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