December Flying & Exams

It’s that time of the month again….roster time!

December this year has a not-so-nice little surprise on the cards – my yearly SEP exams!

We have to pass these recurrent exams once a year (held over 2 days) to keep our flying licenses valid, and somehow this year I’ve been lucky enough to be rostered them on the 24th and 25th of December. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!! That’s the downside of working for a muslim airline, I guess!

Looks like I’ll be celebrating Christmas in training college; I’ll have to take in some mince pies to make things a bit more festive!

Other than that I have flights to:

  • Singapore
  • San Fransisco (I was originally rostered Mauritius and Bangkok, but swapped those for San Fran to get extra days off before my leave)
  • Leave (where I have 2 special guests coming to stay for a few days – mum & dad!)
  • SEP exams
  • Paris
  • Paris

I’m trying to swap at least one of the Paris’ (seeing as I’ve also just been there, and 3 flights to the same place in a month can get a bit repetitive!) so I’ll see if I manage to change that.

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P.s. Follow me on Instagram & Twitter @rachelwwilson for more day to day updates of what’s happening in my life!

41 Comments

  1. Anonymous
    December 18, 2014 / 10:12 am

    hi Rachel,I followed you on Twitter and Instagram. I’m 17 years old and I’m writing to you from Mauritius. I dream of becoming a flight attendant but I don’t want to work for the national carrier as I’ve heard bad things about the airline and the crew. Above all there are only 3 airlines(Emirates,Eithad and Qatar) recruiting cabin crew and I’ve made my choice on Emirates.I want to know if you can give me some details on the assessment day, final interview and some tips on what should I do to maximise the chance of being selected?
    And when you”ll land in Mauritius let me know so that I can give you some good places to visit.
    Thanks 🙂

    • December 21, 2014 / 5:34 pm

      Hi there! Well to start you’ll have to wait a few years as they don’t recruit anyone aged under 21 🙂 Other than that check out my blog from quite near the beginning where I wrote all about my assessment day/interview etc. There’s probably quite a few blogs with more recent information as well! Fingers crossed I get another Mauritius trip soon 🙂

      • Anonymous
        December 23, 2014 / 12:54 am

        First of all, thank you very much for replying. 🙂 Yeah unfortunately Emirates don’t recruit cabin crew below the age of 21. I’m so delighted that I’ve been able to talk to a flight attendant for the first time as a friend rather than as a passenger. You know one day when I’ve been to the airport I saw an Emirates crew going through the passport control, I was starring at them wishing that I was one of them doing the passport control and boarding that big A380. To finish I’ve sent you a tweet on twitter so that you can let me know when you’re coming to Mauritius then I’ll tell you about the nice places you can go.
        I just hope one day I can fly with you.
        Thanks:-)

  2. Anonymous
    December 15, 2014 / 4:02 pm

    Do you know if emirates have ever hired anyone between 30 – 35 age

  3. Emma
    December 15, 2014 / 12:36 am

    Thats my comment above by the way forgot to add in my details ha

  4. Anonymous
    December 15, 2014 / 12:35 am

    Hi yes ive got the job but the training courses are full until mid february so they are keeping me on file for just know. Hoping I hear more news soon with training dates 🙂

  5. KvoStava
    December 13, 2014 / 4:40 pm

    How often do you have airport standby? What do you do when on standby? Do you still get paid for sitting even if they don’t assign you a trip?

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:32 pm

      I personally have only had it a couple of times! It’s generally for 4 hours, so you can read, play candy crush (haha!), listen to music, sleep (they have beds in the standby lounge I believe), check which flights are departing and panic about getting put on a lovely night turnaround… 😉 Anything you fancy really haha! Yep you get paid as it’s still counted as a duty.

  6. anonymous
    December 12, 2014 / 1:18 pm

    Hi rachael!
    Now that Naomi’s flatmate is moving home, will you move back in with her?
    Good luck

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:29 pm

      Hi! No, I moved so I could be closer to the city, and I’m in a great location now so I have no plans to move any time soon 🙂

  7. Emma
    December 10, 2014 / 10:17 pm

    Hi, love your blog. Just received my golden email today to say my application for cabin crew has been successful. So ive been reading our blog and now im getting excited. Just got to wait for some more news now 🙂

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:29 pm

      Congrats on the email 🙂 Does that mean you’ve got the job? Or that you still need to attend the assessment day?

  8. Francesca
    December 10, 2014 / 2:55 am

    Your blog is amazing!!I’m a cabin Crew too and it’s very nice sharing the same feeling …good and bad with someone who has the same lifestyle!!!!!Keep on going!!!I’ll cross you in the Sky!!!

