Prada uniforms, mid flight jacuzzies and more champagne than you can shake a stick at. We meet private air hostess Saskia Swann as she travels Above and Beyond in the world of billionaire flying.
Above and Beyond – the blurb
Heavily in debt, and earning peanuts as a ‘trolley dolly’, Saskia Swann desperately needed to get her life back on track. After a chance meeting, she landed a job as cabin crew – but this time on a private jet.
Suddenly, she found herself transported into the glittering world of oligarchs and billionaires where the hostesses wear Prada, seven-course meals are served on fine china, the bodyguards carry guns, and the mile-high shenanigans not only take place in luxury cabins, but in the cockpit itself.
Saskia soon realised that the job wasn’t quite what it seemed though: her billionaire boss expected far more from his hostesses than just cocktails and nibbles…
Pretty woman
I devoured this book in 24 hours finding it the perfect tonic to previous more weighty reads. Swann is a pseudo name and all real names have been changed however the tales are true with the book being described as an ‘anonymised vocational memoir’. It starts off as a pretty woman story. Girl down in luck (and debt) lands on her feet when a billionaire Russian hires her to be an air stewardess on his private jet. Cue shopping in Harrods for designer uniform, popping champagne corks for breakfast and jet setting around the world, all whilst glittering in diamonds.
Yet the comparison to Pretty Woman becomes more so when Swann’s boss invites her to join him in the bedroom, an offer she feels she can’t refuse. The book then takes a slightly darker tone and includes a fairly upsetting outcome. It certainly strayed from where I thought it was going and makes the book a much more in depth read.
Rich Men
What was very present was how much women are still used as accessories for men. How they can be bought, are interchangeable and not valued. Time and time again we were shown examples of male wealth, men cheating and generally degrading women. Where were the women with private jets, the male air hostesses and the faithful spouses?
Swann has the last laugh though – she still works as an air hostess today despite ‘time ticking on’. I certainly couldn’t hack the hedonistic lifestyle but it sounds, at times, a scream. Swann has seen more of the world than I ever will and whilst her choices are not mine I loved reading the book. It’s an eye opener and it certainly gave me pause for thought.
Thanks
My thanks go to Lume Books via the Random Things Tours for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. Check out other reviews from the Above and Beyond #BlogTour on social media now.
