- Manager only reaches out to give you warnings!
-No UNION. They make the rules, you either get used to it or leave!
-at the end you are just a “secondary” expat in Dubai, and you will be treated that way too.
- if you are unlucky you end up in a bad accommodation (but you can change after a while).
- shared accommodation - living with strangers you might not get along with.
- not enough rest time on Ultra long haul flight layovers - 24 hrs layovers after a 14 hrs flight... that actually ends up being 19 hrs with bus ride and immigration. Simply not enough to recover or enjoy your layover.
- some of the customer profiles are extremely demanding, and hard to handle.
- Cabin crew gets literally no support, when there is a report/ complaint against them.
- The airline sets such high expectations for the customers, that It’s no surprise that they come on board and treat us like slaves, complain about everything, and pressing the call bells, like it’s nobody’s business.
- Constantly apologizing and telling customers that the thing they want is not available.
- the service is way too much and unnecessary on some flights! Who needs 2 full service on a 5 hrs night flight, when everyone just wants to sleep?!
- night shifts, a lot of night shifts with 3-4 AM departures. Also, no rest given on this time departure flights that can be up to 11 hrs! Maybe you get seat rest where you are not allowed to close your eyes... but that’s actually worse than having no rest at all! On turnarounds with these departures there is absolutely no rest... no wonder so many crew fall asleep on the jumpseat...
- not enough rest on ULR flights... 3 HRS on a 17 hrs Auckland?! That means a 16 hrs shift (from checking in for the flight, which is 2 hrs before departure), and if the flight is full you might cannot even sit down for a minute in that 16 hrs at all!
- Reporting culture - some brainwashed supervisors that report you for your lipstick not being the right shade of red. But thankfully that was the minority.
- The management has the habit of “punishing” and “threatening” the entire crew community if one does something “bad”!
-Seniority hierarchy
- Pilots and Cabin Crew are being treated completely differently even though we should be “one team”. They are being treated as royalty, while cabin crew is just replaceable robot. Don’t get me wrong, they are totally deserve it and I get that our responsibilities are different and nothing to compare. But a few things just doesn’t add up, and not really fair: such as why do pilots have 45 days paid annual leave, when cabin crew has only 30, the fact that they can swap flights unlimited while cabin crew only 3/per month...or their MUCH BETTER health insurance! Even their wives and family receive a full coverage, while cabin crew (who is the most exposed to health risks!) gets only the most basic health insurance that doesn’t cover anything besides visits to the EK Clinik! Emirates is trying really hard to attract pilots to work at this company...The gap between pilots and cabin crew benefits are insane. The pilot legalities are so different that sometimes It felt like they work for a completely different company...
- You fly with different crew from different nationalities every time. This can be a pro and a con at the same time.
- The management comes up with rules from one day to another that makes absolutely no sense.
- Nonexistent maternity support. As soon as you get pregnant you will be taken off from flights, no payment, no ground job, nothing! You are on your own!
- Lonely lifestyle
- Far away from Family
- Not enough days off/ annual leave
- Very health demanding (both mental and physical) - also, be prepared to deal and being in touch with hundreds of pax everyday.
- In the last couple of years they have removed crew (positions) from flights, which caused increased workload for the crew for on full flights. For example they have removed permanently 2 crew from 777, so now there is 5 economy crew for 310 pax. Or the removal of 1 supervisor on 777 2 class. These positions were absolutely crucial to have ...For me it was a big push in my resignation as this was way too much workload in my opinion! On some flights that are super demanding we barely made it through the service and had so many complaints, because we were understaffed!
- Unlike other airlines, there is no staff discount/ standby for a Business Class ticket. Like not at all! Crew except for pursers have to travel on economy, unless they pay full price for a Business class ticket that is way to expensive to afford! It’s sad that I couldn’t even invite my parents to experience what is traveling on our Business class like (nor me, unless it was a duty travel).
- Very slow with promotion! I spent 3,5 years in economy and did not make it to business class!
I recommend, but only for a shorter period to travel the world! I would definitely wouldn’t devote my whole life for it!