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:28 pm

      Aw thanks for reading! I always wonder if there are other cabin crew who read my blog!! 🙂

  9. Petra
    December 9, 2014 / 3:25 pm

    Dear Rachel, I really like your blog, it is very nice and positive and i feel like traveling with you 🙂 But what happened with Joey? 🙂

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:27 pm

      Thanks for reading! Glad you like my blog 🙂 Joey and I broke up a while ago.

  10. December 7, 2014 / 6:42 pm

    Hi! really like your blog! I’m a crew member to be (joining in 2 months). I have one question: how long before do you need to book leave (3/4 days) and can you do it on your probation? I know you can’t take leave on probation, but can you still apply for when you will have got your wing? (I am planning to attend a wedding and I am considering whether this would be possible if it’s basicallyt straight after graduation :)! ) Thank you! Irene

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:26 pm

      Congrats on getting the job! 🙂 You book your leave once a year for the whole year, however you can try and change the dates every other month or so. Booking the tickets is different; you can book them a month, a week or a day before! If you’re flying on standby you won’t know until right before the flight if you’re on or not, so it doesn’t make much difference when you book them. You can take leave during probation (I went home for 10 days after about 5 months), and they are usually very helpful if you have a wedding 🙂

      • December 16, 2014 / 2:02 am

        That’s great, thank you very much! :)!!!

  11. Anonymous
    December 6, 2014 / 1:05 am

    Hi 🙂 can I contact you on mail or facebook? I need to ask you some questions about workin with emirates. Thanks a lot.

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:23 pm

      You can send me a direct message on Twitter if you like – I don’t have a Facebook page for the blog and I prefer not to give out my personal one 🙂

  12. shalini
    December 5, 2014 / 10:54 am

    Hey..amazing blog. I just want to ask you if you can show us your resume it’ll be really helpful.I am 17 and figuring out what should I do to get this job when I’ll be 21 or 22 like you did. Plzzz

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:22 pm

      HI, thanks for reading! The resume is not really the most important part – they’re looking for any customer service related job experience really. That could be anything from waitressing to working in a shop – anything you could do part time while still in school/uni!

  13. Mari Coetzee
    December 4, 2014 / 11:51 pm

    Will be thinking of you Christmas. Good luck with exams!

  14. Mixa
    December 4, 2014 / 7:51 pm

    What are the most common this that passengers ask from you when they are pressing that call button? Which ones are the most annoying? How does cabin crew rotate when answering them, can you somehow avoid it?

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:21 pm

      Usually they are asking for water/something to drink! Most annoying is when they press it by accident and it’s right at the front of the cabin, haha! We just take it in turns really!

  15. December 3, 2014 / 9:46 pm

    good luck with your exams. I love paris. I would o there 3 times in a month haha

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:20 pm

      Thank you 🙂 Haha ok it could be worse couldn’t it 😛

  16. Lisa
    December 3, 2014 / 6:25 pm

    Hope your Christmas isn’t too much of a damper with exams! haha. As always, thank you for your informative, updated blogs, and for being so responsive to the comments we leave(: Wondering if you could maybe do a blog post on your beauty regime/products you use? I just got my “joining formalities in progress” update today and am skipping a few steps and thinking of what to stock up on before moving to Dubai, as I heard make up could be expensive! Any tips on products would be great since god knows what flying does to our skin! Safe flights xx

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:19 pm

      Fingers crossed I pass all my exams, then Christmas won’t be too awful haha! Sure, I’ll definitely do that, although I have to admit I’m terrible at keeping up any sort of routine when it comes to beauty! Congrats on getting the job!

  17. Anonymous
    December 2, 2014 / 7:43 am

    You should try to get Boston!

    • December 14, 2014 / 6:18 pm

      I would absolutely love to! However we fly there on the 777 (which I rarely fly on any more!) so I don’t think I’ll be getting a trip there any time soon 🙁

  18. Anonymous
    December 2, 2014 / 1:37 am

    i asked you a question on your previous blog but you didn’t asnwer it, so ill ask again.

    say for instince you have a flight to vienna, and its one of those 3 day flights, so you decide you want to spend those 3 days with your family, how would it work out? would you have to go to the hotel first, pick up your allowance and then be allowed to go home for the three days and spend the nights with your family, or do you have to spend the three nights in the hotel that your crew is staying in?

    • Lusy
      December 2, 2014 / 2:33 am

      She actually did reply to it. You dont have to be so mean and pushy.

  19. gabrielseed
    December 2, 2014 / 12:23 am

    Good luck with your exams!

  20. Anonymous
    December 1, 2014 / 11:48 pm

    Looks like an interesting roster ! How many hours are you staying in each city?

    • December 2, 2014 / 1:50 am

      I guess it’s ok – was hoping for somewhere new though! 24 hours for all except San Fran which is 48 hours! 🙂

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