A Day in the Life of an International Flight Attendant – Part 2: The Tour of Duty

Welcome back readers! I’m back to annoy you with part two of my blog about the day to day life of a flight attendant. After reading about my commute to work last entry it’s now time for you to read all about the tour of duty. So let’s begin!

After talking to many of my friends about my job over my years of flying I have constantly been surprised how so any people do not realise just how much work the cabin crew do behind the scenes and before your flight even begins when you’re going on holiday. If your flight leaves at 3pm the crew is already at work by 1pm. The commuters (like me!) are there even earlier.

We will sign on in the crew lounge, brush up on any new manual amendments and any company notices, paperwork or online courses that are due. The crew lounge is also a great place to just get ready for a flight – to catch up with your crew, have something to eat and freshen up. We even have an iron and an ironing board in there!

Our pre-flight briefing begins an hour and a half before departure, and all the crew gather with the on board managers and get a briefing on all the details of the day’s flight. We discuss everything from new service standards to VIP’s on board to potential problems that could arise. Basically, we’re all over everything. The aircraft is our office and we know what’s going on everywhere, all the time.

With the briefing done, it’s time to head out to the aircraft. It sounds silly, but I love walking through the terminal with my crew. When I first started flying, walking through the terminal in my uniform with my crew made me feel so special and important. People stop to look – and when we had our very iconic uniform, they knew who we were and which airline we were from immediately – and you feel important and like you have a great job to do. I still feel like this whenever I walk through the terminal, even now, when I wear fuchsia instead of silky boomerangs.

 

 

As soon as we are on board it’s all hands on deck. Every one choofs off to their assigned work positions (i.e. a door or a galley) and all the equipment in your position must be checked for serviceability. This is a vital part of our day that cannot be skipped under any circumstances – imagine if someone skipped doing their pre-flight checks and later in the flight, somewhere over the ocean and thousands of kilometres from any land, a passenger needed oxygen, but all the oxygen bottles were empty and there was none left to give them and save their life with? This never happens because all crew check the things like oxygen bottles and make sure they are full and in working order. Ditto with fire extinguishers, smoke hoods, seatbelts and all the other emergency equipment on board.

Those who fear flying should find comfort in knowing that the crew have checked every conceivable thing, to make sure it’s working and present and in order, and flies so often and has for so long, that the moment something is a bit unusual before or during the flight we notice it straight away and are already preventing it or problem solving it quietly, quickly and efficiently. That is why we train so long and hard for this job, and are constantly refreshing our skills, not just everyday on board the aircraft, but several times a year at company training facilities. You never have to worry that the crew do not know what they’re doing. Trust me. They do.

 

 

Pretty soon it’s time for boarding and soon we’ve taken off and you guys are screaming for your first meal. When I first started flying internationally I was shocked at just how much food is given to the passengers – it seemed like so much. But now I realise it’s really not. Fourteen hours on board an aircraft is a long time, and while it’s good not to over eat so that you don’t get uncomfortable being stationary with a full stomach for such a long period, food and drink does wonders in preventing a lot of sickness on board. The more we feed you the less likely you are to faint (which still happens a lot anyway!) or feel ill, and I don’t need to mention again how important drinking as much water and non-alcoholic and non-caffeinated drinks as you can is!

Getting 370 economy meals ready is no small task, and it takes a lot of crew to organise. But if the crew is experienced and also gels together well on a personal level, the service will flow perfectly. Of course this doesn’t always happen, and there are often hiccups but rest assured you will always get fed!    

