Flight Attendant Vocabulary 101: Talk Like An Aviation Pro

What language are flight attendants speaking? No more guessing—you’ll learn the secret flight attendant terminology with us!

In this episode, we’re decoding crew jargon, cryptic galley phrases, and the coded chaos of the aviation industry. We’ll break down important flight attendant terms, popular aviation acronyms, and trendy lingo only we aviation pros can understand.

This might sound like a lot, but trust us, it’s not! Learn something new while having a laugh with the Galley gang. If we taught you well, let us know in the comments!


Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Welcome to Episode #40!
[1:35] Drew & maintenance issues
[3:05] Rich & early summer rants
[3:57] Let's talk about air vents, Airbus!
[6:50] The aviation alphabet
[8:05] The tricky test
[9:25] Fun aviation terminology
[9:52] Define “flight attendant”
[11:15] Gate agents are underrated
13:28 Deadhead: not the band 
[14:30] She commutes from Rome to Philly?
[15:48] Crash pads
[18:48] Non-revving is a flight benefit
[19:31] This is why we use StaffTraveler
[21:59] Pairing & sequence
[22:43] Layovers can mean something different
[24:41] There are so many turns
[25:25] What is a redeye?
[27:37] Hub vs, base
[28:29] 2 types of flight attendants
[30:42] The time when the aircraft door is closed
[32:40] Duty days can be significantly longer 
[33:27] Rest is required
[35:13] The galley is our office
[36:00] Jumpseats are reserved for flight attendants
[36:11] Mandatory door check
[37:57] They fight over bulkhead seats
[38:48] Different aircraft sections
[40:05] Cabin secure
[40:51] Last-minute aircraft swaps
[41:33] Taxi vs. runway
[42:54] The ramp & the tarmac
[43:11] Turbulence is normal
[44:25] Pushback & ground stop
[44:55] Air traffic manages delays
[45:11] Tarmac delay
[45:59] Unexpected stops 
[48:40] Airplanes don’t fly by magic
[50:31] Defrosting the aircraft
[51:22] Your least favorite announcement
[52:43] The acronym land of aviation
[54:44] 10 trendy passenger & airport terms
[1:00:35] You’re now part of our crew!
[1:01:32] Galley Gossip

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Transcript

21:59

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And she's like, Yeah, I just I fly from Rome to Philadelphia for work. And I was like, That's actually insane. I had a passenger once and he was like, Oh, where are you guys end up tonight? And I told him the city, and then he goes, Do you guys share rooms? And I looked at the other flight attendant that I was working with, and then I looked at him, and I was like, You think we're gonna go bunk together? Because I don't know about you, but I don't walk off an airplane, and I'm like, No. Anyone that does, I'm like, What is your secret? How do you do it? Aviation is one of the most safety-sensitive industries in the world. Communication must be fast, standardized, and universally understood. A single misunderstanding can create confusion or even dangerous situations. If you've ever overheard a flight attendant talking and thought, are they even speaking English right now? Honestly, fair. Today we're decoding the language of flight attendants. Aviation has its own vocab, acronyms, weird phrases, and coded chaos. From non-revving to deadheading to mysterious announcements like arm doors and cross-check, we're breaking down the words and phrases flight attendants use every single day. So whether your crew, an aviation nerd, or just someone who wants to know what's actually happening when your flight gets delayed for a maintenance issue, this episode is for you. I love that you quoted maintenance issue. Because I mean, come on. Sometimes it's like a sticker somewhere and uh 100% what's going on. You never know. Never.

Drew & maintenance issues

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Speaking of maintenance, how's flying going for you lately? Um, it was speaking of maintenance, it's been filled with it recently. Oh no. I don't know. I went to work the other day, show up. It's one of those like I traded from a longer turn to a shorter turn. So I because I had stuff to do and I had a flight to catch to travel somewhere, which is always a bad idea. You're never supposed to like work on a day that you need to travel somewhere. Right. I this was my bad. But I had like an eight-hour turn that I was like, you know what? This isn't gonna work because this puts me back too late. Let me change into like a five-hour turn. Um, that way I can like get back earlier, right? Show up to the gate, and they've pulled the airplane for maintenance. Um, they're driving it around the tarmac to make I guess an engine check or something. I don't know. You know how this works. You know how all this works. They're just driving it around the tarmac. Driving around the tarmac to make sure things work waste and gas. I don't know what was happening, truthfully. That was they had pulled it off the gate and driven it somewhere to run up the engines, is what I was told. Interesting. I know. Okay, who knows? But all ended well. You made it safely there and back. Made it safely there and back. Uh, just a small delay. Um, for no reason. I mean, I guess there's a reason, but from mine and the passenger's perspective, for no reason. Right. Some days crews are just as bad as passengers. We're like, what are we doing? Why are we delayed? You were not kidding. It was a perfectly good airplane when I got here. We were all furious that day. What about

Rich & early summer rants

SPEAKER_01 3:05

you? How's flying been for you? Flying has been very strange lately. I feel like it's just the start of the summer season and stuff is already hitting the fan. And I'm like, this is too early. Like, this should not be happening yet. Like, I'm not I'm not mentally prepared for like broken APUs, being hot and sweaty, like all of that feels like later in the summer vibes. Oh, my fan. Oh, I know you always have it. I only have it during certain months, and I have not failed to pack it yet. And I really need it the other day, and I was really mad at myself that I didn't have a fan. I will never not have a little portable handheld fan in my bag for that reason because you just never know. And if you're like deadheading or non-reving somewhere and you're sitting there and you're just like sweating with passengers around you, the fan is a life lifesaver. Um, but yeah,

Let's talk about air vents, Airbus!

SPEAKER_01 3:57

it's not even deadheading or non-reving. It's literally sitting in the galley of an Airbus. Airbus, can we talk about how you failed to put air vents in our like in front of our jump seats? You put them everywhere else in them except in front of our jump seats. Some of the like the 321s, they have the air vents above the mid-cabin jump seats. Yeah. And I'm like, thank you. Correct. But the galley. But neither are the galleys. There's air vents all over the galleys except for where the flight attendants are sitting. And I have a bone to pick with Airbus about it. That is one thing I give Boeing credit for, which I don't give Boeing credit for really anything ever. So, but they have these um the like Gasper vents in the galley, and that thing is like a wind tunnel. I mean, that those things work, like even you know, when you're not dealing with whatever you're dealing with. Um, anyways, I had a point to this story, but flying has been crazy lately. It's feeling like the height of summer, and it's not we're not even there yet. And um, but all of my flight loads lately have been pretty light going one direction because I've been doing mostly turns and then oversold another direction. Mine have been the same. It's really weird. And I I don't hate it. I wish it was light going home rather than going there, but whatever. Um, but the thing that's really pissing me off lately is you'll have like 40 people on a plane that holds 200 seats, and still there's some asshole just with his leg in the aisle. I'm like, you have a whole road of yourself. Tuck your feet in. Like, what are you doing? Yeah. And then they're mad when you bump them with the cart. And I'm like, I shouldn't have to bump anybody with anything because you shouldn't even be in the aisle. Like, keep your arms and legs inside the ride, kids, at all times. Or the 200 open seats and the people who still didn't get set together, like, you could have selected this. Yeah, there's no reason you're not sitting together. No, exactly. This is a really a you problem today. It just it kills me, but like leave it to me to work a wide open flight where there's no drama, no chaos, and I still find something to complain about because I'm a flight attendant, it's in my nature. This is what I do. It is in it. But yeah, no, I'm just I was so annoyed because this lady last night, she just she kept like leaning all the way into the aisle, like head and everything, and then she'd fall asleep that way. And I was like, ma'am, lay down. You have a row, right? Go tuck yourself up against the window, and she's like, Oh, it makes me feel claustrophobic. And I was like, I don't understand any of this. You have an entire row to yourself, like, this is the least claustrophobic you could ever be on an airplane. Oh, anyways, people always show they're crazy in those moments, too, though. It's real funny. That is my rant for the day because what are people doing? Like they don't know, but the aisle is my office. Get out. The aisle in the gallery are where I work, get out, and then you block me from doing my work and are mad that I'm not doing it to your satisfaction. It's fascinating to me. It really is. But

