Long haul cabin crew.

[Retiremental]

Can I ask how you manage your time when you’re flying?
We’re hoping to travel to Asia at some point in the next couple of years to see family and DD is fascinated about where the cabin crew sleep and for how long? And now so am I!
Some of her questions are -Do you eat airline food or do you bring your own? And how long do you get to sleep for? Do you have a proper kitchen ? And do you have an iron if your uniform gets creased?
Does the pilot get to sleep and for how long?
Thank you

There are secret rooms for them to sleep in.

www.businessinsider.com/secret-airplane-bedrooms-2015-7?r=US&IR=T

Now she wants to know what happens if somebody snores really badly

Depending on the length of the flight you might get a couple of hours in the bunks. Yes, the pilots sleep too.

Crew are provided with food, normally business class food but many bring their own. There’s no proper kitchen, just the galley. No irons, crew change into PJs when they sleep.

On some long haul flights I have been on, before they come back on duty, the cabin crew can disappear in a loo for ages while freshening up and putting their faces on.

As mentioned there are separate bunk areas for the crew on properly equipped long haul aircraft, though location and standard of accommodation can vary.

Does the pilot get to sleep and for how long?

"The"? There's more than one...

There should always be two pilots on a large airliner, and depending on the length of flight and airline rostering there might be an extra one (e.g. on something going Europe to Japan) or even extra two (e.g.Europe- Singapore) and in that case everybody gets a break away from the flight deck.. If you have extra pilots each pilot is going to probably get three hours in the bunks minimum, on a really long flight it can be much more..now whether crew manage to sleep in the bunks or not or is another matter....

As everyone else has said there are special rest areas with bunks for crew generally at the back of the plane. In jumbos the bunks are in the tail accessed via stairs, with passenger type seats at the bottom of the stairs (but still behind a door which passengers can't access). . I found the bunks really claustrophobic though so used to just sleep in the seats. It can get very cold back there so lots of crew bring warm clothing and hot water bottles. Generally, half the crew go on a break first, then when they return the other half go. The length of the break depends on the length of the flight. Flight crew have separate rest areas.

There's generally plenty of airline food for crew (after passengers have been served) but of course you can take your own food too.

Emirates staff get lovely pyjamas and this area to relax in, they change crews often on very long haul flights.

I found the bunks really claustrophobic though so used to just sleep in the seats. It can get very cold back there so lots of crew bring warm clothing and hot water bottles.

Ah yes, the glamour.... The PR pictures put out by Boeing/Airbus and the airlines always made the crew rest areas look like something rather swanky but in my experience of those at the front end they were tight on room, noisy and the floor was scattered with heaven knows what left behind by previous crews..

Blimey those Emirates crew rest areas bear no resemblance whatsoever to BA's!

And yes, noisy too. As you say @notimagain it's sooo glamorous!

Thanks for your answering her questions. DD is still more excited about the prospect of the flight than she is about the rest of the trip!

I won 2 virgin upper class flight tickets to anywhere in the world.
I’m a bit embarrassed to say we only went to Florida, so not very adventurous, but we had a house there and thought it would be nice to travel in style..
Now I think we wasted them.
It was about 18 years ago and cost £4,125 ...each..then!

I was expecting the last word in opulence but it was unbelievably ordinary.

There were about 8-10 seats, all five feet apart.
The seats reclined but did not fully make a flat bed.
There was a little bar at the back .
The menu was nice with a good choice and plenty of booze except I’m not a drinker.

You got a very cheap , literally poo coloured toiletry bag with poor quality toiletries, virgin vie stuff
There was nothing luxurious in this at all

Apart from using virgins lounge , reclining seats , free booze and better food it was very underwhelming experience and I’m easily pleased
£4, 125 would have bought a very luxurious cruise

@popshops

Emirates staff get lovely pyjamas and this area to relax in, they change crews often on very long haul flights.

These look so good.

Emirates staff get lovely pyjamas and this area to relax in, they change crews often on very long haul flights.These look so good.

Well Emirates aren't known across the industry for being exactly cuddly feely with regard to their crews so excuse me for a ..

The reality elsewhere, if crew rest is required/allowed - it often isn't, , is that usually the crew provide their own pyjamas (often a track suit or similar), there's just one crew change over roughly mid flight - everybody is working in the cabin first hour or two and last hour or two and then the cabin team splits with one half taking first break, the other half taking second....