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

July Roster

After an absolutely delightfully easy roster this month, it’s back to regular flying in July. I’m at the bottom of the seniority rotation, and should have been on reserve, but somehow managed to get a pretty normal roster.

On an exciting note, I’ve been put on the inaugural A380 flight to Vienna on the 1st of July! If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you may remember that I used to live in Austria before moving to Dubai (for 6 years, although not in Vienna) so I am excited to be heading back! I get rostered plenty of flights to Germany and Switzerland being a German Speaker, but very rarely to Vienna!

Other than that I’ll be heading off to:

  • VIE (Vienna, Austria, the inaugural A380 flight, I’m hoping for a water canon salute when we land!)
  • SIN (Singapore)
  • DEL (Dehli, India, a shortish turnaround)
  • ZRH (Zurich, Switzerland)
  • DOH (Doha, Qatar, one of the shortest turnaround flights we have – about 45 minutes each way!)
  • ZRH (Zurich, Switzerland)
  • BHX (Birmingham, UK)
  • JFK (New York, USA)

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Only 2 turnarounds this month, and relatively short ones which is not too bad. I even have one new destination, Birmingham, which I was rostered to fly to a while back but never ended up going (I can’t remember why, I think I swapped it or must have been off sick!). Any suggestions for what to do there are most welcome, as I’m fairly sure most of the crew just go shopping!

My JFK flight is one of the tougher ones, as it’s around a 13-14 hour flight each way, and only a 24 hour layover! I’ll still try and get out and do as much as I can, especially as it should hopefully be nice and warm there.

I’m looking forward to another month of flying, and of course I’ll keep you updated in case of any swaps!

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

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.

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May Roster

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

Next month I’ve got something different coming up – I’m back on the 777. It’s been 7 months since I last flew on the Boeing, so I’m hoping I haven’t completely forgotten how to do it! 😉

Some of the destinations I’ll be visiting (unless I swap any flights) are:

  • Jakarta
  • Lahore (turnaround)
  • Casablanca
  • Columbo – Singapore (only a short stop in Colombo, overnight in Singapore)
  • Munich
  • Barcelona
  • Islamabad (turnaround)

With the exception of Munich, all of these flights are on the 777. It’ll be fun to get back to flying different aircraft, but most of these flights depart in the middle of the night, so I think an exhausting month is coming up!

I’m all ears for any tips of things to do or see in Jakarta, as I’ve only been once before and didn’t manage to do any exploring. As for Casablanca, I’ve been twice before, and if I don’t swap it I’m planning on trying out a traditional Hammam!

I hope these roster posts are interesting – I feel they may get a bit receptive each month, especially when I don’t get any new destinations.

Please feel free to comment with any suggestions for posts or questions you may have! 🙂

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

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!

Saturday in Singapore

Singapore is right up there in my list of top ten destinations, so I was just a little bit excited when I saw it on my roster after at least 6 months of not having flown there. The flight left Dubai around 3am so most of our passengers slept, which made for a nice and easy flight (until they all woke up for breakfast before landing!)

Speaking of top ten destinations, would anyone be interested in a blog post with mine?

Once we arrived in Singapore, after a quick freshen up it was time to do some exploring. Some of us arranged to meet at 8 for drinks, but that was still hours away, so the mission was on to find some yummy street food!

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