A new TV show in the UK is looking to expose what really happens on a QANTAS flight from London to Sydney on the Kangaroo Route. The route is one of their most popular, and is taken by thousands people every year looking to travel the world.
The Secret Life Of The Long Haul Flight is set to air this week in the UK, and goes behind the scenes with the cabin crew to show viewers all the insider secrets of the nearly 24-hour journey on an A380 aircraft.
These are the most surprising things that we learnt from the show, which you can catch very soon in Australia.
3. The secret beds and the Harry Potter bunk
Cabin crew need to stay awake and alert for the entire journey, but as humans they also need sleep. To work around this, the crew work on shifts with some people sleeping in secret hidden bunk beds. The area is out of sight close to the hold, and is often so cold that crew members take hot water bottles with them when they go for a nap.
“Crew rest is the best thing on the aircraft. We might get three hours then we switch over. We do have one bunk which we call the Harry Potter bunk because it’s just under the stairs,” says crew member Sarah Kelly, who has been flying for five years.
2. They clean the toilets every 30 minutes
Beatrice prepares to clean the toilet.
In what is probably the worst part about the job, crew members clean the toilets every half hour, even though it might not always feel that way.
“I’m just about to get stuck in to every cabin crew member’s favourite job – cleaning the toilet. People tell you it’s [being a crew member] a glamorous job. I think they lie,” attendant Beatrice says.
“We do this every half an hour, just to check that everything is well and good in the toilet and there’s paper in there because no one likes to go to the toilet without paper.”
1. The Tom Cruise code
Beatrice and a colleague enjoy a cup of tea.
Sadly this is not code for when Tom Cruise walks onto the plane, but rather how the drinks trolley should be arranged.
“We have a little trick that we call Tom Cruise,” attendant Beatrice says.
“When we talk about Tom Cruise on the aircraft we are not talking about the famous movie star – we are talking about tea and coffee. How do you put them on the trolley? Tea then coffee. Tom Cruise.”
Get it? Tea for Tom and Coffee for Cruise. T then C.