The aviation alphabet

SPEAKER_01 6:50

today we are talking about flight attendant vocabulary. And I feel like whenever you're talking about a language like this, you have to start with the alphabet because you need to know a language's alphabet before you get into the actual, you know, like Spanish. You've got uh letters with tilde and things like that. You've got all these things. So we need to get into the aviation alphabet first, which um is brought to you by I love how I make this sound like a sponsorship. Um, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the ICAO, has this aviation alphabet, which we use so there's no phonetic like confusion over the airwaves when pilots are communicating about you know, numbers, letters, all that sort of stuff is so important when it comes down to making quick decisions and doing all of that. So um if you ever hear someone say, you know, we're arriving at Charlie 17 or whatever the gate is, like Charlie is what we call the letter C because we want it to be clear. And even over the PA, we use it because we don't want people to get confused, you know. Did you say B or did you say D? Well, I said Bravo, so you know that that means B, you know? Um, so I feel like that's an important place to start. Do

The tricky test

SPEAKER_01 8:05

you know the whole alphabet? You want me to recite the alphabet? No, I'm just wondering if you do.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

I can probably pick a random letter and see if you know.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

I can probably get pretty far down the list, but you're gonna lose me after like K. Which is kilo. I was like, what's R? Rich. Um R is Romeo. Romeo. I did know that one. Crap, this is hard. What did I always think about that? What is that Tina Fey movie? Whiskey Fox. Oh my god, I already said it wrong. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot. Yeah. And I always think about that because I hear Foxtrot a lot. Yeah. Um But yeah, I don't think I could like what's Q? Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Why did you do this to me? Oh, you did it to me. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

You are, it's Romeo. Tango, Tango, what's S? C. Okay. U.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

U as uniform.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Oh, that's fitting.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

QQ back.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

That doesn't feel right.

unknown 9:14

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Now I'm gonna have to look it up. Well, the point is the alphabet is important to know. And now that we have admitted we don't know the whole episode, um,

Fun aviation terminology

SPEAKER_01 9:25

we're gonna go through some fun terminology in the aviation industry that you probably hear some of us talking about. If you're a crew member, you probably know what we're saying. If you're not, um, tune in because we've got some uh fun vocab definitions, and honestly, there's some that are in here that I feel like crew don't even fully understand. So if you are crew, keep listening because we don't know why you're overusing that one word. Um,

Define “flight attendant”

SPEAKER_01 9:52

but the first section we have is crew life and scheduling. Obviously, we have to kick it off with the definition for flight attendant. Oh, for sure. Um, a first responder and safety professional on board every aircraft. Sometimes sometimes serves drinks and snacks. Uh not a stewardess. Please don't call us that. The 90s is when that terminology left. Let's leave it in the 90s. Although I love the 90s, that one can stay. Um, cabin crew also acceptable and standard in many countries. There is one flight attendant for every 50 passengers on board according to the FAA regulations. Passengers' seats. Oh, see. That's a good point on board the aircraft. Could you imagine if it was not that way? They would reduce the time. Yeah, they'd be like, are you only booked to 40? Three of you can go. God, that would be a nightmare.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

That would be that would be lovely. Yeah, we would just be deadheading some of our coworkers everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

We would be deadheading everywhere. Can you imagine crew scheduling trying to manage who was working and who wasn't on days if that was really how that works? No, I can't. They can't manage things as standardized as they are, let alone, well, this flight only has one flight attendant now because there's only 10 people. Like it'd be fun for me, but it would not be fun for anybody else. It would be fun for me.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

I get it.

Gate agents are underrated

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Um, gate agent. Um, that's the airline employee responsible for managing the boarding gate, including checking passengers in, uh, handling seat assignments, making announcements, boarding the flight, uh, dealing with delays, standby lists, and passenger issues. Gate agents are severely underrated people in aviation. I feel like we glamorize flight attendants, we glamorize pilots, and agents do not get enough credit. I just want to say this for what they do.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

I have been begging to have agents on our podcast.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

We need to have like three or four real conversation about what they actually do. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Because I think, much like flight attendants, their jobs are totally misunderstood. And they also take more shit than anybody in aviation because I mean, I know we take it every once in a while, but once you close the door, like, what are you gonna do? Who will check me now? Like, this is how it works, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:10

But agents just have to stand there and like just stand there and deal with it until the situation is done. Um, and I feel really bad for it. I agree 97% of the time. And anytime they're like, I could never do what you do. I'm like, girl, I could never do what you do. Never you do your do the worst parts of my job and don't get to go anywhere. I mean, maybe you like going home. I get it.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

But like, I was non-reving the other day, and this agent was doing like 37 jobs simultaneously, and I was she was trying to tag a car seat and a stroller while also trying to get verification to board, while also trying to find a second to help her board because she was there by herself, so she was clearing the standby list, which I was very interested in her doing selfishly.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

When are we going to do that? Selfishly, so I was like, I was standing there politely waiting, and I saw her doing all of this, and I was like, How about I do the tags while you do the standby list? And she was like, Oh, I see what you're doing here, and I'm gonna say yes to you. You're so nice though to do that. Like, and in some of these agents, like, I want to help you. I hate that you're working alone at this gate with this like oversold flight or whatever. But some of them they just show up with an attitude, and I'm like, I am staying away from you because you're scaring me. But

Deadhead: not the band

SPEAKER_01 13:28

um, next terminology we have is Deadhead. No, this is not because you're fans of a band. Yeah, we're fans of a band. Supporting bodies. Um, this is when a crew member flies as a passenger to get to another city for work. And yes, we are working. I know it looks like we're sitting there as a passenger, which we are, but we are on duty, we are getting paid, we are clocked in. Um, and no, we're not going on vacation. If you're seeing a flight attendant in uniform on the airplane sitting in a passenger seat, they're probably working. So we're either attempting to get to work uh via commuting or we're deadheading. Those are the two reasons you would see us in uniform on an airplane. I you won't see me in uniform on an airplane unless I'm being paid for, though I'll tell you that. No, same. I I will do anything in my power to not be in uniform on an airplane. Correct. I don't want you to know anything about this. Uh so deadheading

She commutes from Rome to Philly?

