Merge Mania at 35,000 ft: When Airlines Hook Up — Fuel, Feels & Friendly Crews

This episode explores identity — who we think we are versus how others see us — through the lens of life in the sky. Matt and Cody touch on nostalgia for the “golden age” of flying, personal glow-ups, and how changing careers forced Matt to confront external judgment. They offer honest advice about breathing through stress, earning the crew’s trust, and choosing a job because it makes you happy. Warm, funny, and reflective — a reminder that behind every uniform is a person doing their best at 35,000 feet.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome aboard. I'm Matthew. And I'm Cody. This is Breaking Sterile.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

A show about flight attendance at a major American international airline where professionalism is the baseline.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

And humanity is what actually gets us through the day. And this show is about the part of the job that lives just outside the announcements.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

The part where you're exhausted, proud, frustrated, grateful.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Sometimes all on the same leg.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Sterile exists just for safety.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

And this show exists for everything else. Hey, Cody. Hey, Matt. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Great, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Good. It's been a while, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

It has. It's been it's been a busy while, but it's been a while.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

I know. Which microphone are you on? You sound I don't know. Gosh, a lot has happened and well, we haven't spoken for like two weeks.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Well, I mean, we speak several times a day.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Well, we speak several times. Yes, we haven't spoken to our fans.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah. Um, no, yeah, a lot a lot has happened over the last couple of weeks. It's been that's been just crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

In the world of flight attendant life.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Uh well, just aviation life.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Did you well, did you our our airline that we work for that we will not mention wants to merge apparently with everybody? How do you feel about mergers?

SPEAKER_00 1:47

You know, I've gone through one before.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

And it's not exactly the most ideal thing. Typically speaking, one side or both sides didn't want the merger, right? The the merger that I went through back in the day was when um Frontier was in bankruptcy, and Republic Air Group decided that they wanted to purchase Midwest, Midwest Express. They got rid of all their employees and then just had um Republic employees, flight crews operating 175s, and then they decided to buy Frontier, and then they tried to merge uh the frontier flight attendants with the Republic flight attendants, which is what created the first frontier union. Oh, okay, because they didn't have a union attend, we just had kind of kind of like like what Delta has, where it's just kind of like a group of people who advocate for you, right? Right, and so their first contract was not a great contract because they were just trying to get anything done and signed so that way Republic couldn't merge their work group with that with Frontiers and really kind of screw the flight attendants who had been there for 25 years, right? At the time, 20 years. Republic tried their very best to be like, We are one, this is amazing. Like, and so they made these pens that said we are one. And I was like, Oh, this is this makes it feel feel real. We are one company. Back in the day, they had you know Chautauqua, Shuttle America, Republic, and you know, there was the Frontier brand. And so they were they were running two different airlines essentially. Uh just it was just challenging. And so, so uh from my experience going through a merger, like that was not fun.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

I don't think people realize that when you're working with people who were at airlines before they were merged, they like to talk about what it was like at the airline before they merged. Yeah, for sure. Every single time you meet them.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Yeah. Well, and it's interesting because like I have have a my my friend is a is a pilot for Delta, and he talks about they have um people like well, well, like Northwest, blah, blah, blah. And he's just like, Well, this isn't Northwest anymore.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

