MC,
When u say that the only non-crew jobs are customer related and don't tend to have much contact with the crew i disagree slightly.A friend that i studied with and is cpl/ir is an asr at ncl.Obviously there is a large customer svc side to his job but he prepares the flight plans/wx etc for the crews on a daily basis and speaks to them in the crew room to make sure they have everything they need,then again airside on the a/c.
Again i dont think the money is great but sounds like valuable experience to me,and may put him in a good light when he decides to apply for a flying position. I don't know if all airlines have asr s and if so how many there are but it sounds fun to me!
PP