Got this email from Jase the other day and thought I would share with the masses. Also on the FAQ, I’m working on the glitches, I know it doesn’t work. Hopefully have it back soon…
Jase wrote :
Hey!
I would really appreciate if you could help me out on a few things about Emirates and what it is like being Cabin Crew. I have researched pretty much all I can such as training, rosters etc, but I’m a bit stuck on a few things that I would like to know before deciding to apply when a recruitment day comes around again. I hope you can help!
Firstly with rosters I have seen you mention bidding and I have read it on other sites too. Could you explain this thing where you are put into 7 groups and its your highest chance month or something? That might be old but I picked it up earlier from some site. So basically with bidding and swapping can you choose any flight? For example if I was rostered on a DXB-CDG flight but I wanted to go to LHR would I put that in for swap or…? Thanks!
Secondly for your annual leave ticket to your country, can you choose when you take this or does Emirates say? Do you work on that flight or are you just pax?
Thirdly, you mentioned about requesting leave on a blog. If I wanted to, for example, take 1-8 July off, would I request that and then whether I get it or not would depend on EK granting it?
This leads me on to travel with Emirates. During leave it would be great to travel more and for a bit longer than a layover. So when does concessional travel kick in after being with Emirates? Also, how much roughly are the tickets and is that done through a bidding system too?
How do you cope with the jetlag/tiredness/consistent time zone changes? Any way to overcome these from experience?
Thank you very much for all your help! I really appreciate it! Your blog has been amazingly informative for me. Really. It’s great!
Thanks again!
Thanks Jase for your email. I hope you don’t mind me sharing it publicly here on the blog. I’ll answer the best way I can without confusing anyone. The bidding system was made by Canadians (lol, no offense eheh) and still is being fine tuned…
Bidding. Yeah, so we have a bidding system which simplifies and automates the rostering process here at Emirates. With the number of Cabin Crew on the payroll (around 11,000 to date), paper and pencils wouldn’t be effective. It would be mayhem. Even an Excel spreadsheet can’t really do the maths. The system works – as far as I know – around a set of rules that cannot be overidden. These rules are set by the Civial Aviation Regulation and are called FTL (Flight Time Limitations). It’s a number of very complicated regulations that a normal human being can’t even figure out.
So the Bidding system here at Emirates takes the 11,000 strong pool of Flight Attendants, divides them into 7 groups that rotate every month for 7 months. Inside each group, Flight Attendants are ordered by seniority. What I tried to explain in two lines here can be explained with what is called a matrix, I’m group 3, and I’ll take that for my examples :
So take me as an example. I’m in group 3. In august 2009 (this month) I hold a medium strength hand for my bidding. Meaning the system will allocate preferred flights to whoever is above me in the position (from C to A). In other words, group 2, 1 and 7 will have a greater chance of getting the flights they have bid for. Bear in mind the fact that seniority and operating grade (economy for Grade 2, business for Grade 1 and first class for FG1) within a group is also taken into account. At the moment I hold a fair spot on the seniority within my grade. I hope you’re still with me ! With flight being more popular (ie a 36hour layover in Mauritius in a brilliant setting) than others (ie. a 24hour layover in Deathrow/Heathrow next to the airport or even a turnaround trip to Chennai), you need to bid smart if you do not want to end up with 7 turnarounds (or turns : destination close enough that a layover is not necessary as per FTL). Which at Emirates is probably your worst nightmare, especially with the passenger profile we have to deal with.
So Position “G” is the reserve month, you can try to bid, but you will have no luck what so ever. You’re at the mercy of Crew Scheduling and Passenger Loads. Moving upwards means that month after month you will get a stronger hand to bid. Leading eventually to what we commonly call “Top Bid” where your chances of getting a decent roster and the flights / days off you requested.
I think that sums up the Bidding System pretty neatly. Now onto Swapping.
