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

Reserve month is over!

I survived my reserve month! As you may know I was scheduled reserve in January (and the beginning of February), which means you are pretty much on standby every day until you check your roster at 6pm. Then you’ll know if the next day is going to be a day off, a flight, or a standby duty. I was pretty much only rostered standby duties and put on a flight from there.

My first day of reserve I had airport standby, and before I even arrived I could see a turnaround to Bombay on my roster! Other than that quick overnight turnaround I was only rostered layovers, so I got pretty lucky really!

I ended up in:

  • Madrid
  • Melbourne – Auckland
  • Beijing
  • Boston

I guess now I’m writing it down that doesn’t seem like many flights, but the trip to Melbourne and Auckland is a 6 day trip so that took up a nice chunk of my roster.

Before that I’d had a few days off, and somehow I managed to get a rather nasty bout of food poisoning! I’m not sure what it was from but I had to call sick for 3 days, and I try not to call sick if I can avoid it. However this time I definitely needed some time to recover!

My trip to Beijing was pretty uneventful, although it was a 30 hour layover it was absolutely freezing (-1 degree!) and I had been on airport standby when I was put on it. It’s very hard to pack for airport standby as you could end up anywhere! Especially this time of year where it’s winter in most places, you need to pack for any type of weather and any length of trip. Luckily I’d packed a coat and I’ve been to see the Great Wall before so it’s not like I was missing out.

Boston was a nice surprise, as I’d never been there before. If you didn’t catch it, my last post was all about my snowy layover there!

After all that my reserve month was over! I got pretty lucky with my flights to be honest, and some good flying hours which means my salary won’t be suffering either, haha!

I then had a trip to Houston, where we visited a great Mexican restaurant, and did some shopping at the giant mall there. (As if we can’t get enough shopping in Dubai!)

After my trip to Houston, my best friend Lucy came to visit me in Dubai! This was the first time she’d been to Dubai, so we made sure to visit all of the usual attractions, and then spent a couple of days relaxing in a lovely hotel in Fujairah. Now I’ve got a couple more days off to relax at home before it’s back to work for me!

 

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

February Roster

It’s that time of the month again…it seems the first month of 2016 has flown by and I’ve already got my roster for February.

I’m still on reserve at the moment, and I’ve already had a turnaround to Bombay, a trip to Madrid (including lots of tapas!) and a 6 day trip to Melbourne and Auckland. I hope you enjoyed the pictures from that trip, where I explored a lovely little town called Devonport, just a 10 minute ferry ride away from Auckland.

My reserve continues until the 10th of February, and after that I’ll be heading to:

  • SFO (San Fransisco)
  • Leave (my best fried Lucy is coming to visit!)
  • BOM (Bombay turnaround)
  • DUS (Dusseldorf)

I’ve actually never been to Dusseldorf before, so that’ll be another magnet to add to the collection! I’m trying to swap my San Fran for something else at the moment (a Sydney would be nice, so I could go and see my grandparents) but we’ll see where I end up.

Don’t forget you can follow me on instagram, where I post more frequently. That way you’ll know which trips I end up getting on my reserve month!

 

January Roster

Hi guys!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas & New Year. I certainly did; I spent my Christmas in Mauritius which was absolutely lovely, and I will post some pictures up on here asap.

I usually post my roster at the end of the month, but since I was so busy with Christmas and then flying straight after my leave, I just haven’t got round to it.

This month I’ve already done my first flight – a trip to LHR. I had a lovely layover at my parent’s house, where mum cooked a delicious roast dinner!

My next flight is to WAW – Warsaw in Poland. I’m very excited as it’s somewhere I’ve never been before and I love exploring new destinations. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to put some pictures up on here! If you have any tips or must-do’s, please do share.

And after that…I’m on reserve!

Finally after over 3 years in the company it’s caught up with me and I’ll be checking my roster everyday at 6pm to see where I’ll end up the next day.

Somehow I’ve managed to avoid getting reserve the whole time I’ve been here (usually by scheduling my leave during my supposed reserve month) but the bidding system has changed which means it’s my turn to play the waiting game all month. It’ll be interesting to see where I end up; I’m hoping for at least one long-haul flight to get my hours up and hopefully a couple of nice layovers!

So that’s it I’m afraid – not a very exciting roster this month, but you never know, I could end up in a totally new destination 🙂

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

December Roster

It’s that time of the month again…my December roster has been published! It was my “bottom bid” this month, so I wasn’t expecting too much.

In fact I really should be studying for my upcoming exams but instead I’m procrastinating and writing my blog!

In December I’ll be heading to:

  • ATH (Athens turnaround – a very long day!)
  • SEP (2 full days of Safety & Emergency procedures – my yearly exams)
  • BOM (Bombay turnaround)
  • MUC (Munich – can’t wait for the Christmas market!)
  • MAN (I was rostered Jakarta originally, but swapped for Manchester to get some Christmas shopping done!)
  • 5 days leave (just before Christmas, plus a few days off before my leave officially starts)
  • CPH (Copenhagen – on Christmas Day, which I am desperately trying to swap!!)
  • HKG (Hong Kong)

So a couple of turnarounds, and a few of the usual destinations. Munich should be lovely this time of year, I’m hoping for some snow. As my brother Matt lives there (and he does;t have university on the day I’m there) we’ll go to see the Christmas markets which should be very pretty.

I will most likely be heading to Mauritius on my leave (again!) and am sending hundreds of swaps to get rid of my Copenhagen so I can at least have Christmas Day off….I’ll keep you posted!

For now, it’s back to the books, wish me luck in my exams! 🙂

EDIT: Within about half an hour of posting this, someone accepted one of my many swaps!

Instead of heading to Copenhagen and Hong Kong, I’ll now be doing a quick KWI (Kuwait turnaround) which gives me Christmas off, and then heading to ALG (Algiers) for a 48 hour layover. I’d love any tips, as it will be my first time there! 🙂

November Roster

My November roster has been published, and it was my “top bid”, which means my group is the highest in seniority for bidding.

We did have a new bidding system roll into place this month, so I think that may be why I didn’t get everything I bid for!

In November (which by the way – where has this year gone?!) I’ll be heading to:

  • VIE (Vienna – originally I was rostered Manchester but someone sent me a swap for Vienna, of course I accepted straight away!)
  • 6 days off (to attend a wedding of friends in Mauritius, yay!)
  • AMS (Amsterdam)
  • LGW (London Gatwick)
  • PVG (Shanghai)
  • HKG (Hong Kong)
  • HKG (Hong Kong)

These are all subject to change as I may get sent some swaps or send some myself, I’ll keep you updated!

I did also bid for Orlando and Bologna, but all of the above flights are A380 flights (except Vienna) so it looks like the rostering system didn’t want to give me any 777. Shame, would have been nice to see some new destinations!

I bid for HKG to go and see my ex-flatmate Kirsty who lives there now, so I’m very excited to finally be able to catch up with her as I haven’t seen her since her wedding in August!

Do let me know if you have any requests for posts – my Macbook battery has been playing up a lot recently and I fear it may need to be replaced, which is why I haven’t been able to post as much recently.

Thanks to everyone who follows my blog and leaves me lovely comments on each posts, it’s really appreciated! 🙂

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