Monarch Airlines > Reviews > Straight from the ex-hosties mouth!

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Good
Customer Service	Outstanding
Punctuality	Good
Space	Comfortable
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Modern fleet, excellent crew, passenger orientated
Disadvantages:	unhappy passengers

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Right! before I start, please don't bombard me with mails such as we pay your salary or I flew monarch in 1986 to Ibiza and the seat pitch was awful! I know all of this! After 6 years of flying with Monarch, I know every gripe there is with the airline industry. I just wanted to write a review form the other side of the fence, as an ex-employee of a charter airline.
It was always my dream, from when I flew Monarch as a little girl, that I would be a stewardess for Monarch Airlines. Well, many years later my dream came true, and I had the best six years of my life flying around the globe staying in some of the best hotels,and meeting many interesting and pleasant passengers along the way.
Firstly, it is not an easy job, physically it is demanding, exhausting, and dirty job! Just look at a hosties bath water!!!! Constantly applying and re-applying make-up is not vanity, its a necessity to cover up the grime from fuel and oil and sweaty galleys and sometimes other crew!!!! So next time you see a hostie applying her lipstick, dont laugh at her.... pity her (or him!) as she is probably just covering up a rather nasty engine burn from when she was disembarking the passengers! My personal favourite was standing too close to the cleaner who was emptying the rear toilets. The hose came unattached and blue loo was showered everywhere and i bore the brunt of it, 235 passengers waste sprinkling all over me like an April shower!
So what do we think of you passengers then? On the whole, nearly all the flights go without a hitch, passengers happy thus making us happy. However, there is usually the odd one who has to spoil it all for you. Mr and mrs demanding who want a Gulf Air service for an easyjet price! Believe me, we treated everyone as though they were paying the earth for their seat but in some instances that just wasnt enough. A few of my personal favourites are Mr Angry who pinned me up against a door, spat in my face and threatened me all because i did not have a pillow for his teenage son. Yes, there should have been enough for everyone but i always made sure all the young children were tended to, the elderly and disabled, then whatever was left went to whoever asked. I even offered the son my coat rolled up, countless apologies yet was still subjected to the most awful verbal abuse and spit right in my face. I have known people punched, kicked, hair pulled, sexually abused and verbally abused and so I am sure you can imagine, we just didnt know who we had on board and always had to be on our guard just incase. At 35,000 feet is was very difficult to throw someone off, very tempting though! on the funnier side, i was showing passengers to their seats and one woman came bumbling up to me, pushing past everyone, trampling over small children shouting 'I'm a Vegan, I'm a Vegan!' well, with that my fellow steward calmly said ' I dont care what planet your from dear, can I just see your boarding pass!'. only the stewards could get away with such blazen cheek!

Safety
#####
Monarch has one of the best safety records and, touch wood, to this day has not had any major incidents where there has been loss of life. They have one of the most modern fleets in the business and their own engineering team who are outstanding and used by other airlines aswell. The aircraft are superbly maintained and will not leave the airport unless 100% safe and technically sound. Now, why do passengers complain of delays when the aircraft is being repaired????? Do you want to fly on an aircraft that could go technically pear shaped at 35,000feet????? No, I didnt think so! So why do passengers get on board, shout at the crew because they are delayed? Would you drive your car to work without brakes? It often made me wonder whether it was just nerves talking as lets face it, knowing an aircraft was broken isnt the most reassuring thing in the world, then having to get on board that aircraft must be slightly unerving as it is all out of your control. You just have to sit there and trust other peoples judgment on this one!

Airline Catering
############

Yep, not great I know, but edible and yes I am biased but I have to say Monarch catering when I was crew was very well received and of superior quality to many other airlines. As a passenger I never felt the need for a 3 course meal on a 4 hour flight but to some people it is all part of the flying experience. Chicken or beef, chicken or beef, tea...coffee....tea....coffee, i still have those words ringing in my ears!!!! But you know what, I have tasted worse meals on alledgedly superior airlines such as Singapore or Emirates.
Now the downside, the tea and coffee. What could go wrong with that you ask? well, other than the pots being as old as the ark and encrusted with both coffee and tea stains (yes, they use the same pots for both tea and coffee - not at the same time but most certainly once the pot is empty of coffee it will then be filled with tea), the water that is used is not something that I would drink. It is not boiling water and the tank is filled in places where tap water is not advisable to drink! So remember to only have tea and coffee on the outbound sector, you know where the water is from!

Down route
#########

Now this is the best bit for the crew! A week on the beach in Barbados staying in a first class hotel with £500 spending money! A major perk of the job (the wages aren't great so this is most certainly a deserved perk!). I stayed in beautiful hotels around the world in both glamorous and not so glamorous locations but loved every second of it. The longest trip i had was for 16 days in both Bahrain and Thailand and I was lucky enough to share the experiences with 11 other crew members who were fantastic and became great friends.
So is it true about the antics that go on down route? Most definately yes. Young stewardesses being taken advantage of by Pilots and vice versa but there are the odd few who didnt par take! But everyone was responsible for their own actions and it was an unwritten rule that what you saw on a trip went no further. The parties that went on were pretty wild and a good time was had by all. I will say no more but if you want to know more then get your application in as I think this is the best job in the world and everyone should try it for at least 6 months, I promise you, you would love every minute of it!
next time you fly, go easy on the crew cause they are there primarily for your safety not as your own personal waiter or waitress and, if you are sick in a sickbag, please dont put it in the seat pocket in front of you as the crew have to do security checks at the end of the flight and that includes putting their hands into the seat pocket.!!!!