04 3 / 2012
Flight Attendant
Flight Attendant, Fly Like A Pro.
Interview with Khun Prinwut Kulphinet. AKA P’Tu.
Even though I was not present on the day P’Tu was cordially invited to share us his experience on his successfully pursued career. I asked one of my friend to kindly record the whole interview. The quality of the sound of a recorded voice clip was not as good as I expected, but I still caught some useful information out of it. Mr Prinwut Kulphinet, P’Tu, who has been working with Thai Airways for 18 years, graduated with a degree in French Literature from Bangkok, Thailand. He is trilingual, being able to speak fluent Thai, English, and French. I personally have heard the struggling story about becoming an air hostess before from my stepsister, who had applied as a cabin crew for Thai Airways back in 10 years ago, but this one is different.
Flying on an airplane is exciting enough to me, of course not when you have a phobia. But to be in the sky and serve people the best service at the same is what highly differentiates this job from other jobs that are usually practiced on the Earth ground. Nevertheless, the fact that working as a fight attendant is equivalent to allowing yourself to participate in endless trips to the other side of the world, witnessing the unseen cultures of different regions and parts of the hidden world that normal people like us would never get to do so. P’Tu made it sound like it has always been a true joy for him to decide to become a professional air hostess even though he had to strictly pass those trainings on various professions like psychology, communication and swimming. After a 6 month long of probation, he could say that he reached the highest point of his life by being certifiably verified as an official air hostess, his one and only dream job ever. His effort eventually paid off.
You can’t expect a rainbow without a stormy weather. Every job has its own good and bad sides. P’Tu found himself dedicating his passion for being a part of the cabin crew teams due to the facts that he personally fancies traveling accompanied with a special privileges of airplane tickets discount for himself, his friends, and his family. Not to mention a well-paid income which maximizes his shopping sprees dream in Paris and other awesome shopping spots around the world! Nowadays multilingual flight attendants are often in demand to accommodate international travelers. Since P’Tu has such qualification he meets the requirements needed just right. However, the main focus that he cultivated from his training is safety. Since air hostess job is to take the best care of more than a hundred lives on board, safety training, he said, is crucially important. Emergency passenger evacuation management and the use of evacuation life are some of the main skills he needs to be equipped with in case something goes wrong. And that means you have to forever be prepared if a turbulence hits or if a passenger gets sick. Remain calm and professional is like a motto of this job. P’Tu stated that most airlines have height requirements for safety reasons, making sure that all flight attendants can reach overhead safety equipment. Typically, the acceptable height for this is 160 to 185 cm. This actually gives me a little hope too!
Without the ability to handle pressure, you can forget about becoming a good air-hostess because you are not going to go nowhere if you are not able to deal with the most annoying colleagues or those panicking passengers. It becomes crystal clear that a flight attendant job does not fit you if you have a moody personality. It teaches you to have a high tolerance. As I learn something new every day, P’Tu enlightened me that flight attendants are the most highly visible employees to the customers since they must sustain a great quality of service plus they have to remain such friendliness in even the most stressful situations. What a challenge!
