Flight attendant turned Love Island star spills BA secrets – like uniform rule

Love Island star Lucinda Strafford may be known for her stint on the hit reality show in 2021 – but before heading to the villa, the 22-year-old had a career as a British Airways flight attendant.

Nowadays the British beauty, who lives in Brighton, is a successful boutique owner and YouTube creator and has more than 824,000 followers on Instagram page @LucindaStrafford.

READ MORE: 'I quit my job to work on yachts – and now get paid to travel the world'

Before skyrocketing to fame, Lucinda was a flight attendant for a year, but she found the role “wasn’t as glamorous as expected”.

Lucinda’s mum was a cabin crew worker for many years and the influencer claims she found that the job no longer met the same standard.

Not everything about working in the sky is a positive.

The gorgeous influencer said: “I did find the uniform requirements very strict.

"I felt it was frowned upon if you had to go up a size, so you just tried your best to keep the same uniform you’d always have.

“It’s SO hard to maintain your weight when working as cabin crew as you’re always surrounded by food and you eat at unusual hours because you need the energy."

Lucinda added: “When you land you never want to work out because you’re so tired.

“I know it’s a usual thing to put on weight when working as cabin crew. I remember when I started people would say you won’t stay that skinny forever!”

And, Lucinda noted that office managers would sometimes measure the crew’s skirts and put a strike next to your name if the uniform wasn’t “100%”.

She added: “You weren’t allowed to wear any bracelets, and I remember my friend was wearing a Cartier one that she couldn’t take off for a flight unless she had a certain tool, and she got really told off and had a warning.”

But, there are some major positives that come with working as a flight attendant.

The influencer commented: “My favourite routes to work were definitely the Caribbean.

"I loved Barbados, that was always my favourite! I used to sometimes go there three to four times in a month, but each time it was only usually for one night.

“I was really lucky to have gone on a three night Maldives, that was also one of my absolute favourites.”

However, not all journeys are so glamorous.

She added: “My least favourite was short-haul. Because I flew from Gatwick I was mixed fleet, because at the time there wasn’t a fleet that just did long-haul.

“Getting up at silly hours in the morning was not for me, especially having to drive to Gatwick Airport and drive back the same day later on.

“The days are actually longer as well because you had to go there and then clean the aircraft, well we didn’t clean it, and then would have to go back as well on the same day.”

A spokesperson for British Airways told Daily Star: “While it's disappointing to hear this view from one of our more than ten thousand world-class cabin crew, we offer a highly competitive salary and benefits package that compares favourably with other airlines.”

The airline noted that while they do have uniform standards they do not measure skirt length.

Crews at Gatwick are also given meals for flights and other teams clean the aircraft before departure.

BA flight attendants are also trained in de-escalation techniques.

Would you ever work as a flight attendant? Tell us in the comments…

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