Cabin Crew Group Interview – 5 Common Mistakes

Flight delay compensation If your flight arrived more than 3 hours late and the airline was at fault, you are owed £220- £520 in the UK or €250- €600 in the EU. This amount depends on how far you flew, not what you paid for your ticket. Two things determine every claim. The delay is counted when you arrive, not when you take off. And the reason for the delay matters more than its length, because, as we all know, weather is nobody’s fault, and a broken aircraft is usually somebody’s. I flew as cabin crew first, then worked check-in on the ground. I have handed out vouchers, rebooked the queue, and told people things they didn’t want to hear, so this guide is written from behind the desk as well as from the aisle of an airplane. The number that decides your claim is not on this board How long can a flight be delayed? The rule is 3 hours. That is the number everyone is looking for, and it is the right one. But it is measured in a surprising place. At 2 hours, the airline already owes you things, just not money, as most people think. Food, drinks, 2 phone calls, and a hotel if you are stuck overnight. On short flights, duty starts at 2 hours; on medium ones, at 3; on long-haul, at 4. This literally applies regardless of what caused the delay. Why it is your arrival time that counts, and not your departure This is the single thing that most often costs people their claim. The clock stops when the aircraft gets there, not when it leaves. So a flight that pushes back 4 hours late, makes some of it up in the air, and lands 2 hours 50 minutes behind schedule pays nothing. And a flight that leaves almost on time, holds somewhere for hours, and lands 3 hours 10 minutes late pays in full. What about arrivals? Arrival has a precise meaning too. It is the moment a door opens, and people can get off, not when the wheels touch the runway. On a busy night, the wait for a free stand can be 20 minutes, and sometimes that’s the whole claim. Why the rule works that way Compensation covers the time you lost, not a late departure. If the aircraft pushes back 4 hours and the crew claws back 90 minutes in the air, you lose less of your day, so you are owed less. I know it feels wrong when you spend those 4 hours sitting in a departure lounge, but the rule measures what the delay cost you, not how it felt. From behind the desk In my experience, this single rule caused more arguments at a check-in desk than anything else. People were completely mad at us. Passengers were right about everything except which clock the law was reading. Before you do anything else, I advise you to find the actual arrival time. It is in the airline’s app, and it is the only number that matters. Does your airline count on all this? This is the question more people are really asking than any other. The rule is 2 lines long and super simple. If the flight leaves the UK or the EU, the rule covers every airline. BA, Emirates, United, Ryanair — it makes no difference. If the aircraft left a UK or EU airport, the rules apply. If the aircraft arrives in the UK or the EU, only UK and EU airlines are covered. What does this mean? It means the same route costs differently depending on which direction you fly. Your flight Airline Covered London → New York United Yes New York → London United No London → New York British Airways Yes New York → London British Airways Yes Paris → Dubai Emirates Yes Dubai → Paris Emirates No Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland are also considered within the system, so a flight departing from Oslo is covered the same way as one departing from Manchester. One booking can rescue the leg that was not covered If the uncovered flight was part of a single booking that ended in the UK or the EU, it can be covered even if the airline isn’t. What matters is that it was 1 booking, not 2 that happen to connect. If you bought the long-haul leg and the short hop separately because it was cheaper, you have 2 bookings, and the protection doesn’t carry over. I have watched that conversation happen at a transfer desk more times than I can count. In the end, the cheaper ticket is almost never cheaper. What happens if your flight was delayed A 5-hour fog delay pays nothing. A 3-hour delay caused by a failed part pays in full. The length matters, and the cause determines whether you get anything at all. The law asks only one thing. Could the airline have prevented it? Everything else, including how awful the day was, changes absolutely nothing. Weather, snow, and fog The most searched cause of all, and the one that pays least. Weather is outside the airline’s control, so they don’t compensate you. Whether you are talking about snow, fog, storms, or ash — the answer is the same. But you should know this, because you are entitled to ask for it. The airline still owes you food, drinks, and a bed. That duty does not depend on the cause. A blizzard can cancel your flight, and the airline still has to feed you and put you up. In winter, flying out for Christmas in December, that is worth more than anything. For us, it is the situation we dread most at the check-in desk. Tension can build in a moment, and we are there to resolve it and lift spirits, but sometimes it is very difficult. Technical faults In this case, the answer flips. The aircraft belongs to the airline, and it maintains it, so a technical fault isRead More »Flight Delayed or Cancelled, Your Compensation and Rights in the UK and EU

