By: Anna Genevieve Louise
When I was growing up, I never dreamed of becoming a
member of a cabin crew. However, I always dreamed of traveling to faraway
places all over the world — and that is what led me to join Emirates Airline in
2012. When I got my confirmation call, I was ecstatic; I was going to live in
Dubai and get to travel the world for free! I also had major travel anxiety about moving 7,000 miles away from
everything I knew. But after a couple reassuring talks with my friends and
family, I realized nothing was going to stop me from seeing the world. So, in
October 2012, I headed to JFK Airport in New York City with a one-way ticket to
Dubai.
As I said goodbye to my family, I could feel tears
welling up in my eyes. I took a deep breath, quickly said goodbye, and headed
toward security. The next hours were a complete whirlwind. I boarded the A380 double-decker
plane, which was by far the largest aircraft I had ever been on in my life.
After I told one of the crew I was a new joiner, he showed me all around the
plane and introduced me to the other crew. All my fears disappeared; I
immediately felt like being part of a family. After landing, I was brought to
my furnished, paid apartment right in the heart of downtown Dubai.
Just three days later, my six-week training course with
new joiners from all around the world started. My training covered everything
from safety and emergency procedures to image standards. After those intense
six weeks, I finally received what I was waiting for: my very first roster. It
consisted of different layover destinations (where we stayed in a hotel), as
well as turnaround destinations (a one-day round trip from Dubai). My first
roster was full of places I could not wait to explore.
My First Ultralong-Haul Flight: Dubai — Melbourne —
Auckland
I was so happy to see a six-day Melbourne-Auckland trip
show up on my first roster. This trip was broken down into smaller segments:
Dubai to Melbourne (24-hour layover in Melbourne), Melbourne to Auckland
(24-hour layover in Auckland), Auckland to Melbourne (24-hour layover in
Melbourne), and Melbourne to Dubai.
On the day of my flight, I woke up at 6 a.m. (for a 10
a.m. departure) and started my routine. Since the flight to Melbourne was so
long, I made sure to apply everything as perfectly as I could. I put on my full
face of makeup and tied my hair into a neat doughnut bun. I then grabbed my
suitcase and headed to the shuttle that brought me to Emirates headquarters.
On the way to the airport, I felt a mixture of emotions;
on one hand, I was so nervous because I was still completely new, but on the
other hand, I was so excited about traveling to countries I always dreamed of
going to. "Fake it till you make it," I told myself and went to my
preflight briefing room.
The preflight briefing room was buzzing with energy. We
were flying on the A380 plane, so there were over 20 crew members in the room.
I got my documents checked by one of the senior crew members. After this came
the moment I was dreading: a "Safe Talk" question. This is a question
asked by the purser (the manager) of the plane and it's required to be answered
by each cabin crew member. Not answering the question correctly could lead to
getting offloaded (which meant getting taken off the flight and reported to
your manager), a fate no new cabin crew member wanted. These questions were
directly related to what we learned in our training, but there was still so
much to remember. On that day, I answered the question correctly and felt a
weight off my shoulders disappear.
Finally, I went to get my image and uniform checked by
another one of the senior cabin crew member. This part of the process always
made me feel a bit uncomfortable.
I felt like a doll on display for someone as they went
through their checklist looking for the following: that my nails were of the
right length and color (either clear or red), that my hair and makeup were up
to standards, that my uniform was in perfect condition, and my tights were of
the right opacity and color. The standards were meticulous; even the slightest
difference meant getting a note about it on your flight review. That's why on
my first few flights I always made sure to take extra time getting ready.
After all my fellow crew went through this process, we
sat down and were briefed on our upcoming flight. Once finished, we got into a
shuttle that brought us to the aircraft.
Seeing the A380 without passengers made me realize how
huge the plane was. There were over 400 seats in economy and two galleys
(kitchen and storage area) for us to use. I went to my station, dropped off my
carry-on bag, and got straight to work. First came doing safety and security
checks in my designated area. Then I had to prepare the cabin and hot towels
for when our passengers got on board.
At 9 a.m., it was showtime. All the passengers started
rushing onto the plane. I was happy to be in the back of the plane, where it
was calmer than in the front. Once everyone was on board, we handed out towels
to our passengers. Then we prepared the cabin by conducting our final safety
and security check. I sat down on my jump seat and prepared for takeoff.
The flight to Melbourne was hectic; it was over 13 hours
with nonstop work. There were three different services, and since I was still
so new I was confused half the time. I barely had time to breathe. Even after
we finished our service, the call bells were ringing every other second. I must
have walked several miles on that flight going back and forth from the front of
the aircraft to the back. We had a short break of about three hours, but I had
so many thoughts rushing through my mind I couldn't sleep.
Before I knew it, I could see Australia from outside the
window. I couldn't believe that those 13 hours had passed so quickly. After
landing and getting to the hotel, my adrenaline kicked in. I had been up for
almost 20 hours but it didn't feel like it. I rushed out of the hotel with some
of the other new crew and explored Melbourne. The next day my wake-up call came
and I repeated my same routine. Then it was off to Auckland.
My first months of flying were amazing — nothing I had
done previously in my life could compare. All the new experiences outweighed
any negative side of the job. But, eventually for me, that scale tipped the
other way.
Saying Goodbye to Emirates
Whenever I posted photos to Facebook of all my amazing
trips, my friends would comment telling me how envious they were of me or how
glamorous my life looked. While it was true that I lived an exciting life, it
was far from being nearly as glamorous as people thought.
There were so many advantages of working for Emirates:
living in Dubai for free, staying in amazing hotels across the world, traveling
on your days off while only having to pay 10 percent of the airfare, having
friends from all over the world, and having a tax-free salary.
But there were also so many disadvantages: being away
from family and friends, missing holidays, feeling lonely, dealing with jet lag
and health issues, having passengers yell at you for things out of your
control, being looked at all the time for your appearance, dealing with delays
on flights, waking up at any hour during the day or night for flights, and so
much more.
There came a day when the disadvantages outweighed the
advantages for me, and that's when I decided to leave Emirates. When I first
left, I felt so happy to be on ground all the time and sleep normal hours
again. Eventually, I did start to miss many things about being crew. It wasn't
really the travel I missed; it was the sense of camaraderie I felt with the
crew. I missed being so tired on long-haul flights that we'd all sit around in
the galley deliriously giggling and telling jokes to stay awake. I missed
hearing stories about the life and culture in different places around the
world. Most of all I missed the sense of family I felt with crew.
I'm so glad that I took the chance to work as cabin crew.
It changed my life in so many ways and gave me a new sense of confidence in
myself. I'm happier being on ground now, but whenever I see a plane flying
above me, I always wonder what kind of interesting things are happening at
38,000 feet.
Source: https://www.popsugar.com/
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