Once the meal service is over in all cabins (this can take up to four hours!), it’s time to sort out the meal and rest breaks for the crew. As I said in a previous blog post, one of the most common questions I get asked every trip is if I get a chance to go to sleep somewhere on board during the course of the flight. Well the answer is yes! I really can’t think of many jobs, apart from maybe a doctor or something, where you work for sixteen hours straight! On the A380, which is the aircraft type that I work on, there are twelve crew bunks below the main economy cabin. We have an indiscriminate door to enter and then climb down a ladder to our bunks below. These bunks have a mattress, pillows and blankets, storage drawers for our clothes and shoes, plus a curtain to pull across your bunk to block out noise and light. It’s a very nice little cave of dim quietness, and as crew I am so grateful for it! Half the time I cannot get to sleep down there for some reason or another, but it is still just awesome to be able to lay down there all comfy and put my feet up! Some crew get changed completely into more comfortable clothes, some don’t. I usually just put a thin cardigan or loose long sleeved t-shirt on over my uniform and some bed socks to keep my feet toasty (because sometimes it is just freezing down there, despite temperature control!).

 

 

 

 

 

Depending on flight time we usually get one or two twenty minute meal breaks and about 3 hours to sleep down in the bunks. Half the crew go on their break at a time, while the other half remain working, and then we swap. By the time the second group comes back it’s time for the next meal service!

While you’re waiting out those three hours for your break, sometimes alone in the galley while every single one of the passengers in your zone is absolutely dead to the world, you can struggle to stay awake yourself. Luckily, there’s coffee for times like this! We also keep a constant eye on our passengers by doing regular patrols through the cabin with snacks and water (more medical situation preventedness!). Even though three hours is a long time, you are often busy the entire time tending to those passengers who are awake, organising carts and ovens for the next meal service and tidying the galley and toilets. It’s nice though that there is still often a bit of spare time to have a chat with the other crew when they are working with you in your zone – some of the deepest, darkest secrets I’ve ever heard about crew have been told to me in the galley late at night over a cup of coffee. I’ve heard life stories, relationship problems, flying ‘war stories’ and enough gossip to last a lifetime. I love it. Galley convo’s are the best!

It’s now a few hours before landing and it’s time for breakfast! A common gripe passengers seem to have is that they don’t get their meal choice. Another common thing passengers seem to think is that the aircraft is a restaurant. It is not. We will always try to get you the meal of your choice, but we do not have an unlimited supply of the chicken AND the beef AND the pasta. Sometimes one choice runs out. When you book your ticket next time read the small print that most people so often don’t even bother with and see that it says that no meal choice on board is guaranteed. We try our best, but it is not guaranteed.

I always promise my passengers that if they missed their meal choice during the first service that I will serve them first in the next service to ensure it does not happen again. These days you can often pre order your choice, which effectively does guarantee that you get the choice you want, but even then, remember, we cannot be perfect 100% of the time.

Once breakfast is over we’ll be close to top of descent, which basically means we’ve reached the highest we are ever going to get on our flight. This means that at top of descent it’s time to start….descending J You might feel a change in the pressure in your ears when this happens. Crew are very attuned to feeling this, and can be in the middle of a conversation in the galley and all stop talking when they feel top of descent and immediately start branching off to go and get the cabin ready for landing. A lot needs to be done during this time – usually less than 45 minutes total – like tidying the cabin, putting everything away in the galley, emptying the ovens, securing every single latch in the galley and throughout the cabin, getting all the passengers to bring their seats upright, opening all the window shades, making sure all passengers have their seatbelts on and all bags are stowed away. Plus so much more. I told you it was a busy time!

After landing I often get people remarking, as they are walking past me and disembarking, that the plane looks like a pigs sty. It is true, it looks like a war zone – it’s amazing how much mess people make over the course of 14 hours. Paper, magazines, blankets, lolly and chocolate wrappers, pillows, headsets and sick bags litter the floor and seats. Really disgusting passengers leave food (often crushed up and ground into or stuck to the carpet or staining the seat), used tissues, dirty socks and dirty nappies on the floor, their seats and in the seat pockets. Even though the crew don’t clean the aircraft after you’ve left, we still hate those disgusting passengers. And I bet the cleaning staff hate them even more! Just something to remember next time you fly.

