Date: 201901
Aircraft: Commercial Fixed Wing
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Reporter qualification: Flight Attendant Current
Human factors: Fatigue
Anomaly: No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types
Detector: Person Flight Attendant
When detected: In-flight
Result: General None Reported / Taken
Contributing factors: Human Factors; Company Policy
Primary problem: Company Policy

Narrative: It feels like every time I get on a plane; I'm doing so to work a 13 hour duty day with flight time of 8-9 hours with 3 flight segments; often with sits of 2 or more hours. We are now seeing more flight time for each segment worked. We used to average 5 hours per day of flight time. A 1 day trip had 5 hours; 2 day trips were worth 10; 3 day trips 15; etc. Now we see 2 flight segments worth 15; 3 worth 20 and 4 day trips worth upwards of 26 or more hours! By the time I get to the 3rd flight on the last day; I feel intoxicated. I make numerous mistakes when making PA announcements. I forget tasks; such as cooking meals; passenger requests; leaving personal items on the plane. My situational awareness is greatly diminished. When disarming doors; I feel nervous that in my tired state; I may do the wrong thing and blow a slide. My feet ache because I am on them more; usually to keep from falling asleep on the jump seat; but also just because I am now working 13 hours instead of 8 or 9. When driving home; I am anxious and angry because I'm so tired. I'm more prone to get upset at other drivers. I often miss exits or cut other cars off when changing lanes because I was not fully aware of where other cars are.When I look to trade trips; or pick up trips on days off; these are the only types of trips I see. Everyone is trying to get rid of them in hopes of picking up something better. I recently had one of these 3 day trips. It had 2 working flight days with a long layover. Day one had just over 7 hours of flight time; with 3 flight segments and just over 30 hours on the layover. Day 3 had 3 flight segments; with 13 hours on duty and nearly 9 hours of flight time. I dropped the first turn on day one; so all I did was the one segment to the layover. While in the layover; I was anxious about the rough day ahead of me; with [an early morning] departure and not getting home until [late at night]; so I decided to drop the turn on day 3. I wound up working a 3 day trip that was worth only 3 hours! I can't keep doing this.Of course; I've begun complaining to other flight attendants about this and I hear the same thing. People are sick of these trips; these long duty days with long sits where it's near impossible to rest in private and maybe nap. People are sick of long duty days where they feel exhausted by the time they land; whether it be on a layover or at home. I've been seeing and hearing flight attendants sleeping on the jump seat. I saw it on my last trip; where our lead went to the back of the plane and closed her eyes for half an hour. It is unsafe. This is an accident waiting to happen. Something must be done.I do what I can to get out of these trips. Some trips don't have the turns that we can drop; and I avoid those; so I can drop turns and try to have only 1 of these horrid days of working 13 hours and 8 hours or more of flight time. I can't keep working 3 day trips worth 3-5 hours. I can't keep pushing my body; not as young as it used to be. I'm too junior to hold anything better; and soon; I may be back on reserve; where many face two of these trips back to back- 6 days worth nearly 40 hours. I realize we have a contract between the union and the company that allows them to build trips like this. But really; shouldn't these extremes be the exception and not the rule? I'm exhausted and beginning to fear going to work for feeling worse; or making a huge mistake because I'm so fatigued because of how trips are built. Nearly every Flight Attendant I speak to is saying the same thing. I encourage them to file reports and work to change how these trips are being built. We never had flying like this before; and things seemed to be just fine. Now that we have all merged; many of us feel like the company is out to get us; out to wear us down to have us quit; out to upset us. I'm 19 years into this career and back at the bottom. I can't see leaving to go somewhere else. So I fight back in an effort to get trips that are once more a little more civil and humane.




Synopsis: Air carrier Flight Attendant reported the schedules have become extremely fatiguing and expressed concern about the long term effects.