Before Emirates went global, they had a manageable fleet (crew compliment + aircraft). Nowadays with over 130 aircrafts on line and over 11,000 operating crew available things have changed. They used to do the swapping manually (still in use for Captains and First Officers), they had poster boards where crew used to place paper ads for trips they wanted to giveaway and trips they wanted along with a phone number and some important details such as dates and destinations. Nowadays, it’s basically the same thing but virtual. We have access to a portal that enables us to advertise the trips we don’t want and ask for trips we’d like to operate. Once you find what you’re looking for, you trade your flight with another crew (swapping flight for another flight or days off) in order to build a roster that suits you. This often doesn’t work as rules and regulations on FTL (number of hours worked previously, rest periods before the flight etc etc) interfere with your requests. Company policies also intervene such as Gender Rule, minimum of 2 male crew on every flight, a language speaker, maximum of 50% of language speakers per flight… In other simple words, Swapshop (that’s how it’s called) is like a Graigslist for flight trading. Emirates is one of the few airline to have successfully implemented such a swapping system. I know of other Flight Attendants such as Heather Poole that require the help of “trip traders” to do the work for them against some kind of payment…
Let’s move on to Leave/Holidays. Emirates, as part of your contract, will entitle you to take 30 days of Leave per annum. These 30 days, you have to bid for twice a year. You can take 15 days in the first half of the year (January to June) and the rest the second half (July to December). Bidding differs though. This time, there’s no group and no matrix. But only seniority within your grade. The more senior, the more your request will be fulfilled. This year I asked for Christmas off, and two weeks during Ramadan and got them. Being popular periods, it means my seniority was high enough to grant my requests.
You will not work on your flight home for your holidays. They will grant you a free return ticket each year to your ALD (Annual Leave Destination) which you will have specified upon joining.
And what about Staff Travel ?
Staff Travel benefits kick in fully after 6 months with the company. You will have a range of available tickets for yourself as well as for immediate family members. There’s various tickets. But the most common ones are :
- ID90 : 10% of the fare price + taxes (ie. one way Sydney – Dubai on this ticket is roughly 410 UAE dihrams or 80 euros/110 US dollars). This ticket is tricky. It entitles you to board a flight provided there’s seats available and the overall payload (weight) does not exceed the MTOW (Max Take-Off Weight) of the aircraft. And full fare paying customers gets priority. It also works on seniority. If a colleague is more senior than you are, he will get on before you do. Cheap but gives nightmares. You will have to check passenger loads before attempting to get on a flight with an ID90.
- ID50 : 50% of the fare price + taxes. You get a firm ticket that will enable you to get on unless a Frequent Flyer member of golden status decides you shouldn’t be on the flight and takes your seat (rarely happens).
- ALT : Free annual firm ticket to the destination you specified upon joining Emirates. No problem with that ticket.
- OAL : Other Airline ticket. Emirates has ties with other airlines for its employees. I’ve personally never used one of them.
- ZED : Industry wide agreement for airline employees. Subload ticket in most cases at generous prices. basically the same as an ID90 for practically any other airline in the world. You also get listed for this ticket and depending on available seats you get on or you don’t.
NO bidding system for your tickets. Although you have a cap for your family members depending on the financial crisis… it seems !
And Finally Jetlag, time zones and constant traveling. I haven’t found the miracle yet. But sleeping plenty, drinking water on-board and no going crazy on layovers seems to work pretty well. Doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a party in Singapore at times or a day long sightseeing trip in Beijing… But you have to manage your rest time according to the flight you will have to operate. I have yet to find a crew that has completely mastered the jetlag/fatigue issue.
That’s about it. Hope this answers your questions. If you too have any questions to ask, please do not hesitate to send me an email via the contact page for a detailed answer wherever I can answer !
Well done…for a second there by reading the title I thought you had the secret to bidding and getting what you want
no turn arounds this month I cant complain 
Very Informative! Thanks for sharing!
http://starvillanueva.wordpress.com
Canadians invented the bidding system, eh?
Awesome post! The best by far according to me.
great post. very informative. definitely removed most of my confusions about the rosters.
HI Jase,
Awesome post I must say. I am just wondering is ID50 firm also means business class or just ‘firm economy’? The reason I asked is because you mentioned “Frequent Flyer with a golden status” in your post when you explained ID50. My sister works for Emirates and she wasnt too sure could I get business class using concession as she only ever used ID90 which is economy?
Cheers, Vincent
Hi Sodwee,
Could you please forward my questions (in my previous post) to Jase?
Many thanks, Vincent
well done, thanks for explaining the system so eloquently
Thanks !
I don’t know if this was in your post or not, I’m too lazy to reread the whole thing (hahaha) but what if a family member dies (knock on wood), would you be able to take a leave so soon? And what about your rostered schedules?