Despite the eccentricities, Hood described the job as 80% fun and 20% boring. She loved talking to people and the feel of flying.
She left TWA in 1986 to focus on writing, just as deregulation shifted the industry toward higher capacities and fewer amenities.
"Flight attendants are a force. They're highly unionized.
They're independent. In the cabin, they make all the decisions," Hood said.
She views the profession as contradictory: empowering yet sexist. "It's such an empowering job, yet it's a sexist job.
In itself, it is as contradictory today as the time in which I started it."
The job gave her confidence, poise, and the ability to think on her feet.
"To take charge on that airplane, and once I got off, to walk into a city and feel completely at home – or at least figure out how to feel at home in it."
Hood believes that even a few years as a flight attendant can change a person's life.
"I don't know if it should be someone's life's work – if they want it to be that, great.
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But I think a few years working as a flight attendant could change your life."
