Cabin Jumpseat Safety Policy

[USCREW]

Link please? If this is "well-established" then a link supporting what you are saying should be easy for you to find and post here.

Sharky may not have free access to the National Library of Medicine, so no linky.

Basically, he is sort of right. If a person drinks socially, then those added calories will count, but if he consumes only alcohol (read: raging alcoholic), then he will lose weight. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram. Since one drink contains about 14 grams of ethanol and alcohol contributes 7 calories per gram, it is easy to see why one serving of wine or Vodka contains about 98 calories (14g x 7cal/g = 98cal). Other drinks that mix alcoholic beverages like wine or distilled spirits with other beverages, like juice, will have even more calories.

One and ½ ounces of vodka for instance, contains 100 calories, but 1 cup cranberry juice and 1.5 ounces of vodka will contain about 230 calories. Moderate consumption of alcohol as part of a well balanced diet does not necessarily lead to weight gain. However, over consumption of alcohol, in addition to a weight maintenance diet can easily lead to weight gain.

Now, over consumption as in Sharky's example, can also lead to malnutrition and weight loss. This occurs when alcohol slowly replaces other foods in the diet. Malnutrition and other diseases stemming from the regular or sole consumption of large amounts of alcohol can easily be seen in long term alcoholics. The detrimental effects of alcohol coupled with the malabsorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals can lead to: WEIGHT LOSS due to the disease process of alcoholism and malabsorption syndrome.

 

[US1YFARE]

What would happen if you only ate funyuns?

 

[Bear96]

Now, over consumption as in Sharky's example, can also lead to malnutrition and weight loss. This occurs when alcohol slowly replaces other foods in the diet. Malnutrition and other diseases stemming from the regular or sole consumption of large amounts of alcohol can easily be seen in long term alcoholics. The detrimental effects of alcohol coupled with the malabsorption of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals can lead to: WEIGHT LOSS due to the disease process of alcoholism and malabsorption syndrome.

Malnutrition and other diseases? Absolutely.

Weight loss? Maybe, if you are talking about someone in the late stages of serious illnesses and organ failure brought about by long-term alcohol abuse. But this is not what we were talking about.

Would you agree with this: if an otherwise healthy adult consumes 5,000 calories of alcohol per day - and nothing else - for the next two weeks, assuming s/he expends 3,000 calories per day, that person would weigh more at the end of the two weeks than at the beginning.

 

[USCREW]

What would happen if you only ate funyuns?

I hear it's the new Viagra. Lots of fun for yuns all.

 

[USCREW]

Malnutrition and other diseases? Absolutely.

Weight loss? Maybe, if you are talking about someone in the late stages of serious illnesses and organ failure brought about by long-term alcohol abuse. But this is not what we were talking about.

Would you agree with this: if an otherwise healthy adult consumed 5,000 calories of alcohol per day - and nothing else - for the next two weeks, that person would gain weight, assuming s/he burns less than 5,000 calories per day.

You are right. If I drank 5000 calories worth of Vodka tomorrow, I surely would not lose weight; I would just be dead.

(and yes, since you edited lightning fast.....barring any disease, it's logical to assume that more in and less out will make you fat)

 

[N965VJ]

I was a skinny young punk just a few years out of high school when I was hired, but by the time I hit 30 I weighed more than 225 pounds by basically having the eating habits of a teenager. My hot/skinny girlfriend (who was 10 years older than me and had kids) wasn’t convinced that my big gut was a fuel tank for a love machine, so I started laying off stuff like eating a plate of hot wings at midnight. I went down to 200 in just a few months.

Here’s the kicker; when I quit flying and eating in restaurants I dropped down to 180 in 6 months. Now I’m traveling more again and back to restaurant food. I was in Europe last week and it seemed like the only fresh vegetable I could find on a menu was overcooked white asparagus. Now I’m back to 200 again. Quitting smoking probably didn’t help either.

I think a lot of people don’t realize how hard it is for a FA to eat well. You start off at 6 AM at the carb-fest in the hotel lobby because the restaurant isn’t open yet, try to find a line that isn’t too long at the airport food court for lunch and then some days get to the hotel so late that the only thing available is what’s on the bar menu. Even on a decent layover you’re stuck with whatever is in walking distance, assuming that you don’t mind walking alone in less than desirable areas.

