A day in the life: Flying High

So I thought it might be fun to do another “day in the life” type of post, something a little bit different here on my blog.

I’m currently in Singapore, and since this flight is the freshest in my memory, I thought I’d write all about it! Who knows, maybe it won’t be as interesting as some of my other posts, but here goes!

The flight departure time is scheduled for 03:05, which means I need to check in 2 hours early, at 01:05 in the morning. Not ideal timing, but luckily I manage a few hours nap beforehand. Since I’ve literally just moved apartments, my things are all over the place and I’ve packed a random jumble of clothes and hope I have something that goes together for the layover!

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Once my make-up and hair are all done (over the past few months I’ve gradually started wearing less and less make-up on flights so this only takes me 20 mins max) and my uniform is ironed, I get on the crew bus which stops right outside my building. I arrive just as my e-gate is opening so don’t need to sit around, and can go straight to the briefing room.

Once inside, all our documents are checked, along with our uniform and grooming. We also get asked a “safe-talk” question, which could be anything from safety and emergency procedures, to how to deal with certain medical incidents.

The purser and 3 senior flight stewards introduce themselves, and set their expectations for the flight. The two pilots come in and introduce themselves and tell us the flight time – 7 hours and 15 minutes. Quite long for a flight to SIN; I was expecting around 6 hours 40.

Once we get onboard we put away all of our things, hanging up my waistcoat which I change into after take-off, as well as my flat shoes and my cardigan, it always gets so cold on the A380! We do our pre-flight security search, and my assigned position today is UR3. That’s the last (or third) door on the right hand side of the upper deck.

Security search done, it’s time for the passengers to start boarding. Whilst we’ve been doing that, the crew who don’t have an area of responsibility have been preparing the welcome drinks (Champagne, orange juice and apple juice) and the cold towels.

The flight was around 3/4 full, and to my luck while I was introducing myself to my passengers almost all of them said they would like to sleep straight away!

After take-off the galley operator heats up the first set of meals – it’s a “light bite” service which includes a few choices of hot snacks as well as a choice of cold appetiser or dessert. Luckily for me, I only have to prepare a couple of cups of tea and one meal.

We bring round mattresses so that everyone can settle down to sleep, and turn the lights off in the cabin. Now….what to do for the next 6 hours!

First things first, have a little tidy up in the galley. Once things are back to normal and everything has been put away, it’s time to sit down with a cup of tea. After all, I deserve it right? 😉

For the next 4 hours or so, I alternate between sitting in the galley, chatting to the one lonely passenger who made use of the onboard bar, and drinking more tea! After a while I head down to economy to see what everybody has planned for the layover in Singapore. And somehow discover they were serving cookies during the light bite service…with plenty of leftovers..oops! Since the cockpit were having “controlled rest” aka a little snooze (one at a time, obviously!) I can’t visit them.

Luckily we remembered to put all of the window shades down, so although the sun has risen outside all of the passengers upstairs are fast asleep. As we prepare for the breakfast service, we turn the lights on very slowly to gradually wake them up. Before take-off we handed out breakfast cards so people could choose whether they’d like to be woken up or not. Everybody on my side was having breakfast, so we woke them up with fresh juices and started to bring out the trays.

Slight disaster struck as the galley operator realised he’d forgotten to heat half of the meals, but we managed to serve everything on time and with no complaints! Crisis averted! 😉

All too soon it was time to prepare for landing. We cleared away the onboard bar and handed out landing cards and hot towels. Before we knew it the captain had switched on the seatbelt sign and it was time to secure the cabin. Seatbelts on, window shades up, and seats back into the upright position. I headed back to my jumpseat and strapped myself in, ready for landing.

It had been a lovely easy flight with plenty of time for relaxing – not very often that that happens, I have to admit! After landing we collected all of the used items – headsets, blankets, etc. Once that was done it was time to head through immigration, pick up our suitcases and get to the hotel! I arrived at the hotel ready for a nap and arranged to meet the crew for dinner in a couple of hours. Well…guess what, that never happened as I slept right through my alarm and woke up 3 hours after we were supposed to meet, whoops!

Nevertheless it had been a really fun flight with nice easy services and great crew. Now I’m off to hit the shops and eat some Singaporean street food, yum!

P.s. Follow me on Instagram & Twitter to see where I am in the world! 🙂

13 Comments

  1. Cuni Candrika
    June 5, 2017 / 4:12 pm

    Have you ever come to Indonesia? Come! 😀

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      June 6, 2017 / 12:27 pm

      Yes I’ve been to Jakarta a couple of times! Hopefully I will make it to Bali this year 🙂

      • Cuni Candrika
        June 6, 2017 / 3:20 pm

        Nice! If you like beach so much, there is a lot of islands one hour from Central Jakarta (it’s in the North Jakarta), the name is Thousand Island (or pulau seribu in Indonesian language). You can go to some islands like Pulau Macan or Pulau Harapan. It’s sooo beautiful! 😀

        • thedubaidiaries
          Author
          June 16, 2017 / 5:57 pm

          Thank you for the tips! Next time I fly to Jakarta I will definitely check out Thousand Island if I can 🙂

  2. November 3, 2015 / 12:45 am

    Awesome post!! Thank you for sharing it with us. I was looking forward for this 🙂

  3. November 2, 2015 / 10:32 pm

    Thanks for the super nice blog post. I really hope to fly for EK one day as a pilot 😀
    How do the controlled rest exactly work? Can you visit the cockpit at any time during the cruise?
    A suggestion for a blog post is maybe to write a bit more about the technicalities of being a cabin crew member on a flight. Like how do your “duty stations” work, catering, how the galley works, crew rest etc. That would be fantastic 😀
    All the best and happy landings

    • November 3, 2015 / 5:48 pm

      Thanks for reading. Yes we can visit the cockpit unless the pilots are having controlled rest, I don’t know exactly how it works as I’m cabin crew not a pilot 😉 Thanks for the suggestions! 🙂

  4. September 26, 2015 / 12:50 pm

    I thought you all had to wear lots of makeup? How have you managed to pass those grooming checks if you wear less and less overtime? Haha just wondering

    • October 16, 2015 / 1:41 pm

      Haha we are supposed to wear a minimum of foundation, blusher, mascara, eyeliner or eyeshadow, eyebrows groomed and obviously the red lipstick, but if you don’t wear foundation and eyeshadow/eyeliner it’s never really a problem 😀

  5. September 26, 2015 / 12:06 am

    What a horrible time to depart. Nevertheless, it sounds like another nice flight experience. Enjoy your time in Singapore! 🙂

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