Hardly anyone passes a cabin crew selection on the first attempt, and it’s hard to reach someone in the company’s HR to ask why you were turned down. This full guide helps you figure out which stage stopped you, what the recruiters were measuring at that point, and what to do in the months ahead. If you only read one paragraph You need to know from the very beginning that airlines never tell a candidate why they were turned down. In nearly every case the selection stops at one specific, recognisable point — the CV screening, the video interview, the group exercise, the role play or the final interview. Each of those points measures something different. Figuring out which one stopped you is the only way to prepare for the next attempt on what actually matters, instead of redoing everything and hoping it goes better. And then there is the key factor everyone overlooks – time. Most airlines let you apply again after six months, and six months (cool-down period) is more than enough time to arrive ready. In most in-person selections only a small share of the room reaches the final interview. Why no airline tells you why you failed The part that hurts most is not the no, but not knowing and having no clue why, even if you did everything right, you still received a rejection letter. And if you dream of becoming cabin crew and making it a career, you cannot live with doubts all the time. You should know that airlines do not give individual reasons. A single assessment day puts dozens of candidates in a hotel conference room, often more than a hundred, and a written reason is a position the company would then have to defend. Most carriers have an explicit policy of giving no feedback, precisely so they never have to argue about a decision already made. What reaches you is a standard email, identical to the one everyone else received that day. Three things are worth knowing straight away. Being turned down is the rule Throughout my career as cabin crew, and later as a coach for aspiring candidates, I’ve seen that very few candidates make it from the morning briefing to a contract. At a British Airways assessment day, half the room going home at lunch is normal, and candidates sent home report being given no reason at all, or a reason that made no sense to them. Almost everyone wearing a uniform today has at least one “no” behind them. You have not landed in a separate category. I have written separately about how many candidates actually get through, because the numbers surprise not only me, who works inside the industry, but most of the people I speak to. What changes the game is the preparation A standard email, identical for everybody in the room that day, and no explanation I failed five assessment days with Ryanair before they hired me on the sixth. I was 40 when I finally put on the uniform. But wait, I’m not telling you this to make you feel better. I tell you because those five times taught me something I see confirmed with every candidate I prepare—what separated my fifth attempt from my sixth wasn’t motivation, which I already had, and it wasn’t my CV, which was the same document. It was knowing exactly what the day would ask of me. The waiting period is always administrative Most European airlines ask you to wait before applying again, usually six months from the selection date. Rules vary by carrier and change over time, so check the careers portal for the airline you care about. The wait applies only to that airline, so nothing stops you from applying elsewhere tomorrow. I often recommend it to candidates who arrive convinced their career is over because the one airline they applied to said no. Where they actually stopped you in the selection process Before you ask yourself what you did wrong, you need to know where the process ended. This is not a little detail. Someone who was never invited and someone who reached the final interview face two completely different problems. Knowing exactly where you stopped gives you the certainty you need to prepare for the next Assessment Day attempt. Find your row. Where it stopped How you know What they were measuring CV screening You were never invited, or the application went to inactive. It is happening more often than you think. Your CV, the formal requirements and the tracking system Video interview You recorded your answers and then heard nothing How you come across to a camera, with nobody answering back First hour of the day You were sent home before the group exercise started Documents, grooming, reach and height checks, basic English Group exercise You were sent home at lunch, along with half the room How you behave inside a group of strangers Role play You made it to the afternoon but not to the one to one How you react to a difficult passenger Final interview You reached the end of the day and then the email came Consistency, motivation and English under pressure If you want a full walkthrough of the day, from the morning briefing to the final interview, I have laid it out in the cabin crew assessment day guide. What follows here is the diagnosis of what went wrong on your day. You were never invited to the Assessment Day If your application sat there or moved to a status like inactive, a person didn’t assess it – it was filtered long before that. Airlines receive thousands of applications per campaign and use systems that scan CVs for keywords, formats, and requirements. Think of it as a robot. A CV laid out like a retail job application, written in your own language when the selection runs in English, with customer-facing experience buried in the middle, or set in two columns so the parser reads the linesRead More »Failed Your Cabin Crew Assessment Day? Here’s What To Do Next