I’ll say this though, even when I was at 225+ I was never close to needing an extension on the jumpseat, and I’m 6’1†with broad shoulders. I was back to 200 when we got the Airbus in PIT, so maybe I would’ve needed one there.

 

[galley princess]

Absolutely. Especially domestic, which is part of the reason that I dislike flying it anymore. I find that I become obsessed with finding something to eat. The trips leave the airport and hotels at O dark thirty, before the breakfast even begins and then you're on the plane without a chance to get off, and yeah, the snack basket starts looking good.

I really hope for everyone's sake that one of the negotiated items is the return of crew meals. If they're going to keep this "fly them until they fall over" way of scheduling, then they have to provide a way for a flight attendant and pilot to get a decent meal during the day. If the union really wants to be good they should specify that it include fresh fruit and vegetables.

Having said that, with advancing age one must accept that one cannot eat the way one pleases unless one wants to spend one's life in the gym to compensate for it. Most f/as are pretty good at taking care of themselves, it's a minority that have ballooned up, but boy have they ballooned. What gets me is that I exercise on layovers and try to keep my paws off of the chocolate and then they say, "you don't know what it's like to try to lose weight." Huh?

Safety wins. Either get into the seatbelt or get off the line.

 

[4merresrat]

There are no weight requirements for the job of f/a.

No I did not mean an exact weight. . . I meant a weight that you can safetly perform your job. . . assist passengers in an emergency. . . make it down the aisle. . . fit in the jumpseat. I think you understand this.

 

[flybynite]

No I did not mean an exact weight. . . I meant a weight that you can safetly perform your job. . . assist passengers in an emergency. . . make it down the aisle. . . fit in the jumpseat. I think you understand this.

What you do not understand is that there is no weight standard or program that is applicable to flight attendants.

We do however have a performance program that has a criteria that has to met.

Every year we go through recurrent training and we have to prove that we can evacuate an aircraft. We have to prove we have the ability to exit the smallest secondary exit (window) in 5 seconds or less.

If you were a flight attendant, you would know this.

 

[AL-PS-PI-AW]

After reading the new policy on the hub, I do have a few comments.
1-You have 2 FAs, one based in PHL, the other based in BOS(non 757 qualified). They are both the same size. I think it is really UNFAIR that if they BOTH can not fit in a 757 jumpseat, the BOS FA gets to be assessed in a A319 jumpseat(which you can fit like 2 people in, they are huge). Just wrong.

2-About 8 years ago, the cabin interior colors on the 757 changed from blue to grey. We used to have blue jumpseat cushions, with LONG black waist straps. When they changed the jumpseat to grey cushions and grey staps, the staps were strangely much shorter? HMMMM! Whats up with that? Im sorry, but some of those 757 waist straps are not the ones that need to be there.

 

[USCREW]

I flew on a 400 today and the seatbelt in the front was super-short! Really! I had to scoot my butt all the way back and sit straight up to buckle it. The seatbelt at 2R had at least a foot leftover when I buckled it during turbulence. Have the seatbelts on the double jumpseats been recently shortened?

 

[AL-PS-PI-AW]

Something is not right with the "female" part of the waist strap on SOME of the 757, and 400s. I have that thing buckled tight on me. This needs to be looked into.

 

[US1YFARE]

I flew on a 400 today and the seatbelt in the front was super-short! Really! I had to scoot my butt all the way back and sit straight up to buckle it. The seatbelt at 2R had at least a foot leftover when I buckled it during turbulence. Have the seatbelts on the double jumpseats been recently shortened?

It certainly can't be the cheeseburgers, fries, milkshakes and apple pies.....

 

[USCREW]

It certainly can't be the cheeseburgers, fries, milkshakes and apple pies.....

I've offset all the calories with Vodka.

No really, there is something very strange going on with the seatbelts. It's as if they are in the process of shortening them. Some are super tight and others are all floppy as usual.

 

[N965VJ]

I’ll have to start making my bloody marys with V8 juice to get back to 180. And fresh limes for vitamin C and to ward off scurvy.

I was thinking of not putting ketchup on my french fries anymore, but I would be giving up one the five vegetables I’m supposed to eat.