A great part of being crew in international destinations is that we often get to skip the lengthy queues wherever we have landed and come through the crew lanes at customs and immigration. It’s not a five second process but it is still quicker than the places passengers have to line up! At some airports the ground staff even fetch our bags off the carousel for us and have them waiting for us at a pre designated spot. It’s lovely (shout out to the great people who work at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and do this!).

After all this we get on a bus and are taken to our hotel. In every city the hotel is a different distance away from the airport. I regularly travel nearly an hour in the bus to the hotel at one of our destinations. Some are as close as fifteen minutes away. But even on those fifteen minute drives the crew often fall asleep during the ride and have to be shaken awake to get off and go and check in. I told you it’s a long and tiring work day!

 

 

All the crew are different in their landing day routines. Some get to their hotel room and go straight to sleep. Some force themselves to stay awake and only go to sleep when it gets dark. This can be hard, but it’s usually worth it as then you can sleep really well that night, like everyone else in that city, and get up at a reasonable time the next day. I personally hate being awake all night and then sleeping all day. What a waste. So I regularly head out and grab a coffee and go shopping or go and get something to eat and force myself to stay awake and only go to bed when the locals go to bed. I feel like I can make the most of my time in whatever city I am in then, instead of missing out on it all by sleeping during daylight hours.



 

Crew are given a cash allowance upon arrival at the hotel which is used for whatever you want. A lot of crew save this money and live off it when they are home, which is a top idea. It means you can keep your regular salary in the bank and not have to touch it often. Other crew spend every single cent of it on going out, drinking, eating, shopping and sightseeing, which is cool too. I do a little of both, reigning in my spending when I have something coming up I need to pay for (for example, for the last four or five months I’ve been saving anywhere between $10 and $150 of my allowance from every trip and recently counted it all up – it was more than $1000 towards my next holiday!).

Don't worry, I didn't drink it all

Crew get out and about and do a lot of things on their layovers. But everyone is different. Some crew are parents, and their layover time is their quiet time away from their kids, so they simply stay in their room and catch up on their sleep or watch their favourite TV show. Some crew go road tripping to other cities and countries if the layover is long enough to make it worth it. Some crew go to NBA and NFL games, museums, theme parks and adventure sports. Every crew member is different.

 

A day or two later usually, it’s time to go home again, and we board that bus back to the airport and go through the same routine described above to get home. It’s a nice feeling landing back in Australia, knowing you can see your family and friends again, and sleep in your own bed in comfortable surroundings. Nothing beats your own bed.



 

I hope this entry has been a bit of an insight into the life of a flight attendant for you all. Sorry it was so long! If you have any questions or want to know any more, please leave me a comment, or ask me on Twitter @Brindabella24 or Instagram @brindabella24 !

Your friendly flight attendant,

Jorgs

A Day in the Life of an International Flight Attendant – Part 1: The Commute

My flight attendant related posts seem to be proving popular if I go by the amount of views I’m getting, so I thought I would continue this trend and answer all the questions I get asked about my job and what it’s like day to day in two big blog posts.

I’m a little different from most international flight attendants in that I don’t live in my base city, and instead live in another city and then commute. For me home is Perth in Western Australia and my working base is Sydney, New South Wales, a stunning 4000km, or a 4 hour flight, apart. When I first started flying internationally I did live in Sydney, and logistically, it was infinitely easier, as I could be home from the airport after a trip and be in bed within 30 minutes. Ah…heaven. Now, I get on the terminal transfer bus with many of the passengers I have just served breakfast to only a few hours earlier, and wait for a plane home to Perth. I get ‘home’ hours after all my colleagues, but this is now the way I prefer it. Sure, it’s a pain in the ass travelling so far just for work – and no, my company does not pay for me to travel between Sydney and Perth and vice versa. It comes out of my own pocket – but living in Sydney proved too expensive for me, plus I missed my family and friends and my home town too much. So after almost 2 years living in Sydney I moved back to Perth and became a commuter.