SPEAKER_01 14:30

and kind of commuter. A commuter is somebody who lives in a different city away from their base and they fly to and from to work, much like a car, but we do it by airplane. I remember when I started flying thinking this was the absolute craziest thing I had ever heard because I met someone and she's like, Yeah, I commute from Rome, and I was like, excuse me. Like, what? And she's like, Yeah, I just I fly from Rome to Philadelphia for work. And I was like, That's actually insane. Now I've like it's kind of worn off the shock factor. Yeah, but like people, flight attendants, pilots, like crew members, even agents and um maintenance people like commute sometimes from all over the world, and that's the like crazy cool thing about this job is you can do that. Like go live on some remote island in the Mediterranean or something like that and commute to work. It might suck to get back and forth, but if you can back up your trips and do all that sort of stuff, um, you can commute from pretty much anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Yeah, when I first started flying, I commuted because I lived in uh Nashville and I was like not ready to relocate, not ready to move. So I was, you know, grabbed a crash pad.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Well, I'm sure that's one of our defined terms later. Um, but we're kind of going in order here, actually. You're doing really well. I am doing really well. Well, for those of you

Crash pads

SPEAKER_01 15:48

who don't know, uh a crash pad is just some sort of housing that flight attendants use. It's not like a home. You basically rent a bed or a room in in someone else's apartment or house or hotel. And it's usually a shared situation. There might be like 15 of you in one place. There might be bunk beds, sometimes it's individual bedrooms, sometimes it's shared rooms. You have cold beds, hot beds, cold beds are yours. Hot beds change every time you get out of it. Like you change the seat sheets. Because hot beds is like anyone could be using that one bed. Yeah, you just take your sheets off and they come put their sheets on the bed and go. A cold bed is your bed. Pay a lot of money to know. So like a bunk bed, you can get a cold bed and a room full of bunk beds. You can get your own private room. There's all kinds of crash pads. But um, I always rented a room from somebody. I had like my own room. I was like, I can't, I'm I can I can't do that. Even starting at 25, I was like, I'm too old for a roommate. What do you mean, 15 and ? I wasn't too old for a roommate. I was too old to share a crash pad with four or six um bunk beds. But, anyways, when I started commuting, everyone in my life thought it was crazy that I would fly to work. And I I just never understood that mentality because my dad drove over an hour to get to work. Right. My flight to get to work was usually an hour. Like I didn't understand what the craziness was. Right. He had to like be awake and pay attention and not hit anybody, and I got to put on headphones and fall asleep.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Like, I didn't understand why it was so insane that this commuting thing, but I will say commuting is a full-time freaking job. Yeah, you don't get a day off from aviation if you're commuting. And I I would never go back to it. When I switched companies, that was the one thing you remember.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

That was my one stipulation. We would always live in base, and if we had to commute, it would only be a temporary commute for me because I was not doing it long term. We're very lucky in the fact that we have multiple cities at both of our airlines where we could both be based. So we have a few options if for some reason it didn't ever work out.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

We're not leaving Philly anymore.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Yeah, you're gonna have to drag me out of here. Kicking and screaming, holding on to a pretzel. I'm I'm not leaving. I'm with you though on commuting because like But the whole time you're at work, you're thinking about how you're getting home. The whole time you're home, you're planning your commute back to work.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Like it's just a whole nother full-time job where you don't get to come out of aviation. And I feel awful for those people because you need a break from it.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

You do, but I mean, like you were saying about your dad driving to work or whoever's driving to work, it is the same idea. And it's like if you fly somewhere and you land somewhere, you're already in your office, you know, like at least you're already in the airport. So I mean, there is you know something to be said for that. Like it's it becomes second nature to you. It's like this is just how I get to work, it's just different than what you might be used to.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Those were my favorite days, though, when my commute plane ended up being the plane that I was going to work back out on. Such a beautiful day, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Then you have to worry about rushing there. Yeah, the stars have a line today. Yeah. Um,

Non-revving is a flight benefit

SPEAKER_01 18:48

next up we have non-rev. Um we use the term non-rev. It really depends on the airline and also the country because I feel like staff travel, standby, flight benefits, um, pass travel, like there's so many different variations of being a quote non-rev travel. But basically, you are a non-revenue passenger on the airline. You were using your flight benefits, so you could be multiple different roles within the company, flight attendant, pilot, gate agent, working behind the scenes, doing whatever, marketing. I don't know. But you know, we all have flight benefits in our airline, and so when we use those benefits, we call it non-reving um because you're a non-rev passenger on board the aircraft. And one

This is why we use StaffTraveler

SPEAKER_01 19:31

of our favorite things to do when we non-rev is to use Staff Traveler. Hell yeah, it is. Because it is literally the best app. And I mean this so sincerely because we do not promote things that we don't use every day in our lives and that we're obsessed with. I was like when Rich says we use it every day. Every day. Every day. I mean, whether we're like going home to visit family, we're going on vacation, we're, you know, looking at skipping out on a deadhead and trying to find our way home. Like, there's so many reasons we use this. Even if we're just like, huh, we should go to Nepal. I wonder how we can get there. Should we look at Staff Traveler? Because they have that route explorer tool, and then we'll figure out which way we can get there.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

And they showed us how to get there.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

And they showed us how to get there. Literally anywhere in the world you can imagine. We use Staff Traveler because not only can you check flight loads, but you can check routes, you can check different options. They recently just changed it completely, so you can now add multiple stops. You can see like best bets, you can see like different variations of how you would get to a destination. Like they are so committed to making this app like change the way you travel, and I'm here for it. And I love that they're always um changing the way the app works and adding features, right? But I think the baseline premise of how um Staff Traveler works is really what's beautiful about it because you earn points for fulfilling requests. So there's like a shared venture in all of this, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Like I need loads, you're gonna need them at some point, so you have to go fulfill the request to get the points to be able to use the app in the future. So with over a million users, you have a really good chance of getting yours answers fulfilled really quickly.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Yeah, it's very crew-coded in that regard, where it's like even within the app, it's everyone taking care of each other. Like I'm going in and answering loads for my airline, and I'm hoping someone at another airline that I need loads for goes in and does the same. It's like a beautiful crew, always take care of each other, online, offline, all the things. It's beautiful. Thanks. Thanks, Staff Traveler, for all your help in getting us to all the places we want to go. Yeah, if you don't have it already, stop what you're doing right now. Well, I mean, keep listening, but download Staff Traveler, go to stafftraveler.com slash two guys, T W O G U Y S, and download the app. I promise you you will be so happy that you did. All right. Uh, next on our link. We have pairing or sequence.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Um, this is what we call our trips. Um, our pairings are built from anywhere between one and six days, depending on the company that you work for. Uh, and it's just the way that our flights are built together uh per day over the course of that pairing or sequence um to get us from base uh back to base over those six days.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Yeah, and then that's another one of those airline dependent things. Like everybody kind of calls it something different. Like I've heard pairing, I've heard sequence, I've heard trip trip. I mean, it really just depends, but um, if you hear something along those lines, it's usually referring to like the one-day, two-day, three-day, four-day segment that you are flying.

