I was a male flight attendant for Emirates Airline from 2008 - 2010, AMA

How easy is it to bang a flight attendant? A female one.

Obviously that will depend on your looks and personality. But compared to a normal everyday working situation, very very very easy. The ratio is ever in your favour.

You lucky son of a hitchhiker.

Thank you, sir.

what about a passanger hooking up with a flight attendant. Did that ever happen?

Absolutely. Passengers would always try it, so you'd usually never even have to try.

Any cool hidden things that a flyer could know of?

not much I can think of. Crew bunk areas are really cool, best place to join the mile high club.

Cabin crew go through some intense training, stuff that I think the general public don't realise. We learn how to deliver babies, which is incredibly disgusting :P My of my best friends from Emirates has delivered 3 babies on 3 separate flights, happens a lot more often than people think. Especially when it comes to middle eastern countries, some men will rape their poor maids and they eventually have to flee because it's illegal to give birth out of marriage. Very sad stuff. Also a lot more deaths on board than people realise, enough to have body bags on each flight especially for such an occasion

Which kinds of things do people usually die from on the flights? Have you dealt with any deaths on your flights?

Range of things, can be old age, heart attack, flying without their medication for whatever it might be. Could be a medical flight they're taking to seek better treatment but dont last the flight (they'll usually be a nurse or doctor with them if things are that bad).

I was lucky and did not have any deaths on my flights.

Did you ever join the mile high club?

tried, but didnt go through with it

Have you personally had to deal with a death on a flight? How do you keep that hush-hush?

Fortunately I never had a death on board. It really depends on the situation if you can keep it hush hush or not. For example, if the person passes away quietly in their seat, you might just leave them there.

What's the craziest shit you saw on a flight?

Craziest thing for me was having a Uganda princess propose to me. She offered me 20 cows to marry her. I thought she was joking, so I told her sorry, that's not enough cows to have me. She went back to her entourage to talk things over and came back with the offer of 200 cows. -_- I politely declined and she wouldn't talk to me for the rest of the flight.

Nothing too crazy on my flights (un)fortunately.

could have been rich if you turned them into jerky

I still regret my decision to this day.

Dude...that's a lot of cows. Did you at least think about it?

Nah, I had my eyes on this hot Japanese crew member....I;m glad I declined the offer from the Princess.

What was the process like getting a job as a flight attendant?

It's pretty crazy. I went onto their website and registered my interest and later on received an email informing me of an open day in my city.

There were about 400 to 500 people at the open day I went to. They packed us all into a room and gave us a brief overview of the job, and life in Dubai. Then one by one we handed them our resumes and they looked us up and down and then we waited. They culled many people from this stage.

Next we had to do a test to ensure we could reach a certain height for safety reasons. Some people would've been culled on this stage too.

Next we did group activities. So basically they would put us into small groups, give us a scenario and we would need to discuss as a group how to best deal with that scenario. Key here is to make sure you are active in the discussion, but not talking over people. If you disagree, say something like, good point, however what if we go with this etc etc. Again, a lot of people culled after this stage - a lot of waiting around.

Then we had to do multiple choice tests to make sure you're what they're looking for. So more people culled. By this stage, there were only 12 candidates left.

So lastly is the final interview stage, it's only a panel of two, so not too intimidating. They ask behavioural based questions, so examples of what you've done in particular situations, so you'll need to have some examples in your mind.

This took about two or three days from memory. There are other things you need to do, such as provide professional and casual photos etc.

If successful you'll need to go through a list of medical tests, eye tests, hearing tests, wisdom teeth removal etc etc.

Then of course once you're there you'll need to go through some pretty intense training for 7 to 8 weeks. I remember on the first day one girl got sent home because she had a tattoo on her neck. Visible tattoos are a big no no.

wisdom teeth removal

What? You had to have your wisdom teeth removed even if you had no dental problems.

Yep, cabin pressure can cause problems later if you do have issues.

Then of course once you're there you'll need to go through some pretty intense training for 7 to 8 weeks. I remember on the first day one girl got sent home because she had a tattoo on her neck. Visible tattoos are a big no no.

couldn't they have told her that in the 2 on 1 interview?

im sure it was one of the things they covered in the opening brief, i guess she thought she could get away with it

on the first day one girl got sent home because she had a tattoo on her neck.

She got to that stage without anyone noticing ? And isn't that the kind of criterion that should be mentioned before even starting the process.

it was very odd. Maybe she stupidly got it before heading to dubai? Or she just hid it from the recruiters thinking she wouldn't get caught

How often to passengers have sex on the plane? And is it obvious?

