The Dubai Diaries
My life as a flight attendant in the Middle East!

June & July Roster

Well, here we again with another roster post. Somehow this year is just flying by and I’m barely finding the time to update my blog, although I do miss writing here! If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen where I went in June, as I only had two flights and then went on leave.

  • LAX – Los Angeles, USA
  • IAD – Washington D.C., USA
  • Annual Leave

Although I only had two flights, they were both long ones to the US, which meant good flying hours (= good pay!) so I was happy about that. Restrictions have started to finally ease and we are now allowed out on some of our layovers, so whilst I only made it as far as In-N-Out Burger on my trip to LA, in Washington I was able to get out and about for some much awaited exploring. 

Mask rules have also relaxed in the US so it was a breath of fresh air (literally!) not having to wear a mask at all. Obviously I’m fully vaccinated but this hasn’t really meant much has changed at all in Dubai, we still have to wear masks at all times including whilst outdoors – not so fun in the 45°C heat! 

On my Washington layover we took a trip to the Great Falls in Virginia, which was an awesome day out. It felt so good to be back in nature and I loved all of the greenery. I’ll try to post about that here ASAP!

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May Roster & An Update

Well hello there – and welcome back to my blog! It’s certainly been a while since I’ve updated anything on here, and this will be my first post of 2021, oops! I never meant to go so quiet, but as you can imagine, I’ve not been flying very much. Slowly things are starting to pick up and I’m seeing more and more flights on my roster, but since we are still not allowed to leave the hotel on our layovers, I don’t have a whole lot to update you on!

Flights are gradually getting back to normal, although we still have to wear our full PPE (mask, gloves, gown and visor) and of course passengers still have to wear a mask. More destinations are opening up though which is a great sign, and I’m hopefully that eventually things will get back to normal. Let me tell you, I’ll never spend another layover in my hotel room again!

Believe it or not, this month I have an *almost* normal roster – quite a few flying hours, which makes for a nice change. Especially since we get paid depending on how much we fly; it’s been over a year since a normal salary.

So if everything goes to plan and no flights get removed (fingers crossed!) in May I’ll be heading to:

  • JFK – New York, USA
  • AMM – Amman, Jordan (turnaround)
  • HAM – Hamburg, Germany
  • BP – Business Promotion Event
  • DMM – Dammam, Saudi Arabia (turnaround)
  • LUN-HRE – Lusaka, Zambia – Harare, Zimbabwe
  • IKA – Tehran, Iran

I was actually quite excited when I got my roster, as whilst I have been flying a fair amount the past few months, this is the busiest roster I’ve seen since the pandemic!

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February Roster

Another month, another roster! January is already flying by, and it’s been a fairly uneventful month so far. I did say I would try to make the most of my layovers, but most of them have been spent alternating between sleeping, working out and drinking lots of coffee!

Let’s see where next month will take me:

  • STN – London Stansted, UK
  • VIE – Vienna, Austria
  • BHX – Birmingham, UK
  • KHI – Karachi, Pakistan (turnaround)
  • FRA – Frankfurt, Germany
  • MLE – Male, Maldives (turnaround)
  • RUH – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (turnaround)
  • KUL – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • BP – Business Promotion
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First up is a trip home, which I’m very happy about! The only one of my bids that I got, and although I would have loved 2 Stansteds, I’m still grateful I get to go home and see my parents.

Following on from that is a flight to Vienna – I did bid for this in December to go and see the Christmas markets, but perhaps this time there will be some snow.

Straight after is Birmingham, which I’ve only visited once. I have been to Stratford-upon-Avon which is nearby; a beautiful quaint English town which happens to be the birthplace of Shakespeare! Highly recommended for a day trip.

Next up will be a turnaround to Karachi and back. I haven’t done this flight in a while as it is two-class, i.e. no first class, so I wasn’t rostered it while I was working in first class.

Then I have a flight to Frankfurt, which I have visited plenty of times in the past. I’m not sure what I’ll do there, as I expect it’ll be pretty chilly!

I’ve then been rostered two more turnarounds, to Male and Riyadh. Male is one of the longest turnarounds we have and it’s a pretty tiring one, as you fly through the night. The pilots also get to stay in the Maldives for 24 hours while we just go there and back! 

My last flight of February will be to Kuala Lumpur. I was actually rostered this flight in January as well, however swapped it for a quick trip to Milan. So I’m hoping for a nice flight to KL next month with some delicious street food! Someone has sent me a swap for Phnom Penh – which one would you take?

Lastly is a business promotion event – I haven’t done one of these since I started the cabin supervisor pool, so I’m very excited! I should find out soon which event I’ll be representing the company at.

So even though February is the shortest month of the year, somehow I have a very busy roster with 8 flights and a BP event! Let’s hope it’s a good one 🙂

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