Now you can pay $126 to experience what it's like to be a Thai Airways flight attendant

Flights might have halted, but who says you can't board a plane anyways?

If you've ever wondered what it's like to jet across the globe in the name of work, here's your chance to walk a day in a flight attendant's shoes too.

Under Thai Airway's Thai Flight Training Academy, members of the public are welcome aboard as cabin crew trainees in their Be Our Guest, Be Our Crew programme — a newly-launched initiative to help cope with the drastic fall in demand for air travel during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Inside an Airbus A380 simulator, trainees don the Thai Airways uniform (complete with professionally done makeup and hair) and go through the motion of a regular cabin crew's duties, including, and not limited to: conducting safety demonstrations, preparing meals and serving passengers.

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And yes, there'll be real-life passengers too, played by your friends and/or family members. If the idea of watching them dig into the scrumptious inflight meals prepared by the airlines' kitchen gives you FOMO, rest assured your meals are catered for too.

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There'll also be professional photographers on board to capture the moment for you.

Fees for the four-hour course starts at 2,900 baht (S$126) to serve in Economy class and costs 600 baht more for Business class. While the first 'flight' took off last weekend, sign-ups are still available for the upcoming flight in October.

For those looking for something a little different, the Thai Flight Training Academy also offers other programmes, such as a flight simulator course for aspiring pilots, safety training for cabin emergency evacuation (includes sliding down the plane's emergency slide) and a cooking course with the airlines' own chefs! There's also a Thai Airways-themed cafe if the food is what you're into.

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As the airline industry takes a beating due to the coronavirus, other countries have also launched their own unique programmes to mitigate the losses suffered. 

Brunei and Taiwan, for example, have launched what they call "scenic flights" by allowing passengers to board flights to nowhere that will land back on home soil within several hours. 

Following suit, Singapore Airlines also is looking to launch their own flights to nowhere, though reactions so far have been mixed. 

rainercheung@asiaone.com