Most people only see part of a flight attendants’ job — here are the behind-the-scenes secrets you never knew

• Many flight attendant jobs happen behind the scenes and when you’re not paying particular attention.
• Business Insider shadowed Robert “Bingo” Bingochea, a Denver-based flight attendant for United Airlines, for a day to see what we’re missing.
• Take a look at what United flight attendants have to do to help get the plane in the air.

The next time you fly, try and take notice of what your flight attendants are up to. I guarantee you what you see isn’t even half of it.

A flight attendant‘s job isn’t simply showing you where to put your bags, giving safety demonstrations, and pushing beverage carts up and down the aisle.

In fact, much of a flight attendant’s job happens before you even board the plane.

While every day on the job is different, there are a number of things flight attendants have to do behind the scenes to help get the plane off the ground and keep everything humming along smoothly throughout the flight.

To find out just what’s going on that we don’t get to see, Business Insider shadowed Robert “Bingo” Bingochea, a Denver-based flight attendant for United Airlines, who’s been flying with the company for seven years, on his trip from Denver to Houston and back.

Here are some of the things you probably don’t realize flight attendants are doing behind the scenes.