The Allplane Podcast #5 - Cabin crew life with Magdalena Osowska
Cabin crew are one of the mainstays of commercial aviation. Everyone that has ever travelled in an airliner is somehow familiar or has interacted with these highly trained professionals. And, yet…how much do we know about this profession? how is it like to work as cabin crew? We are soon going to learn…!
Today’s guest, Magadalena Osowska works a senior cabin crew for one of the major Gulf carriers. She is constantly shuttling between different continents and time zones. She has even flown on some repatriation flights during this exceptional pandemic period. We have talked about this, of course, in the hope of getting a glimpse of what travel looks like in these exceptional times.
But today’s episode is, more generally, about cabin crew life, both from a professional - ever wondered how you can start a career as cabin crew and what the career path looks like? - and practical perspective - how do you organize your life when you are constantly flying long-haul?
This is a lifestyle that is possibly not for everyone, but one where avid travellers like Magdalena - already 111 countries visited and counting! - can thrive in.
Check out this podcast episode about cabin crew life!
Download this episode on
Apple Podcasts / iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts or Stitcher
Topics we talk about in this episode
How to become cabin crew at a major Gulf carrier
Life as cabin crew on long-haul aircraft
Organization and duties of cabin crew
The practicalities of constant long-haul travel: food, rest…passport stamps!
Dealing with jetlag
Cabin crew work during the Covid-19 pandemic
Combining work and private travel around the world
Magdalena’s own travel Instagram account
Resources
Magdalena’s Instagram account (about travel and cabin crew life)
Pîcture of a cabin crew rest areas (this one is from a Thai Airways Airbus A380, taken during a visit to Toulouse some years ago)
Gizmodo picked up and re-published this pic shortly after I published it, saying the “A380 crew rest area looks like straight out of a Star Trek set”
Podcast Music: Five Armies by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3762-five-armies
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Episode Transcript
(please note that, although we strive to make it as close as possible to the original recording, the transcript may not be 100% accurate)
Hello and welcome to a new episode of the Allplane podcast!
When I started this podcast one of my aims was to have professionals from different areas of the airline industry come on the podcast and explain, in the first person, how it is like in their line of work
And, perhaps, one of the most iconic roles in commercial aviation, certainly, one that every passenger is familiar with, is that of cabin crew.
But how much do we really know about this job?
Today’s guest is Magdalena Osowska.
Originally from Poland, Magdalena has worked for over a decade as cabin crew
at one of the major Gulf carriers.
Because of her duties, she can easily visit four continents in as many weeks. On a typical month she may be setting foot, for example, in Australia, the US, Europe and, of course, the Gulf…
This is a lifestyle that is possibly not for everyone but it seems to suit her perfectly, since Magdalena is an avid traveller she also happens to manage a popular Instagram account, called fly_like_a_wasp Where she shares insights about cabin crew life and her nonstop travel around the world
In fact, it’s only because the pandemic has temporarily grounded airlines and crews that I managed to catch up with her and ask her a few questions about cabin crew life
Things like how do you become a cabin crew? Or how do you cope with jetlag?
And another one I was particularly curious about: How do you avoid running out of pages in your passport?
Keep on listening to learn the answers to these and other questions about cabin crew life…
Without further ado, let me welcome Magdalena to the podcast...
-Hello Magda how are you
-Hi, I am doing very well...how are you?
-I guess I catch you now at your base in a Gulf country where you are based as cabin crew for one of the major gulf carrier, right
-Yes this is right, for the last two months i have been grounded, a new sort of experience very different from my normal flying life
-Can you tell us in just a couple of lines about your experience...you’ve been flying as cabin crew already for quite a few years, right? And always with the same airline?
