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

February Roster

Despite February being a short month, the roster gods have somehow managed to squeeze in all of the flights I asked for! It’s my “second top” bid, which means I have the second highest chance of getting what I request. Somehow I actually did!

It feels like it’s been such a long time since I got all of my bids that I actually can’t quite believe it. So next month I’ll be heading off to:

  • CPT – Cape Town, South Africa
  • BOM – Bombay, India (Turnaround)
  • ZRH – Zurich, Switzerland
  • ARN – Stockholm, Sweden
  • ZAG – Zagreb, Croatia
  • Service Refresher
  • ZAG – Zagreb, Croatia
  • ZRH – Zurich, Switzerland

An exciting month ahead with 2 new destinations for me, Zagreb (which I’ll be visiting twice!) and Stockholm. I would love to hear any tips or interesting things to see or do in both places!

I haven’t been to Cape Town in a while, and as busy as the flight usually is, I know it’ll be worth it for the stunning destination. I’m hoping to hike up Lion’s Head or perhaps even Table Mountain – anybody have any suggestions?

As for Zurich, I’m sure you guys have seen that pop u on my roster fairly often. It’s an easy flight in first class, and a chance for me to relax and eat some good food!

The service refresher is something new that has only been going on for a couple of months, and should be a good way to refresh my knowledge on everything regarding our onboard service.

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

October Roster

First of all my apologies for the lack of posts this month…I’ve been flying a lot but have mostly just been relaxing and taking it easy on my layovers, so I have nothing much to post on here!

Generally I like to post plenty of pictures from my trips, so I don’t think it’d be of much interest to only show you pictures of my breakfast and not much else! 😉

I’ve only got 1 more flight left this month til my leave starts, and then I’ll be heading to Mauritius the first week of October to celebrate my birthday! After my leave I have flights to:

  • MUC (Munich, Germany)
  • BKK (Bangkok, Thailand)
  • SFO (San Fransisco, USA)
  • First Class Upgrade Course (5 days back in training college!)
  • KBL (Kabul, Afghanistan – turnaround)
  • BCN (Barcelona, Spain)

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I’m surprised that I’ve actually managed to get quite a number of flying hours what with my 5 days leave at the beginning of the month and my first class upgrade towards the end of the month. I also have a string of 4 days off that I bid for to go to a wedding, but my boyfriend didn’t get the days off so we will have to wait and see if we’ll be able to attend.

I actually got a couple of flights that I asked for – Munich, to see my younger brother, and Barcelona because I love the city! In fact I bid for Barcelona before deciding to go away with my best friend Lucy at the beginning of November – 3 guesses as to where we’ve decided to go! I was originally rostered 2 but I swapped the first one for a Bangkok that somebody sent me. I’m always happy to go to Thailand!

I’m still undecided as to whether or not I want to do the San Fran flight – 16 hours is such a long time to be on the plane! We’ll see if anyone wants to swap it but it’s not looking very promising.

Very excitingly I have finally been rostered for my upgrade to first class! It’s been exactly 2 years now that I’ve been working in business class, so I’m ready for a change and hopefully I’ll enjoy it. Stay tuned!

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

August Roster & Some Exciting News

My roster for August has just been published, so I thought I’d share it with you guys as I usually do!

I don’t have any new destinations next month, however I’m happy as I got a couple of flights that I bid for. Even though I’m actually at the bottom of the bidding seniority, somehow it seemed to work in my favour!

So in August I’ll be flying to:

  • LGW (London Gatwick)
  • HKG (Hong Kong)
  • BKK (Bangkok)
  • ZRH (Zurich)
  • LHR (London Heathrow)
  • HKG (Hong Kong)
  • LHE (Lahore – turnaround)
  • BKK – HKG – BKK (Bangkok, shuttle to Hong Kong and back, then back to Bangkok)

I requested Bangkok so I could get a good massage – yes, that’s what my life has come to, bidding for flights just so I can get a massage! 😉 I also asked for Hong Kong so I could catch up with my lovely friend and ex-flatmate Kirsty, who I haven’t seen in a while. I actually can’t remember what else I bid for, but it’s a pretty standard roster for me with good flying hours (and only one turnaround!).