Commuting to your home base is actually quite common for flight attendants in the US and UK. And it is now becoming a bit more common in Australia I think. I work with many crew who have shunned Sydney’s high rental and property prices for life with their families on the Gold Coast in Queensland or NSW’s Central Coast, going back to the suburbs they grew up in. Sydney is a great place, but it’s fast and hectic and expensive. It’s fun and glamourous and there is always something to do and see, and there is also plenty to see and do in other Australian capital and regional cities. It’s why I feel just as content in Perth as I did in Sydney.

(Side note: crew don’t just commute from other places in Australia by the way. I have met crew who commute from South Africa, Japan, Fiji and Los Angeles, just to name a few!)

ANYWAY. This means this ‘day in the life’ blog will actually be ‘two days in the life’ of a flight attendant, as when I have a trip I always fly to Sydney the day before, spend the night somewhere and then go to work the next day. This helps with fatigue management – which is very important as cabin crew – and while not ideal, as I am giving up my days off in order to fly to Sydney the day before I need to work, it has proved the least stressful way to do it.

As always, I fly standby between my home city and my base city, which means nine times out of ten I am squashed into a middle seat in the last few rows of the plane. This is not that bad really, as I am so, so, so used to air travel now, and it is a sacrifice I am willing to make anyway, in order to live in Perth. I don’t get upgraded to business, in case that was the next question about the roll off your lips. Sometimes I can request to sit in the cockpit with the pilots, which is awesome and the coolest opportunity I will never tire of or say no to, but it is usually because there are absolutely no seats left in the cabin and I must sit in the cockpit on a hard jump seat for four hours if I want to get to my destination at all that day.

I usually arrive in Sydney late afternoon or at dinner time, and to save money I usually try to walk to my accommodation. If it is too far to walk, I catch trains and buses, and stay at hostels, or commuter houses. Commuter houses are a new thing to me, and I have only started staying at them in the last few months. They are commonly called crash pads in the US, and they are, at least in Australia, just houses converted into a whole bunch of rooms that crew can pay for by the night. The ones I have stayed in are nothing special but definitely adequate enough, with en suite, air con and a TV, plus the use of all the house’s facilities – kitchen, laundry and backyard. I can’t complain – and the crash pads have the added bonus of being able to check in at 8am if I need to, which you could not do in a hotel.

It’s nice to get a good night’s sleep before my trip so that I am ready and raring to go for what is always a long day at work. I only fly long haul trips, so every trip is at least a fourteen hour flight. These flights can be crazy busy, so I need to be ready, physically and mentally to handle it all with my crew.

Stay tuned for the next part of this entry, where I will go into detail about a day in the life of a flight attendant – before take-off, during the flight and after landing.

Jorgs

Which Bunk? Sydney Harbour YHA, Sydney, Australia

Since this blog is primarily about travel, and in particular budget travel, I thought I would begin a series of entries about hostels and my reviews of them.

When I first started travelling the globe  on my own dime when I was 22, I had just finished university and though I had worked three jobs to buy my round the world ticket and fund my overseas adventures, I still was by no means rich. So I decided that I would, for the majority of my time away, bunk down in hostels to save some dough. By now, at age 28, I have stayed in close to forty hostels all over Australia and the world and can definitely tell you a thing or two about #hostellife.

 

Yup, that's me!

And so begins the first in what I hope is a very long and ever returning series of blog posts I have decided to title ‘Which Bunk?’. Today’s entry will be about one of my favourite hostels in Australia – Sydney Harbour YHA (check out their official page at http://www.yha.com.au/hostels/nsw/sydney-surrounds/sydney-harbour/ )

I have stayed at this hostel at least a dozen times over the years, and now, as a commuter, whenever I want to be near the pulsing heart of Sydney, I book myself in here the night before I jet off on a trip for work. The location of the Sydney Harbour YHA – on Cumberland Street in The Rocks, Sydney’s historic maritime heaven of a suburb - could not be more perfect. It is so close to the harbour you can practically feel the chug chug chugging of the ferries and the pittering pattering nerves of the bridge climbers in your bones. The location is simply top notch.