-Yes, I have been flying with my current airline for 11 years, I did not have previous flying experience, as a matter of fact, I spent the first part of my life with lots and lots of books, since I studied literature and linguistics, so very different from what i do now! but this actually has led me to see the world that previously had just been reading about...I have been flying very very intensely for the past 11 years and I a have currently a cabin manager position
-Actually, we are going to get back to the professional part in a short while, but first I wanted to ask you about your experience during this pandemic, because you have been grounded, but you have done some occasional flights, repatriation flights...and this can give us a glimpse of how travel is like in this new weird time and about protection measures…
-This is indeed a very interesting experience! My airline doesn't do any of the regular commercial flights right now, only cargo and repatriation flights. A couple of days ago I was operating one of those flights. Prior to going onboard I was very curious about how the flying was going to be like, the safety measures...First and foremost we are practicing social distancing, which in a cabin environment is obviously very difficult. The crew keeps distance from each other, people are being held at the gate by agents and let in in an orderly way, their temperature is measured. Onboard the passengers-guests, have seats assigned far from each other and are not allowed to change seats unless they could find a seat that is away from others. Everyone has have to wear masks at all times, same applies to the crew, the crew wear plastic gloves too.
-Are these normal masks?
-We, as crew, are provided surgical masks, identical, blueish...for passengers I noticed they have their own masks, so there is diversity...
-Were you serving food?
-Yes! We definitely serve food, hot meals, but service has been modified to minimize interaction with the passengers, which is difficult to get used to, because we are usually chatting with the passengers, but we are now discouraged from doing it, we just pass on the tray. We used to give fine dining experience and it is still a fine dining experience, but we minimize interactions, the passenger receives everything at one time, there is more plastic to protect things like starters, lots of disposable items…
-Are there some disinfection measures when an airplane arrives back to base?
-Yes, definitely and not only at base. There are cleaning teams dressed in protective suits and powerful sanitising items and we us a crew we also have a powerful sanitising agent and we have to perform a very deep clearing of the toilets, every two hours, we would always check and clean the toilets but not in the same way as we do it now
-And when arriving are there additional checks, like temperature?
-Yes, for guests, there is temperature check and for the crew there is a coronavirus test
-So this was a one off and the schedule is far from normal?
-Definitely not normal, we do not carry too many passengers
-Any expected time to get back to normal?
-Not at the moment, lots of uncertainty and living day to day, but the world seems to be opening up and this raises our hopes
-Will see...we had obviously to talk about this because it is the most pressing concern right now in the industry and it is great that we could get some personal insights, but I would like to switch to a more evergreen topic: cabin crew life, cabin crew as a professional option...You told us your professional background but wanted to ask you about the cabin crew career path looks like, what your professional experience has been so far and what sort of position you hold now because you are quite senior I guess…
-With regard to the recruiting process every airline handles it differently, but it all starts with the online application. When I was first applying, I learned that the airline I am now working for was looking for cabin crew and I applied. I was then invited to assessment day, however I know other airline do skype interviews or they just do an open day. At open day you leave your cv in front of the recruiters and you may be selected for the actual assessment day. In my case, assessment day was just one day, but a very long and intense day where you go through multiple stages, there is a stage involving some interaction, how you interact with others, how you present yourself, group activities to see how the candidate performs with the groups and finally and interview. And at each stage some candidates are asked to leave, some are lucky, some are unlucky and you never know...I know how it feels to be in both groups…
-And the whole process is conducted in one day?
-Yes, in my airline it is like that, and from what I hear from my colleagues too…But the whole process is longer, sending the application, the assessment day, waiting for the application, medical checks, getting some vaccinations, so from the time when you apply until you start working it can take 2 months, in my case it was 4 months...
-And then you move to your new city...
-Yes, everyone has to come here and they get accommodation provided by the company and start the training, the training takes 6 weeks and consists of 3 parts: safety, aviation aspect and the service aspect...And there is plenty of study and plenty of very technical advanced aviation terminology, that many people struggle with, specially those for whom English is not their first language
-And during this process you are already technically employed by the airline?
-Yes, you are definitely employed, you have your staff number, you have your medical coverage, etc, all these initial privileges, but during the training there are plenty of exams, every 2 or 3 days there are written or practical examinations, so you are being continually assessed and, of course, if you are not performing, if you don't show your potential you can be terminated
-And the moment you arrive you need to find your own accommodation?
-No, no, everything is covered by the airline. In my case I was flown to the Gulf for free, picked up by the driver and arrived at my apartment which was very large. I was housed with another girl, we had a huge apartment with separate bedrooms, separate bathrooms, boxes with kitchen utensils and even some basic food. That made a very good impression in me back in the day...
-And they keep housing or this is temporary and then you need to do your own housing arrangements?
