5 Ways To Earn Extra Money As a Flight Attendant

It’s a commonly held belief that flight attendants make big bucks and get a ton of benefits.

Unfortunately, this is not often the case.

Many flight flight attendants look for ways to supplement their income, but often find it difficult to land a second job given their circumstances. Being constantly on the move and working all kinds of hours, along with unforeseen events like delayed flights, really don’t make potential employers feel all ‘warm and fuzzy’ about hiring!

What’s the answer? Well, there’s no ‘magic bullet’ solution, but there are some practical ways you can boost your income and I’ll outline some of these now.

Get Paid To Write About Travel

There are various ways you can get paid to write about travel, some better than others.

One way to do this is by doing some form of travel editing.

There are always companies and websites looking to hire people who are passionate about travel, to publish good content on their site. Some will pay you a set amount, others will hire you as an employee. If you are passionate about travel and know how to write (nothing fancy) then this could be a great idea.

Roles like this often include managing a social media account also such as Instagram or Twitter which means that if you do a good job, you could increase the amount of money you make and learn some new skills at the same time.

Another idea is to write city guides.

These are useful to help people figure out where they are going in a new destination, cool activities to do, and what’s on etc. Someone needs to do the research and publish this information, which is where an opportunity can come in for you. Various websites and real estates hire people on a casual basis to take on this role, either as an employee or freelancer.

There are also platforms such as UpWork.com or Freelancer.com that allow you to setup shop as a freelance professional. You could do freelance travel writing, or anything for that matter. This is also a good way to go if you have a particular skill set, or want to learn a new skill set. There are tons of people looking to get jobs done on these platforms so you don’t have to go out searching for new customers or worry about collecting payment. These sites make it easy for you.

Keep in mind you are competing against freelancers from countries where the minimum wage is much lower, so the prices you can demand are not always amazing. Over time however, you can build your profile with positive feedback and grow raise your hourly rate or set contract amounts.

Get a Remote Side Job

I know what you are thinking… boring and obvious. Fair call.

But this is one of the easiest and quickest things you could do to boost your immediate income, and it’s not just any job you are looking for. You want a job that does not require you to be at a specific location AND one that does not require you work certain hours. That way it really doesn’t matter how crazy your existing schedule is, your new job can fit around this.

You could look for a remote job as a telemarketer, a data entry assistant or any number of remote jobs that are not location or time dependant. These jobs are simple, almost anyone can apply for them and they are naturally very flexible.

Keep an eye on employment sites like Indeed.com and set up an alert to be emailed every time a role you are interested in comes along.

Buy and Sell Goods From Overseas

This one is a bit more exciting and could bring in a lot more cash.

One of the perks of being an international flight attendant is that you get to visit destinations overseas on a regular basis. Depending on which countries you visit, and what products you buy, you may be in a position to buy products at a very low price from one location, and re-sell those products at a much higher price locally.

Some items are commonplace in one country, but highly sought after or difficult to obtain in another. And sometimes you can take advantage of currency fluctuations.

One classic example of this is luxury designer handbags.

I did some digging and came across purseblog.com that published a list of luxury handbags and their corresponding prices in various countries throughout the world. What I found was very cool indeed. Of course the currencies and individual products have since changed, but a Hermès Birkin handbag that sells for $7,867.60 in France, goes for a whopping $10,900 in the US. Not only this, but you are actually eligible for a VAT refund of 20% when you come back to the United States.

That is a margin of $4,605.92 when it’s all said and done! Crazy.

Of course, you’d have to find friends or acquaintances who would actually want such a handbag, and you’d offer them a steep discount… but making a cool $3k on something like this just got real. People do this kind of thing all the time across tons of different products, and the same is true for the reverse side of things, buy from the US and sell to some of the countries you visit.

Most people don’t have that kind of money laying around, so one idea is to test this method with smaller, lower cost items first. If you have success, scale up.

Some items will work better than others, and some will work better online than others. The opportunity is out there, it’s just a matter of finding it. You may even be able to team up with some colleagues to reduce your cost, and split the profits.  In any case, there is some massive potential here for anyone who is willing to do the research, get creative, and network with people to hustle some goods!

Become a Notary Public

A notary public is appointed by the government as an impartial witness to the signing or documents. It is their role to screen people who are signing documents such as a will, property deed, or power of attorney among other documents. They ensure the person is who they say they are, make sure they aren’t signing under duress and are aware of what they are signing.

It is relatively easy and low cost to become a notary, as long as you are over 18 years of age, you are a legal citizen of whatever state you are applying to and don’t have a criminal record.

The money can be as low as a couple of bucks for a quick signature, or as high as $100 or more for the signing of property deeds since those can take an hour or more to complete. It’s not a game changer, but this is a simple way to make some extra cash and it’s flexible.

Start a Blog

Another great way to create an income is by starting a blog. These days, technology makes it incredibly easy to get a blog/ website setup so it’s not as scary as you might think.

The idea is to choose a topic you are interested in, or better yet passionate about, and create useful content on your site for people to read. By writing good content and following the right steps, you can get your articles ranking in search engines like Google for free.

Then, you can promote products to those who visit your site through a process called affiliate marketing. In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is about promoting other people’s stuff on your website and earning commissions when your visitors buy through your unique links.

It does take some time to get this going, but it absolutely works. This is how I managed to get away from my boring construction business and start working from home back in 2015. I followed a training program called Wealthy Affiliate which is free to start.

What would you write about?

It’s up to you. You can make money writing about pretty much anything, as long as people come to your site, you can make money promoting stuff as an affiliate. For example, you could create a blog about travelling the globe on a budget, exotic foods, hiking, or anything you are interested in. If there are a group of people searching the internet who are interested in what you are writing, you absolutely can turn this into a profitable business.

Affiliate marketing is a simple business model, and the ultimate for anyone who doesn’t want to be tied to one location or a specific time.

Conclusion

There are many ways to make some addittional income, and some are going to work for you better than others.

Rather than seeing your flight attendant job as a drawback financially, use it to your advantage in conjunction with some of these ideas. The end result can be peace of mind, and an income that gives you more freedom to enjoy life.