a family friend is a QF FA and was going to "do her best" to attend my brothers 21st, however 3 or so hours before she was called in to fly SYD-PER-SIN-LHR-SIN-ADL-SYD. ( she's in LHR now )

thats roughly a week or possibly even more away at just a few hours notice, not a day/night shift

I still cannot see how it is different or more "stressful" than anyone else that is on call, and as I said before people generally get appropriate money for the inconvience of not being able to plan their lives.

PS. I am speak from personal experiance, in my last job I was in a similar boat. I could be having breakfast in Canberra planning what to do with my day only to find myself on the next plane to Darwin, or Cairns or Perth etc where I could be spending the next week. Fortunatly it didn't happen all that often, maybe 4 times in 2 years, but it was all part of the job and being the person on call.

May be a stupid question, but as im not in the aviation industry or run an airline,because it was not originally a Qantas operated flight, who would pay (if thats the right word) for the operation of the aircraft and crew and cost of the flight? As in would Air pacific reimburse qantas or do those things not happen?

P.S. damn right people who are called out are well looked after. we get 4 hours pay for the callout even if its a 20 minute job and regardless of how much your paid im sure there is the same level of stress whether it be having to fly when not rostered or being called out to an accident in the middle of nowwhere with peoples lives at stake.

Plus how much to be on call? Where I used to work it was about $50 per day.

True but i don't think it was about the money what Jack was saying. After re-reading it it appears that being on call as a flight attendant is one of the most stressful parts of the job not that it is more stressful than any other job. But fair enough, like any job with high stress levels, you know what your signing up for when you apply for the job and just have to get over it even if it means leaving your cornflakes to go soggy on the table whilst you duck off to Nadi and back.

Yeah I read it as stress coming from the unknown and not being able to plan your life. But two points on that.

First unless I am mistaken the only ones who get the call up are those who are rostered on call, so in planning your life you need to expect to be called. So if for example you have something important like a 21st you want to attended you ask not to be on call on that date.

Secondly there is the remuneration side of things, being on call you are either getting paid to do nothing or getting paided an allowance to be at the ready at short notice. Now I could understand someone complaining if there was an expectation they had to be at work with 2 hours notice and didn't get payed. Oh that sounds like my current job.....

Ash I think what Jack was originally trying to say is that 'any' on-call job which could result in long-distance travel, would be more stressful (in many ways) compared to say, an on-call job which is based in your local area.


However ‘more stressful’ is just a relative term.
As you’ve said all staff who are on call should/do know what to expect.
So in saying that, it wouldn’t be all that (relatively) stressful for them.

Correct. I am not saying being a Flight Attendant would me more stressful than other jobs, I am sure it would be just as if not more stressful being on call in other positions, but in this thread and context, I am talking about Qantas Flight Attendants

Exactly....