Changi Airport x Shentonista: Changinista — Real Life

Jeanne, Air Stewardess from Singapore, in the T3 Transit Hall.
Pants from Topshop, shoes from Tory Burch, watch from Fossil.

What do you dislike most about your job?
The jet-lag! 

Jeanne is no stranger when it comes to Changi Airport. As an air stewardess, she travels out of the country six to seven times a month, although she says the experience is very different when it comes to work versus leisure. “When I’m working, I don’t get to spend that much time in the airport; we’re quite rushed. Otherwise, I’d shop for cosmetics, or I’d go to Starbucks, which is my favourite place here.”

Jeanne’s fresh-faced appearance and carefully-coordinated get-up belies the fact that she just came back from Jakarta that morning, and was about to catch a red-eye flight to London to visit some friends—just one instance of how being an air stewardess isn’t as glamorous as it might initially seem. “You must really enjoy your job. If you just want to travel, it’s a little difficult—for example, I have to wake up at 2AM and I don’t get to sleep throughout the flight,” she says. “And it’s hard to manage my trips with my life back here in Singapore, because I’m usually free on the weekdays but most of my friends are at work. But I’d try to schedule my flights to avoid the weekends so that I can spend time with my friends and family.”

That’s not to say that she doesn’t have fun on the job, however; her most memorable trip was to Moscow, with a tight-knit crew of about 15 people who all spent about a week together. “We even had a steamboat in the crew lounge!” Still, there’s nothing quite like home for Jeanne. “That’s what Changi Airport feels like to me—it feels like I’m home. I’m always very happy to be back.”

This is a Shentonista project for Changi Airport.