Layovers can mean something different

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Uh, next up is layover. Um, I know passengers use this in a different but similar way, where they, you know, oh, I have a layover in Denver when I'm traveling. Like you've got two or three hours between your flights. We usually call that connection time as crew members, but layovers time sit time, yeah, exactly. Sit time. Um, but we usually use the term layover in reference to where we're ending up for the night, where we're gonna put our heads down. Um, so whether that's 12 hours overnight in a hotel or you've got 30 hours or a couple days somewhere, our layover is generally referring to where we're going to sleep and eat and explore if we have the time. Non-aviation people listening today. Um, no, we don't pay for the hotels while we're there. I know people always ask that. They're like, Do you pay for your own hotels? And I was like, Who would sign up for this job? I think some of the corporate ones do, but I think they have like a corporate car but they're good hotels or whatever. I think there are some, but like most of the people that are out doing this are not paying for their own hotels. Because then it's like written off as a business expense, it's kind of part of a some sort of reimbursement program. But like most of your average flight attendants are not paying for the hotels while they're out. I had a passenger once, we were working the beverage cart, and he was like, Oh, where are you guys end up tonight? And I told him the city, and then he goes, Do you guys share rooms? And we were on the cart, and I looked at the other flight attendant that I was working with, and then I looked at him, and then I looked back at her, and I was like, Really? You think you think we're gonna go bunk together? And he was like, It was just a question, and I was like, It's uh no. I love the questions though that people ask about your layovers that they think you're going to answer. Like, what hotel are you going to tonight? I do not know you, stalker. Right. No, I'm not telling you that information. We're not having dinner later. Yeah. One of the other

There are so many turns

SPEAKER_01 24:41

terms that we have is a turn.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Um, it's just a one basically you leave and end up in your base in the same day, is what we consider a turn.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

There's all kinds of different ways to describe a turn. If you're working three legs, it's a triangle. If you're working a four leg, it's a double turn. There's all kinds of different ways to do this, but a turn is really what we mean is we're gonna leave and come back to the base in the same day. I've heard double turn, but I've never heard anyone say I'm working a triangle. Yeah, it's I okay. Maybe I'm wrong. Does no one else call it a triangle? This is an ask the audience moment. Text us in the show notes if you use the term triangle. I've done the three like one days. I know what you're referring to, and yes, technically I see the like shape that you're making

What is a redeye?

SPEAKER_01 25:25

here, but I've never been like heard anyone be like, oh, I'm working a triangle. I thought that was a common term. Oh my god. Please text us if you use this term because I need to know. Uh, this one everyone gets confused all the time. Uh, a red eye. And I really want to know what your definition of a red eye is because I've heard so many variations. Well, I've always thought a red eye meant anything that leaves late night and arrives somewhere in the early morning. You've heard different? Well, I thought a red eye was specifically you leave one coast and you arrive on the other coast.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

Anything else is like a late evening departure.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

So, like what would what would US to Europe be? Is that not technically a red?

SPEAKER_02 26:08

I mean, technically the same thing. But if you're going from like St. Louis to to like Charlotte, like just because you left at midnight and arrived at 1 a.m., that's just an evening departure.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

That's not a red eye. A red eye is like a multi-hour flight. Usually crossing time zones. Or yes. Yeah. Yeah. But somebody told me the other day from like St. Louis to Nashville, they were doing a red-eye flight, and I was like, no, you're doing an evening departure. They're they're not the same. It's also not that long of a flight. Your eyes aren't getting red on that flight. That's my point. That's funny. And then I've also heard the term pink eye, yeah. Which is more crew used than passengers. You get less sleep on a pink eye than a red eye. But I also can't figure out what the hell a pink eye is because it really depends on who you ask. Like some people are talking about like all-nighters, where you do the last flight into like a city and then the first flight out in the morning. Continuous duty overnight. Yeah, continuous like on duty all night situation. Some people call those pink eyes. Some people call pink eyes like the it you take a flight into a city in the morning and then you work the red eye that night. That's what I thought a pink eye was. It was like short rest in your layover city during the day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

You like work a morning flight in, have like the day reduce rest, then come back at night, and then you come back that evening.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

And that's why I don't really understand what a pink eye is because I feel like people use it for the stuff. I don't think it's a real defined term. But should we start this? We should just tell people that's what it means. Yeah.

Hub vs, base

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Um, the next two kind of go together, hub and base. I think people think they're the same, but they're not.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Um, the hub is like the airlines like hub city where they do a lot of their departures. It can also be a base. Um, but the crew base, the base is where the crew is, and the hub is where the airplanes are, is really how I like to think about it.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

I mean, they can be different places, but the hub is where like the airplanes all go back to the crew bases or where the crews are all stationed at. Yeah, that's actually a really good way to describe it. And often they overlap, which is why I think that people use those terms interchangeably.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

But we do have bases in place that we don't have hubs, and then people get confused and they're like, but you don't have hubs here.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

And we're like crews start and end here. Yeah, it's it's it can be confusing, but they are different things. Um, all right, and then you

2 types of flight attendants

SPEAKER_01 28:29

have two different types of flight attendants. We have reserves and we have line holders. So basically, at any airline, when you start, you're likely going to be on reserve. Every airline has different terminology and different reserve systems and all that, but you are on call. You know what days you're on, you know what days you're off, but you do not know where you're going. You do not know if you're gonna fly that day. You just know you're kind of at the mercy of the company that you fly for, and you might be going to Columbus or you might be going to Tel Aviv. It really, you have no idea what you're getting into. Um, and that's kind of the fun, slash, crazy, slash insane part of being a flight attendant from the beginning. Um, and then you have a line holder, which once you are senior enough to get off reserve or whatever your company may have, sometimes there's rotating reserve and things like that. Um, when you're off reserve, you're a line holder, and that means you have a full schedule. You know where you're going, what days you're going, and you can trade and drop trips and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

And every company does this differently. Here in the US, most of the companies are seniority-based. So you bid your line based on your seniority, and you know, the pairings are put together by the company, and then you bid on those pairings. Um, and it's all awarded to you seniority-based. So um, the less seniority hat you have, the you know, crappier the trip you are gonna work is gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

The more seniority you get, the better chance you either have the ability to select the days you want to work the crappy trips or get the good trips. Yeah. It's an interesting game in the US because there's some airlines where you have flight attendants who've been flying 50 years and are never leaving. And to get seniority to get further along, it's a lot. You have to spend a lot of time at an airline like American Delta United, whereas with smaller airlines, Frontier, Jet Blue, they might be more junior and it might be easier to get a little seniority somewhere. But yeah, it's it definitely changes airline to airline. So if you're looking to fly, research because you never know what you're getting into. You're a hundred percent correct. Um

The time when the aircraft door is closed

SPEAKER_01 30:42

block time, uh, that's the time the aircraft door is closed. Uh, so our block time is what's usually printed on your ticket.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

Um, that's what we consider the block time if you're not in aviation or the departure to arrival time. That's the assumed time the door is going to be closed. Um, but the block time is the actual time the door is closed. Um and that's what we generally get paid by. And I don't think people know that either.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

