“Omg did you hear that he got a New Zealand overnight as well as a Singapore. That’s the second month in a row he’s had all these senior trips.”
“And I just got one Perth and the rest Sydney returns! Woopeeee.. I wanna know who he’s sleeping with in crewing to get a roster like that”
Crew plan their lives in relation to their roster. The day when rosters are released are a big part of knowing what you’re going to be doing for the next month – or in the case of some flight attendants – the next two months. Also it’s often a case of how much work you are going to be getting. For crew on some contracts, the amount of work you’ll be given can vary roster to roster, and how much you’ll ultimately be paid. Roster release day can therefor be pleasant surprise or a massive disappointment.
There’s also the kind of trips that you’ll be getting for that roster period. Will it be early sign ons? Lots of short turnarounds or through some luck of the draw a spectacular port like a Honolulu or San Francisco
I feel massive suspense in the lead up to the day the roster is released as you log onto almost obsessively to check if the roster is out. This is me on the day the roster comes out:
Picks up phone, logs onto crew management system, clicks roster tab… Nope not out yet, check again in 5 minutes. – AND repeat.
Chances are you’ll know the new roster has been published by the all the notifications going off on your phone, and messages from your fellow crew wanting to know if you’ll swap a shift. I’ll admit, I’m nosy, with my fellow flightie friends, I do like to ask how their rosters are.
The Moment of Truth: Did you get what you bid for?
Crew can bid for days off, particular trips – usually the best destinations or the ones with the most lucrative allowances, and can even request to fly with other crewmembers or on certain days of the week. Depending on what the rest of the workforce asks for and what the company needs, the bidding system will try and satisfy as many of the requests as possible in order of the priority you assign to each request – or bid. It’s kind of important not to get your hopes up as none of these are guaranteed, but it’s a great way of telling the rostering system what’s important to you, so it can try and give you at least some of what you ask for.
Perhaps you only want to be away for 3-day trips, want mainly day flights, or want to only do America trips. The most senior crew in the company get their bids processed first and these filter down through seniority. At my airline, newer crew without seniority, have their bidding requests completed second.
I try not to ask for too much and there’s a bit of strategy in deciding what you are likely to get, and focusing your efforts there. The release of a roster is that moment of truth. If you didn’t get what you want, there’s always other ways to try and work around it. Case in point below – trip swaps.
A New Roster Means A Barrage of Trip Swap Requests
“Hey love, how are you, just wondering if I can have your trip on the 27th for mine that leaves on the 28th of March, it’s my partners birthday that day, and I’m desperate to get it off… Please can you help?!”
Roster day means you can watch the trip swap groups on Facebook go off with a million notifications and posts as people try to either swap or give away a trip, with different levels of desperation. Personally unless there’s a massive commitment I have, I tend to work the roster I’m given and organise my social life around my days but many crew tinker with their rosters almost obsessively contacting crew and asking for swaps.
I find it annoying having a crew member I’ve never met or worked within my base search the who is working on a flight they want, and then contact me through Facebook messenger. They then ask if they can swap my trip for theirs because they want to work with a certain person or have something that on that day.
Such seems to be the practice in my base. “I May as well try my luck,” seems to be the way of thinking, but depending who it is, I find it somehow a bit intense. Sure, go ahead and post in the trip swap group online and see if anyone is interested – if you don’t get anyone replying you can assume there’s no interest. Don’t go and then ask people individually, or keep reposting the offer on a daily basis.
The new roster is published again soon. What will I get this month? Will I be lucky to get the Singapores I bid for again like last month? And how many crew will try to scab one of my shifts? Roster release day means all these questions and more get answered with a few numbers and letters on a screen.
“I can’t swap off the trip no one wants to take it…”
