Upquicker!
I don't know about the pay in the UK, but down here, we get paid extremely well for what we do. Our job, as said is juggler. Of course customer service is a huge part of the job as otherwise we wouldn't have a job because of no passengers, however the main underlying role of us being there is for safety. Just don't presume that all we do (in Australia) every six months is learn how to cope in a crash, we do train in hi-jacking, security self defence etc and the list goes on. Step onboard one of my flight's or my colleagues, and i'd like to see you try and hi-jack the aircraft! You need to be in the job before you criticise our training, plus every airline is different. As you said, the perception of our job is all we do is pour tea and coffee and you're correct in the sense that that is something that's part of our "everyday duties", and thank god, because i wouldn't want to evacuate an aircraft everyday or prevent a hi-jacking etc. Same as you, people would just look at you and think, what a boring job fixing slot machines (dealing with American's is no big deal, thats something all of us do nearly every day!)
For the public that think all we do is pour tea and coffee, i would like to put them through 5 weeks of our training and see how they fare?
Upquicker, i think you do have a bit of an idea about what you're saying, only a little bit though. You've said for us not too tar you with the same brush, the same goes for you, we're not all the same, there are a lot of us which do realise the importance of customer service and show this every day we go to work, but there is the odd few who don't and they need to leave.
There's an old saying, "think before you speak"
Oz