. Less weaving through people to move through the cabin. Less queuing for bathrooms and passengers have more space so don’t come and intrude into the galley.
- Often passengers are frequent fliers and fly so often they just want to sleep. They know the service flow and aren’t so demanding.
- Left over business food. If you work in business you get first dibs at the extra delicious items on offer.
For long haul routes, economy is what most flight attendants start with and then upgrade to the business cabins as a dedicated business and first class flight attendant. But there’s no pay increase – at least at my airline – for doing so. It’s more of a sideways step than a step up, but for variety sake, it’s nice to work in both cabins and feel comfortable in each.
As a junior crew at domestic I would often end up working in business as I was near the last of the flight attendants to choose my work position. On a five and a half hour flight to Perth, the three course business class service was definitely a lot more work compared to the economy ‘dump and run’ delivery.
Why Do Flight Attendants Prefer Working In Economy?
- Expectations aren’t as high. That means that is easier to please passengers with extras. Just being proactive and checking in with passengers is appreciated.
- After the service is complete, you pretty much can chill out and answer call bells until the next service (if there is one) – whereas in business class there is a lot more checking in needed.
- Often the service is quicker to complete. Especially because business class is usually full and there are usually at least some spare seats in economy.
- You can be more direct and assertive with passengers if warranted. In business class, even if a passenger is being unreasonable, there is a certain amount of ‘the customer is always right’ that you have to suck up.
Why Do I Prefer Economy? (for now at least)
Economy is definitely more fast paced and for now in my flying career, I feel like that’s where a lot of the action is. The main reason I prefer it though is that you get to work with a younger, and a bigger team. There’s more of you and more chance of someone you’ll bond with. Plus it’s where all the gossip and chit chat happens! Compare this to working up in business class with just the cabin manager and one other flight attendant and it’s a completely different environment.
Also, while most managers are easy going enough, there’s a lot of watching what you are doing and micromanaging up in the business cabin. Frankly, some of the cabin managers just stress out over everything and micromanage unnecessarily. This is understandable to a point, since standards need to be so much higher in business class.
Ideally I’d like to work in both cabins but probably more shifts in economy, but that’s not an option at my airline with dedicated Y and J class flight attendants. So economy it is… For now at least.
At the End of the Day We All Work Hard
Ultimately as crew were are all a team working to make sure everyone is looked after. We don’t stop working to have our breaks until the service is complete in both the business and economy cabins. This means that some of us usually work between both cabins to help with the completion of the main service. While I have my preferences, I do believe that much of the pros and cons of each even out.
“I start my business and first class training next week! It’s going to be so good to have a change and a new challenge.”