Right. And the interesting thing here too is we often refer to block time or flight time. And this confuses people a lot during delays because sometimes you'll be on a smaller delay, 30 minutes to an hour, and because of the flight being blocked for say four hours, but flight time is actually only three hours and 25 minutes, you've got a little wiggle room in there to play with. So, like, okay, yes, we left 30 minutes late, but because of our block time, we're actually going to arrive on time because they were planning for four hours for the flight, but it's actually only three and a half hours. And people don't realize that a lot. Like, they get so thrown off by the smallest delay. And I'm like, we can make up sometimes up to an hour because of the block time being so much more than than actual flying time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

And I think people forget that the block time is based on like no wind. So, like, if there's wind pushing us, we're gonna go faster. One way or the other. One way or the other. But the like route is planned for no wind, like this is how long it'll take. So we they plan the extra.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

I mean, obviously, we pad them because we would rather run early than late. Um, you would rather us run early than late, too. Yeah, most airlines do pad those a little bit just to avoid having delays and and issues. Um, so you might leave late, but you'll still arrive on time. So breathe when those little delays happen. You might not miss your connection, you might still be on time. You know, don't start getting super alarmed about those situations until you know you're severely delayed. Um,

Duty days can be significantly longer

SPEAKER_01 32:40

next up is duty day. Total amount of time crew are on duty, not just flying. So this is a big point of contention right now, I feel like in our industry, especially as flight attendants and pilots, because we are paid for flight hours. So we get paid, you know, say I'm working a five-hour turn, we're getting paid five hours of flight time, but that could still mean that your duty day is significantly longer. You could be at work for a five-hour turn for up to like 12 hours if something goes wrong. You're still only getting paid for that five hours of actual flight time. You know, whether there's delays, there's boarding, there's deplaning, there's sit time built in somewhere. Um, that all really changes things as as time goes on. Uh, next on

Rest is required

SPEAKER_01 33:27

our list we have uh min rest. Um, the min rest is the FAA mandated amount of rest that we can have. Minimum rest. Minimum rest. Sometimes called min rest. Sometimes called min rest. Uh that's the FAA minimum amount of rest we're required to have. Uh, most of our contracts allow for more rest than that or require more rest than that, with the ability to reduce to min rest in the case of delays or whatever. The FAA minimum right now is 10 hours. Correct. And that is from the time the plane parks at the gate to the time you report the next day.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Yeah. So door open to oh well, duty off. Door open plus however much your duty time is. Right. Yeah. So you report back the next day, which is usually an hour before departure.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

So when you start factoring in like getting off the plane, getting through that giant airport, getting through the airport, finding your hotel shuttle, waiting for your hotel shuttle, getting to the hotel, signing into your room, getting to shower, eat something, whatever, you quickly realize 10 hours is not that much time.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

Uh we no one likes min rest for that exact reason. Because your actual 10 hours of rest is really like four to five hours worth of sleep by the time you do everything you need to do. If you want to be human about it. Because I don't know about you, but I don't walk off an airplane and I'm like, no. Anyone that does, I'm like, what is your secret? How do you do it? I need a shower, I need a meal, I need at least an hour of TV to like shut my brain off and like forget the cup of water that I owe 37C. I can't forget it though. I'm gonna dart out of bed at 2 a.m. going, oh crap, I forgot about it. Yup. Next

The galley is our office

SPEAKER_01 35:13

section of our little vocab lesson here is on the aircraft. So this is all aircraft specific and terms that we use while actually on the airplane. Uh the first term we have is galley, which I feel like should be obvious to people. It should be, but I don't think people realize that's our office. Yeah, like the galley is our everything, truly. I mean, it's it's our break room. It's where jump seats are, it's our break room, it's where all the supplies are for passengers, it's where we have downtime, it's where we eat, it's where we cry, it's where all the things happen. I cry in the lavatory. I mean, okay. It depends on who you are. Some of us cry in the galley. If you're alone, I mean I don't usually get a lot of alone galley time. No. Uh the

Jumpseats are reserved for flight attendants

SPEAKER_01 36:00

jump seat, those are the seats reserved for flight attendants during takeoff or landing, or when we're not up moving around the airplane. It's pretty self-explanatory, I would hope. Um,

Mandatory door check

SPEAKER_01 36:11

cross-check. This is a procedure that flight attendants do usually during our arming and disarming doors, our monitor and challenge process, um, which is where we arm and disarm the doors, which is engaging the slide to basically deploy in an emergency or not. So this is the difference between like, okay, the gate agent is opening the door, the slide is disarmed. We obviously don't want a slide blowing up on a gate agent. So we arm it during times where there might be an emergency evacuation. We're not at a jet bridge, we might need slides for evacuation, but they are disarmed whenever we arrive at the gate, which is why you hear us say prepare doors or arm doors and cross-check or whatever the phrase might be. It's to make sure that those are deploying when they're supposed to deploy and that the doors can open normally when catering or gate agents or whoever opened the door. So on pushback, you're gonna hear us say arm doors for departure cross-check.

SPEAKER_02 37:10

It means that we're putting the doors in emergency mode. And then the cross-check part is to make sure somebody else watches us or looks at the door uh to make sure that it we did it properly so that everything functions if and when we need it.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

Yeah, typically there's some sort of cross-check system to make sure you didn't do anything wrong. Because the thing the airlines want to happen the least is for us to accidentally deploy a slide because we pulled the wrong lever or did the wrong thing, because everything is really close together on these doors. So when you go to like close a door or arm a door, those handles and levers are all really close together, and they don't want to screw that up. So that's why cross-check and monitor and challenge are in place to avoid us making expensive and also potentially fatal errors. Uh, next I have

They fight over bulkhead seats

SPEAKER_01 37:57

bulkhead. Um, that's the wall or divider separating cabin sections.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

Uh, usually uh you get an extra, those are usually the extra legroom seats um because there's no seat in front of you.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

It's also, I don't know why people love these seats so much and hate them. Also, you can't stow your bags under the seat in front of you and no one wants to put your bag up. Um, and the bulkhead seats, it's always a fight, and I hate them so much for it. I don't know why they're premium seats, honestly. I think they're some of the worst on the airplane.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

Yes, yeah, and they usually have the rigid armrest because the tray tables fold in and you don't have the underseat.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

And I really don't understand why everyone loves the bulkhead seat so much. You have like less hip space, so you feel the like tray table pushing up against you. No underseat storage. Uh, yeah, I'm truly not a fan. Same.