I only witnessed it once, and they did it in the lavatory. It's pretty obvious when you see them trying to discretely go in there together. But yeah, probably happens a lot, especially in the first class suites.

Why especially in first class suites?

Google Emirates first class suite and you'll see why. Very private, and if there's only the two of you in first class, it's pretty easy.

Hi did you ever deal with super rich jerk who treated you poorly what was the worst and did you ever get even with them?

I was working in economy, so no stories about super rich jerks personally, but there were always jerks in general. I usually would ignore the fact they were being jerks and just try to turn their attitude around.

For example during meal service we had chicken or lamb, I reached one customer and informed him we were out of chicken and only had lamb. He wanted fish. I told him there was not a fish option and pointed out the menu options to him and again informed him only lamb was available. He could not fathom how I could not provide him with a fish meal. After a lot of arguing back and forth I put the lamb meal on his tray and walked away.

After walking past the guy again, he asked for Johnnie Walker, I told him we don't stock that, but I could give him one of our other whiskey options that we had in economy class, which of course he wasn't happy with. So I walked away, went to business class, and got a miniature bottle of premium whiskey from there and served that to him instead. His attitude changed completely and was very kind to me the rest of the flight. Even filled in a positive comment card for me.

I had heard of a particularly rude passenger in business class that would not even acknowledge any of the crew. Her husband would talk for her instead, "my wife wants this, my wife doesn't like that" etc Any questions the crew asked her, she would not respond to them and would go through her husband only. Eventually the crew got annoyed at this and asked the husband why she wouldn't talk to them, and his response was that she didn't talk to servant. They refused to serve her after that until she acknowledged them.

One very annoying habit for crew are passengers who fail to adhere to the seat belt sign and get up right after landing to collect the belongings from the hatrack. It's incredibly annoying having to shout sit down to these people over and over again, especially in certain destinations. Some captains would be happy to apply the brakes a lil harder when pulling into the gate if we requested it. It's the only way they'll learn...

Where were they expecting you to pull a fish from on an airplane?

Probably wanting me to chuck a fishing line out the door and catch one flying over the pacific.

Emirates flight attendants are some of the most good looking/well turned out attendants I've ever seen! What does the airline tell you with regards to how you dress and groom?

They put us through a week of grooming training and are very strict with those rules. For males it's pretty simple, but girls have it much tougher.

How many fellow flight attendants did you bang? Some of my friends used to be flight attendants and they told me about another guy who maintained an excel spreadsheet of his conquests. The list was long apparently.

I never really went into it thinking I would go banging as many girls as possible, as I had a gf when I left my home country. I broke up with her maybe a week or two after arriving in Dubai.

I didn't keep a list, but I cannot count how many flight attendants I slept with. And it's not just the girls you work with, you obviously meet passengers, ground crew, party in every city etc. It's pretty easy.

So can you count on one hand? Both hands? Feet?

I wish I had more hands and feet.

How many times have you had mechanical failures? Have you ever feared for your life?

Luckily I never had a mechanical failure during the flight. The worst one for me was a problem with the engine before departure for SFO. We had already boarded all the passengers and were due for a 14 hour or so flight. We were on the ground for around 3 hours while the issue was being fixed and had to serve the passengers on a very limited basis as there's only so much catering. It was hot as hell too, so a lot of frustration from everyone. We were about 15 minutes away from reaching our maximum duty time and just heading back home, but they fixed the issue and off we went. That was a brutal 24 hours.

On one of my first flights there was an issue with one of the doors, the seal wasn't quite right and pressure was escaping. They knew from the previous flight, informed us, and because I was new, I was the lucky one to sit at that door. Once we were in the air it made a hell of a scary noise. Didn't effect the flight, but being new (and even if I wasn't new) it was pretty scary.

I never really feared for my life during any of my flights, however we did have a pretty scary moment. We were at top of descent flying into Osaka, Japan. We'd just finished our checks, so all passengers were strapped in and crew were doing final walk around the cabin. I was in charge of mid galley and had just latched away one of the bar cart, and suddenly i was floating in the air, hit my head on the ceiling and came crashing back down to the floor. I quickly did a action hero dive to the jump seat and strapped myself in. Very lucky the bar cart was latched away and i didn't come down on it. A lot of the passengers were in tears and very scared, because this was only weeks after the Air France disaster, so still fresh in everyones minds. We landed safely and captain informed us we dropped about 2000ft due to an air pocket. One of the crew got injured coming down on an armrest, and another crew was too distraught to take the flight back the next day.

2000 FT?!? Jesus, I would never fly again.

I dare say a lot of those passengers never flew again. I'm not sure if the distraught flight attendant ever made it back. She may have a new life in Japan now.

