Flying High: A Journey With A Former Pan Am Flight Attendant
(Tammy is pictured on the right along with two fellow flight attendants)
Imagine being 23 years old in 1988, dreaming of exploring the world, and having the opportunity to bring this dream to life. Well, this story is of a former Pan American World Airways (PanAm) flight attendant as she embarked on a journey through the skies.
In 1988, she began her journey, introducing her to different cultures, fascinating adventures, and nerve-wracking moments. Her motivations, her experiences, and the changes she witnessed during her time in the air from the glamour of PanAm’s Golden Age to the challenges of her job, unforgettable stories, and the highs and lows of her journey ultimately changed her perspective on life, work, and the world.
My mom, Tammy Winn, caught the travel bug when she and her college best friend and roommate won a trip to Sydney, Australia to see Phil Collins in the Genesis Rock Band, and a cruise through the Tahitian Islands from a radio station in San Diego. Initially, Tammy dreamed of being like Julie Mccoy from the popular ‘70’s show “Love Boat.” She inquired with the Tahitian crew members, but ultimately decided that wasn’t the route meant for her due to the long months spent out at sea.
The Start of Her Venture in the Skies
After she looked into airlines, someone brought PanAm to her attention, the largest international airline in the United States. According to the National Air and Space Museum, PanAm was founded in 1927, and aided in popularizing and expanding the use of flying boats during the early days of commercial navigation, as well as in the developments and improvements of air navigational facilities in Central and South America. The airline gained popularity as a political airline, transporting United States cabinet members, bringing the Beatles to the U.S. on a Boeing 707 in February of 1964, and transporting many celebrities such as Dianna Ross, Alex Trebec, Tom Cruise, Steve Martin and many more.
After an interview at the LAX airport, she landed a job as a flight attendant at PanAm rather quickly. She left for the Doral training center in Miami, Florida, packing one suitcase where she endured vigorous training for six weeks until moving to New York, being based at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
She says that the airline required many standards and expectations of flight attendants that would be considered socially unacceptable by today’s standards. “They would measure your body weight and frame with a preference for slimmer and lighter individuals and required that blondes dye their hair due to the fluorescent lighting in the planes that gave their hair a yellow tint. We were mandated to wear red lipstick, red nails, blue eyeshadow, and style our hair in buns or braids. Some of us were even asked to cut our long hair,” she said. However, she resorted to trimming her hair to avoid a bob haircut. These standards were set because this position was female-dominated during this time.
Tammy met Joan from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during training. They hit it off, becoming best friends, and still are to this day. Whenever possible, they would fly together working first class, with Joan taking on the galley as the cook while Tammy managed the cabin.
Back then, sitting in first class was a luxurious experience including seven-course meals with fresh caviar, a selection of meats, cheese, decadent desserts, and liqueurs. She shared how glamorous of a job it was to be a flight attendant, “I didn’t get paid a ton, but a decent amount to live. As long as I could pay for rent, and enjoy traveling, money wasn’t my priority,” she says.
Tammy spoke highly of the many benefits PanAm Airlines offered to its employees. A popular phrase was “marry me, fly for free.” Flight attendants were given four companion passes, allowing any friends or spouses free flight benefits. “As flight attendants, we were offered a free stay at luxury hotels at destinations with a daily allowance of $25, which was considered a lot of money then. We also had the ability to travel for free if there happened to be an open seat on a plane.” Tammy took a spontaneous trip to Bermuda after a work day with her flight attendant friends after running into them at the LAX airport.
One significant advantage of having an insider perspective in the air travel industry and being exposed to different parts of the world is acquiring insight into events and danger worldwide, through word of mouth, that is unreported by the media.
Tammy expressed that she enjoyed being a flight attendant for many reasons. “I love travel, I saw so much of the world I may not have seen or spent the money to travel to. I also was able to meet new people and be immersed in their culture as well as learn their way of life, especially coming from a small town in a suburb of LA. I also learned to be independent. I met a lot of great crew members, but I learned to be on my own and feel confident in that,” she says.
Memorable Moments and Eventual Downturn
Among the many remarkable aspects of being a flight attendant, she also encountered challenging moments, heart-wrenching situations, and significant changes in her career. She also has stories highlighting the remarkable and, on occasion, harrowing aspects of her journey.
One of the most alarming challenges she encountered was continual bomb threats. She said that dogs would sniff the plane searching for drugs and bombs. “Once protocol was done with inspection of any bombs and drugs, I always hoped they did their job well because, as a flight attendant, I was the voice of reason no matter the age.
Passengers always looked at the flight attendant to find comfort that everything was going to be okay,” she said. This would happen often as random people would call the Airline saying there was a bomb on a flight unsure if they were telling the truth or not.
In addition, the issue of food waste raised a moral dilemma for her and her fellow flight attendants. They turned to unconventional methods to make a positive impact on those in need, known as pilfering. All the flight attendants would band together, take the uneaten food off the plane in their bags, and give it to the people begging. “This was not allowed, but it was gratifying and we did it anyway,” she says.
