Dozens of flight attendants across several airlines have blown the whistle on low wages and dire living situations as unions attempt to get them better pay, the Washington Post revealed Monday. Beth, who works for Delta Air Lines, relies on a flight attendant “crash pad” that she shares with a rotating array of other employees for $325-450 per month, depending on how often she sleeps there. The “flimsy” furniture and dirty conditions made the apartment look like “a cross between a budget Airbnb and a hostel,” the Post’ s Natalie B.
Compton said. Beth stays with five other women and two men in the crash pad part of the month so she can commute to the hub city where she’s technically based out of — while still keeping her rent-controlled $1,800 apartment in another state to be with her father who has cancer. “No one cleans the place.
I got bites from what looks like bedbugs,” she told the publication. “They stack us in there like sardines to make the most money.” Other flight attendants live in their cars, skip meals, and use YMCAs and gyms to shower.
Kay, a newer Frontier Airlines employee, has to drive for Lyft, deliver for Instacart, and pet sit to make ends meet after undergoing nearly a month of unpaid training for her new career. Her projected income as a first-year flight attendant is $23,000 — before taxes and insurance. The U.
S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that the 2023 median pay for flight attendants was $68,370, but first-year .