Flight Attendant Job Opening

In United-Continental merger, 1000 questions still remain

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Continental Airlines had blue carpet in its priority boarding lanes. United Airlines had red. What color would they use when the airlines merged -- purple?

And what uniform would flight attendants wear?

What design would go on cocktail napkins?

What song would play when you're getting on the plane?

The airlines' marriage last October kicked off an 18-month sprint to combine a system that serves 144 million passengers boarding 1,262 aircraft in 62 countries each year.

Meshing pilot teams and integrating a swarm of computers are two of the biggest challenges still to be completed. But the airlines also have wrestled with thousands of smaller decisions that determine exactly what passengers will experience and how they'll perceive the world's biggest airline.

Should passengers board from the back of the plane to the front or from window seats to aisle seats?

Which way should pets face as they go up the conveyer belt into the cargo hold?

Should flight attendants hand the can of pop to you along with the cup of ice or pour the beverage and keep the rest of the can for the next customer?

"As you might imagine, we've been a little busy over the past year," said Scott O'Leary, the combined airline's managing director of customer solutions. "We've been doing nothing but catching up with our passengers' expectations.

"We have a golden opportunity. We're trying to do a lot of things very fast, but that's not stopping us from taking 10 steps back and saying, 'Hey, if you were creating a new airline, would you do it any differently?' We're always asking ourselves that question."

Twenty-five integration teams working across the country have figured out how to resolve some differences. Here are things you can expect:

• Crated pets headed into the cargo pit will go up the belt loader backward. The airline said United's method is less stressful for pets than facing the yawning cargo hold (Continental's method).

• The airline is using Continental-style blue carpeting for airport priority lanes at check-in, security clearance and the boarding gate. It dropped United's red carpet in order to have a single "wayfaring" color to orient customers. "Red is not in our color wheel," O'Leary said.

• The airline flip-flopped on passenger boarding as its worked out the best procedure. United had used "zonal" boarding known as WilMA (window, middle, aisle) . The merged airline initially switched to the Continental style -- military first, then all elites and first-class passengers, followed by rows from back to front. The unintended consequence: Customers who paid more for extra legroom in the front of coach boarded dead last, when overhead bins were already crammed.

How To Run A Flight Attendant Job Search | Job Search Techniques

You know that it’s the job for you. You’ve done all the reading, and you understand that working as a flight attendant isn’t all glamour and excitement. You know there’s hard work and commitment involved, and that the money – well, no one becomes a flight attendant to get rich, after all. It doesn’t matter – you’ve got your mind made up, and you’re about to embark on a flight attendant job search. Here are some tips on conducting a flight attendant job search that will help you find the jobs that you want to apply for.

1. The major airlines are only 10% of the field for your flight attendant job search.

There are over 60 small and mid-size airlines in the United States – over 80 if you add Canadian based airlines as well. While the major airlines have cut back on hiring and have even furloughed flight attendants since 2001, the small airlines are thriving. If you’re looking to work with fractional operators and charter services, the flight attendant job search possibilities are even broader. The jobs are out there – you just need to expand the scope of your job search beyond the Big Six.

2. Don’t overlook traditional job hunt methods in your flight attendant job search.

Yes, they do advertise in the local paper’s help wanted sections. You’ll also find recruitment ads for the airlines in industry publications, so if you’re serious about finding a job as a flight attendant, get yourself subscribed to aviation newsletters and magazines.

3. Harness the power of the Internet to get your flight attendant job search into high gear.

Do check the usual suspects. You’ll find listings for flight attendant open houses and job openings on Monster, HotJobs! and other Internet job sites. You’ll also find listings for flight attendant job opportunities on some of the major newspaper’s want ad pages.

But don’t stop with the job listings on the job search engines. Because aviation is so industry specific, you’ll find the biggest concentrations of job openings and listings on aviation industry specific sites. A simple search for ‘flight attendant jobs’ will pull up several job search sites specifically for those in aviation. Check them out carefully and join one or two. Even better, find a discussion forum for flight attendants and join that. You can post questions, read information from working flight attendants and keep your eyes peeled for announcements of open houses.

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