A fascinating first-hand story of what it was like to work as a flight attendant toward the end of the golden age of travel. The author, who later went on to become a successful novelist, lets us in on all aspects of her life as a TWA stewardess, from applying, to training, to flying and beyond, including getting furloughed and struggling with changes in the aviation industry. A fun and informative read!

Interesting look at what it took to be a flight attendant in the 1970's and the 1980"s. I enjoy Ann Hood's fiction so I was excited to see this book. But I just couldn't get thru this book. I felt that it jumped all over the place. On the other hand, I had a friend who was flight attendant and a lot of what the author has written about rang true. Especially about the weigh ins and people getting dressed up for flights. I will always remember my father telling me that a flight attendant moved them up to first class as they were dressed so nicely and looked like nice people.

I love the topic and intent of this story; however, it felt all over the place at times. The details and stories were great, and I was along for the ride, but sometimes I wasn't sure what year we were in because the timeline seemed to jump a lot based on history of a policy or depending on which airline she was discussing. That said, it was nostalgic and fun. It took me back to the days of traveling to visit my Dad during summers and spring breaks in the 80's on TWA- which he called, "Teenie Weenie Airlines'. It was a trip seeing how much has changed through the years.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

As a long-time fan of Ann Hood, I was excited to read this book, and it did not disappoint. Nobody tells a story quite like Ann Hood. Fly Girl follow's Ann's adventures as a flight attendant during the heyday of air travel. While this is a memoir filled with fun and entertaining stories about her experiences, it also explores what it was like for young women in the late '70's and early 80's to work in a sexist environment just as feminism was emerging. I highly recommend this one for fans of Ann Hood, or for anyone who enjoys memoirs written by women.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #wwnorton and @annhood56 for the ARC.

There is nothing better than booking a ticket, arriving at the airport, boarding the plane and jetting off to a far off destination, except maybe doing it as a job. Ann Hood, became a flight attendant (not a stewardess) in 1978 when they were the epitome of glamor and sophistication. As a TWA flight attendant, Ann trained in everything from emergency evacuations on seven different planes to serving cocktails while avoiding handsy passengers. Enduring furloughs, strikes, airline disasters, and unpleasant airline routes, Ann eventually travelled the world and proudly wore the TWA uniform.

I dreamed of becoming a flight attendant after college and I lived vicariously through Ann's book. It is not the glamorous job you think it is (expect for the free travel). Unhappy passengers, dirty diapers shoved under seats, long layovers and loneliness are all a part of the job.

I have so much more respect for flight attendants now, who get even less benefits and perks than in the 70's and 80's. They work hard, for little pay, little benefits and even grumpier passengers.

Everyone should read this book and be extra nice on your next flight!

Ann Hood worked as a TWA flight attendant from 1978 until the mid 1980's. (It was strange reading this book so soon after I read another soon-to-be-published book, The Great Stewardess Rebellion, which detailed the abysmal treatment and disrespect the women endured from the beginning through the late 1960's.) In 1978, the flight attendants had made gains, but could still be fired for going above their starting weight (she was 5'7" and 120 pounds). Ann talks about her love of travel, some of the odd occurrences on her flights, and what a wonderful job it was until greedy corporate raider Carl Ichan bankrupted the airline. Hood has written an entertaining memoir of a time which is long gone. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this advance copy.

Ann Hood and I are the same age, so this book resonated with me, though I would have never wanted to be a flight attendant. She started out at TWA which was headquartered in my home city of Kansas City and her memories of Breech Academy and how "mod" it was matched mind.
This is a very sweet tribute to the joy of flying and how it used to be. I imagine it will be an eye opener for a younger generation. Those days when we dressed up for a flight as if it was an occasion unto itself are long gone, but thanks to Ann Hood they need not be forgotten. Read it for the history and read it for the joy.

The first time I flew, I had just had my 5th birthday, my older brother had his 8th three days after mine, and my younger brother had just been born, and in two days it would be Halloween. It was years before I made the connection between that first trip - to Disneyland with my older brother and my father - that we’d left the day after my mother, and my then new-born brother had come home from the hospital. I remember that flight more than I would remember our stay there, and our visiting Disneyland had it not been for the photographs my father took. What I remember about the flight - on a TWA plane - was that I was sitting next to an older couple, I had no idea where my older brother was sitting, and my father was the pilot. The older couple kept insisting I should be sitting with my parents, and called the flight attendant over. She asked if I knew where my mother was, and I told her she wasn’t on the plane. The older woman huffed at that. Then she asked where my father was, and, in tears, I said he was flying the plane. I was immediately moved to a seat alone by a window. Later on, my father came back to check on me sometime after we’d reached altitude, and after that, I was invited by the flight attendants working that flight to join them in their private space, with a small-ish semi-circular couch. There I was taught the whole ‘drill’ that we all have heard by now, “in case of emergency” etc.