Different aircraft sections

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Next up we have uh forward and aft. Um, and this is usually referring to different sections of the aircraft. So obviously, forward is the forward part of the airplane, aft is the aft part of the airplane, the back. Um, and that's just for us to reference different parts of the aircraft whenever needed. If there's something going on, or you answer the phone, you say this is rich in the aft, or whatever the case may be. We also use aircraft left and aircraft right, and that is kind of like if you're a theater nerd like me, stage left, stage right, it it's all about the way that you're facing looking at things. So when you're doing aircraft and left, left and right, you're facing to the forward of the aircraft, and that is the left, and that is the right. It's like port and starboard if you were on a ship, and I think at some point we used to use them, but that got confusing because nobody, I mean, or in a plane or a boat. Right. Uh but if I'm looking forward, it's left or right. It's so aircraft left or right, is what we're talking about. It's just so it's really easy to reference. Like a crew member is not like, wait, my left or your right, or whatever. It's like there's a passenger aircraft left up a little bit who has an issue. They're not like, wait, what do you mean? What's going on? Like it's just really easy communication and streamlines everything. Yeah, because otherwise we're like the ABC side, the DEF side. It's it gets really weird. It does. Um,

Cabin secure

SPEAKER_01 40:05

cabin secure. Uh, this has been the final preparation of the cabin before takeoff or landing.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

Uh, what we're if we're communicating cabin secure, it means we're everyone's down, everything's ready for takeoff. If the pilots are saying it, it that's the what they're asking us to do. They're they want to make sure they're telling us like it's time to get everything closed and secured, we're ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Yeah, that's usually what we do like right before we leave the gate. Because like we have to make sure everything's secure so that we're pushing out to the gate or to the taxiway, to the runway. We'll get to that. And uh everything is is in place and and ready for takeoff. Yeah. Sometimes you'll hear the pilot say it during like turbulence or whatever. They just it really means it's the quickest way to say put everything away and match everything up. Secure the cabin. Yeah. Um,

Last-minute aircraft swaps

SPEAKER_01 40:51

equipment swap slash aircraft swap. This is when the airline changes aircraft types last minute. You'll hear this a lot too. Sometimes it generally means like you might be delayed or something because you're switching aircraft, but other times it's like, okay, earlier in the day, this aircraft got pulled for maintenance. They swapped out your aircraft so that you weren't delayed. So there might be a quick equipment change or aircraft swap.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Another common way this is described is tail swap.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Tail swap, yes. Yep. I like that better. I do too. I like tails. I don't know why I said that. That's weird. I don't know why you said it either. Uh, all right,

Taxi vs. runway

SPEAKER_01 41:33

our next section, we're gonna talk about operations and delays. Uh, taxi and runway. While most people think these are the same thing, they're not. Uh, the taxiways are when we're the airplane is being driven around, the runway is strictly to get you off into the air. So while they are similar, they're not the same thing. I think it's funny how few people understand this though. Like even crew members, yeah. Like, oh, we're taxiing, or we're on the tarmac, or we're on the ramp. They use all of these words interchangeably, and they do technically all mean different things. Like, if you're taxiing, like you said, if you're driving, you're taxiing, you're on the taxiway. Yeah, if you're on the runway, you're on the runway, you're taking off or landing. You're on the ramp. That's the parked space where like the airplane's being fueled, ground crew luggage, all of that.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

So, like you have airport, you have ramp, you have taxiway, you have runway. Like, if you look at it from the building, it all kind of moves out towards the field.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

So it's built airport, ramp, taxiway, runway. I like generally how it works. So depending on where your airplane is, it's really easy for you to remember. But I mean, even flight is can't because those announcements we're on an active runway. You need to be seated. We're not at the runway yet, doll. People love to say active taxiway, and it's like we're not on that either. Like, there's just so many we're on the ramp. So many things, but yeah, the ramp

The ramp & the tarmac

SPEAKER_01 42:54

and tarmac are two more definitions. So the ramp is, like you said, where the airplanes park, bags refuel, board passengers catering, all the fun stuff. Tarmac, general terminology for just like wherever aircraft move or park. And then the next step

Turbulence is normal

SPEAKER_01 43:11

is turbulence. We have a regular movement of air that causes the aircraft to shake or bump during the flight. It can be caused by weather, jet streams, mountains, or changes in airflow. And this turbulence, it's so normal, and passengers get so scared about it. And I'm like, this is very normal, I promise. And there are different versions, and people be like, Oh, I had the most severe turbulence the other day. And I'm like, the odds of you seeing severe turbulence are so slim because that means the plane is dropping like thousands of feet. People are getting hurt, all sorts of bad things are happening. The most you're probably gonna see on your standard flight is like moderate, and we usually break it down into light, moderate, and severe. Light is like things are moving around, you're kind of jostling a little bit. Moderate is like okay, things are. Are falling off tray tables, falling off galley counters. Everybody should be buckled in at this point. And it can get really bad to the point where people think it's severe. But then severe is usually like a significant drop in in altitude. I don't think I've ever had severe. I haven't either. Thankfully. Like very, very moderate. But no, I don't think I've ever had severe. No.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Uh

Pushback & ground stop

SPEAKER_02 44:25

pushback. This is when the tug is connected to the airplane and we're ready to push off the gate.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

Uh ground stop, FAA orders temporary FAA order temporarily preventing flights from departing. And this is usually um coordinated by ATC, which is another acronym in our list, which is air traffic control. And usually there are things like weather or there might be a security issue or something preventing traffic coming to and from.

Air traffic manages delays

SPEAKER_02 44:55

This is where air traffic manages delays to reduce congestion. Uh so they will either uh put times on us, they'll space us out more uh because they know weather's coming or something like that. They'll put us under a flow control, or they space the aircraft out more than normal.

Tarmac delay

SPEAKER_01 45:11

And then we have tarmac delay, which is an extended wait on the ground before takeoff or after landing. And this we have very strict uh procedures and time constraints. Um, the Department of Transportation, DOT as we call it, and the FAA have a lot of regulations and policies in place that protect customers because we don't want people sitting out there for no reason for like 10 or 11 hours. And obviously there are emergency situations that call for that and there's nothing you can do about it. But for the most part, we don't want you out there more than a couple of hours, and that's when you'll hear us say things like, okay, we need to do the extended tarmac delay service where we break out those little biscoff cookies that everybody loves and we serve water and things like that just to make sure that people are hydrated and taken care of. Uh

Unexpected stops

SPEAKER_01 45:59

diversion is when the aircraft has uh has to stop unexpectedly in a different city than originally attended.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

Um, it's not necessarily an emergency, uh, sometimes due to weather or flow control or tarmac delays or ground stops.

SPEAKER_01 46:13

Uh we can't get into all the other terms we've just given you. We can't get into the airport that we were intended to go to. So they'll send us to another airport. Um, and most of the time it's just a quick intermediate stop, and we get right back up once the weather's cleared. Uh, sometimes we'll move to the next one where the crew time's out. Yep. Um, because we've had an extended day, and that's when things go awry. Those are very much related. Crew timing out and diversions often go hand in hand because our duty days are scheduled to a point where they want us to be productive. They want us to work as many hours as we possibly can within our. They want us to. I want to be productive. Well, same. But within our federal aviation regulation limits, they want us to work as much as we can. So when there are diversions, that adds a lot of time to our day. And while there are certain situations where we can work longer than we were planning to, there is a situation where we go what we call illegal and then we can't work anymore. And that's a hard out. Like, no one can change that. You know, we could extend in some extenuating circumstances, but we're usually looking at like 15, 16 hour days at this point. So when a crew goes illegal, it's not like, oh, they decided to stop working because they don't want to work anymore. We've gotten to a situation where like we're about to pass out, we're so tired from working so many hours. So if a crew times out, don't think that they're trying to like pull one on you and not do any more work that day. They've probably been through a lot already. Also, we don't get like it's not it's not planned.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

So it's not like we're roaming off to a hotel. We are dealing with the same thing you're dealing with. They have to find us a hotel and transportation in a city that we weren't supposed to be in. Uh, it's not like we just walk off and are magically in a hotel. We it's sometimes hours to get after we leave the airplane to get these things to happen. We're not all high-fiving in a bar later, being like, sick all right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

Oh, we really screwed those passengers. We're so happy. Like, chances are we wanted the day to go according to plan, like you did. Like we might be in Aruba or Cancun or something, and it might seem like we just went to some resort and had a good time. But by the time all is said and done, we're exhausted and we don't care where the destination is, we need a shower and we need sleep. Yeah, and it's coordinating how we're gonna get out the next day, and we're usually on min rest. This is not this is not a fun uh experience for any of us. Yeah.