A first timer to this hostel might see on a map that it is incredibly close to Circular Quay Station and think it’s even more perfect than it looks online. This is one point I have to warn my readers of though – it is close to Circular Quay train station, and for the budget savvy traveller this is ultra-convenient, especially with the tourist friendly train network that Sydney has, but one thing I want you to remember is that The Rocks is hilly. Not just hilly, but full of stairs. Old, steep, wheeze inducing stairs. And the rest of it is intricately paved, cobblestone-y streets. It’s the most beautiful suburb but let me tell you from experience, lugging a 25kg suitcase up those stairs – which you will do if you walk from Circular Quay station to the hostel – is no fun. Alternatively you can walk from Wynyard station, which has less stairs but just as many hills.

But upon arrival all your grunting and huffing and puffing up the stairs will be worth it when you see what a gem this hostel is. Open only since 2009, the hostel is still new enough to sparkle, and everything is in good working order, modern and not worn down by decades of travelling folk using and abusing its facilities.

The hostel is set a top an archaeological dig site, so wave hello to the children on school excursions that you will undoubtedly see almost any day of the week. Head on inside and rejoice at the sight of a lift – only true backpackers can understand the heavenly luxury of having a lift in your hostel! – and then, on the first level an airy and open reception area that branches off into a massive kitchen and dining area. On another branch on this floor you can also find toilets and showers (a god send for those who need them before you’re allowed to check in or after you’ve already checked out), a room full of lockers of varying sizes for hire and walls upon walls upon walls of brochures and information every backpacker will want to have a scan over.

But let’s get down to the nitty gritty shall we? You want to know if the rooms have bed bugs and if the bathrooms are clean and if this is a party hostel or not right? Well the answers to those questions are no, yes and no, in that order. This hostel is pretttttyyyy big, so accommodates large groups as well as solo travellers. It is not uncommon to come across school groups, girl guides and big families. Since the ages of guests staying here varies so much, Sydney Harbour YHA is not really a party hostel. It’s pretty tame and relatively quiet (unless you get those school groups screeching around in the hallway outside your dorm late at night, which does happen) and if you’re looking for fun wild times with your dorm mates, I’d head down to Bondi or somewhere instead.

You can book a variety of sizes of rooms, but I have only stayed in 4 bed or 6 bed dorms myself. These are pretty spacious, and each bed comes with its own locker (easily big enough for even the biggest of suitcases/backpacks AND with a power outlet inside so you can charge your phone or camera without worrying it’s going to be stolen) and a little lamp and power outlet right next to your pillow. The best part though, is that all rooms have their own private bathroom. This isn’t anything grand or huge, but it still means you don’t have to leave your dorm and tramp down the hall or to another floor entirely to use the loo or have a shower. And again, because this hostel is so new the bathrooms aren’t grotty. Think glass walled showers and enough hooks and rails on the walls for everyone.

The six bed dorm - the other bunk is just out of
shot to the right

 

I have never come across bedbugs at any hostels I’ve stayed at (thank god!), but I do believe by 2015 most hostels have stamped them out with the forbidding of the use of sleeping bags, and by upping the prices of your stay so that they can afford to provide you with newer linens and mattresses. A few fellow backpackers have told me of places they’ve stayed that had bed bugs and I have always found these to be in out of the way places, old and very, very cheap. If the price for a bed in a hostel dorm seems to be too good and too cheap to be true…well, there’s a reason for that. Get my drift?

