The One Dreaded Thing Cabin Crew Hate

Here's the first post about The Life of Cabin Crew!

SLEEP

Sleep has to be one of the hardest parts cabin crew have to deal with. I literally just woke up from one of those dreaded dreams that I can't seem to have any energy to stay awake for even a minute straight.

In times when we worked normal hours that is 100-120 hrs a month of flying. From the jet lag, flying from one end of the earth to the other, and having another flight to the other end the following week is quite a normal way of work.

The Hours we work

Now first let me explain this...

We can work a maximum of 120 hrs a month... that is because of the amount of cosmos radiation we are exposed to and due to what we call Flight Time Limitations, where the rules are endless which I won't go into in this post.

We only get paid from what we call: Chocks-off and Chocks-On that is when the aircraft starts to move out of its parking and to when it comes to a complete stop.

It varies in some airlines, but in mine we do not get paid when passengers are boarding but only when the aircraft starts to move... so yes if there is a delay even when standing still we don't get paid for that.

That is the reason why we get what we call Basic Salary. We get paid a fixed amount a month a part from our flying hours that we hope to cover for any of these times, and so on.

Also since we get paid when the aircraft is moving, that means that when we are away on our 'layover' that is considered as part of our Time Away from base not included in our flying hours pay.

Working from one end of the world to the other

As I mentioned before we have rules and regulations about our Flight Time Limitations. Many things are considered here an example is, if you are flying to the U.S. today, you need a certain amount of hours before you are allowed to fly to let's say Australia.

Usually the flights that we call ULRs those are flights that exceed more than 11hrs approximately (talking about one way always). These flights require Crew to have 2 days of rest prior to that flight and 2 days OFF after that sector is done.

Trust me when you have flown to the other end of the world... working that flight.... and than usually to U.S. the layover would be 24hrs long and Australia is longer. The Crew after their work and aircraft procedures are done, they finally arrive in the hotel... and yes we pass out! Although some of us do make sure we wake up in order to catch a few hours of the beauty of that place!

So yes as you guessed SLEEP is one thing that becomes the most important and sacred time to a Cabin Crew! Now of course I am keeping the details at bay here, So not to make this post too long! Many other things are considered a part from this.

One common story to most crew is the .....

JUMP SEAT

After such long hours, when it comes to landing and we are in our Semi-Brace positions .... staying awake on that seat is something we all have physically struggled with!

I know you might not understand that but if I had to explain the physical feeling of being so exhausted to a point that you can't resist that your eyes from closing, you would not even come to understand. But of course I am merely only trying to give you an insight to one of our struggles.

I am limited to what I can share, but do hope that this gives you a better understanding to our world.

I will continue to post more details about the life of a Cabin Crew for you to know if you want to join our incredible Lifestyle!

Till next Time! Strive to be Happy and Healthy!

xoxo