So it's really challenging when you when you do get people who you're working with to get onto um the plane with them. And then when it comes to service, like, well, that's not how we used to do it. And I'm like, Well, that's great, but times have changed.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Well, I also think it's the nostalgia because you have to remember a lot of these people who worked like at the Pan Am's and the you know, the United's and the and the Northwest, they joined these companies like first job out of college, right? Or first job out of high school. And so the the emotional attachment to the to the company is very real because they felt a lot of loyalty, brand loyalty, and felt very proud. And I and I see that with my friends, you know, in Palm Springs, we have a lot of flight attendants who are retired now who were ex-Pan Am or XTWA or whatever. And they talk about the golden years, you know, the golden age, kind of like we talk about. I mean, you know, you and I talk about flying. We really love our jobs, so and it's a lot different from you know, serving steak tartare 40 years ago. And and slicing beef, slicing beef, which I would be really bad at on a plane because I probably fall over every time there was turbulence, but and stab somebody. Thank God I didn't have a knife in my hand at that time. But I understand the emotional attachment, but again, the the hard part about it for me sometimes is it gets in the way of keeping a cohesive group sometimes on the plane because there's almost uh underlining resentment for what is happening now instead of sort of going just letting it go and going, I'm having a really good time. I'm so glad I've been here for this long and I get to talk talk about the past in a loving way instead of in a we used to do it this way, and we used to like those flight attendants that I've worked with who are that way make it very stressful on the plane.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

I was that bitter Betty flight attendant that was just angry and hated life. So I understand because I've been there and I, but now I see myself like I'm not gonna get myself to that point again because it's it's just it makes life just miserable.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

I think also culturally the workplace mentality has shifted so much. When you talk about people starting work in the 70s and 80s and what that meant, which was their parents only had one job for their whole lifetimes. And so their expectation was that they were only gonna have one job for their lifetimes. So they were, so they, you know, they became career flight attendants, and that was the thing. It was like, I was gonna, you're gonna do this until you the day you retire. Now I think there's a situation in the workforce, which is these are a lot of people's second careers because of circum economic circumstances, or they're their first careers out of college, they're not feeling the same way, an attachment to the company in the same way that people in the 70s and 80s and early 90s felt an attachment to the company. Right. And I and and that is very noticeable, you know, in the way people talk and the way, you know, it's really exciting for me when I'm on the plane and everybody's working together as a group, and it just feels like it's such a smooth flight. You have like a six-hour flight, and everybody's doing the service right, and everybody's not right, but everybody's no one's complaining, everybody's communicating. That's a very special moment on the plane because it doesn't always happen. Think it doesn't always happen because not because people are bad people, I think it's just the way the world, the perception of how you move through the world has changed. For me, I crave communication, I crave people working together, I crave that sort of group, we're all in it together type of vibe.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

And then and then when you see somebody who's like, I don't care.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

And what that also, but but that but but that also is also just a different mentality of work, work ethic. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's that's coming from a from a from a previous, you know, they've been here through three mergers or whatever, and that's why they don't care. It's because a lot of that's also work ethic, which is a different topic for the day. The the big mergers that have happened in 2026 was the allegiance sun country merger that happened, which was shocking to many people because I don't think anyone saw that coming.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

No.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Um, Republican Mesa merged merged in November of last year. And so now they have a a huge fleet of of um e-jets, which are which are the 175s, 145s, 135s. Um, and then Hawaiian also um was um merging. They had their their merger with Alaska um last year.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Yeah, that's gotta be tough.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

I mean, that that particular merger and the different work groups has to be well that and you know, I mean, there with with the Alaska Hawaiian merger, it's challenging because you know, Hawaiian they have so much love and they have so much well, commitment culture, their culture in their airline and their and their and just their culture just in as a people there. Yeah, they're so I love their culture.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

And I and it's it's so intertwined with everything that they do on all the different islands and every all the support that Hawaiian Airlines gives. It's not just it's not like United bought Hawaiian. The name of a state is buying another state, and there's so many psychological and cultural implications. Colonization, what it means for the mainland, a mainland company to buy a Hawaiian, a Hawaiian company. I mean, just having worked on Oahu for four weeks doing a film and and experiencing what that meant and working with the crews, the Hawaiian cruises on Oahu, just knowing how seriously and how much love they have for their own culture. I don't even know how we got on this, but it because I guess because I've read why a lot. But uh, but it's so ingrained that every time I see the, you know, Alaska's like taking the paint scheme off of the 787s. It's just like another dagger into the loss of a company. And it's just it's very sad.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