Also on offer at Sydney Harbour YHA is a previously mentioned kitchen – well equipped and organised (and with a free food fridge – every poor travellers favourite thing!), internet, laundry facilities and a TV room. By far the best part though (along with the in dorm bathrooms and killer location of course) is the roof top terrace. Head on up here and relax on a sun lounge, eat your breakfast or dinner at one of the picnic tables or simply stand at the railing and take in the stunning view. Both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge are visible from the rooftop (yes there’s a reason they sell New Years Eve packages at this hostel!) and it’s almost as good as walking the miniscule five minutes down those stairs again and seeing these famous feats of architecture up even closer!

 

So backpacker friends, this hostel gets 5 stars from moi. It is so close to so many of Sydney’s attractions, the facilities the hostel provides are of a very high standard and there are no bedbugs. What more could you ask for? It may cost you a bit more per night than other hostels in Sydney, but let me tell you, there are no cockroaches in the showers (unlike SOME Sydney hostels!) so it’s worth it.

 

Have you ever stayed here? Leave a comment and let me know! Don't forget you can follow me on Instagram @brindabella24 and Twitter @Brindabella24 !

Jorgs
 

PS - while you're at this hostel, walk the 3 blocks
towards the harbour and get some pancakes from
Pancakes On The Rocks - they're amaze!

How to avoid feeling like death after a long haul flight

Good evening everyone!

I have had a few requests re what to write about on my blog here, so now that I have some time off I thought I would knuckle down and get writing and fulfil some of these! One of these requests was tips for flying, and so this blog entry was born…

1 Be prepared. There is absolutely nothing wrong with starting your packing a week before your trip begins. There is also nothing wrong with starting it the day you’re going to fly out, but I personally lean more towards the week before thing (and this is half because I am hyper organised by nature and half because I’m too excited for my holiday that I just can’t wait to get packing and go!)

2 Make sure you pack everything you think you will need during the flight into your carry on. Think really hard. Make a list if you need to. Some essentials I always have on my list include any medication, an empty water bottle that you can fill up post security but before boarding, a jumper/scarf/jacket/even your own little blanket if you have one (because even with the cabin temperature set at what is usually quite a comfortable 23 degrees Celsius, sitting still for 14 hours will make you cold, even in such a pleasant temperature), snacks, magazines, books, my iPhone/tablet/laptop, lip balm, moisturiser, tissues, socks, headphones, all my important travel documents, my passport and visas, my wallet, some home currency as well as some currency of the country I’m travelling to, my travel journal, sunglasses, toothbrush and toothpaste, hair brush, a clean change of underwear and a few pens.

3 I also always make sure my attire is comfortable for a long haul flight (and even for short haul flights!). I usually wear jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie, and after take-off I change into a much comfier pair of pants to sit out the flight in. Leggings or flowy yoga pants are ideal. You just need something flexible, stretchy and comfortable. One flight coming home from San Francisco I even changed into a pair of pyjama pants! No shame.

Your hoodie will keep you warm and you have your comfy t-shirt if you get too hot in your hoodie.

I always wear my runners on board long haul flights since they are the biggest and heaviest of all the shoes I usually take on my holiday, so I wear them on board to save room in my luggage. I usually take them off pretty soon after I board though. Just don’t be gross and rest your bare feet too close to another passenger, or worse, not wear your shoes to the bathroom. Seriously. Don’t go in there barefoot, or even with socks on. WEAR SHOES.

4 Moisturise, moisturise, moisturise! There is only one thing I will stress more than this, and we’ll come to that later. It is so, so, so, so, SO dry on planes. Your skin will get so weathered and leathery over the course of your flight. There is absolutely no need to wear make up on board a long haul flight. You’re not Miranda Kerr. The paps won’t be waiting for you at either end of your journey. Go bare faced and settle back and moisturise your hands and face (at least) with a good hydrating cream. I am also a big fan of Jurlique’s Rose Water Balancing Mist. It is a little pricey, but comes in a small or large bottle (the small bottle is the ideal size for travelling at 50ml), smells incredible and is good for those of us who are a bit lazy and don’t slap on an actual creamy moisturiser as often as we really should. I use it on my face several times per flight when I am working and it just gives me a little pick me up and makes my face not feel so haggard. Give it a go! (pro tip: if you are flying internationally you can buy it post security at duty free, where it will be cheaper than in regular stores!)