-So, this is for the entire employment, unless you want to live outside, you can rent on your own and you can get even some allowances, but this does not apply to every category. You must be married for example to get the allowance...You can always live outside, but if you want some financial support, then yeah, certain rules apply…
-You mentioned categories... which is perfect to introduce the next question: after you pass the test, what's next? What is the career ladder like and the different categories you find in a large airline like the one you are working for?
-Without previous experience, everyone starts in economy class, basic cabin crew flight attendant. There are other categories, it may be an onboard chef, that works in first class and customizes the passengers meals, but for this obviously you need previous chef experience and another position is that of food and beverage manager, that requires previous experience with hotel business and in managing teams, so these two categories after initial training start to work in business and first and not in economy. Anyone else starts in economy class regardless of previous experience, even if they have worked 10 years at another airline, they would still workin economy. However later they can progress quicker to other working zones
-And how does seniority work? You moved into biz class as you gain more experience...
-The airline industry is very dynamic and always needs to adapt to demand, and this affects opportunities for progression, depending on where the airline is expanding. If it is opening new routes, flying more aircraft, it opens up new opportunities for certain categories of crew. If there is such demand you may be promoted quite quickly based on your performance, you will be selected for an interview to move up to business or first. You still need to show that you are the right person to be promoted and start working in premium zones, and this depends a lot on what stage the airline is at. Oce you get to premium cabin you normally stick there, I know some other airlines they provide training for economy, business and first and then they shift, one day you work in economy the next day in business...in my airline it doesn't happen, it may still happen you work some day in economy if there is a need for that, but not often, you work in your assigned zones.
-You work in long haul so relatively large aircraft with many crew members, is there hierarchy there? What is this hierarchy like?
-Right, we have people in economy, people in business and first, if the aircraft has first class. We have a supervisor in economy class, supervises the crew in that zone, then a supervisor in business class and we have also the food and beverage manager and we also have the chef working in first class, with the crew designated for first class service and the person in overall management is the cabin manager, this is the position I currently have.
-And the chef, does he really cook onboard or he just rearranges food that has been precooked?
-It’s a combination of both, the aircraft environment is quite limited when it comes to resources, it is not a kitchen, but there are certain things that can be done to the taste of the customer, for example, you may have eggs prepared as you wish, maybe scrambled, or steak cooked to your liking, or some ad hoc creation based on passenger preferences, so there is an outlet for creativity definitely
-As a senior cabin crew do you get to choose where to fly to? Can you request specific destinations?
-First and foremost, where you fly is determined by your license. You mentioned I do long haul flights, which is true and this is because for example, i don't have a license for narrow body aircraft, like the A320 that we also operate, so i can not fly to the destinations operated by this aircraft. So yes this is a limitation and then for some destinations there are visa requirements like the US, well in fact the Us is the only destination where you need to have a cabin crew working visa...
-Can I stop you here one sec , how do you manage all the visas and permits? Your airline flies to so many different countries, each with different visa requirements and even a diverse geopolitical situation...
-So basically we can enter every country visa free, except for the us. There it is arranged by the embassy, with the support of the company. Another restriction is certain european countries, which require a European passport, or Schengen visa or a special certificate issued by the company. Otherwise regardless of nationality you can fly to any destination. Only that in some of them you get your passport stamped and, for some crew that fly often to those destinations, they risk running out of pages in their passports!
-Yeah, actually this is something i had written down here to ask you, because as a passport stamp collector myself I am curious about how many stamps you get in your passport..because in addition to your working travel you also travel a lot on your own, you have a travel instagram account...we will talk about this later as well...I guess at some point you start running out of pages and it can become a problem at practical level!
-Yes, this is definitely a problem! Because of my work i don't get my passport stamped that often, but because I travel extensively it gets filled with stamps quite quickly and at the moment I am traveling with 4 passports
-Wow!
-Yes, one with the American crew visa, in another, my country residence visa, another will be my current not expired passport, and whenever I need to apply for a new passport the problem is to find the time to do it
-What about the typical roster, what the typical week, the typical month looks like? How many flights are you expected to complete every month? And how are they organizef, I guess you need to respect some periods of rest and when you fly long haul you need to spend one or two days at destination...
