Cruising Attitude - Heather Poole

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 coworkers 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.



I am always weary of these books as it always feels like everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of 'customer service stories'. However i have a guilty love for them also as I love to hear about things from behind the scenes. This one was one of the better ones.

The stories from Heather Poole, start from training to be an airline hostess to becoming senior in her job and the stories and tales along the way.  It was well written and had more of a structure than similar books i have read. The writing style was easy to picture her story and how her experience flying really was.  Her focus being on the role of stewardess and the people she met, not her life around it and that kept you involved in the story. Havign a lose storyline from her beginning to end - although she did relate sometimes to past and future events.

Although her experience as a hostess was different from expected - rather than long haul word travel it was internal flights across america, which gave it a really good view point than the glamor and glitz you expect it to be. Even including some of the hardship that goes with the love of the job (big house shares and lots of hanging around).

I found this novel easy to read, humorous and well told.  I really enjoyed reading about her stories, and now have a good idea what it would be like to be an airline hostess.  It makes you realise how hard their jobs can be and how un-glamourous it is at times.  Worth a read.