 

 

5 Drink water. And lots of it. This is the point I want to stress the most. I used to be so bad with water. I don’t like water much anyway as I find it pretty boring to drink, even with added lemon slices or powdered mixes I added to my bottle, and I used to barely drink any water during the flights that I worked as crew. Meanwhile I was drinking plenty of coke zero and apple juice and almost anything else I could get my hands on (fatty hot chocolate, lemonade, orange juice, smoothies from first class…). I know I know, bad flight attendant *slaps wrist*. I used to get to my hotel and have a nap and when I woke up I would always have a headache that wouldn’t go away til I had had a shower and something to eat and drink. Clearly my body was screaming at me. But I continued to not drink much water and every time I would wake up in my hotel bed with a headache. Every. Time. You’d think I’d learn, and finally, this year, I have. One flight I forced myself to drink 2 x 1.5 litre bottles of water and no caffeinated drinks at all, and when I woke up later in my hotel after the flight I had the clearest head ever and felt like I could’ve gone out and run a marathon. It was amazing! I felt so good. I tried it the next flight as well, just to see if the feeling was a one off, but it wasn’t. Now I force myself to drink three litres every flight and even though it’s annoying going to the toilet about eight times over the course of the flight, how much I feel better and how much clearer my skin is already makes it worth it! So drink drink drink!

6 Sleep. I tell my passengers this all the time. Try to get as much sleep as you possibly can. Of course this isn’t always possible, as some people just cannot sleep on aeroplanes (and who can blame them? Sleeping wasn’t meant to be done sitting upright!). Try to set your schedule up according to when you will depart and land. So for example if you are leaving your home town during the day, try to stay awake all night the night before so that you zonk out as soon as you sit down on board. You get what I mean. Just do the maths, avoid the caffeine and use whatever you have to to try to get some shut eye (sleeping tablets, herbal tea, eye shades, ear plugs…). Even if you can’t sleep, most of us have such crazy lives that we don’t even get the chance to sit back and not have anything to do for a few hours, so here and now, on board your international flight, is the time to do just that. Even just resting and watching a movie is sometimes almost as good as sleep.

I think that’s all the tips we have time for today. These are by far the most important anyway. I hope they help you out on board your next flight, and you step off in a new destination ready and raring to explore!

Your friendly flight attendant,

Jorgs

The Top Ten Most Common Questions Flight Attendants Get Asked

Well hellllloooo my dear readers! Sorry I've been away so long and not blogging for you all. As my favourite honourary flight attendant, Pam Ann would say, I've been busy busy busy sooooo busy! Christmas and New Year was mental with catching up with family and friends, and then I did two trips back to back in the first week of the year. Since then I have been to Dallas twice already, had a diversion and an extra night away from home and frankly I am still catching my breath! Catching my breath so much so in fact that I went over my legally allowed amount of hours I can work in a roster period and I was able to drop this week's trip to Dubai, so suddenly I have off nine glorious days! Can't tell you how much I need them - I am pooped. And I am so glad I have this time off to enjoy the beautiful Perth summer, watch endless hours of the Australian Open and do a little bit o' blogging!

So tonight on Facey I came across this amazing video that an awesome blogger/Facebook figure called Confessions of a Trolley Dolly posted (check them out at www.confessionsofatrolleydolly.com) and I simply MUST share it with you all as it just explains my own life as a long haul trolley dolly so bloody well, and also, well, it's just really really funny! So here it is...

http://youtu.be/0tqCxuZHHuQ

Video credit: ThatYoungGal

Watching this video totally inspired me to blog about the questions I most commonly get asked during my work day - questions I am asked every single trip, usually by multiple passengers. A few of my readers have also asked me to write more flight attendant related posts, so voila! Here are the top ten questions I get asked...