It's great to have, it's great to have mergers, but it's also challenging because then you're also reducing the amount of uh availability for seat miles and for you know for other things.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Yes, it's bad for the customer, I think. I mean, I think it I don't think it's good for the customer. I I hope everybody's doing okay over there. And like, you know, because I know a lot of the flight attendants at Hawaiian have had to transfer bases from Honolulu to Seattle.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Same, same with the pilots, all the seven A pilots, yeah, and a base those out of out of Seattle.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Do you know I interviewed at Hon at Hawaiian once? Let's just say it wasn't very spectacular of an interview, but and in my head I thought, oh, I could commute from LA to Honolulu, no problem. I'm I can barely like get myself back together again when I get back from a trip. So I don't know how it would have I don't think it would have worked.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

I mean, I totally understand that because I just I came back from Honolulu yesterday and it it took me a full day and a half to get myself back together.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Do you think it's age that we're just so like I can't the time I don't think it's the time change. Everybody says, Oh, you must be tired from the time change. I'm like, I don't feel the time change, I just feel like utter I'm sure age has to do with it, has has has a lot to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

But I also think that coming back from the islands to our base, you know, it's a red-eye flight, you know, and and it's not a short one.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

No, it's a seven-hour flight. Yeah. Mostly six and a half, at least six. I mean, you're on the plane for a long time. You're going to work besides the flight time, you know, getting ready, getting up, taking the power nap before you go. Like the whole the routine, I have to do my facial and like my put the mask on and get. I just I don't like to look.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

I don't do anything. I I take a nap, I get up, I take a shower. I know you can put the motion on. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Yeah. I especially if I'm purser, I like to play the part.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Once you get to know me, I am the goofiest person you'll probably you'll probably ever meet.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

I I think I'm trying, I'm trying to be you. I try to be you, I try not to take things personally. I I try it's hard because there's like uh innate sarcasm that I have. Right. That you have too.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

And I think when you have that, it's hard not to see the expression on your face. You've talked about it before where it's like control my subtitles. Yes, all the subtitles are out there. But I really try and set if I'm in if I'm purser, I do try and set the tone and try and set a professional tone so that everybody's on point with each other. And and usually I get feedback like we I really appreciated that you took the time out to have the purser meeting and blah blah blah. But even with that, you sometimes get people who are just not in it that day and are not on team mat and they just could care less about what you have to say. And I get that, I understand. At the end of the day, it affects how the crew communicates with each other. And my thing about it is you can be having a bad day. I totally you don't need to talk to everybody, but we we work in a closed space that anything can happen, and you need to be somebody that everybody can trust and rely on. And if you find yourself alienating, being alienated from the rest of the crew, that's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

And become for so many reasons, basically for safety, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Like one of the one of the perks about flying on a on a wide-body aircraft is is that if you don't like somebody, you can walk away from them, right? There's there's a space where you can go to get away from them. On a narrow body aircraft, you can go on, you know, your own. There's only so much that you can do to get to get away from a you can't go anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

You can't go anywhere. There's no and our new on our Airbus A321s, where are you gonna go?

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Especially if there's like five people on.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Yeah. As challenging as that can be, I also try and make it kind of a goal of mine to make that person like me by the fighting the trip. Because even if even if that person and I don't get along, we have to get along for however however many hours of of that trip is, right? Because I have to rely on you, you have to rely on me. And the adventure goes sideways. I will be myself and I will go out of my way to make sure that that person and I at least get along by the end of the trip.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

I I think I think one of the life lessons I've learned in my life is really just like take a deep breath, whatever you're feeling, take five seconds to yourself. Hopefully, and it usually goes out of your head, you know, like whatever the initial reaction that you're having to somebody, if it's negative, just step away from the situation, go go somewhere else, just breathe deeply and just go back. Because nine out of ten times that person isn't even thinking what you're thinking, they're thinking about you. Right, they're not thinking about you. Most of the times, no one is thinking about you. I think at the end of the day, no one really thinks about you, except no one does.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

