Meet Loren
I grew up in Houston, Texas and graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelors degree in Media Communications. The degree was perfect for me – it had everything I loved and desired from photography & videography to media law & marketing. Throughout my early twenties I went back and forth creating so many businesses and brands, but ultimately found that blogging was my passion. I created my personal blog, She’s on the Loose, a successful outlet for my love of travel, lifestyle, and everything in between. Traveling began to be where I felt most at home. In 2016, I was trying to figure out a way to travel more and an ad on social media to become a flight attendant caught my eye. I applied not thinking much of actually pursuing the career. One thing led to another and I left the face to face interview with a job offer. About 7 months later I started flight attendant training not realizing that this job and this opportunity would completely change my life, push me out of my comfort zone, and steer me in a whole different life path – one that would ultimately guide me to Raul and the life I always dreamt of.
Meet Raul
I’m from a small town near the U.S./ Mexico border called Eagle Pass, Texas and lived in Mexico for most of my childhood and went to school in the US. My family eventually moved to Texas around my High School years to make our commute easier. I completed my associates degree without a clue of what I wanted to do in life. I was one of those kids that didn’t really know what he wanted but one thing I knew was that traveling and exploring was in my future. I’ve always wanted to experience new things and so I moved a couple of times from San Antonio, to Chicago , and eventually ended up in Washington D.C. In 2015, I was living in Chicago and it was not exactly where I wanted to be in life. I had always dreamt of traveling all over the world, but hadn’t had the chance to venture out of my normal routine. I thought I was stuck, but as I started researching jobs and careers that would allow me to travel I came across a Flight Attendant position for United Airlines! I never knew that that position even existed at the time. I applied for the position and eventually was hired for what would be my dream job. Without thinking too much about it I relocated to Washington D.C. to start my new career in aviation. I never imagined that I would be flying in the friendly skies much less that I would meet the love my life a year after. Now it’s all about us and exploring what this beautiful world of ours has to offer. We know that traveling is not as easy for everyone and that’s our main objective here, to show you some parts of the world and inspire you! Who knows, maybe it’ll bring the adventurer out of you too!
About Us
No, we didn’t meet on a flight. We are both conveniently from Texas and ended up based on the east coast in Washington Dulles. At our base we have an amazing group of friends who love to hangout and enjoy life so we met through mutual friends and bonded over all things Texas – including tabasco tequila shots. We’re not really sure if that’s a thing, but the bartender said that was the most “Texas” shot he could make. We both were trying to figure out our place in the world and that place ended up being beside each other. We started this travel blog to inspire other couples to travel the world and to show everyone the value of traveling together with your loved ones. We have a very unique perspective having the privilege to travel for a living and we want to give you the inside information that we learn and use on a daily basis.
FAQs
Do you guys fly together?
We love to fly together when possible, but we always have a couple of trips on our own each month. We try to maximize our time off so we pick up high time trips to get as many hours in a short period of time so we can have the rest of the month off together traveling to places of our choices.
Is it hard to be apart so much?
We’ve found that with this job we spend more time together than we do apart – especially if we fly together. We like to set about a two week period to work each month and those trips can be together if we are lucky or can be separate, but usually one or two trips end up being together. So while one of us is away working so is the other. Time flies when you are working a trip (pun intended). Plus missing each other a little bit always makes for a heartfelt hello.
How long have you guys been flight attendants?
Raul started in 2016 and Loren started in 2017. We have about a year difference in seniority, but in this job that means there are SO many people in between us – about 330 just at our base and 2160 system wide. Needless to say Raul thinks he’s senior daddy over here.
Do you have vacation every month?
It feels like it. But no, we are both very fortunate to have lines and so we can make our own schedules. We choose to work about two weeks straight as much as possible so enjoy as many off days as possible. That is why it seems we are always on vacation because we always have a bunch of time off. We have designated vacation from our company that we split in to 3 times a year and we try to make the most of those times so our “real vacations” are likely around 2 weeks each of those months.
Do we have the same route?
No, we are both lineholders (as of right now, but theres always the possibility if we lose flying at our base we will lose our lines) but we receive different lines with different routes every month. We always trade out of pretty much everything we get. So we mix and match trips that will give us the highest amount of hours in the shortest possible time.
How do you afford to travel?
One of the MAJOR perks of being a flight attendant is the ability to fly standby for free or for very cheap. The most expensive part of traveling is the plane ticket to your destination. Basically when we travel all we have to pay for is a place to stay (which is usually a cheapish airbnb) and our food and activities. So with both of us being flight attendants has take a huge cost away from our expenses. We are also both very financially savvy. We have very little monthly expenses (the majority of it being food). We both live in a townhome with roommates so our rent is very cheap. You have to make sacrifices to be able to afford to travel in general.
How many days do you work a month?
We both try to fly about 100-120 hours each month. So it depends on how many hours we can fit in to each day. We chose to fly high time trips, which are exhausting, but worth it to us to have as much time off as possible. We typically end up working about 2 to 2.5 weeks each month and have the rest of the month off. We love to either work the first half of the month and have the rest of the month off and then start the next month with time off and work the last half of the month. This gives us about 2-4 weeks straight off between the two months. Work smarter not harder!