Flight attendant interview intel — hiring windows, bases, pay and reserve reality, training, culture, and the interview process. Know the airline inside and out before you walk in.
Delta is a legacy U.S. network carrier headquartered in Atlanta, and for flight attendant applicants it is the hardest door to get through in the industry. Widely cited press coverage puts a recent cycle at roughly 150,000 applicants for about 1,200 openings — on the order of a 1% hire rate (treat those totals as order-of-magnitude, not audited figures). When the 2025-class window opened in October 2024, the application site crashed under load: about 60,000 applications arrived in the first week, more than double the same period a year earlier.
Hiring-window status (as of August 2026): OPEN. Delta opened applications in June 2026 for the 2027 hiring cycle — English-speaking and bilingual (Language of Destination) roles, with training set to begin in early 2027. Delta's own careers language says the posting stays up only "until the needed number of applicants is received," so the window can close at any moment. Delta has opened a wave every fall-ish cycle since 2022, so if you miss this one another is likely — but never guaranteed.
Two structural facts shape everything else about Delta FA life: Delta's flight attendants are non-union (an AFA-CWA card drive has been active since January 2026 — the fourth major attempt — with no election filed as of August 2026), and Delta is the most profitable U.S. airline, which funds its marquee benefits: annual unilateral raises, industry-famous profit sharing, and boarding pay, which Delta pioneered among U.S. majors in June 2022.
Baseline requirements from the current posting cycle: at least 21 at time of application, high-school diploma or GED (degree preferred, not required per prep-site consensus — verify against the live posting), a passport with at least 30 months' validity remaining, and authorization to work in the U.S. with unrestricted travel to all Delta destinations. There is no minimum height; the real physical gate is a functional reach test at the in-person Event Day (roughly 74–76 inches depending on which spec you read — tiptoes allowed per candidate reports).
Sources listed at the end of each profile. Data compiled from airline careers pages, union publications, industry press, and candidate-reported interview intel — wave-dependent facts carry as-of dates.