I’m a former flight attendant and here’s why a working life at 38,000ft isn’t always glamorous, from the strains of ‘smiling all day’ to customers spitting on the floor and peeing on seats

Fancy a high-flying life as a cabin crew?

Before sending your resume to a potential airline, pay close attention to the recollections of former flight attendant Marika Mikusova, who worked for a “luxury airline” for five years.

The 33-year-old, who has written a book about her career as a cabin crew called Diary of a Flight Attendant, revealed to MailOnline Travel that the job can be decidedly unglamorous at times.

When we asked her how the reality of being a flight attendant compares to the prejudices, Czech Marika, who lives in Prague, said: ‘We all quickly realized that ‘flight attendance’ is not just about looking glamorous and smiling. It’s just a fragment of the tasks.

“I’ve had a passenger say to me, ‘You’re just an air waitress.’ Ouch! Still, I had to remain professional and deliver his favorite meal and everything he requested in terms of service.

“What passengers don’t know – and I don’t blame them, it’s not common knowledge – is that we are trained primarily to get them off the plane safely in an emergency. Sometimes this part of the job is undervalued from the passengers’ perspective.’

What were the most difficult aspects of the job?

Marika said: ‘Always smiling! Really try to smile all day long. It will take its toll on you. Like apologizing to a chair if you accidentally bump into it in the middle of the night while going to the bathroom.”

She explained that rude passengers didn’t help, adding: ‘I imagine many of my colleagues struggled at first and had to learn how to deal politely with rude passengers without shouting back at them.’

Marika, who lives in Prague, said: ”Flight visiting’ is not just about looking glamorous and smiling’

What were the most difficult aspects of being a flight attendant? Marika (above in Dubai) said: ‘Always smiling! Really try to smile all day long…’

And jumping from one time zone to another took its toll.

She said: ‘If you go to bed at different hours your body clock will inevitably get confused. And if you don’t take good care of yourself, you can get sick a few times a month. I suffered from coughing and clogged ears countless times a year.’

Then there was the strict code of conduct – and the ease with which the crew was reprimanded.

Marika revealed: ‘What I personally found demotivating about the job was the atmosphere of fear we had to work in. Even small, nonsensical misbehaviors earned us a front row ticket in our manager’s office. If you forget to bring a customer his drink and he complains, your manager has to write a report about it for the airline.’

And Marika often had her patience tested by passengers.

She said: ‘Customers spit on the floor, urinated on the seats, we once found traces of faeces on the toilet wall and a passenger wanted me to bottle-feed her baby – she seemed to think it was my duty.

“And passengers asked for our phone numbers.”

Marika Mikusova’s book, Diary of a Flight Attendant, is now out

Marika revealed that her airline had set up a group to help cabin crew maintain their mental health – ‘but it wasn’t of much use’.

She said: ‘We were afraid to talk about our mental health problems as we might have been ‘found unfit to fly’ and dismissed for that reason. For that reason, most of us kept the sad reality of what was happening inside us to ourselves.”

Would she ever return to heaven?

Marika added: ‘Under a few conditions, yes. First of all, flying hours should be reduced to a manageable level. Because if you fly too much, you won’t be able to rest properly and sooner or later you may suffer from several health problems.

“If the work environment – ​​that is, management – ​​changed and was more understanding instead of conniving, then yes.

‘But when it comes to passengers, there is nothing you can do about certain behavior. But no matter how ‘complicated’ the passengers were, I wouldn’t change them. And that wouldn’t be necessary if the first two conditions were met.’

Marika Mikusova’s book Diary of a flight attendant is out now. Click here to order a copy. You can find Marika tweeting at twitter.com/letuska_m and her Instagram account is here.

Marika, pictured above in Rio de Janeiro, revealed a passenger wanted her to bottle-feed her baby – ‘she seemed to think it was my duty’