A Working Day Timeline

I’ve had a few people ask me how a working day pans out, each day is incredibly different dependent on the route and the timing of the flight. So on my recent 7h53m flight I thought write about how it goes, so that for those of you who are interested in the actual job itself more than just how I spend my layovers can have a read upon. All timings are in 24 hour (military time) for those of you who don’t use it and we always operate on Dubai time so that everyone sticks to the same timings and is on the same page which is GMT+4.

12:35– eGate opens, I check in and drop off my case and head towards the briefing room.
12:40– I make a pit stop at Costa and grab a skinny vanilla latte to take with me to briefing. This is a really bad habit I’ve picked up and I have a coffee before work each day. Hallelujah for 25% staff discount though!
12:45– I find my briefing room and sit with the economy class team, my documents are checked, a safe talk question is answered and once everyone is here we conduct a team talk about that flight.
13:00– eGates are now closed so everyone should be in the briefing room unless we’re waiting for someone to be pulled out from standby. The purser welcomes everyone to the flight and we get to know each other a little. Some pursers have us go round the room and say our name and where we’re from “Hi I’m Jessica from the UK!”.
13:15– The flight crew (pilots) pop in from their adjacent room. There will be between 2 and 4 operating flight crew depending on where we’re heading that day. As this was under 8 hours we only need a Captain and First Officer. They tell us the details of the flight such as altitude, weather but most importantly how long is it going to take to get there!?
13:20– We’re on the bus to take us to the designated aircraft we’re operating that day
13:30– On board the aircraft we unpack our belongings and do our designated security search of the entire aircraft whilst checking equipment
13:50 – Boarding begins
14:30– Pre departure duties are done
14:45 – Aircraft takes off and begins it’s 7h53m journey.
14:55– We’re released for duty. We change into service attire and switch on the ovens and begin setting up for the first service of the day.
15:30– Carts loaded and set up we move into the cabin and complete our first service of serving meals, offering drinks from the bar, offering tea and coffee by hand, clearance of the trays and then one round of final clearance.
18:00– The first service is finished and all 400 passengers have been fed.
18:05– We usually as crew will sit and eat after the service
18:30- We start our first rounds of we care, this includes checking the cabin and passengers, distributing drinks and making sure the cabin is clean and tidy. We do this in rounds of 45 minutes between two crew members.
20:15- We begin setting up for our second service. This is our light bites service where we offer a sandwich, a cake and a drink. Only 4 carts are required for this which we “double end” two people per cart and we have two from the front galley and two from the back galley and we serve until we meet.
21:45- Service finishes and cleared.
21:50- We distribute hot towels so our customers can feel refreshed before landing.
21:55- The Captain makes his PA for the top of descent. We changed into our heels and jackets and begin collecting in blankets and headsets.
22:15– I secure my area and take my seat for landing!
22:35- We touch down on ground.
22:40- We reach the stand and disembark passengers.
22:55- We do our post landing duties and disembark the aircraft.
23:00 – We make our way through the airport and go to the bus which will take us to our hotel that day.

For those who I asked, I hope this is the sort of thing you were wanting. Each flight is different from the last, as sometimes we’re only doing a 50 minute flight to Muscat and that is a much quicker service and also differently styled, in comparison to a 17 and half hour flight to Auckland! My favourite service has got to be Afternoon Tea though, as I love to eat a hot scone with clotted cream and jam at the end of the flight.

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