Alaska Airlines made a really neat video highlighting the process they use to assign schedules to their cabin crew. If you think your job is tiring, imagine what these guys and gals do – it’s not all about vacationing in far off lands. There’s a lot of busy schedules competing with jet lag, which makes for a very tiring work week. It’s not easy, but its a thankless job. I’m glad Alaska is open about this process, and is sharing it with the flying public.
Alaska Airlines has produces several FAQ videos highlighting various aspects of their operation, so I’m looking forward to watching (and sharing) the rest.
So you can better understand the video, Alaska provides this helpful piece of information: Upon completion of training, Flight Attendants will be on reserve. The duration of their reserve status will be determined by their base seniority. Initial base assignments are determined by staffing needs, so trainees must be prepared to support any one of our five bases located in: San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and Anchorage.
If you found this video fascinating, I’ve posted others on a day in the life of a flight attendant, and what it’s like to be a reserve flight attendant. Check them out!
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
Wow, they could sell me a shit sandwich with how well they made working Reserve sound.
I wonder how many years it takes to get up to a point where you have some control over your work schedule.