Airplanes don’t fly by magic

SPEAKER_01 48:40

Uh, weight and balance is next on the list. Um, I think that most people think airplanes fly by magic, and we've talked about this in other podcasts after they know. No, uh, we talked about it when the I thought it was purely magic.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

No, it's not. Uh, but weight and balance is a matter of people, bags, and fuel and how all of those are distributed on the airplane to make sure that you fly safely. Um, so when we tell you that you can't switch seats because it's a different zone of the aircraft, it's it's because of weight and balance.

SPEAKER_01 49:10

And surprisingly enough, you know, your one person may not be that big of a deal, but when everyone moves around the airplane and the math is off, it shifts everything. It shifts everything. Uh, so we're not trying to be rude when we tell you you can't move your plant, your seat. Um, and this is why it's important that you pick your seat. If you know you want to sit next to your spouse, pick your seats together. Yeah. I find this frustrating sometimes because, like the other day when I was telling you I had only 40 passengers, it was That's when it gets so important, so important, and it was so specific. Like there were certain rows of first class that were off limits. There were certain rows of the few rows behind first class that were off limits, but then there was a section where we had completely full rows of people, they had to stay there, uh-huh. And then there was another six or seven rows where they couldn't, and then another few rows where they were, and then the back of the airplane was empty. And like people did not comprehend why do I have to sit three in a row when there's six rows behind me open? It's like you just have to like it. This is for your safety. This has been calculated by people much smarter than all of us, and figured out. So, like, please just trust that we're all safety professionals and we're doing this because we care. I promise. We're not just trying to make your flight more uncomfortable for no reason. Next up, we have de-icing.

Defrosting the aircraft

SPEAKER_01 50:32

You'll see this a lot in the winter, obviously, removal of ice and snow from aircraft before departure. Um, yeah, and there are different levels of this, there are, um, which I always find fascinating. Sometimes it's more intense. Sometimes like a whole airplane needs to be covered in it. Sometimes there's a little bit of frost on the wings. Are they just spraying it off of you? There's one layer for that. Are you taking off into snow? There's a whole nother thing. The green gunk on your wing is totally safe. That's it's meant to like shear off to keep the to keep the snow from building up on the wings, and you're gonna smell a weird odor, which I've grown to find really comforting, which I I know sounds insane. This is like you've been flying too long situation, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

The next one's my favorite, and I just learned about it too. Ooh, tell me

Your least favorite announcement

SPEAKER_02 51:22

more.

SPEAKER_01 51:22

The holding pattern. Um, every this is every person in an airplane's least favorite thing to hear a pilot come over and be like, you know, uh, folks, uh we're in a right, we're in a holding pattern. We're gonna be in a holding pattern for a few minutes. Um, I thought they just flew the airplane around.

SPEAKER_02 51:41

I did not know, which I just learned, that there's a designated holding airspace, and it's basically like a parking garage, and they just put you in in tiers and just have you fly in a circle.

SPEAKER_01 51:53

So, like every airplane at a different altitude, and then they send you to land out of that from that holding. I had no idea. I was very fascinated. You just found this out like two years ago, but yes, it's like my newest piece of information. I had a pet um, I had a pilot tell me this like a while ago, and I always get so annoyed when they're like we're in a holding pattern. I'm like, parking garage. I get so annoyed because I just picture me driving around a parking garage looking for a spot, like annoyed, and that's essentially what happens to these aircraft. And then ultimately you can tell when you get released from it, at least if you're on an airplane long enough, like you get used to it, but you feel that final, like, okay, finally we're descending. We've been released from the parking garage. Like, let's go. I just yeah, I just learned this. I love it. The next section

The acronym land of aviation

SPEAKER_01 52:43

we have is the always popular acronyms. We are like the land of acronyms in aviation. We have acronyms for literally everything. All right, FA. Flight attendant, we uh C A. Captain, F O First Officer, MX, short for maintenance, uh M E L. Minimum equipment list, and this one is good to know because a lot of times with these maintenance issues, you'll hear us say, like, oh, they're gonna M E L it. It means okay, it's not necessary for the minimum equipment list. We can forego this one thing uh in this case. It's not super critical for the flight. Yeah, it's not super critical for the flight. We can go without it. It's not on the MEL list. PA. Public address, uh PAX, passengers, uh, SOB, souls on board, not sons of bitches. I promise. But maybe some days it might be sons of bitches. UM. Unaccompanied minor. ATC. Air traffic control. FAA. Federal Aviation Administration, ETD slash ETA. Estimated time of departure or arrival. APU. Auxiliary power unit. And this is the flight attendant's favorite piece of equipment on the airplane because it's what powers the air conditioning or heater on the ground. And anytime we get told that this is not functioning, we are mad. If you tell me there's no APU, I'm I'm pre-enraged. Like I'm not even on the plane yet and I'm pissed off.

SPEAKER_02 54:11

Yeah, it's a small engine that powers the air conditioning, it pushes fans, and it's what they use to start. It forces the air into the engine to start it. So if we don't have it, we don't have air conditioning, and we generally need the air cart uh to come force air into the engine to start it.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

So we're just gonna start everything so much longer when we don't have one. Yeah, because you'll often do an air start in that situation where you have to start the engines at the gate or at least one of them at the gate, and it's a whole process. Yep. Um, all right. In our next session, we're gonna talk about passenger and airport terms. These

10 trendy passenger & airport terms

SPEAKER_01 54:44

are the fun ones. These are super fun. We're gonna get fun. So you'll hear gate lice a lot. That's when passengers we use gate lice. I use gate lice like it's my job. Passengers who crowd the boarding area before their group is called. Um, not an official FAA term, but FAA reach out. Like, let's let's put this in the books. It drives me crazy because I'm like, the plane isn't even at the gate yet, and you've got someone lining up. Like, what are you doing? Go sit down.

