And so we go onto the second half of our Flight Attendant Lingo! (Or second third, depending on how many submissions I get...)


Slam Clicker - A flight attendant on a layover who, after getting their hotel room card and per diem go immediately to their room and slam the door shut, click the locks, never to be seen again until check out. It's not really a common term here in the Middle East airlines, but would be one that accurately describes at least 60% of the cabin crew, and I'd say 20% of the pilots. If the slam-clicker is a purser or cabin senior, then you understand why, because usually they have voyage reports and crew appraisals to write up, but if they're a newbie and in a destination such as Rome, or New York, or London, then it's usually baffling as to why they're in the job in the first place.

Loco - Short for Low Cost Airline. Or as one of my workmates said after a stint at EasyJet, you'd really have to be nuts to work there. :-S


Bryson - So this term emerged as a nod to the British TV series 'Mile High' and so named after the pilot John Bryson, who's a bit of a playboy pilot. He's also incredibly handsome, and so in the non-TV world a 'Bryson' is used to describe a young playboy pilot, or even just simply used to refer to a young handsome pilot. Believe it or not these are far more rare than the general public think.

Ball Bearing Stewardess - Male Flight Attendant. Probably bantered around more by the flight deck rather than any cabin staff.

Self Loading Freight - also SLF for short, used in any transport industry as a way to describe the paying passenger. Very prevalent on the pprune.org forums.

IFB or the BOB - Which stand for In Flight Boyfriend and Best/Babe on Board respectively. If you ever saw the 'reality' TV show Fly Girls the IFB was explained in excruciating detail in the first episode, so painful it was I could watch no more than 12 minutes of the footage. I dare you to find it on youtube.


Bottle to Throttle - Curfew hours. This is a great term that I first heard on The Crew Lounge podcast. It varies between airlines, but it's the time between the last drink you're allowed to have up till the start of your duty or the Standard Departure Time. In my case we have a Bottle to Throttle time of 12 hours, however with certain cities we fly to being subject to very restrictive liquor licensing laws, you may have a window of 1 hour to drink an alcoholic bevvy before you head into Bottle to Throttle time.

Images from here, here, here and here.

Labels: Airline Stuff, Galley Gossip, Random Thoughts, Work

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