When I saw this title and the cover, I knew I wanted to read this. Ann Hood joined TWA in the 1970’s, and began working as a flight attendant during the glory days of TWA, an era when people would still dress up to fly, and flying had become more commonplace than in earlier years. My mother had been an ’Air Hostess’ for PCA Capital Airlines, and although I rarely heard stories about those days from her, somewhere I have a copy of a telegram sent to her by a male passenger, sent via her supervisor at Capital. So I wasn’t surprised to read about the amorous requests for dates from passengers, but there was more to this story than that. Long days, of course, but so much more. I was happily surprised when I read that Ann Hood had also worked as a flight attendant, albeit briefly, for Capital Airlines during a TWA strike.

Ann Hood had been obsessed with the idea of flight since she was young. The story of Laika, the dog that the Russians had launched into space in Sputnik 2, and the race to be the first in space was on the minds of everyone. For Halloween, Ann dressed as a space girl, wrapped in a costume made of aluminum foil and pipe cleaners for her antennae. As a young girl, her family would go to watch the progress being made as the new airport in Chantilly, Virginia was being built. It was another era, progress was being made - visibly - in the race for space, as well. When she was eleven, she read a book called ’How to Become an Airline Stewardess’ and was enamored with the idea of being able to have a career flying. At the age of sixteen, traveling with a friend, she flew for the first time. Her first ’great adventure.’ Another dream of hers was to become a writer, and with her belief that all writers needed to experience great adventures in order to have worthy tales to tell. Her desire to fly would, indeed, allow her many opportunities, many places to visit, and many stories to tell.

Thus began her love of flying, born in the years before TSA checkpoints, in the years when people could still meet you at the gate upon your arrival, or watch your plane as it taxied away from the gate, and watch as your plane took to the skies. The glamour of flying has faded somewhat over the years, more so after 9/11 and the last couple of years as reports of people needing to be restrained, or flights needing to land so an unruly passenger can find a more appropriate place to remain.

I loved every minute of reading this, even though I never dreamed of being a flight attendant, I loved reading her story, and the memories it brought back of the era, and more.


Pub Date: 03 May 2022

Many thanks for the ARC provided by W.W. Norton & Company

My brother was a steward with Pan Am during this time so it was wonderful and nostalgic reading another take on what it was like to fly at this time.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Usually, books about flight attendants are behind-the-scenes looks at the dark side of flying, but this was not that kind of book.

Ms. Hood loves to fly and found the perfect job as a flight attendant! It wasn't easy, but she persevered and ended up flying for TWA for years, slowly gaining seniority and getting the flights to exotic places she so coveted while a young girl thinking about becoming a flight attendant. She had a mostly-charmed life doing what she loved.

It was a treat to read this well-written, chronological love story between a woman and her airplanes. There was a lot of information about the planes she flew on during her career, but it was never boring or dry. Her love for the aviation industry and all it entails was clear throughout the book.

Ms. Hood is now well into her second career as a best-selling author, having lived so far doing the things she loves and in which she excels.

Ann Hood became a flight attendant at TWA in 1978 and worked there for many years. In this book, she recounts the places she saw and the people she met, and how the shifting culture of air travel at the time affected her and her job.

I do like to travel, even though riding in economy in airplanes is not precisely a lovely experience. However, I have long been fascinated by the heyday of jet-setting, back when flying places was a glamorous, expensive business. This book is not quite about that, as Hood became a flight attendant just as air travel was deregulated, allowing airlines to set their own prices and routes. But it was a fascinating read all the same.

The author did a great job conveying how being a flight attendant changed her, helping her gain confidence in herself. It was also interesting to learn the nitty-gritty details of being a flight attendant, ranging from what training they received to how they bid on routes to decide which flights they would end up flying.

However, I did think the recollections became scattered in the second half of the book, likely because there were just so many things that she could have written about that we dart, bird-like, from one morsel to the next in no particular order.

Overall, a nostalgic look back at air travel in the 70s and 80s, told through the eyes of a likable protagonist.