CRUISING ATTITUDE BY HEATHER POOLE

BLURB information for Edleweiss


In the spirit of books like Waiter Rant and Kitchen Confidential, blogger and flight attendant Heather Poole gives the inside scoop on how to be the most hated passenger on the plane, whether passionate affairs with pilots are really as frequent as you'd think, what it's like flying in a post-9/11 world, and everything else passengers never knew.

Readers will learn what it's like to live in a flight attendant crashpad in "Crew Gardens," Queens, where the bedrooms are crammed with bunkbeds and the neighbors get the wrong idea about why attractive women are coming and going at all hours. They'll find out why it's a bad idea to fall for pilots, and-in Heather's case, at least-why it can be a good idea to fall for business class passengers. They'll watch passengers and co-workers alike get escorted off the planes by police, and learn insider secrets on starting salaries, FA schedules, celebrity misbehavior, and much more. Packed with sometimes unbelievable and always hilarious stories, Cruising Attitude intermingles the best of galley gossip with Heather's own experiences of life in the sky.

MY REVIEW

I found this book, witty and laugh-out-loud funny! It certainly gave an honest insight into the real life of a Flight Attendant. This book covers everything from the pre-conception that being a Flight Attendant is glamorous, to filling in laboriously long application forms, through to Interviews and Training. 

As a member of the public I truly did not realise exactly how much training has to be done, and what small infringements can cause instant dismissal.

I was wide eyed at how many Flight Attendants can share just one room, and how little they seem to be paid for the work they do.

Having flown a handful of times the times I came in to contact with Flight Attendants everything went well. On one occasion a previous passenger had spilled coke all over the seat I was supposed to have and no other seats were available, so the Flight Attendant calmly and very apologetically laid blankets on the seat so that I had a dry seat and asked me on numerous occasions if I was okay and comfortable. It was the comfiest seat ever! 

I did notice that the flight attendants are "on the go" from boarding to disembarking.

As its a public service industry there seems to be a lot of passengers that complain (I overheard on the flights I was on) I have myself worked in a retail store and no complains louder than a customer who feels wronged in some way. I can only grimace at how bad that feels when you are stuck with that complaining or just demanding passenger on a flight with no escape.

I throroughly enjoyed this insight into the life of a flight attendant!

The characters that are met on the plane. I loved the lady "with the gift" I won't say more you will have to read this great book to find out more. I also enjoyed hearing about the hierachy of the Pilots and Senior Attendants etc, it was really interesting. It is really well written as though Heather is actually talking directly to you. Its so easy to read, I hated when I had to put it down.

So did I enjoy it? Yes, lots. Would I recommend it? Yes! Would I read more by Heather Poole, or a bk2? Yes, and YES! But it now!

Available Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk £8.99 paperback pre-order for 5th April or download now £4.99 on kindle.