48 Hours in Phuket

I was lucky enough to be rostered a dreamy trip to Phuket this month. Most of our layovers are 24 hours, and a few of the longer US flights are 48 hours. However, sometimes there are these lucky occasions where you manage to get a 48 hour layover for a quick and easy 6 hour flight!

And when I say easy…it really was! We had 4 passengers in business class (with a capacity of 42 on the 777) so we were practically fighting to take them their meals, just to have something to do! We flew overnight, so after dinner they went to sleep, and we kept ourselves awake with cups of tea and coffee.

Once sunrise arrived, we started our approach into Phuket, admiring the gorgeous scenery below.

img_6245

Unfortunately the 777 door windows are not quite as photogenic as those on the A380, haha! Nevertheless it was still a pretty view of the beaches and islands.

img_6253

View Post

Breakfast in Dubai, Lunch in Melbourne, Dinner in Auckland

I’ve just got back from a 6 day trip down under – a night in Melbourne, quick hop to Auckland for 24 hours, then back to Melbourne for another day. The last time I did this trip was back in January, when I got it on my reserve month. I normally tend to avoid multi-sectors as I always end up a bit jet-lagged, but I couldn’t say no this time as I was going to see my cousin Sarah!

She was away in New York on exchange last time I came to Melbourne, but luckily this time around she managed to get some time off work so we could hang out!

The trip over was nice and uneventful, and after a 12,5 hour flight we landed into Melbourne at around 6am.

img_6069

I headed to bed for a couple of hours, and soon enough it was time to get ready to meet Sarah for some late breakfast. It was a pretty grey and miserable day, 12 degrees and a drizzle of rain. Just what I needed after a constant 40 degrees in Dubai!

img_6075 View Post

A Layover in Lahore

Who would have thought that when I stepped on the plane to go to Lahore, Pakistan and back, I wouldn’t be coming home until more than 24 hours later!

As I mentioned in my roster post of August, it was supposed to be a quick trip to LHE and back. The flight is around 3 hours each way, so not too long but still sufficient time to do the service. We had a full cabin in business class so we were busy, but since we departed Dubai around 3am, plenty of the passengers chose to sleep and didn’t have breakfast.

As we were approaching Lahore, the captain made a PA that the weather was very bad, thunderstorms and lots of rain around the area of the airport. Amongst the crew we made jokes that we would be turning around and going back to Dubai instead of landing….if only we knew what was to come!

Shortly after the purser informed us all that instead of landing in LHE, we would be diverting to MUX (Multan, another city in Pakistan around 30 mins flight time from LHE). The captain also made another announcement to inform all of our passengers, who of course were not very pleased!

Once we landed in Multan, we had no idea how long we would be staying on ground or if the passengers would be offloaded there. We ended up serving so much tea and coffee in business class that we ran out of cups! Luckily after around an hour on ground the weather had improved slightly and we were ready to head back to LHE. The flight was less than 30 minutes and we stayed strapped in to our jump seats the whole time, so at least we finally got to sit down for a moment!

After disembarkation, what usually happens on a turnaround is that the cleaners come on, and we prepare the galley and cabin for the return sector. This means unloading all the unused meals from the ovens and loading the new ones, preparing the seats with blankets, headsets, water bottles, menus, etc. After that we start our safety and security search. We didn’t even get the chance to start the security search before the purser made a PA for everyone to come to the front….

We were no longer legal to fly back to Dubai, as our duty had started in the middle of the night and we now had been on the aircraft for too long. That meant we would have to stay in Lahore! None of us were particularly pleased about that to be perfectly honest, as we all had plans for the day ahead. Our captain liaised with the ground staff for a hotel to be organised for us, and we waited around in the airport for a while whilst everything got sorted. Unfortunately we had one Indian crew member with us who wasn’t allowed to enter Pakistan, so she had to stay in an airport lounge for the next 10 hours (in uniform!) while we headed off to the hotel.

IMG_5907

The weather looked just like an English summer…rain, rain and more rain!

IMG_5910

View Post

September Roster

I’m sure I said the same last month, but where on earth has this year gone?! It’s just flown by, and it’ll be Christmas before we know it!

But before that, I’ve got some flights to do, so without further ado here is my roster for September.

  • SKT (Sialkot, Pakistan – turnaround)
  • MEL – AKL (Melbourne, Australia – Auckland, New Zealand & then back to Melbourne)
  • FCO (Rome, Italy)
  • HKT (Phuket, Thailand)
  • DOH (Doha, Qatar – turnaround)
  • SYD (Sydney, Australia)

Two quick turnarounds, although maybe someone will be kind enough to take the first one and give me a day off?! Unlikely but you never know! 😀

The MEL – AKL trip is over 6 days and even though I usually don’t like long multi sector trips I’m very happy with this one as I’ll get to see my cousin Sarah who lives in Melbourne. I’m also hoping she’ll be able to accompany me on the layover to Auckland, which should be fun.

Then I’m heading back to Rome, one of my favourite cities in Italy, where I’ll be indulging in plenty of pasta and gelato!

After that I’m lucky enough to have been rostered a 48 hour layover in Phuket! Normally almost all of our layovers (other than west coast US) are just 24 hours, so I was very pleasantly surprised to see that on my roster.

Then another quick turnaround to Doha – this is one of the shortest flights we have at around 50 minutes each way, so it’s a quick afternoon’s work back in time for dinner!

At the end of the month I’ll be heading off to Sydney, a direct flight there and back with a 30 hour layover. I was rostered a London but swapped with my friend Sally so she could have some extra days off after her leave and I can see my grandparents who I haven’t seen in far too long. Win-win situation!

P.s. Follow me on Instagram & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂

Amsterdam in the sunshine

If you read my August roster post, you would have seen that I was rostered to fly to LHR this month. Since I went home for 5 days at the end of June, and the timings of the Heathrow flight weren’t ideal to go home, when I was sent a swap for Amsterdam, I decided to accept it! It also meant I could have a lie-in before the flight… 😉

We landed into Amsterdam early evening, and were greeted by the most beautiful sunset. I felt like we deserved it after a very hectic full flight!

IMG_5695

Once we got to the hotel a group of us met downstairs in the restaurant for dinner, and discussed plans for the next day. I’ve been to Amsterdam plenty of times (including before working for Emirates) so I wasn’t particularly fussed about doing much. However the weather forecast looked great and it’s a shame not to enjoy European summer whilst it lasts, so we made plans to head to the city in the morning.

6 of us took the train into the city, and after a short ride were ready to do some exploring! Out of all of the others, I think there was only 1 other person who’d been before, so as you can imagine everyone was stopping to take pictures every few metres. Myself and one of the lovely girls from economy, Sarah (who also reads my blog – yay!) split off and made our way through the windy streets.

IMG_5706

View Post