For many people, getting hired as flight attendant for the first time is notoriously hard. There seem to be requirements for everything. One common concern for those interested in becoming a flight attendant is if their eyesight and need to wear glasses or contacts will prevent them from getting hired.
So, can a flight attendant wear glasses or contact lenses?
Yes, a flight attendant is require to have corrected vision of 20/40 or better which means you are free to wear glasses or contacts.
Now that you have the good news, let take a look at some of the specifics you are going to want to keep in mind if you do wear glasses or contacts.
Vision Requirements
Part of qualifying to be a flight attendant is passing a medical exam. This medical exam includes a vision test and requirement. The reason there’s a vision requirement for flight attendants is due to the safety related procedures that flight attendants are required to perform. Being a flight attendant is much more than being waitress on an airplane (as some seem to believe). For that reason, it’s very important that a flight attendant can see well to perform job tasks.
Flight attendants are required to have 20/40 vision or better with glasses or contact lenses (corrected). What this basically means as far as vision is concerned is that a flight attendant should be able to see at 20 feet what someone with no eyesight issues can see at 40 feet.
If you already wear glasses or contacts, I would recommend making sure to get an eye exam to make sure that your prescription hasn’t changed. That will make sure that when it comes time to pass your medical exam you don’t have any issues or surprises.
Seeing a doctor to have an eye exam and make sure your prescription is still current will not take too long and is not expensive. Make sure you are ahead of the game by doing that before having to pass the medical exam upon getting hired.
Appearance Standards
One thing to keep in mind is that flight attendants always have to look very professional, polished and well groomed. This might not directly apply to your vision itself, but it’s something important that is worth keeping in mind if you are going through the process of applying for a job with an airline.
This applies to you as someone who wears glasses.
Make sure that when you are getting ready to go on your interview that you have at least one set of glasses that you would feel comfortable wearing on job interview. This means they have to look professional and be free of any physical damage. You wouldn’t be allowed to wear glasses on a flight if they were broken or looked worn or unprofessional.
If you are hired as a flight attendant you’ll have to wear these glasses quite a bit, so make sure they are comfortable enough for your to wear for long stretches of time. You won’t be able to have them off for much time, so it’s worth looking into a comfortable pair or two.
Bring a Back Up!
If you do wear glasses or contacts, make sure to plan ahead to have a back-up pair when working. There are scenarios wear you could lose or break your glasses (or lose a contact) and would still need to have a way to maintain that eyesight requirement discussed earlier.
I would plan on having a set of glasses in my bag at all times so you don’t have to worry about it. I wear contact lenses myself and have had times where my eyes got sore or in one case even scratched. In those cases, having a back up set of contacts would not have worked since I couldn’t put contacts in my eyes.
For these situations, I would recommend having that spare pair of comfortable glasses.
Conclusion
It’s great that being a flight attendant does not require you to have 20/20 vision without contacts or glasses. If it did, many people would not qualify for the job. Being a flight attendant does include being responsible for some very important safety protocols, so I understand there being a vision requirement. I just appreciate that you can meet that requirement with glasses or contact lenses.
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