Did any illegal things ever happen on a flight you were on? Do you get to travel around a bit in the cities you travel to? How many countries have you visited?

Nothing obviously illegal on any flights I did. We did have suspicions about one passenger possibly hiding drugs in his system. His behaviour was pretty erratic, refused to eat or drink and was very sweaty and clammy, very fidgety. We informed the captain who informed customs. Not sure what happened to him after he disembarked at our destination.

Also had a passenger get too drunk coming into Dubai, which is a big no no. After everyone had already disembarked we found him passed out in his seat covered in vomit. Had to wait for the paramedics to take him away as well as the police. He probably received a beat down.

You get to travel around as much as you make of your time there basically. Most places are only a 24 hour layover, so if you want to see a lot, you've got to sacrifice on sleep. Usually you get to the hotel, shower, change and go out. You'll normally plan out the trip with the various crew members during the trip, or if you're super organised, you'll contact the people you're going to be flying with and try to come up with a plan well in advance.

I haven;t actually got a list of places I've been, but yeah, a lot of places. They've got so many more destinations since i've left too, so sucks I couldnt see even more.

I'm usually pretty good about not getting drunk on flights - but Emirates makes it difficult with little upstairs bar on A380s. Did you ever work in the bar area? See anyone get really drunk?

The A380 was very new to the fleet when I was there and I did not apply to work on it due to the limited starting destinations.

I've seen many people get very very drunk. I've seen people drink a lot and not get drunk too :O Had a couple of Russian sailors on one flight, they hid some alcohol under their seats, 4 litres of whiskey and 4 litres of vodka, by the time we found them they'd almost finished the bottles. They were fine.

Damn, that's a story for the ages. What's the deal with the Osaka gang-bashing?

Got completely drunk as always haha

A few of us went to one of those all you can drink karaoke places, had wayyyyy too many sakes. Me and another guy decided to check out the clubbing scene after that. Asked some locals were to go and they pointed us in the direction of this reggae bar. Had some drinks there and lost the guy I was there with. Decided to leave and get a taxi back to the hotel. I don't remember anything, cuz I got knocked the fuck out, but I think I either tried to steal someone's girl, or I was being unintentionally racist in my drunken state.

Anyway, I do remember opening a taxi door, and then someone grabbing me from behind, and another guy giving me an uppercut to the jaw. Down I went, and they started laying in and then choked me out. Next thing I remember I'm being put in a taxi by the police. I had zero idea what had happened. I dont even know how I remembered to tell where the taxi driver to go. Got to the hotel and found I had no money, so got the hotel to pay for me.

Woke up the next day feeling like total crap, it was 7o'clock and I remember all us were meant to go to Kyoto castle around 7am, so I called one of the guys and said I wouldn't be able to make it. He had no idea what I was talking about but I just hung up. Struggled my way to the bathroom to take a piss, look across at the mirror and see I'm oozing blood from my face. Oh shit. What the hell happened? Still couldn't remember a thing. Went back to the bedroom and saw my blood covered shirt that I was wearing last night. Figured I'd better write the Purser a note that I need to see him when he gets back. Went and slid the note under his door.

5 minutes later he calls me, and he's asking what's going on?? I told him I think I was bashed. He comes directly to my room, all dressed up in his uniform, sees me, calls the captain immediately. Captain comes to my room, all dressed up in his uniform. I've slept through the whole day without even releasing it, it's 7pm, not 7am and we've got pick up in 10 minutes.

They dont have enough time to call base to see what we should do, so I have to suit up and go to the airport with them. The rest of the crew see me and are just shocked, I'm completely out of it. The Japanese crew that we had on the flight said the area we went to was famous for wannabe Yakuza members and they probably beat me down to make a name for themselves. So I'm lucky it wasn't worse?

Anyway, got to the airport, ground staff said no way in hell am I flying and got sent back to the hotel. Went to the hospital the next day, where NO ONE spoke any english. Eventually got 6 stitches in my face and that's it because we couldn't understand each other. Nurses were amazingly hot, uniforms were amazing, just like a japanese porno, only without the sex :(

Good thing is there was no doctor report due to the communication issues, so as far as Emirates was concerned, I was just jumped by 5 Japanese guys with no provocation :)

How do you feel about losing your job just one year away from being promoted to Pilot?

You get more pussy on the other side of the door. No one wants to visit the pilots :P

As someone who used to dream of being a pilot as a kid... my eyes have been opened.

hahaha, don't get me wrong, Pilots get some too! :P

My cousin used to work for Emirates between 2000 and 2003. She said they gave her two (I think it was two) uniforms that fit, and if she ever failed to fit them/that size from then on, she couldn't work.