And that's and that's that's that that's the thing, is that is that like is that like you you think everyone is thinking about you. Right, no one is, no one is. The company's not, the people that you work with aren't.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

It doesn't matter. No, and there's a freedom in that. Yeah, there's a freedom in that, and then and I and I think that will also I and all aspects of life, if you can go back to that place where nobody actually is thinking about you, just live your life. Yep, you know, and just do what what serves you, which is also why we which is why I took this job, which is why I did this job. Because ultimately I was very scared of leaving the world of casting. I mean, I've left it pretty much, but I'm still doing some, but not in the way that I was doing it before. And I think that leap into second into a career change, I was worried about what everybody else was going to think about it instead of the real reason I was doing it was because I wanted to do it.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

And I'm not gonna lie, it's still I still think about what everybody else. I I can't get I maybe I just need more therapy, but like it's very hard for you know, it's very it is very hard for me personally to to to still separate it. I'm I'm in such a better place than I was three years ago about it. I mean you you've seen me from the from the that point to where I am now. And it it was it's always been a challenge because I was so defined by being an artist or being an actor or being a casting director and then and then wanting to to change my life around in this way. And really, it's not about I wasn't really changing my life around. I'm just doing something new and different and something that makes me happy. And I and yes, it's not the same money, and yes, ever it's different, but I think everybody should be so lucky to be like I was to be like I have to look at it differently. Like I am so lucky that I got to make this choice. Right. Most people don't get to make this choice. I have to look at it in a different way, and I am so excited to to to go to work. I do get excited to go. It's crazy. Like I'm not I chose to do this, right? And when I get to the place where I'm don't want to do it, that's problematic because this is what I'm choosing to do because it's what I love to do.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

I guess this is where I wanted our podcast to go from being like just flight attendant talk to sort of like what it takes just to move through life. Everybody has different stressors. And I think as flight attendants, we we see those stressors in ways that other occupations don't. Like definitely nurses and doctors, I would say nurses and EMTs, five, you know, like first responders and flight attendants who are often first responders, we see life passing by in various different ways. And we see humanity in in a very different way, from a very different perspective than even actors who are artists who have to like take on a persona, take on a character and have to and have to feel life or feel we're actually we're actors in a way of we are actors. We we get on the plane and we put on an act, which is we're nice to everybody because no one is that nice to everybody all the time. And but we're paid to be that way, and we're paid to we're paid to observe constantly and paid to notice when people are feeling good, feeling bad, feeling sad.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Like we have the ability to try to try and turn their frown upside down, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Which is acting, which is acting, right? You know, which is interesting to me that it's all like it's all an act. That's why we're here. It's to it's to change a perception of the the experience that they're having with us so that they associate the airline that we work for with something positive versus something negative. It's a lot more work to being a flight attendant than just opening a soda and pouring it. Like that's what I'm saying. It's just there's a lot of responsibility to the company that you work for, to the people that you're serving, to the people that you're taking care of, to to the co-workers that you're working with. It's there's it it it can be a lot, hence therapy, which clearly isn't working very well because uh my last therapist, God bless his soul, like forgot our appointment and I um did not have a good reason.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

I can't just Well, I took it, I took it first.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

I took it like he doesn't care about me.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Again, Matt, nobody no one's thinking about you.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Right, exactly. Proving my point.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Uh a lot of challenges that we go through in the aviation, aviation industry aren't really related to being a flight attendant. You know, a lot a lot of things are kind of out of our control, um, like fuel prices.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Fuel prices affect flying in ways that many people don't don't don't realize. Like, yeah, it's uh it's I mean it's it's gonna make your ticket more expensive because the company obviously has to offset the cost of the fuel price, right? So that means that either more people are gonna pay that that that that money, which is, which is, which is everybody, which then also means less people are gonna start are gonna fly, right? It was projected that that fuel was gonna be about 80 bucks a barrel this year. Well, that didn't happen. Fuel's fuel fuel is now between either almost two 200 bucks a barrel or it's over 200 bucks a barrel. And that's a lot of money. Airlines use fuel like it's their blood because it is. Typically, airlines are kind of at the the the mercy of the oil provider because or or the gas gas provider because they they're the ones that set the prices. Delta's lucky because they they have their own refinery at at uh at Atlanta, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

