“How’s your reserve been so far?” 

“Oh apart from not sleeping well because I keep expecting a phone call each morning, it’s been great. No-one seems to be going sick, so I’ve barely worked!”

Home reserve, standby, reserve block, on call, available span – whatever name you call it, all flighties have to do their time on reserve. It might be for just a couple of days a month, or at the other end of the spectrum, you might have a full 8 weeks each year. Either way, avoiding reserve is pretty much out of the question. There are actually flight attendants in the US are hired to be purely reserve flight attendants – those poor sods.

Most flighties bitch about reserve – myself included. I felt a sense of dread when I saw my roster with no pre-allocated duties, just days that I would essentially be on tenterhooks waiting with baited breath. Not only does it make it difficult to plan your life for the period since you never know when you’ll be working or if you’ll be away, it also makes it a bit hard to fully relax.

Many fellow flighties will give you a sympathetic knowing look when you tell them you are on reserve, however some crewmembers actually bid for reserve periods. Currently, I’m on week 2 of a 7-week reserve block that will cover the Christmas as New Year period. Here’s why some flighties actually don’t mind – and some even like doing their time on call.