Is this still the case these days?

I never had that problem, so can't say for sure, but they never mentioned it to us, and I never heard of it from anyone else during my time there

I'm flying Emirates exactly 2 weeks from today into Dubai for my first work trip. I have only left the country once before this, also for work, and I am not a very experienced flyer but, don't mind flying at all.

Any unknown hints/tips I should know?

Wear comfortable non restrictive clothing, especially if you're in economy, it can make for a long flight. Check in online as soon as it opens, go to seatguru and check out what seat you should try to get when you check in online. Obviously exit row seat would be ideal, but they also tend to be the noisiest areas if you're a light sleeper. Aisle seat if you get up a lot. Drink a lot of water, don't be afraid to ring the call bell if crew aren't coming through the cabin on a regular basis, or better yet get up and visit the galley, come back if they're eating though. Go to their website and join their rewards program for free, this is especially useful if the flight is full and you're travelling alone, increases your chances of scoring an upgrade - unlikely, but always worth a try.

I got upgraded to business on the last leg of a flight from Europe to Japan. Oh my god. I just want to thank you and everyone who every worked at Emirates. That was fantastic!

thank you for the kind words. Business class is amazing, hopefully one day you can try out first class!

Do you like flyers having small conversations with you or do you just want to get your job tasks done and relax?

Absolutely. Provided we've finished our service, and our meals. We're all fun people, but on a long haul flight we can run out of topics to talk about. And we all wanted this job to meet new people and see new places, so yes, come back to the galley and have a conversation.

Interesting! I'm a Canadian flight attendant and you guys stay in the same hotel as U.S. in Crawley. ("London") You all always look so good I'm curious about the grooming rules. How was the lifestyle in Dubai? Was the pay worth it ?

Dubai is what you make of it. I had fun, but I didn't love it. The heat is tough to deal with. You only get about 3 months of the year that is pleasant weather. Otherwise you just spend your time clubbing or going to the mall. It's not much of a lifestyle. Pretty difficult to make really close friends, because you're always flying, you'll hardly ever be in town at the same time.

I was never in it for the money, I was there for the lifestyle. Being Canadian, I don't think the money would be that fantastic for you. Really depends what you'd do there. You can save, but it's tough to do so in that lifestyle.

Grooming wise, we spent I think a week during training just for grooming. It was easy for me being a guy, but it's very strict for girls. Hair, make up, everything has to be perfect There are random grooming checks, so you gotta make sure you're looking your best. Dry cleaning of uniforms is taken care of, and you get replacement everything when you need it.

Would you consider yourself an alcoholic?

During that time, absolutely. Most of us were :P

• What is the pay like? I'm curious the pay for you versus an American airline.
  
• Do you get paid as soon as you land? As in, do you "clock in" at the airport and "clock out" when you leave? Or are you paid only for the time the plane doors are closed and then opened?
  
• Do they stamp your passport when you go into other countries?

The pay isn't fantastic, but when you consider accommodation is provided, including utilities then it's pretty good. Tax free too. But it can be pretty hard to save anything depending if you give in to the party lifestyle.

Flying time is calculated by chocks off, chocks on. So basically the time you pull out of the gate, to the time you pull into the gate. And obviously you get a base salary.

Depends on the country you're flying to. Some just require a stat-dec that has all the crew's information on there and you just walk through, others will require each individual airport. Most of the airports I went to we just walked straight through.

Which aircraft was your favorite to work in?

During that time the A380 was very very new to the fleet, so you had to be invited/volunteer to fly on that beast, so the selection was merit based.

I flew on the "main fleet" which consisted of variations of the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 & A340. Working on the Boeing was far and away the better aircraft. I prefered the Boeing 777-200, just because that meant less passengers :P You couldn't see from one end to the other on the 777-300.

What is some weird stuff people like to do on planes, and did you ever notice anyone having sex(I guess in the bathroom) during one of your flights?

Jerk off under blankets.

I did notice a couple go into the lavatory once to have sex. Just stood in the vicinity to make sure no kids or anything like that came knocking. Great customer service.

People from which country did you find to be the most stubborn or would often ignore cabin rules?

Passengers from the UAE were the most stubborn. They feel it's their airline so could do whatever they want. They'll go from economy and sit in business like it's no problem. Very frustrating. Not all of them of course, but just an experience I had.

Ignoring cabin rules were generally the poor immigrant workers from places like Bangladesh, but you can't blame them because they dont really know any better.

Hi there, I'm super interested in becoming a flight attendant, but I'm 18. From what I've seen, most airlines won't hire anyone under 21. Do you know of any that would be willing to hire younger? How would you recommend going about getting hired as a flight attendant in general?

