Working my Schedule

One thing that is a bit unique about being a flight attendant is that (for the most part) we’re all basically interchangeable. The company doesn’t care WHICH flight attendant works a flight, as long as a qualified flight attendant is there to do the job. What this means is that when a flight attendant receives a work schedule from their company, we know that we *may* have to work the shifts we were given, but there’s a good chance that we can swap the trips we were given for other more desirable trips, or trips that work better with our family’s schedules. I personally have NEVER worked a trip that was originally assigned to me.

When I first started at my current company, I was constantly told by people senior to me that I needed to “work my schedule” by swapping trips, dropping trips, and doing everything I could to get a “better schedule.”

What does this mean? Well, the answer is kind of complicated.

Swapping trips has two options: 1) I can swap with other flight attendants. If I have a trip another flight attendant would like, and they have a trip I’d like, we can agree to exchange them. I used to post my trips for swap regularly, but I found that I was constantly getting contacted by flight attendants with bizarre swap requests (even when I had clearly posted the parameters that I would accept for a swap), and never was I contacted with a legitimate swap. Because of this experience (which kind of took a lot of mental energy from me), now I do not post any of my trips for swap unless I am somehow blessed with a Transoceanic flight, because for some reason flight attendants are more respectful about following requested parameters for these sought-after flights. 2) I can swap with Open Time. Open Time are trips that the company needs to find coverage for. At my old company, I could only swap like-for-like in Open Time, so I’d have to swap a three day trip for another three day trip leaving on the same day. My new company gives us the ability to swap trips for similar trips on different days so long as they feel it will benefit the company to allow it. This has been a wonderful change, because it sometimes means that I can swap out of weekend trips and onto week day trips.

Dropping trips includes two options: 1) I can put my trips up on the swap board for another flight attendant to pick up. or 2) I can ask the company to take the trip from me. The problem with asking the company to take the trip from me is that they do it so last minute and only do it when they really don’t need flight attendants, so it means that I can’t easily find a more desirable trip to pick up at the late time that the company actually takes my trip from me. However, it can be helpful if I need to get out of work for appointments or other planned events where I’m not trying to work a better trip, I’m just trying not to work.

“Working my schedule” essentially means swapping (in my case usually with Open Time) to get better trips, as well as trying to drop trips so that I have freedom in my schedule to pick up better trips that other flight attendants are trying to get rid of.

For the first 6 months at my new company, I didn’t have much luck with working my schedule, though I tried desperately to do so. I sometimes was able to swap days around, but never could I drop a trip to pick up a better trip, and rarely was I swapping a trip for a better trip; I was usually swapping a trip for days that worked better for my family.

Then all of a sudden, in October, I started being able to work my schedule! It started when I was having trouble sleeping one night, and I picked up my phone and looked at the swap board. I was able to pick up a London trip (very very hard to get), and was able to swap out of some of my trips into trips (in Open Time) that I liked better! I prefer trips with long layovers in cities I enjoy, and minimal airport sits, so these are the criteria I look for when looking for a “better” trip.

Then, at the end of October, something crazy happened…I looked at my schedule on the company scheduling app, and an upcoming trip had disappeared! It was just…gone! It was a very exciting and confusing moment. Exciting because it freed me up to look for a better trip. Confusing because I’d been trying to get rid of trips and had been completely unsuccessful up until that point. I also still felt I should work, I just wanted to work a better trip. I then had to watch the Swap Board like a hawk, looking for a good trip to pick up to replace the trip that another flight attendant had picked up from me. And then…a Honolulu popped up, and I was able to go to Hawaii instead of working a 3 day trip with 3 legs a day. A working my schedule success story!

The London trip I had picked up in the middle of the night wouldn’t work well for my family (it was happening when we planned to have exchange students in town), so I went to the swap board and found a flight attendant who wanted to trade her Paris trips for London trips. The Paris dates worked better for me AND included a 48 hour layover (the norm is 24 hours). I contacted her and she agreed to swap with me! Another working my schedule success story!

Soon after I got home from Paris, I looked at my schedule and noticed someone had picked up my next scheduled trip – a 3 day going to places I wasn’t particularly interested in going to. Because someone picked that trip up, I then had the freedom to go to the swap board and pick up a Lihue trip. ANOTHER WORKING MY SCHEDULE SUCCESS STORY!

I think this new found success is mostly the result of it being the off-season for flying. I don’t anticipate I’ll have the same luck in December or in the summer months. In fact, I got my December schedule and started crying when I saw it…it was that bad.

But…I will survive December, and I’m stoked to finally be gaining some success at “working my schedule.” Unfortunately, it does require frequent frequent visits to my company’s scheduling app. But sometimes the pay-off to those visits is so very wonderful that I fear I may be developing a gambling-like addiction. But hey, if my “gambling” gets me to Hawaii instead of Indiana, can I really complain?