After 34 years in operation, Spirit Airlines announced its sudden closure last weekend. The airline blames rising oil prices.
In the short term, the shutdown left thousands of passengers stranded after their flights were canceled at the last minute. That’s certainly inconvenient, but a more grave consequence of Spirit closing is that 17,000 people lost their jobs.
One former Spirit Airlines flight attendant, Ale (@wonderfullyale), shared the reality of what someone in her position is now facing.
In a TikTok posted earlier this week, Ale answered a commenter’s question, “Are you going to apply for another airline?”
According to her, it’s not that simple.
As of this writing, her video has been viewed over 405,000 times.
“I was a flight attendant for Spirit for 11 and a half years,” Ale says. “And December was going to be my 12th anniversary.”
Ale says that ever since news came out about the airline’s closure, people have been asking her when she will start applying to other airlines. She explains that for an airline of Spirit’s size, which wasn’t quite small but also not a legacy airline, it can be easier to build seniority.
“At eleven and a half years, my seniority was amazing,” she says. “I was able to pick up trips, drop trips, swap trips, take as much time as I wanted off, or work as much as I wanted.”
Ale notes how important this is for flight attendants. “Seniority is everything in the airline industry, absolutely everything,” she says.
She explains that, while she can apply for a position at another airline, it will be some time before she can enjoy perks similar to what she had at Spirit.
“I would have to go to flight attendant training all over again, pass that to earn my wings again, and then start completely over and start at zero,” she says.
According to Ale, while the airline’s closure is sad for many reasons, it also means its flight attendants and pilots lost their seniority in an instant.
“To have seniority that we had at Spirit doesn’t compare to the seniority that people have at the legacy carriers,” she continues. “I would have to be a flight attendant at a legacy carrier for like 20, 30 years minimum.”
Ale’s situation is even more complicated because she lives in Spain. “I would just have to essentially move back to the US for a few months or for a few weeks to do flight attendant training, get a new base commute, and hope for the best,” she says. “It’s really not as easy as just applying and going to another airline.”
Ale didn’t respond to an email.
For most other professions, your seniority is usually measured by how long you’ve been in the industry overall, regardless of which company you worked for. For airline workers, on the other hand, seniority is usually tied only to their specific airline.
The seniority “clock” gets reset when a flight attendant or pilot is hired at a new airline. The more time they build there, the more control they generally have over their work life.
Seniority can affect pay, which trips they get, whether they can drop or swap assignments, how much control they have over their schedule, and even where they’re based. This is why airline workers will often stay with one airline for the entirety of their career.
While prior experience might make it easier to pass the initial training, starting over means going back to the bottom of the list and working your way up.
“I accrued seniority at United pretty quickly. I have been flying for 4 years and I’m senior to about 11,000 flight attendants now,” one user shared.
“My aunt is #1 in seniority at Delta MN,” wrote another. “She has well over 30 years and she’s not even 60 yet.”
Some commenters misunderstood. “Why would you not have to start your seniority [over] at another airline?” one user asked. “That’s like with most jobs.”
“The difference is seniority doesn’t play as much of a role in your day to day for most other jobs,” another person responded. “It might affect your eligibility for a promotion, but it doesn’t dictate whether you actually get to work or you’re sitting at home or at their airport waiting for a call to see if you can actually work that day.”
@wonderfullyale Replying to @Fran Cañizares👺 my seniority as a flight attendant for spirit airlines. #spiritairlines #flightattendant #spiritflightattendant #nk #wonderfullyale ♬ original sound – Ale | Life In Spain
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