Flight of Fancy
Chan is a junior flight attendant. On a daily basis, he deals with greedy passengers, an annoyingly long list of safety procedures and the grim specter of punctuality.
HK Magazine: Why a flight attendant?
Chan: It pays well. I go where the money is.
HK: What’s the career path from junior flight attendant?
C: A junior flight attendant is promoted to flight purser after about 2,000 working hours; about one and a half years. Flight pursers serve the first class passengers. Then you can be promoted to senior purser after another four years. Senior pursers get to manage small size airplanes like the Airbus 320 and 321. The top guys are the chief pursers, who work for the pilot and manage large planes. It takes about 12 years to get to chief purser; that’s why people who make it are pretty bossy.
HK: Must be a big deal if you’re late to work, huh?
C: When I was in training school, I’d be late every day, half an hour every time. But later, as a bona fide flight attendant, when I was late for work and missed my flight, I received a warning letter. It’s really, really serious. And I’m not a punctual person at all.
HK: So how do you get yourself out of bed?
C: I bought four alarm clocks and placed them far from my bed, so your arm can't reach them. I also hang a board on the wall with my schedule written on it. Then I ask my family members to wake me up in case I go back to sleep after snoozing all the alarms. I stick my warning letter at my bedside too.
HK: What else gets your goat?
C: Safety. By that I don’t really mean safety itself, but the safety questions asked by briefing officers before taking off. They’ll ask a bunch of questions related to safety procedure and first aid, and I really need to revise from time to time since they're kind of hard to memorize.
HK: Is it difficult to make friends at work?
C: Yes, but I like that. Girls get bitchy once I get close to them. They demand that guys be gentle, competent and have a sense of humor while they step all over us. The rest of my colleagues, I don’t know if they are friends as I define real friends as people you can pour your heart out to. Flight attendants usually spend their time in Lan Kwai Fong; it’s pretty noisy. I prefer to call them my playmates.