Serving as a flight attendant is one of those jobs that is envied by many not least because of the way it blends work and lifestyle e.g. by allowing employees an opportunity to travel to many places without spending on transport.
At the same time, the nature of serving in this job on a crew can mean to increase the likelihood of overly spending on avoidable things say through the fact that attendants stay in high end places when they take off the night, or that they are continuously exposed to luxurious and alluring merchandise everywhere they go.
This article then is aimed at helping you avoid the last thing that you want to happen to you as a hostess/host i.e. work hard all month but then have nothing to show for it at the end. Luckily, these tips will not bring discomfort to you as they are simply things that one could have figured if they had been more cautious.
Have a budget before hand and keep with it
Given how incredibly varying flight attendant salary can be i.e. because of the changing distances travelled and number of flights, drawing budgets can be difficult. Indeed, many use this as an excuse to opt out of any sorts of planning whatsoever. This is a wrong approach though.
In fact, I would go as far as saying that the turbulence is all the more reason for planning ahead.
While at it, be sure to allocate money that you are certain will be coming through rather than that which is debatable. You can then always adjust if it eventually hits the account.
It is crucial too that you draw a budget ahead of time since making decisions in the moment is always likely to have you make choices that align with your momentary feelings rather than what is rational on a whole.
And, there are apps on the web that can help simplify things for you. Some of them draw graphs for instance, there helping you to mark out the patterns of your financial behavior.
Tryout alternative eating places
It is tempting as an attendant to order for room service given how exhausted you might feel after a long flight. The option is pretty expensive though, even when airplane companies usually have discount arrangements with hotels. Going out is advised thus. You will be surprised how much good yet cheap food is out there. This can equally be a way of exploring the local dishes hence adventurous.
Should you be too burnt out however, then try making orders with local apps instead. They are almost always fair in price because as opposed to hotels, they are primarily meant to serve the general population.
Finding a member of the team that wants to buy something in the same way can even be better thanks to the fact that you would in such a case split the transport costs between yourselves.
Making the food oneself
Especially if you are not going to stay away for a very long time, the ingredients you need to prepare meals on your own are not much (you are just one person!). You should therefore carry them with you at the start of the journey. For longer flights, you can buy ingredients at the points where you layover instead.
Not to wear yourself further, always opt to make simple meals e.g. instant soups, eggs, as well as noodles. They will get the job done without asking much of you.
A related and equally easy trick is carrying with you the leftovers from the food served on the plane. Most aero planes will carry more than they need so it should not be difficult to find this food. Be sure however, to acquaint yourself with the regulations surrounding the same for the plane that you work with.
Always pay in local currency
You will notice that when abroad and paying via credit cards as well as cash machines, you are asked whether you want to pay with the local currency or that of your home country. Always select the former because the systems in every given country favor their own money (it allows them to receive it directly without going through much difficulty).
If your airline pays staff allowances in cash, you should look at converting the money before payment. I recommend that you use apps like Monzo and Revolut for this since their charges are far cheaper than the other existing services.
I will be the first to acknowledge the fact that if you did this for one or two transactions, the difference in the money saved is hardly recognizable. Because attendants will regularly fly out however, the impact grows overtime.
Ensure that you are aware of all the discounts available to you
Discounts are no doubt your pocket’s best friend so one would expect that most plane staffers know the ones that they are entitled to. Time and again however, the facts have shown the contrary.
Among other things, this owes to the fact that these offers will be buried somewhere in company documents so one needs to be a little more proactive.
I promise you however, that putting in the work certainly pays off because there is a surprisingly big number of offers that you will arrive at as a result.
They extend from those that will improve your travel experience e.g. the discounts on swimming pools and gyms to those that will secure you nice and otherwise out-of-your-means merchandise e.g. perfumes and shoes.
On top of the discounts accorded to you by your flight employer, checkout websites like Touchdown, IdTraveller, and Staff Travel Voyage to learn more about other avenues where you can buy more for less.
One drink should do
In ordinary life, people drink for all sorts of reasons; catching up with a friend, grieving, festivities etc. The secret that only those in the airline industry know is that this reality is usually turned up to an even higher level in their world.
If you look at the reasons why though, you can actually attend to them without having to drink a lot. Missing home, having a good time, or copying with the day’s stress… all are seen in the lens of wine only because that is what the airline staff culture has made them seem.
So, you can drink but a single bottle should do. And while at it, you will save yourself some extra bucks.
By the way, drinking less has been associated with health benefits such as having better sleep so you are hitting two birds with one stone on this one.
Shop wisely
If you want to save money, then you should be willing to put a little extra time into shopping. It is good to do a bit of research for instance, about the prices of commodities in the place where you are headed before leaving home as often, outlets with friendly fairs are never far off from the stopping points.
It is just that attendants do not know so they settle for buying their liquor in hotel min-bars etc. The fact that you are here reading this tells me this hurdle will not keep you out anymore moving forward.
To take the case of UK, examples of affordable retailers are TK Maxx and Primark.
Also, be sure to do some bargaining before you handover your money.
Fly to the right places
If you are a new employee, I will grant you the excitement that comes with landing the job. You can thus choose your destinations dependent on the places that you have longed to visit. After sometime however, you should start thinking about these journeys in a smarter way.
To save money, you should ask what allowance applies to which flight and take advantage of the imbalance in the system. Because the rating to these is conducted by government, it is always the case that it is not updated regularly. On the one hand then, the cost of living will appear much higher than what is given out by the airlines and the reverse is true.
If you manage to travel for the most part to countries whose on-paper pricing is higher than in real time, it will be much easier for you to save surprising sums of money.
Think more carefully about the transport means
If you are moving out, you should be mindful of the fact that different places have varying transportation dynamics. Experience in your country or even another location that you flew to should not be relied on in making judgments about a new area unless there is reason to think that it should e.g. when the two are neighbors.
Otherwise, means that are cheap in one country will be the complete opposite for a second one. While you can find affordable taxis in Singapore and Dubai for example, it is better that you use the metro in Russia.
As for Istanbul, you need to agree on the amount you are to pay before entering the curb lest someone takes advantage of you. Obviously, there is a bit of generalization here but it does give you an idea on what to expect.
Weekdays are not so bad after all
The plane industry is one of those that booms during weekends as people are more likely to travel then e.g. ahead of a coming conference the following week, for vacation etc. And because attendants are part of society, most of them tend to loath the idea that they have to work on weekends rather than rest. There is a better way to think about this however that even gets you money.
Unlike, the methods shared above that examine expenditure whilst at work, I am interested here on where your money goes when you are at home. As it turns out, when everybody else is at their job, shops issue out offers for those that can still make it (usually Monday-Thursday).
If you make the most of these promotions, you will find that the portion of your earnings that usually goes to expenditure reduces dramatically.
Pack more efficiently
More often than note, people tend to take more stuff with them than they actually need. As a person that frequently travels, you can test this hypothesis for yourself the objective being to only carry stuff that is necessary. Moreover, you are going to do business so it should not be so difficult.
Perfecting this art automatically comes with a reduction in costs which overtime will keep a considerable sum in your pocket. These include money that you have to give out to transport your luggage to be moved between places i.e. if you cannot pull/push it on your own.
To do this more efficiently, you can checkout apps like Packpoint. I have also written before about this subject in detail on this blog and you can check out the article here.