Asian Airline Flight Attendants

[MrMan]

I haven't had an international flight in three years. But based on my experiences up to them, Asian carriers that fly international flights usually have relatively young, thin, stewardesses that are usually above-average for attractiveness. This is not always true of the budget airlines that fly within Indonesia or that sell cheap tickets to short flights to Singapore and the surrounding area (often just young and reasonably thin in that case.)

If you get to the US and transfer flights, then the women start looking stouter and middle aged.

The quality of service on the Asian international flights is better. The food is light years better than the US carriers. Oh yeah, there is no free food on some of these US flights. The food on the flights to Asia is free.

Flight attendants on the Asian airlines are also polite. US flight attendants are usually polite, but you really feel welcome from the friendly Asian flight attendants. I got on a flight in Detroit, I think, several years ago. A black stewardess, kind of wide, told some people to put their seats in an upright position. Then she starts talking to herself all ghetto like, "Who these people think they are, not putting their seats in the upright position" or some junk like that as she starts walking to the front of the plane, all sassy like, like someone off a 70's black comedy. A friend of mine commented that a white stewardess couldn't have gotten away with that junk. Having been in Asia, it was almost shocking to see that.

When I went to Korea for the first time in the 1990's, I saw a Korean Air stewardess for the first time. i asked a young Korean man sitting next to me if women in his country all looked like that. He said, "Yes.' I figured he was lying. But it did seem like there were tons of 7s walking around in Korea in young areas like Kangnam Seoul or on college campuses, so among the young demographic, he may not have been that inaccurate. The stewardess was probably an 8 for looks, though.

I found out it is really hard to be a flight attendant in Korea, or was at the time, and after several years of doing that, they rotated them to another job, which was more senior, about the time they turned 30. That way they had young women serving customers and the women were cool with it when they left because they got a promotion. From what I hear, the international flight attendant job, while it must be exciting for a young person who wants to travel, is pretty rough physically. They work really long hours. In my own experience, traveling for work is kind of exciting for work. It's cool to get that first free hotel room the office paid for. But it can really get tiring after a while, especially if you are putting in long hours. And another motel room, gym, restaurant the office pays for, after a while, looses its luster.

There have been lawsuits in the US against airlines that removed women from the flight attendant role for getting too old or not meeting certain weight requirements, so our flight attendants aren't as good-looking these days. For flights to certain Asian countries, some of the US carriers will sell you a ticket, but put you on the plane of an Asian carrier.

[Aladdin]

MrMan's observations are spot on. In 2002 I was trying to find a flight on short notice during Christmas to catch up with a friend in Bali, Indonesia. I went online and to my dismay the cheapest flight from LAX was several thousand dollars. My friend suggested I contact an Afghan travel agent in LA. He ended up getting me a return ticket for $500. The only problem was it was on China Airlines. I was reluctant to fly on a communist airline and very concerned about the safety of this carrier but I was desperate as I couldn't afford Cathay Pacific and all the other expensive Asian carriers. To my surprise the plane was a 747. But I also knew China had their own ripped off Boeing versions. The interior of the plane was very modern and this was the first time I had flown a plane that showed an interactive map of the flight as well as real time views of the ground. The flight attendants all looked like models and extremely polite. The food was 5 star. I felt like I was flying in 1st class rather than the usual American carrier cattle class. When the flight attendant buttons were pressed the girls sprinted to answer the requests. This was a long flight and there were several shifts of attendants. I saw racks of cots with many sleeping attendants behind curtains in the back of the plane.

A funny thing happened on my return flight. A flight attendant lost her balance and accidentally spilled ice water on my head. She rushed and fetched a towel and dried my hair. She was profusely apologetic throughout the flight and was too embarrassed to look at me. A while later the crew chief showed up and apologized. He presented me with their most expensive wine bottle. He said the girl was concerned because she could've been fired if I filed a complaint. I told him it was just a small accident and not to worry about it, especially considering how polite and caring they seemed. A while later he came back and said he told the flight attendant she should go out with me on a date in order to make up for the incident. I thought he was joking. It turned out he wasn't. The girl and I exchanged numbers and I ended up going out with her to lunch in LA. We remained friends and corresponded for a while. It looked like she was looking to get married. It seemed her profession was quite stressful. Now compare that to a British Airways flight where a flight attendant spilled coffee on my shirt. She did not apologize whatsoever and went about her business as if nothing had happened.

It wasn't until I had completed my return flight to LAX from Bali and researched China Airlines that I realized this was Taiwan's state carrier and not China's, whose carrier is Air China. The stopover in Taiwan should've been a clue but at the time I thought perhaps China's carriers could stop in Taiwan. Regardless, the experience made me a lifetime customer.

On the China Airlines connecting flight to Bali I was sitting next to a wealthy and chubby but attractive Taiwanese woman who was very friendly and exchanged numbers with me. She had contracts with factories in the Philippines and China that manufactured wedding dresses for designer Vera Wang in New York. She invited me to visit her at her 5 star hotel in Bali on Sanur Beach. I asked her if she was married. To my surprise she said the man next to her was her husband. He owned a factory that manufactured window treatments and was taking 30 employees for vacation in Bali at their hotel. I never did visit her at the hotel but we remained in contact for several years. She always offered me to come and visit and stay at her vacation home in Taiwan.

I also flew once on AIrAsia from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi in 2007. There was a very attractive blonde Asian flight attendant. She said her grandfather was British. We exchanged numbers. A short time after landing she texted me that she could take time off to spend the weekend with me if I covered her lost pay. She wanted $700. I sarcastically responded that seemed like more than a monthly salary for a regional flight attendant. She didn't text back.