Fly Emirates! But why?

The first time I have been on board on an Emirates plane  was my joining flight. I joined Emirates as a flight attendant April, 24th 2015. Since then, I feel the pity that I haven’t met this airline before.

I bet you saw this “Fly Emirates” ad at least once in your life. But I am not sure if you know the reasons why. Let me tell you as much as I can.

Why Fly Emirates as a flight attendant?

• Emirates is a worldwide brand. The management is 100% professional. Rules are rules. There is no space for questions. Everything is written and easy to reach. If you struggle to decide, there is always a professional on the other side of the phone to give you an assistance where needed. Open door policy. Simple! You do what you are supposed to do and refrain from doing what you are NOT supposed to, then you can spend years of high quality life in Dubai within this company. (Bonus: If you do MORE than what you are supposed to do and go beyond expectations, they recognize you and they are never late to say “Thank you.” plus they are generous while saying that. 😉
• It is a multi-cultural work environment. There are only few companies in the world where you can work with 20 different nationalities every single time. And consider, it’s always different combination of nationalities and languages.

• As a crew, you get the best training in the world. Their professionalism shows even there, within the first weeks of training. I remember my first WOW days at training college. Red polos, the lovely trainers, simulators, even the training college itself. It’s an airplane shaped building and when you see it while passing through the road, it just WOWs you…

• As I mentioned above that Emirates is worldwide brand, I would like to add the effect of having Emirates as a part of your CV. If you would like to go back home one day, imagine the doors which having a past with Emirates could open for you.
• BUT, don’t even think about it right now, because I have a lot more to tell you and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to go back before experiencing them all.
• Emirates has a nice rostering system where it allows you to have ten to fifteen days off per month. They try their best to be fair among the crew  (around 25k, yes wow again) and the system is successful on that. Everyone gets around two turnaround flights per month (where you go to the destination and come back within the same day, meaning no layover) and rest is layover. The destinations, you can choose where you would like to have your layover next month.
• So here, it comes to the bidding system! They have a bidding system where it’s really hard to compare with other airlines in the world. Being fair is again the key point here. They have seven groups among the crew and these groups are rotating every month. Let’s say you are group number one and January you had your “top bid” month. That means you are more likely to get the flights you bid for. Then the following month you are supposed to be bottom bid which usually leads to a reserve month. (I’ll explain it later.) Then you start the count again, March “6th top”, April 5th top and goes on. You can bid for spesific flight for a spesific date, you can bid for days off (up to five days off in a row for cabin crew), you can bid for a long or short layover regardless the destination, you can bid for a destination five times. And so many more varieties.
• When it comes to Reserve (which means you have no scheduled flights for you and they keep you on reserve in case if someone can’t make it to the flight for whatever reason) or Standby, you don’t get these duties every single month. They don’t remove you from your flight if you are not one of the most juniors. And as a result of being human, if they are mistaken and remove you with no reason, you can always call or e-mail them and they will put you back on your flight. Reserve, only comes here once in seven months and it’s more likely to be on your bottom bid. BUT, as I have seen many people hating reserve months, for me it was my BEST roster ever. I got the flights I was bidding for! I call it as a surprise month and I love surprises.
• Apart from your days off, if you have a duty starting really early in the morning, they don’t waste your day off. Instead, they give you a REST DAY where you can relax and get yourself ready for the duty. They never force you to use your days off doing a job related thing.
• Saying that, I can proudly tell you that even your uniform is being taken care of by the company. They have a FREE laundry service for cabin crew. You come back from your flight, take off your uniform and when going to your next duty, you just drop them off where you sign in for your flight. That’s all you have to think about your uniform. (Bonus: Even some company accommodations has laundry within the building which makes it even easier. And yeah, never forget to empty your pockets. 🙂

• Let’s say you didn’t like the accommodation the company has provided for you. It never ends there. You can always ask for the live out allowance and choose your own flatmates and live with the people you like and live wherever you’d like. Some people complain that the allowance is too small but please keep in mind that the company has never offered you a single accommodation where you can live by your own unless you are a senior flight attendant. So I want to assure you that it’s more than enough for a shared accommodation even in downtown. (Bonus: Even as economy class crew if you would like to live somewhere far from the city center, you can still live alone with the lowest allowance.)
• You get two different types of discount cards. One is Platinum which you can get it the first day you join Emirates. And the second is FACE Card which is exclusive to cabin crew and you have to wait for it until you finish the initial training. (FACE: Flight Attendant Club of Emirates). With FACE Card, you are entitled for a free entrance with almost all the beach clubs, pools and GYMs around Dubai. Plus both cards give you up to 50% discount again in almost every restaurant, cafes and pubs around the city.

I can go on. But the problem is, if I keep going on it could take me hours to complete this entry. 🙂 I leave the rest for another one. Plus, you can always add more in the comments if you are already a part of our team. Or if you have any spesific questions about any spesific topic, please feel free to contact me.

I feel SO lucky to have this job, yes. But I feel even luckier that I am part of this company which gives me limitless opportunities for my personal growth.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.

Steve Jobs