Cortney Heimerl

Flight attendants do more than serve pretzels and small cans of soda: they inform passengers of safety measures, break up mid-air fights, and handle a number of other delicate tasks while dealing with turbulence at 30,000 feet. All of this results in some interesting tales about life working up in the friendly skies.

These flight attendant stories, as chronicled on Reddit and other outlets, include some of the scariest things that these vital employees have witnessed. After reading the flight attendant stories here, you’ll think twice about slamming that button for service.

Broken Nose Over An Armrest

From Redditor /u/waterbadger:

“I am a flight attendant for AA. A few months ago, two men sitting next to each other started getting very physical over the arm rest. It escalated quickly and one guy ended up having his nose broken. As if this weren’t stressful enough, there was a pregnant women …

We chatted with a flight attendant on Emirates Airline, often considered the best in the world, to find out the craziest requests made by passengers, how she keeps up her appearance and positive attitude while flying everywhere from Dubai to Zimbabwe, and more.

Is today Tuesday?

Crisscrossing the globe isn’t all glamorous, says Maria Ghotti, a flight attendant with Emirates for nearly three-and-a-half years. The most challenging part of being a flight attendant, she says, is fitting in sleep. “One flight could take off at 9 a.m., so you sleep during the night. However, your next flight on another day could take off at midnight, so you have to try to sleep by 5 p.m. the night before.” Another challenge is all the time changes. “You could have a flight to LAX [in Los Angeles] and be in a 12-hour time difference from Dubai, and then a few days …

Two years ago, Kylie Pierce submitted two online applications.

One was to become a flight attendant with United Airlines, and the other was to become a contestant on The Bachelor.

She had just moved back to her home state of South Carolina to be closer to her boyfriend. However, the relationship ended shortly after her move.

“I’ve got to get out of here,” Pierce, then 24, remembers thinking.

She told herself whichever application was successful was her new path forward.

Within two weeks, she heard from United. They wanted an interview.

How This Twentysomething Became a Flight Attendant

Pierce earned a parks, recreation and tourism management degree from Clemson University. After graduating, she managed a clothing boutique in Louisiana. But other than a ton of customer service experience, she didn’t know much about flight attending.

“I’ve always been fascinated with planes and have loved flying,” Pierce says. “It’s something I’d …

Some say that a Flight Attendant is just a glorified waitress.

Others look at the crew and think that it is like a regular job that does not stress you out or wears you out. And why would there be stress or fatigue? You get to travel all around the world, sit in the airplane, sell some drinks and then say a warm goodbye for the passengers leaving the aircraft. You ask yourself, what is so difficult about it?

Well, we think otherwise. We think that working as a flight attendant is hard. It’s almost comparable to working as a pilot and their job is not very easy!

But if you ask us why working as a flight attendant is hard, here are the top 5 reasons why:

5. Low wages

Now, this might be a bit controversial, but compared to pilots, Flight attendants do not earn much.

Sure, …

Between flight delays and cramped spaces, traveling can be a stressful experience for everyone involved, including flight attendants. When dealing with dozens or even hundreds of passengers each day, they can experience behaviors from passengers that can be considered quite rude or bothersome.

Cortney spoke to three flight attendants to figure out some of the most frustrating thing passengers do (or don’t do) during their flights.

Here are 18 things flight attendants wish you’d stop doing.

Unpacking your overhead bags during a flight

Holding up the boarding process is irritating for both the flight attendants working and your fellow passengers, said Haley Fox, a flight attendant for a domestic US airline.

“The best way to maximize everyone’s time and make your fellow passengers not hate you is to keep all of your necessities in the personal space at your seat,” she told Cortney. “If you come onto a plane, then …