The essentials of easyJet cabin crew requirements To become easyJet cabin crew, you need to be at least 18, with no upper age limit, and between 157.5 cm and 190 cm tall without shoes. You must swim 25 metres unaided, speak fluent English, plus the local language for bases outside the UK, and have the right to work in the country of your base. easyJet has announced hundreds of UK roles for 2027, and applications are expected to open soon. The orange livery you could soon be wearing on your uniform too I became cabin crew at 40, and not on my first try. I failed five assessment days before the sixth one finally ended with a yes. Later, I also worked on the ground for a handling company that looked after easyJet flights, so I have seen the orange crews from both sides of the aircraft door. It was during the pandemic, at Lyon-Saint-Exupéry Airport in France, that I first took a close look at easyJet crew members. I loved their relaxed attitude and their elegance, mixed with professionalism. I started to dig a little into their job, and I chatted briefly with one of their crew members, who was waiting to board an aircraft that had just landed from Glasgow for its turnaround. This guide is written for anyone applying to easyJet, whether your base is in the UK or elsewhere in Europe. Most of what you need to know is the same everywhere, and I’ll clearly explain where the rules change for British bases. And if you are wondering whether you are too old to become a cabin crew, keep reading, because easyJet has an answer that might surprise you. In this guide Why apply to easyJet now easyJet cabin crew requirements The easyJet recruitment process Salary and contract Training course and rosters Before you apply FAQ Why You Should Consider Applying to easyJet Right Now Timing always matters, and right now it is on your side. It is a good period! In fact, easyJet has announced a new recruitment drive with hundreds of roles across the UK for 2027, and applications are expected to open in the coming weeks. The airline is also growing its British network, with three new UK routes for summer 2026 and a new base at London Southend. On the European continent, easyJet has been inviting candidates to register their interest for cabin crew roles across France for summer 2027. I want to share a detail that tells you a lot about who easyJet wants on board. Since launching its initiative to recruit older workers in 2022, the number of its cabin crew over 50 has more than doubled, up 127%, while those over 60 have almost quadrupled. Look at the registration. HB means Switzerland, so this aircraft belongs to easyJet Switzerland, one of the group’s three airlines. Today around 12% of easyJet’s cabin crew are aged 50 or over. This is very good news for everyone who still hesitates and keeps writing to me about it. Somewhere in this universe, an airline is looking for people like you, and not only for twenty-year-olds. Know that easyJet is not just one airline; it is three. The group operates as easyJet UK, easyJet Europe (registered in Austria) and easyJet Switzerland. Your base decides which one employs you, which contract law applies, which licence you receive and, in the end, how much you earn. It is completely normal for two crew members wearing the same orange uniform on the same aircraft type to have very different contracts. easyJet cabin crew bases in the UK Region Bases London Gatwick · Luton · Southend South West and Midlands Bristol · Birmingham North of England Manchester · Liverpool · Newcastle Scotland Edinburgh · Glasgow Northern Ireland Belfast easyJet cabin crew bases in Europe Country Main bases Language beyond English Employer France Paris CDG · Paris Orly · Lyon · Nice · Toulouse · Bordeaux French easyJet Europe Italy Milan Malpensa · Naples · Venice Italian easyJet Europe Spain Barcelona · Málaga · Palma Spanish easyJet Europe Portugal Lisbon · Porto · Faro Portuguese easyJet Europe Germany Berlin German easyJet Europe Netherlands Amsterdam Check the advert easyJet Europe Switzerland Geneva · Basel French or German easyJet Switzerland Outside the UK, you need fluent English plus the native language of your base. For example, a base in Berlin requires fluent German in addition to English. People sometimes see this as an extra hurdle, and that is perfectly understandable. I advise you to see it as common sense, and I learned why on the ground, not in the air. When I worked at the check-in desk in France, the passengers who needed me most were the ones who barely spoke English. They were the elderly couple travelling for the first time, the parent with a crying child and a missing boarding pass, the passenger who panicked because the gate had changed at the last minute. In those moments, speaking their language was crucial. I quickly learned that a few calm words in pure French could do more than a perfect sentence in English. On board, it is the same, only with less space and less time. English is the language of safety, the one you use with the pilots and in your procedures, the language of aviation. The local language reaches the passenger in front of you when something goes wrong. Contracts follow the employment law of the base country, so salary, holidays, and conditions change from one country to another.  Next campaign expected soon Updated 29 September 2026 easyJet has announced hundreds of cabin crew roles for 2027 across its UK bases, but applications are not open yet. The careers page says the airline is finalising its needs for summer 2027. Check it often, because vacancies go live base by base and can close quickly. Check the easyJet careers page → Why You Should See Short-Haul as the Best School in the Sky People often tell me theyRead More »easyJet Cabin Crew Requirements 2026 & Assessment Day