6 stories from a veteran flight attendant

When you're flying, you might get annoyed by an obnoxious fellow passenger who refuses to buckle his seatbelt or by the person demanding another refill of coffee, but at least you're not the one assigned to deal with them. Writer Heather Poole has been a flight attendant for more than 15 years and has seen it all in her time in the air. Here are 6 anecdotes – ranging from the fun to the horrifying – from her memoir 'Cruising Attitude.'

- Molly Driscoll, Monitor contributor

Enlarge

By Arienne McCracken

1. Not wearing lipstick could get a flight attendant kicked out of training

When Poole started flight attendant training, the first step was Grooming 101, where all attendants were taught how to properly maintain their appearance. (One of the most important rules? "No frizzies" in your hair.) After the grooming instructors taught them how to create and maintain an airline-approved beauty regimen, trainees were held to those rules for the rest of the instruction time. Often, Poole writes, an instructor would enter a room and say, "Ladies!" At first, they didn't know what that meant, but they quickly learned it meant someone's lipstick wasn't up to scratch and needed to be fixed, now. If they didn't reapply immediately, the offender would get kicked out of class permanently.