SPEAKER_02 55:10

Uh, my favorite is Jeppridge Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 55:13

Uh, Jepp Bridge Jesus is when we refer to uh people who boarded with a wheelchair but don't need it to get off the airplane. Funny how that works. Jeebridge Jesus must have uh joined the flight today because the 37 wheelchairs are now down to two. He healed them. All of them. That's beautiful. Yes. Never been so religious in my life until that spiritual moment. Next up is crop dusting. It's a little secret. It's when flight attendants need to pass gas and they don't want to alarm their coworkers in the galley with it. So they will run down the aisle as quickly as they can. And you're welcome, passengers. Uh, landing lips. Landing lips. Uh, these are what the flight attendants do right before we land. We like gussy ourselves back up so we don't look like we've been working all day. It's when you look in the mirror right before landing, whether you worked a 30-minute flight or a seven-hour flight, and you're like, I don't look spectacular anymore. Let me spray on some face mist, let me put on some lipstick or chapstick, let me just freshen up a little. Put on my landing lips. Uh, yep. Next up is the spinner, which I just learned about recently from Andrew, is a passenger who stands in the aisle, usually during boarding, and can't find their seat. But also sometimes mid-flight, which I find fascinating when people wander into the aisle and I'm like, you don't remember where you're sitting at this point? Correct. Uh, people forget what their spouse looks like and can't even identify the person that they were driving with. When it's an adult, I think it's funny, but sometimes they feel bad for the kids. I do feel like they can't find their family. I'm like, let me go help this kid. I know where you're sitting.

SPEAKER_02 56:50

That's funny. Uh gate checked. These are the bank planes, these are the bags that we check plane side, either because they don't fit on the plane, uh, because we've run out of space or they're too large.

SPEAKER_01 57:00

Uh, we gate check them so that we just send them to the uh cargo hold via the the slide on the jet bridge. And then those bags go to baggage claim, unlike gate valet, which is usually for strollers, um wheelchairs, walkers, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 57:18

Or if you're boarding a plane that won't accommodate the bags at all, some of the regional jets. Some of the gate valet. That's a good point. They just because they don't accommodate it. And so those will all come back plainside too, because you should have been able to take them on.

SPEAKER_01 57:30

Because if you're gate checking, it's probably going to baggage claim. If you're gate valeting something, it's probably coming up uh plain side at the gate when you land. So make sure you're always double checking when you do that so that you don't leave your items behind or don't know where your items are. Standby, that's me. I fly without a ticket all the time. I just hope. I just hope that there's a seat on the airplane that they'll give me a ticket for. Standby, non-rev, staff travel, all of those terms are interchanged. There's also revenue standby, too, which sometimes you have passengers who are paying who rolled over from another flight or something got oversold. They might be standby as well. Um, and then you have those oversold situations where everybody's trying to get a seat on something because more tickets are sold than there are available seats. I hate that airlines like doing this, but so many flights go with open seats that were supposed to be full. So they do oversell in those situations. Kind of banking that someone's either going to misconnect or wake up late or whatever the case may be. So much like non-revs, we bank on those people doing that too. As much as we don't love it, airlines do oversell. Uh, misconnect, these are passengers who miss it miss their connecting flights. A standby dream. Uh-huh. A standby's dream. Um, wheelchair assist and special passengers. So during the crew briefings we have with the gate agents and with each other, we often talk about quote unquote specials. And that is anything from, you know, air marshals to wheelchairs to unaccompanied minors to uh, you know, all the different types of passengers, people with pets, people with service animals, all that sort of stuff. So we often refer to them as specials because they refer to the special assistance that they might need that is not standard for every other passenger.

SPEAKER_02 59:18

It's not meant to be derogatory, it's just quick communication for us.

unknown 59:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

This just keeps things streamlined for us. I know a lot of times fast passengers will hear us say, like, oh, we have seven wheelchairs, and it's like, it's just a communication of the fact that there are seven passengers who need wheelchairs. It's not meant to um be derogatory or anything like that. Like you said, it's just quick communication.

SPEAKER_02 59:40

Uh, pre-board, these are the passengers who are allowed to board before the general boarding.

SPEAKER_01 59:44

Uh, they just need a little more time and assistance to get onto the plane. And that's it. I think that's all we have for our flight attendant vocabulary lesson today. Um, this way you can officially be part of our crew and you know all the same terms that we do. Um, air aviation vocabulary decoded. Some of these terms are official, some of them are made up, some of them are just fun. Um, but after years of flying, we thought this was a pretty good comprehensive list.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:13

We hope you learned something today. And if we we missed something, drop them in the show notes for us to let us know.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:19

Yeah, text us. You can check the show notes. There's a link to send us fan mail. You can text us any terms that we missed. Maybe we'll do a part two. I don't know. This was fun. It's fun teaching people about the crazy world of aviation that we live in.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:33

Agreed.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

And make

You’re now part of our crew!

SPEAKER_01 1:00:35

sure to get some galley gang merch. Since you're now officially educated on the vocab, you can be part of our crew. Um, go to twoguysinaplane.com, tap the link to shop, and get some new galley gang merch. Like Andrew here is sporting. If you're watching the video version of this podcast, we've got some behind the scenes galley curtain vibes. I think this one's called Behind the Curtains. Behind the curtain, yeah. And it's a little cartoon sketch of our faces um doing something mysterious in the galley. That sounds way worse than it was supposed to. I love that there's a listener and a viewer version of this. It really, it really makes me happy. That's just throw your wedding ring at me. Can I have a back? Thanks. Um, that's amazing. So, yeah, check out our website to shop and join the galley gang and send us your crazy stories. Speaking

Galley Gossip

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

of stories, before we go, should we do a galley gossip story? So, for those of you that don't know, we love doing our galley gossip segment. This is where we share stories from our audience of crazy things that happened to you at 35,000 feet. Uh, so this story today is from Anonymous. I don't blame them for that. Um, so this says boarding was almost complete when a passenger flagged me down in a panic because their emotional support animal was missing. This must have been a while ago, because it didn't get rid of those. I don't know. I don't know. We were all expecting maybe a dog or a cat, but nope. It was a hamster. A literal tiny hamster somewhere loose on the aircraft. Oh, that's like a mouse. That could be bad for the aircraft. No, we don't at all. For 20 minutes, boarding stopped while grown adults crawled around on the floor looking under their seats for the hamster. The captain finally came out of the flight tech and asked, Why are we delayed? What's going on, Bukir? I can like hear it. Right as she started crying, the hamster casually walked out of another passenger's hoodie sleeve. Apparently, been climbing in and out of strangers' bags and belongings during boarding, and nobody noticed. But thankfully, that passenger found the hamster and it was returned to their owner. When has a hamster ever been allowed as an emotional support animal? Don't think they're allowed on the plane at all, though. I need to talk to this flight attendant because I think something bad happened and we need to address it. I didn't think we were allowed to have I don't know if a hamster is a rodent or not, but I know we're not allowed to have rodents on the airplane, even as emotional support animals. So this story confuses me. Agreed. I do need the flight attendant to to to email in some meeting. Oh, absolutely. This cannot be an illegal support. No. This had to have been snuck on. There's no way. Keep sending us your stories. Go to twoguysonaplane.com slash podcast to submit your galley gossip stories. We can't wait to hear from you.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:30

And join us next time for more humor, heart, and stories from our beverage cart.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:34

This episode was brought to you by Staff Traveler, the number one non rev app. If you travel on standby tickets and are looking to make your journey easy and stress free, check out the Staff Traveler app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Visit StaffTraveler.comslash two guys to learn more and sign up.