-Yes, to answer this question I am going to tag to your previous question about how we determine where are we flying...So we actually have the privilege to request certain flights so we can sort of design our schedule, we have a request system where we can put multiple preferences and if you are lucky they wil be granted. So if you want to fly to Paris, you can indicate that and maybe your flight roster will have five Paris flights or you may want to see a friend in Singapore, so you can request flying there on certain dates, or if you wish to fly together with friends you can state your preferences and be assigned to certain route
-And what about the number of flights, are all cabin crew members flying the same amount of flights?
-This is something beyond our control, so during our chats people tend to complain of either flying too much or too little! I personally have a balanced roster, there is obviously a maximum you can fly connected to radiation and legal rest, we need to get at least 8 days off, not necessarily per month, but depending on certain numbers of days, and we need to get some space between flights and there are a lot of legalities. I'm just looking at my schedule of March just to give you an idea, I was up in the air 105 hours and the duty hours were 150 which is quite a lot! In March I was still very busy!
-So duty hours include preflight and postflight and if you do long haul, like the US or Australia, and you spend 24h at destination, it counts as duty?
-It counts as duty, but it is not in duty hours time. Duty time counts the briefing so that is about 1.5h before the flight, then the actual flight and half an hour after landing at destination and on average I do 120 duty hours per month, so march was a bit of an exception. And you were mentioning about off base time of rest and I have indicated that it was 150 hours in March. And then, I can run you through it very quickly...in March, I had two days off, then Frankfurt, 30 hours in frankfurt, then two days off, then a flight to the Maldives with 28h in the Maldives, i landed there in the middle of the night, and then the next was Geneva, then two days off and then Los Angeles and two days off, so Los Angeles is ultra long haul and before and after that i need to have two days off, that's the legal requirement...so i spent 48 hours in LA and then I went on to Singapore, with two days before and two days after and then Washington DC...
-Wow! A very diverse range of destinations!
-Yes, and very different concerning continent and climate..because the Maldives is very different to Frankfurt or DC..this is the sort of diversity I am dealing with!
-I guess you don't fly always with the same people...
-First of all, we are a very diverse, multicultural crowd and it happens very rarely that you had flown before with them, there are usually new faces and you have to start working with people you have never seen before: different backgrounds, education...and you have to start working well with them in a quite challenging environment, but my experience is that this goes very well, to the point that sometimes when i have had someone from family onboard they later keep me asking from this or that person that served them onboard “How is that person doing?” they ask me and I have to tell them I have no idea, because I have never flown with that person again...and they say “but you gave that impression that you know that person before, you treated each other with so much respect and friendliness!” so this is definitely as skill that we develop, to get along well with different people…!
-And then you spend 20-30 hours with these people at destination, do you hang out together or every one does his own thing. I imagine if you fly to a place like the Maldives there is surely some time to unwind and rest...what do you guys do?
-Yeah, when we arrive we are picked up by a bus and taken to the hotel, once we get our room keys we are also being told at what time we need to show up and of course the crew often makes plans together and there are lots of jokes about this, because at the briefing many say, yes, they want to do something together, like a large happy group and then during the flight many start to say “well, you know, I think I am going to stay in the hotel, I will get some rest…” and by the time you reach the hotel maybe there is only half the people that wanted to go out and when the time comes that to go out maybe you are the only person and they are like “ oh, I overslept” although sometimes yes there is a group and you go do things, say if you're in LA for 48h you may rent a car and go somewhere. A lot of people meet family and friends if they fly to places where they are from.
-How do you cope with jet lag or you don't have jet lag because you live in a sort of atemporal space?
