Flight attendant rakes in $28k a month with weekend ‘balloon side hustle’

A SAVVY flight attendant is bringing in upwards of $28,000 a month thanks to her unique weekend side hustle.

The flight attendant said the most rewarding part of the gig is that most of her clients start to become family.

Karin Capellan celebrated 13 years as a flight attendant with JetBlue in February, but the 38-year-old doesn’t just spend her time in the sky.

Capellan runs a party rental and balloon company called K & J Party Rentals on the side, which brought in $159,000 in 2025.

Capellan’s side hustle started in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic when the world shut down before her eyes.

“All of our flights were being cancelled, so everyone was freaking out,” she told The U.S. Sun. “We didn’t know what was gonna happen in the world.”

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“One day you’re able to fly into Jamaica and the next day it’s like, oh Jamaica closed up their borders, you can’t fly in there.”

She opted to pick up a side hustle to protect herself financially, saying at the time, it was “just very scary” not knowing if the airline industry would shut down alongside other industries like restaurants, bars and venues.

Getting started

Capellan, who is based in West Babylon, New York, would regularly attend auctions and buy items to resell on Facebook Marketplace. One of the auctions she went to had party rental supplies.

“I think I might have had $1,000 in my pocket,” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s see what I could buy, see what I could buy and what I could flip.”

“Needless to say, I got out of that auction with absolutely nothing because everyone that went to that auction had a lot more money than I had,” Capellan said. “People were dropping all types of money for chairs and tables and all this other stuff. So then I started looking into the business even more.”

People were throwing cash toward everything, even items that were broken. “Obviously, there must be a lot of money in this type of industry,” she thought.

“Leaving that auction, I was a little discouraged.”

But she then found another party rental company going under due to the pandemic, as people stopped gathering and hosting parties. She found the company was selling chairs for $5 each, so she made an offer to buy 100 chairs for $4.50 a piece.

She took home the chairs and some tables and listed them for rent on Facebook Marketplace even though she “had no idea what direction” she was going with them.

“Immediately, it took off. Venues were closed, people weren’t able to have parties, even weddings,” she said. “The second week we had these chairs, we rented all of them out because someone was having a wedding.”

Every job gets you closer to a better artist than you were yesterday

Karin Capellan

Bring in the balloons

Soon after the rentals kicked off, Capellan decided to expand further.

“Where we were delivering the chairs and tables, I noticed they were doing decorations too, and I said ‘well, we could kind of just go hand in hand, do rentals and balloons, maybe we might be on to something.’”

Her first balloon gig came with a birthday party request where the customer wanted balloons and a backdrop. Not having much experience or resources, she turned to Amazon for items and ultimately undercharged her customer.

“I think the first job that I did, I probably charged this man $300 for something that now probably goes for $800 because I didn’t know what I was doing,” she said. “I didn’t have a technique. It probably took me a day and half to inflate all these balloons, it was a bit of a mistake but I was learning.”

“Every job gets you closer to a better artist than you were yesterday.”

She began practicing her balloon technique by asking everyone she knew if she could do the balloons for a party they were hosting. She then attended a convention to find more techniques.

“Anyone can essentially do it. You just gotta put your mind to it like anything else. You just kind of have to invest your time into learning how to do the work,” she said.

Now, Capellan offers a variety of balloon arches, props, couches, centerpieces, backdrops, giant stuffed animals, a red carpet and more.

The workload

The workload can vary between months, with January typically being Capellan’s slowest time of year. Her gigs go beyond weddings and birthdays, as she caters decorations for graduations, baptisms, christenings, galas, store openings, corporate events and more.

Capellan said the job is an “85% weekend gig,” where she can work anywhere from 20 to 30 hours a week during a slow month and 50 to 60 hours in a busy month with hands on work creating displays and delivering them.

Additional time can be spent advertising her business across social media.

In 2022, two years in to the business, Capellan’s slowest month brought in $900 in sales, and the busiest month brought in $12,000.

Since growing her business, she brought in $4,800 in January 2025 for a slow month and $28,000 in June, marking her busiest time of the year, in part due to graduation season.

Side hustles and tax implications

Extra income you make from side hustles may need to be reported to the IRS.

If you receive more than $600 in gross payouts from a selling platform like eBay, the site will issue you a Form 1099-K to use in your tax return.

Individuals should calculate their adjusted gross income, taxable earnings, and deductions for the year.

Once they have that, they can use the 1040-ES form to calculate estimated taxes.

Her overhead costs come out to about $2,500 a month, which includes paying her assistant, storage unit, business insurance and vehicle insurance.

Despite the business’s success, Capellan said she wouldn’t give up her career as a flight attendant.

“No, no, I love flying, I still like to travel, the benefits are amazing, because I’ve been there for so long I’m able to have a very flexible schedule,” she said.

Advice for those wanting to start a side hustle

Capellan said that those looking to pick up a side hustle should be sure it’s something that they like and that plays to their strengths.

“It has to be something that you like. I wouldn’t just pick up something because someone else is doing it,” she said.

“I’ve been in the customer service industry since I was 13, and this side hustle just so happens to directly work with the public. So this is something that to me just kind of flowed naturally,” she continued. “I think if I was an introvert or someone that was working a nine-to-five in an office, I don’t think it would have been as easy for me to pick up.”

She said those who want to get in the party rental business should “Be ready to lose some of your weekends.”

“The nights can be long because parties, evening parties, adult parties, they go across 7:00pm to midnight, sometimes 1:00am.”

“For me personally, I think the most rewarding is being a part of other people’s milestones.”

“At this point I’ve been in the business for five years now, going into our sixth year, I’ve seen people start dating, get engaged, we’ve been a part of their weddings. Baby showers, baby’s born, you known baptism, first birthday, second birthday, we’ve seen so many milestones, we’ve become family to some of our clients,” she told The U.S. Sun.

“I think that’s the most rewarding part of the business.”

“I think the hardest part is that it does take a lot of time away from your family,” she continued. “So that’s kind of like a hard pill to swallow.”