So they're still paying three through three bucks a barrel. Or sorry, three three bucks a gallon.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

Well, apparently, according to the news today, the Middle East war has slashed oil output by up to 13 million barrels per day and damaged key infrastructure, creating a deep and worsening supply crunch.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Great.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

And that's not just for us, that's across the whole country.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Actually, across the the world.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Yeah, sorry, across the world. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

And the International Energy Agency warns oil prices are set to rise further as current futures fail to reflect the severity of supply disruptions. Oh yeah, you're right. Jet fuel prices have surged to 197.83 a barrel, with some regions exceeding 200. Cody's right, Matt's wrong. But the global average is 197.83. Did you just say that? Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

So question when you were in school, were were were you the one that like on projects, did you were you I

SPEAKER_01 22:00

an assistive person or were you like throw like hey i'll i'll yeah i'll be there i'll i'll i'll do this and then you did like like a paragraph no i always did all the work all right you don't think that's i mean that's what my which i mean in like group projects no i i i always worked on things with people i was very participatory i think i mean someone from college or high school or kindergarten will need to call and find out like and tell me oh my god they should leave a message on our on my if anybody was with matt when he was in school please reach out to us at breaking straw podcast at breakingstraw podcast dot com or uh call or call matt's phone now call matt's phone and leave a voice probably we can all hear it what was matt like in in elementary school oh lord uh i was probably i don't know don't we all like don't we all perceive ourselves like Romey and Michelle like we all think of ourselves in a certain way but then everybody else thinks of you in a different way and you're like wow I had no idea that I was that person to that person which is what we've been talking about which is the same thing nothing ever changes like you're you're less the lessons you learn in the in kindergarten and on the sandbox on the you know at school stay with you your whole life and it's very I I don't know I mean there's comfort in that I guess and then there's also a lot of distress in that for me so personally it's funny because I um I when I was younger and in school like I had I was not in a uh I was not popular by any means and I was like this like super skin like super skinny kid um who didn't know you know left from right and gay from straight whatever I had a a a friend of mine from uh high school and elementary school she messaged me and she goes she goes damn she goes you definitely did a glow up and it's funny because I don't I mean I don't particularly see it whatever I just yeah on a normal day but I mean I guess I I have done one but it's just for me it's just funny because I don't I don't I don't see all that happening.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

And so you know you look at yourself on a day-to-day basis and you see the things that you want to see and you don't see see the things that that you don't want to see and I don't know where where how how this ties into anything on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Well it does because I think the how how we come to work this is part of it like how we come to work how the perception of ourselves when we get on the plane and who we think how we think we present ourselves is often maybe how people see us but often it's not you have to come on confident in yourself and you have to come on knowing that you're that you know who you are and if you know who and if you know who you are people will either um be on board with that or they'll have some or they won't be and then you just have to deal with that as the next as that happens to you. And same thing in life it's not always gonna be everybody loves you but but mostly but mostly Cody I think everybody loves you. You are our class speaker by the way so I mean you gave the commencement speech at graduation for the for our flight assignment class so they must have seen something in you then I don't know it's a that's a good question. I don't know what I don't know what they saw sarcasm and quick wit apparently okay well that was a good podcast I think yeah I think I don't know I I'm not I'm not really sure about you right now Matt Okay I'll talk to you later bye bye that's our descent thanks for flying with us behind every uniform is a real human doing their best at 35000 feet be kind to your crew hydrate we don't just fly the world we live in it sterile keeps us safe breaking it keeps us human this has been breaking sterile break sterile