We asked the flight attendants who follow BuzzFeed Community to tell us the biggest misconceptions about their job. Here are their responses.
1. The flight attendant’s primary task is to ensure your safety during the flight, not to hand out drinks and be your personal waiter.
2. That means they’re the ones who are going to save your life if there’s an issue with the plane.
3. And let's just get this out of the way: yes, there are male flight attendants. No, they're not all gay.
4. Flight attendants go through months of training – from first aid to evacuations to self-defense – and go through requalification every single year.
5. And these trainings are no joke: they're trained to evacuate the aircraft in under 90 seconds, only using half the plane's exits.
6. FYI: Flight attendants don't create the "rules of aviation." That's the government.
7. So don’t get mad if they scold you for sneaking booze onto the aircraft, or if they say you can’t use the restroom when the plane is on the runway.
8. As much as you’d like to think so, most flight attendants are not members of the ~mile high club~.
9. And contrary to popular belief, flight attendants are the opposite of “uneducated.”
10. A lot have multiple degrees and work to achieve even more during their time off.
11. The hours of a flight attendant are so skewed. Some get up at 2:30 AM just to make it to the airport.
12. Flight attendants don’t typically go home at the end of a flight. In fact, most would be lucky to do so.
13. Unless they work for a major airline, flight attendants have to clean the aircraft themselves.
14. And real talk: Flight attendants hate cleaning the messes you leave behind, from chewed gum on the seats to diapers left in the overhead lockers.
15. And once the cleaning is done, they often times board a new set of passengers and head right back to where they first came from.
16. But that doesn’t mean they fly the same route every day.
17. In fact, you’re not the only one who might miss your next flight due to a tight connection...
18. Flight attendants sometimes have short layovers and need to get to their next destination, just like you.
19. And sorry: they don’t have the power to get you to your destination faster, and they can’t upgrade your seat to first class.
20. Most importantly: their job isn’t as glamorous as you’d think.
21. They only have a few minutes of their 14-hour workday to sit down and eat a cold meal, with a bathroom to their right and a bag of trash to their left.
22. So be extra nice to them, 'cause flight attendants remember every single person they meet at 36,000 feet.
23. But as difficult and underrated as their work may seem, being a flight attendant is one of the most rewarding jobs out there.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.