I'm not aware of any other airlines that hire under 21, as I only ever applied for Emirates. There's probably some out there, but I'm not sure.

Firstly I think any flight attendant school/course is a waste of time, so don't bother with that. Learning a second language is a good thing. Work in hospitality or something customer service related. Social skills, work on being able to build friendships easily, but rapport with strangers, that sort of thing. If you go for an interview, dress in the same kind of standard their flight attendants do, so they can picture you as one of their own. Plenty of advice at pprune.org too.

So with those circumstances how you left, would you ever fly to Dubai again, or would that be too risky for you?

wayyyyy too risky, i'll never fly to dubai, nor will i fly over it in case we land there in an emergency :P

Did they take away your passport?

Nope, I didn't have my passport on me during that meeting. Went back to my apartment and got the hell outta dodge.

Did you know Carla from South Africa?

I did know a Carla from South Africa, but there was around 10,000 - 12,000 crew during that time, so unlikely its the same one :P

I assume you have to be stationed in Dubai to be an FA. When you arrived in Dubai did they confiscate your passport? I know of a rumor that a competitor airline that does exactly this as soon as you start work there as an FA or ground staff.

And apparently you can only get it back per request and reason as to why you need your passport. Supposedly the reason is because a lot of the FAs get fed up and flee. Just wanted to confirm with an actual FA about this.

For the major middle eastern carriers, yes you must be stationed in that location. Emirates do need your passport to sort out your residency visa, but you get it back quickly. You need your passport to fly, so I highly doubt the rumour is true. It is true for poor migrant workers though, in construction and things like that. Possibly ground staff have that happen in the airline you speak of?

Emirates & Etihad I would recommend to anyone looking for this kind of work.

Hello!

My best friend went to an open day last week.

She got through all of the first stages and finally attended an interview. She's delighted and now has to wait 10-12 weeks for a response.

What can she expect next?

Could you give reasons you loved working for them and maybe a few things that you didn't like?

She has been trying to do research on this so your input will be very much appreciated!

Thank you :)

That's great, you're friend has made it a lot further than a lot people!

Things might have changed since I've been there, but I ended up waiting about 6-8 months for that golden call. If it gets past 12 weeks without a call, don't panic! In fact the longer she waits is probably better, because you're unlikely to wait that long if you've been rejected.

Some of the bad things I've already mentioned, such as being away from family if shes very close with her family, difficult to make true trust worthy friends because she'll be flying when they're in dubai and vice versa. Climate, you can only do so much shopping and clubbing. Constant airconditioning.

It is what you make of it. Get out there, meet new people you wouldn't usually meet, try new things. Just have fun with it. It's a great life and I recommend anyone to try it if they can. Some people hate it, a lot of people love it! It will just depend on her.

I have been on countless Emirates flights. First things first, you guys are probably the best cabin crews i have seen in the business and I appreciate you making my flight comfortable. However, I swear I have never seen or interacted with a male Emirates attendant on a flight. What is the gender ratio like in the company, and how do you enjoy it?

thank you, appreciate the comments. During my time there it was probably around 80% female 20% male, and out of those males maybe 8% were straight. Very rough numbers.

There will always be at least one male on the flight, so if there at the minimum of one, it may indeed seem like you've never seen one. For a straight guy, I enjoyed it immensely.

I always bring the cabin crew a box of chocolates/bag of sweets from the duty free shops. How effective is that for getting "preferential" treatment? How would you feel if someone would do this? Would you have him/her in mind in case a premium seat "needs to be filled"?

In terms of getting an upgrade, none what so ever, at least in Emirates. It's the ground crew who make those decisions. The flight attendants can and do get in trouble for upgrading passengers without a valid reason.

Of course, you would likely get better treatment, you might get premium amenity packs, food, drinks etc, but unfortunately no for premium seating. It's just too risky for crew, as much as they'd love to do it :(

Did you personally join the mile high club with a flight attendant co worker?

We did try in the crew bunk, but didnt go through with it as it's just too quiet up there. Too much of a risk. Better to do it on ground where you can move around more anyway ;)

Have you ever been diagnosed Bipolar?

Nope

I flew back from Dubai recently and the flight attendant onboard was insanely hot, was it you? Is this fate? 😌😄

Unfortunately it wasn't me. Had you flown between 2008-2010, i woulda been the hottest thing you've ever seen. :P

Why?

why what?

Think they mean why you took the job. What was your personal situation?

Dream of mine for a while. I travelled quite a bit as a child and had some great crew looking after me, so I guess it grew on me. That, and I got screwed over in my previous job so wanted to leave.