Originally Posted by
katjuscha
hi people in dxb!!
all these talkings about trips to syd, mel, etc. makes me curious about your other flights... what mixture between long and short haul flights do you have with ek?? is it 50/50? what kinds of patterns do you have regular? around the world or mostly to your homecountry?? what about the short flights, do you have days with for legs a day?? what flight ours quota per month??
well, that are enough questions, arenīt they?? ;-)
thanks for replying!!!
katjuscha
At EK there is a bidding system in place, where you list which flights you desire to work for that month and scheduling do their best to accomodate the requests. Of course, there are some flights more popular than others, and they need crew to do turnarounds, so you'll get a roster that will have a few good flights mixed in with a few turnarounds in the first few months. If you're good enough with you're bidding you can fill your roster with just long haul flights. Personally I've managed to avoid a turnaround for four months now, others haven't been so lucky.
If you are a language speaker though, or are trained on the Airbus A310-300, you won't have the same success as, say, a female English speaker. Any German speakers will have a roster packed with German flights, same goes for Greek, and Italian. Arabic, Hindu, French, Korean, and other speakers don't really have it as bad because there are so many of them working in the company and they only need one native speaker for each flight. The A310 only services Kuwait, Alexandria (maybe another destination), so you're roster is packed with Short Haul flights, plus 3 days of reserve every month as opposed to one full month of reserve every 7 months.
If you're just an English speaker, you will definately get to see the world. You can also swap flights quite easily, as there's always someone who wants to go home (if it's a longhaul) and there's always someone who has a boyfriend in Dubai they don't want to be away from (if it's a turnaround).
When you're in training, and it's a week before graduation, they'll send you to this IT course where you'll learn about the bidding system, swaps, leave bids etc. It's really important to pay attention here, not because you'll be assessed (although I think there was a quiz on sickness from memory) but because what you learn on the day can greatly influence you're happiness with the job. Most of my friends get crappy rosters, and wonder why, yet there are a select few who can get days off when they need, flights back home when they want, and score a Paris, Osaka, 2 day Seychelles, and a London after coming off reserve.
Yes, there are 4 leg journeys, but not too many which is good. There's a double Doha (DXB-DOH = 1hr), A Bahrain-Doha (DXB-BAH = 1.15 hr), A Doha-Karachi (DXB-KHI = 1.55 hr) A Bahrain Muscat (DXB-MCT 1 hr), and a Doha-Kuwait (DXB-KWI = 1.45 hr). The legs themselves are short, but you're completely fatigued afterward.
Flight hours... on average you have 80-90hrs a months. You can push that to 100 if you try. If you take you're annual leave though that month's pay will go down to around 50-60, depending on how much time you take off.
Hope that answers the questions :-)