One of the scariest experiences she encountered occurred on a shuttle flight from New York to Boston when the plane dropped to avoid a near collision as a result of a plane flying illegally on its route. As the purser, head flight attendant, she was in charge of going into the cockpit and relaying the situation to passengers. The same day, another flight on Trans World Airlines also had a near miss. Both events were sensationalized by the news. Although she was shaken up she, “Got back on the horse, so to say, and got back flying again because there are always chances of anything happening, just walking down the street, or in a car, or much greater. This incident was just a freak thing,” she says.
She also played an important role during Operation Desert Storm by helping to transport the military by plane secretly. “My friend Joan and I were a part of this. We would fly back with an empty plane with only crew members. It was very scary, and many people lost their lives.” Similarly, she found herself in an intense situation in which she saved a choking child's life, as she was unable to catch the mother’s attention while carrying out her flight attendant duties. “You aren’t trained for these things. You never know how to react when these things happen. You either freeze and are stunned or act fast and do something,” she says.
Nearing the end of her career as a flight attendant, she noticed subtle changes within the airline that eventually led to its declaration of bankruptcy. The terrorist bombing of PanAm Flight 103 on December 21st, 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which led to the tragic death of 270 people, left a large strain on the airline. This deadly Libyan terrorist attack left the airline in a $300 million lawsuit, as well as, receiving fines from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for 19 security failures, according to Simple Flying.
After one of the main hubs, New York, closed down, she relocated to the Los Angeles Airport. Delta Airlines purchased the remaining assets of PanAm besides the Miami to Paris route and a couple of others; however, these routes were not lucrative enough for Delta, so it gave PanAm back those routes. PanAm needed that money from Delta and eventually went Bankrupt. While this was occurring, “flight attendants were unaware, but had the impression the airline was taking a downward turn once hubs began closing,” she said.
In December of 1991, all PanAm routes were officially shut down. Tammy was in Buenos Aires at the time with no way home.
Luckily, all the airlines were very supportive of the PanAm employees and one offered her a seat in first class. People were very emotional about the cease of PanAm, but Tammy says, “I was done flying. I struggled my last year because of all the bomb threats, which made me nervous to fly. I was on my way out anyway.”
During the time Delta was purchasing routes from PanAm, it also was recruiting PanAm crew members to join Delta. Tammy applied, and received an offer, but ultimately declined due to burnout.
And the reinstatement of seniority, thus she stuck with PanAm until they ceased operation.
She had just relocated to Florida following the termination of the LAX hub; she had only one route in Miami before PanAm went under.
Changing Routes
(Photo of Tammy while working for Uniforms to You)
Fortunately, Tammy experienced a seamless career transition. She ended up staying in Fort Lauderdale for two years following PanAm’s bankruptcy. She landed a job as a sales associate at a hotel with the aid of a close friend who worked as a general manager. “I carried over my hospitality background as a flight attendant into the hotel industry. It was easy to get the job, good timing, and I stayed in Florida because of this job and my boyfriend, who lived there at the time,” she says.
Following this job, she worked at a couple of other companies as a restaurant opening manager, and a district sales manager, but eventually landed a job at a company she loved called Uniforms to You, where she designed and sold luxury uniforms to hotels and resorts. She worked here for over five years in the LA area before meeting her husband and starting a family.
Reflecting on her career in the skies, she concluded that many things were different then. Smoking was allowed for a period of time until they changed the rule to no smoking on flights under two hours, as short flights on smaller planes have less ventilation. However, people were so desperate that they would shove coffee grounds into the smoke alarms because the strong scent of the coffee would mask the odor of smoke, avoiding the alarm from triggering.
“When flying, there used to be the motto ‘living in a dream at 35,000 feet’.” The whole mentality airlines wanted to give people was a restaurant up in the air with great service, food, and atmosphere. You would feel like you were dining with people, and people would meet on flights and get married. You had to dress nice, you couldn't wear sweats, and sports coats were required in business class. All of this has changed,” she says.
One of the things she misses is that people used to be able to await passengers right at the gate with flowers, and signs. The flight crew would deplane last, and she would witness heartfelt and emotional reunions.
She doesn’t have any regrets about being a flight attendant. “Flying for an airline like PanAm was nostalgic, more now than ever. I knew how important the airline PanAm was then, but didn’t truly realize how superior it was until later in life.” Although it was a great job then, she wouldn’t go back because, “Nowadays, it’s about moving people from one destination to another. The glamor is long gone, there isn't any charm, and the pay is horrible. Plus, now I don’t like flying because there are things that matter to me more like my family. It’s a great job for someone young, curious, and has the urge to travel before starting their career,” she says.
Although she has encountered and managed many situations throughout her career, she has no regrets about her career choices as they’ve molded her into the person she is today, taught her how to handle rejection, be successful, apply her passions to a career and learn the importance of loyalty between the employee and the consumer. She jokingly adds, “And I’m a great consumer. I help the world go round.”