“So, do you do this route often?”

My roster is like a lottery. I have very little control over it. I could come to this city twice in a week or not be here for another four months.

“Is there wifi on this plane?”

No.

This is almost always followed by a blank look and a “But *insert competitor airline’s name here* does!”

Maybe you should’ve flown them then.

“So where do they put you up?”

Stranger danger. I’m not going to tell you, and if I do, I will be very, very vague, no matter how nice you seem. Too many flight attendants have been stalked by creepy passengers.

“Do you just fly international or do you do domestic routes as well?”

This one is extremely common. Pretty sure when I am away for five days out of seven in the week doing this trip we both find ourselves on right now, I wouldn’t have any time to also work any domestic routes as well. A girl’s gotta have some RDO’s!

“Do you get free flights?”

People automatically assume we get free flights. When you work at a bank do they give you free money? No. We get discounted flights. Say it with me: DISCOUNTED. NOT FREE. There is a big difference.

“Do you guys get to sleep on here?”

Yes. There are crew bunks on almost all large aircrafts – or at least crew seats where a curtain can be drawn across and the crew can hide from all you whinging passengers.

“How long do you get to stay here? A week?”

Please. The golden era of flying is over. No one gets a week anymore. We get anywhere between 24 and 72 hours in a layover city. Usually closer to the 24 hours end. As I like to say, just enough time to eat, sleep and shop.

“How do you open this toilet door?”

You push where it says push. No, the cigarette ashtray doesn’t open the door. JUST READ WHAT IT SAYS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE.

(Honestly, sometimes I think even if we wrote these things in neon flashing lights people still wouldn’t read them).

“Will I make my connection?”

I am not a wizard – I don’t know these things. If we’re super delayed, and you went to school for even just a few years, but were still dumb enough to book your connecting flight to be less than 2 hours later than this one, then you should be able to work out that no, you won’t make your connecting flight. But then you were dumb enough to leave almost no time between your two flights, so you won’t want to work it out and you’ll just ask every crew member you see the same question. Never fear though. We do not just dump you at the airport and leave you there forever if you miss your connection. We will put you on the next available flight. And yes, we do understand that flying is stressful, whether you are a seasoned flyer or a first or second timer. Making your connection is stressful. You don’t know where you’re going. You're in a hurry. You have a meeting/tour/funeral/wedding to get to. The weather has been a bitch today and delayed you right from the word go. You’re new to this. You feel out of your depth. We do understand. Still doesn’t mean I can tell you for certain whether you're going to make your connecting flight or not.

And finally the worst question of them all, the one that really grinds my (landing) gears is this…

*On arrival in Los Angeles from Sydney (a fourteen hour flight and sixteen hour total duty for me and my crew)*

“So, do you guys head straight back to Australia now?”

Take a second to look at the crew member you’re asking this to. Notice he or she looks like they’ve been hit by a bus. Their blazer or scarf may be a bit skewiff. They’re probably still wearing their cabin shoes because their feet hurt so much that they can’t bear to put their high heels back on for the walk through the terminal. Her makeup is at least 50% rubbed off her face. He has a five o'clock shadow. Her hair is a bit fly away. The whites of his or her eyes are now a bit pink. He or she has just handed out at least 300 hot meals, twice, tried to stay awake for HOURS in the galley while the rest of you were all sleeping out in the cabin as we flew across the ocean, has probably eaten all his or her meals today standing up and has been awake and in uncomfortable panty hose or a neck tie for almost an entire 24 hours now.

After you’ve looked at them and noticed all these things for surprisingly the first time, think now if in your job you would ever work for 32 hours straight.

No. We do not ‘turn around and go back now’. We go to a hotel and have a rest you silly people!

That's all for today diary readers! I will be back with more posts soon, I promise.

In the meantime I don't think I've ever told you all that you can follow me on Twitter @Brindabella24 and on Instagram @brindabella24 !

Jorgs