-Yeah...haha, but first let me finish the activities thing...one thing people do is shopping, if you go to the US, people shop certain products, maybe some luxury items or go to outlets, or go shopping for groceries. I know at certain destinations, if I go to the grocery store I am going to run into the entire team buying certain things from that destination. Also a lot of times people do beauty related treatments, for example, Australia is very popular for laser hair removal if you go to Asia then people would get facial and nails done and maybe haircuts, just to mansion some things people do in layover, people also go the gym or stay hinn their rooms watching netflix...Now about jet lag, this is the big topic, if not the biggest among the community. We always talk about how much we sleep, this is a topic of conversation: when people sleep and if they could sleep well, etc. Personally I handle jet lag quite well, I try to eat healthy, I exercise regularly, and if I have a chance to sleep, I sleep...sometimes I may have slept for 17hours, not very healthy I know! But if my body needs it I sleep...At destination, after a long flight without sleeping I may sleep 3-4 hours just to get that boost to my body and then maybe go out, meet someone for dinner and sleep again in the evening to be ready for the next flight. But people have different approaches, some people will stay awake at night and sleep during the day to be awake if they have a night flight, so everyone is different...but for me, i am not that impacted and this is i think because i look after myself
-Do you guys sleep in the planes as well? Because some flights are really long, you said some flights are 16 hours long!
-Yes, yes
-You have shifts onboard and some people go to sleep during the flight?
-Yes, this is exactly how it's done. REst ifs decided and distributed on ultra long haul flight, we can and must take the legal rest and the team is split in half and one part of the crew goes to rest in a special compartment
-I am, actually, going to try to find a picture i took during a visit to airbus factory in Toulouse where they showed us some rew rest areas...I am going to look in my archive and if i find it, i will post it in the transcript...And what about foods, do you eat the same as the passengers or you bring your food from home?
-So, the airline provides crew meals, which most of the time are the same or very similar to the business class food. We also have boxes with snacks, that are provided by the company, however some people follow a certain nutrition programme and don't what to eat the same things very often so they bring their own food. I bring my own food, it has some fruits, snacks, it is quite common among the crew and I even do it when I fly as a passenger
-Yes those interested in this type of lifestyle, should go to your instagram account where they will find lots of tips and information about how you handle these practicalities. Can you tell us about your instagram @fly_like_a_wasp, right?
-Yes, I run a travel related instagram account where I try to show different scenes from onboard the aircraft, i don't always have time because of course i am working but whenever is safe and does not affect my duties i record some videos, you know...walking down the aisles, showing the galleries and how tout daily life is like, also lots of stories from out of station our layover and also my travels...
-Yes, I am amazed by how many airplanes you fly when not on duty! You may think that when you are not working you want to stay as far away from an aircraft as possible, but not in your case! How many countries have you already visited?
-I counted and i have been to 111 countries and most of them I visited outside of work, some both for work and personal travel like Germany or Indonesia...like you mentioned, I love flying and because of the travel permit i have, i can travel quite freely and i use that privilege quite extensively and often instead of taking one plane, I take four planes to get to my destination and i do lots of shorts trips too!
-What are the next destinations in the list as soon as borders reopen?
-That’s a good question, haha! Actually I am quite lucky that I have done some major trips earlier this year before March. I had two major holidays in January and went to the Comoros and to the Caribbean. I visited four Caribbean islands and went also to Colombia and this was all this year...as for other destinations I tend to look for places I haven't been to, and as i move down the list there are less and less such places...so this impacts as well the way I select the countries I get to. So, for example, now i am very excited about Saudi Arabia finally starting to issue tourists visas, I live very close to Saudi Arabia so i thought this may be the next destination, but now is very hot in the region so i may need to postpone
-You wont need a plane to get there though!
-Well, i guess i can go on a bus..! But i don't have any big plans for now, I have been enjoying my time on the ground, because I got to develop a different routine...getting to sleep in your own bed..this is the longest I have slept at the same place in the last 11 years…!
-Yesh, and also because of this whole situation we managed to find a time slot for the podcast, otherwise it would have been difficult!
-That’s for sure, given the time differences, etc, I am difficult to catch!
-So for people that want to follow your travels on instagram , can you remind us your account?
-Yes, its @fly_like_a_wasp
-I am going to post a link in the transcript anyway
-Thank you! And if anyone has any questions about the travels, i will always be happy to connect and speak about it!
-Great! Thank you so much it’s been great speaking with you and learning about all these very interesting aspects of cabin crew life! Sounds like an interesting career and one that gives you the chance to visit many interesting places
-Yes! It's been a pleasure for me to talk about it and I also got excited picturing my life during normal times! so thank you so much for making me part of this conversation!
-Let’s hope we can start flying again soon! Back to normal. In the meantime, stay safe and thank you very much!