In other exciting news … I’m moving up to First Class! I had my assessment yesterday and received an email this morning letting me know that I’d passed! Hopefully I won’t have to wait too long for my training and then I’ll be working in first class instead of business 🙂

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

Starting service

Last Thursday saw the start of our Service training. This is probably the most important part customer wise, as it is what our passengers see and give us feedback on. We have been given another workbook (as we do for each part of training) which is the thickest one so far, so this should be a fun 10 days!

On Thursday we started learning about what is in all of the cupboards and stowages onboard. As a passenger you don’t even realise the amount of hidden away cupboards and storage places, and I never would have guessed that an airplane has half the amount of things on board that it does! There is a ton of paperwork and forms that can be filled out in different situations, and then lots of spares of pretty much everything imaginable. We have an amenities container, which even has things like baby nappies and bottles in it! Our trainers also showed us a little packet of powder which turns to jelly when poured on wet substances, so that will be useful when we have to clear up vomit…have to say I’m not looking forward to that, haha!

Today we started learning how to do the actual service, so we were in the sim for a while doing practicals. We learnt about the welcome services the airline has – this is basically things such as offering hot towels, toys for children, menus and landing cards, that kind of thing. On Thursday we will be doing our first mock-up flight in the sim, so that will be 4 hours; serving real food and drinks etc!

At the end of the day today we went into a room called a Majlis – which is like an Arabic living/sitting area. In there we played a game with the other batch that is on the evening shifts, getting to know a bit more about the Arabic culture and Islam. It was pretty fun and we even got to go home early, yay!

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This weekend was pretty fun; Friday was spent lazing by the pool and getting our nails done! In the evening Michelle, Sally, Peter and I went to Barasti for a few hours which was really fun, we also ended up hanging out with Basshunter who just happened to be there with a friend! On Saturday we had another lovely day by the pool, I even managed to get a bit of a tan!

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Now it’s back to learning hundreds of airport codes (which I need to know for this week’s exam, what fun…) and all about drinks served onboard in preparation for tomorrow!

Something I totally forgot to mention but which was definitely the highlight of my week….I got my first roster!!! The first 10 days are standby, so I’m not sure where my first flight will be to, but towards the end of the month I’ll be flying to Kuala Lumpur, Chennai (India – relatively short flight so it’s only a turnaround) and Zurich! SO EXCITING! 😀

Restraining passengers?!

This week has been pretty relaxed so far compared to previous weeks. On Sunday we had Nujoum, which is a special day dedicated to new cabin crew, but I’m not going to say anything about it as it is kept secret for future joiners! Monday we had Image and Uniform…which was not that amazing to be honest. We learnt how to wear our uniform properly (at least my skirts which are far too big have been given back to be taken in!) and apply make up, do our hair, paint nails….pretty much things most girls know how to do anyway.
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My batch after Image and Uniform!

At the end of the day I went from training college over to headquarters and got my E-Gate card sorted out, which is a card that lets us through the “security” area we have to go to when we have flights. I had to queue for over an hour just for them to have a look at my passport, take a picture and thumbprint and then give me the card! At least it is out of the way now.

Today we had Security, and learnt about how to deal with possible situations on the plane such as a hijacking, bomb on board, disruptive passengers etc. We spent the afternoon practicing restraining each other and what would do in an emergency situation! Tomorrow we have another day of security and have an exam in the afternoon, but from what my friends in other batches have said it’s nothing to worry about!
After class we all got shuttled out to a place in the middle of the desert surrounded by run down building blocks full of workers, to get our UAE Identity cards. We had to have our pictures taken again, and all of our fingerprints and even palm prints taken digitally! I think the cards will get sent to Headquarters in a few weeks when everything has been processed.

Next thing we will be moving on to in our last 2 weeks of training is service! I guess this is the part that most people associate with cabin crew, and what we will of course be doing on every flight. I’ve heard we also do 3 mock up flights to London Heathrow, Sydney and somewhere else (possibly in India?) where we go in the simulator and serve actual food to customers, not quite sure who will be our customers, but I’m looking forward to it!

Tonight I’m going out for dinner with a few friends, I think to the Shangri La hotel (where us crew get 40% discount!). That should be a nice change from cooking, which I do love, but sometimes it’s nice to have a break. Not going to have a long night out though as I do have to get up at 5 tomorrow morning! For service I’ll be back on the late shift, which means I will be able to have a bit more of a lie-in some days if we don’t have any revision to do!
Time to go and get ready now!