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

Emirates Cabin Supervisor – A Day In The Life

I thought it might be fun to share a kind of “day in the life” post about my role as cabin supervisor. Somehow it’s been more than a year since I did my training, and I was able to finish my 6 month probation period just in time before all flights got put on hold. So I thought I’d give you a bit of an idea of what my job entails now.

Let’s start with before the flight. The same as when I was working in any other cabin, I need to make sure my cabin bag is prepped and ready to go, which means making sure my waistcoat is clean and ironed, shoes are polished, and all other items are available. One additional step I have now is charging my company provided “KIS” tablet. This is an HP tablet which is given to the seniors (pursers and cabin supervisors) for use on the flights, you can check all of the passenger information as well as lots of details about each specific destination, all of our manuals and much more. Due to the pandemic, we are currently not using our waistcoats as we are provided with single use disposable gowns, as well as masks, gloves and a visor. Out of habit I still pack my waistcoat, just in case!

View Post

Cappadocia – A hot air balloon ride through the valley

Day 2 – A Magical Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Ride

Our second morning in Cappadocia saw us up bright and early, ready for a once in a lifetime experience – a hot air balloon ride! If you’ve been reading my blog for a few years, you may remember my amazing trip to Myanmar, with my friend Kirsty. She was pregnant at the time, so we were not able to ride in the balloons (click here if you’d like to read!), however this time Emma and I decided it was worth splurging for the experience.

We booked our hot air balloon ride via our hotel tour desk, and there are many different operators offering the ride. From what I’ve read online, the price varies depending on whether it’s high or low season, and we paid €100 each, which I found quite reasonable.

We were picked up while it was still completely dark outside and taken to the office of the hot air balloon company, stopping along the way to pick up a few more people. Once there, you could get some coffee and hot fresh bread rolls (the coffee was truly awful but the bread was lovely, at least!) while the organisers got everyone into groups to be driven out to the launch site.

View Post

Cappadocia – A Magical Fairytale Getaway

Day 1 – The Green Tour & Where To Eat In Goreme

Just before the world started to shut down and flights were getting cancelled left right and centre, I was lucky enough to visit the beautiful place that is Cappadocia.

My good friend Emma and I managed to get leave at the same time, so planned an amazing trip to Cappadocia and Istanbul. Sadly we never made it out of the airport in Istanbul as we had to catch one of the last flights out of Turkey before the borders closed, but we really made the most of our time in Cappadocia while we were there.

Getting There

We are lucky that as cabin crew we have access to cheap standby flights, and from Dubai there are usually 2-3 flights a day to Istanbul with Emirates, either IST (Istanbul Ataturk Airport) or SAW (Sabiha Gokcen Airport). We decided to go via SAW as the connection to Cappadocia was better for us.

We had a couple of hours wait and enjoyed our first taste of some delicious Turkish food in the airport, and then hopped on a quick 45 minute flight to NEV – Kayseri Airport.

View Post

April Roster – Cancelled?!

So I originally wrote this post around a week or so ago… in the meantime Emirates has announced that all flights are suspended, the UAE government has shut down the airports, and we will be taking a salary cut for the next 3 months minimum. These are certainly crazy and unprecedented times, and I feel lucky to still have a job.

I know of so many airlines that have paused or ceased operations completely, and with most of the world on lockdown the travel industry has certainly taken a big hit.

When I wrote this I still had all my flights on the roster, but day by day they disappeared and I was left with “available days”. As of March right now half of these destinations are ones that we’ve temporarily stopped flying to. I’m certain this will take longer than we all think, but we can be hopeful that perhaps there will be some flights rescheduled at some point in April.

So this is what my roster looked like when I got it a couple of weeks ago…. as of now I have none of those flights left!

  • BRU – Brussels, Belgium
  • WAW – Warsaw, Poland 
  • RUH – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (turnaround)
  • MUC – Munich, Germany
  • DAC – Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • BAH – Bahrain, Bahrain (turnaround)
  • BOM – Bombay, India (turnaround)
  • ATH – EWR – Athens, Greece & Newark, USA

I was actually quite looking forward to some of these trips – in particular the Athens Newark multi-sector which I’ve never done before. That was one of the first ones to go from my roster, sadly.

I was also supposed to have a trip to JFK at the end of March but that disappeared as well, and right now I’m home on quarantine. According to the UAE law we have to observe 14 days of quarantine after arriving from our last operating flight, that means not even leaving to go to the supermarket or out for exercise. 

I’m trying to make the most of it and have been trying to do a daily workout from YouTube (although feel free to send any good workouts my way!), experimenting with cooking new recipes, and of course, plenty of Netflix!

In the meantime we can do nothing but stay strong, and hope that we will get our wings back soon and come back better than ever. 

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

March Roster

First of apologies for the silence over here on The Dubai Diaries… no excuses, I’ve just been busy enjoying life at the moment!

So, where am I off to next month?

  • DAC – Dhaka, Bangladesh (turnaround)
  • ARN – Stockholm, Sweden
  • CSV Review
  • LHR – London Heathrow, UK
  • Annual Leave
  • BOM – Mumbai, India
  • BHX – Birmingham, UK
  • CSV Graduation
  • JFK – New York, USA

First up is a turnaround to Dhaka, Bangladesh. This is a pretty long day (around 5 hours each way plus time on ground), and sometimes it’s a layover but due to the timing I’ll be doing the turnaround.

After that is another trip to Stockholm. Although I was only just there in January, I’m happy to go back as the hotel is in a great location, perfect for exploring. Perhaps I will even get some snow this time!

Then I have my final review for the Cabin Supervisor pool, that I’ve been working up towards these past 6 months. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Straight after that is a trip to London Heathrow. I haven’t done a flight to Heathrow in a while, as Stansted is close to home so I try and get that flight when I can. I’m looking forward to this one though, as my best friend Lucy lives in London and she’s hoping to be able to take the day off work so we can do something fun together!

Then I have some leave – my friend Emma and I are planning to visit Turkey. We’re thinking a few days in Cappadocia and then a couple in Istanbul. If you’ve visited, feel free to leave some tips in the comments below!

Straight after my leave is a back to back combination of a turnaround to Bombay and then another layover in Birmingham. I’ve just been there, and didn’t manage to do much as all of the trains were cancelled due to Storm Ciara!

Then if my final review goes well, I will have the graduation day for it. This is actually the same as when I joined and completed the 6 month probation, and will be with all of the new crew.

Last up a trip to my favourite US destination – New York! I was originally rostered a São Paolo, but managed to swap it quite soon after the roster came out. I’m excited to visit New York in Spring!