> still have no clue what a "roster"

> ‘reserve’ flight attendants

These words aren't specific to flight attendants. They're just english words with standard definitions. You're reading this on a device with an internal dictionary as well as internet access.

When I run across words that I don't understand, I often find a dictionary gives me faster response than posting on HN.

But HN can be more entertaining.

I didn't write the article, but I wasn't aware there were English speakers who didn't know the word roster either. It's a calendar of times employees have to work i.e. It tells you when your shifts are.

What do you call that?

Also a reserve is something you have spare in case the original planned one can't operate. So a reserve flight attendant would be someone who is on call in case someone else is sick, etcetera.

Usually we'd use the word "schedule" for that (American here). "Roster" is used mainly to mean a "list of people".

That's a schedule.

A roster is a list of people and their roles. A schedule is a roster with chronological information.

Reserve is probably something people should understand but backup works as well.

Wow dude really?!? I don't need you to define the words - I need CONTEXT.

>I wasn't aware there were English speakers who didn't know the word roster either.

I know what it is, but maybe the people that don't use schedule or timetable?

Don't they say 'rota' in the UK?

Yes, “rota” would be the commonest word for this idea. Although I did immediately understand “roster” in the article, so maybe that’s also in use. “Rota” is definitely what I would say though

Rota I don't know, but I'm not from the UK.

Many flight attendants don't have a regular schedule. Instead, they can browse upcoming flight itineraries and choose ones they are interested in. For example, a sample itinerary might be Chicago to Cleveland to Boston to New York to Chicago over a 2 day period.

All of these features are available in the internal applications provided by the airlines, but they're not always that easy to use or flexible. Obviously, as a flight attendant, being able to get notified of new itineraries, book quickly, and perform complex searches is a big advantage to getting better flights, so there is a small but very motivated market for custom apps like these.

Of course, these apps aren't supported by the airlines, so they operate in a grey area and use techniques like credential passing and screen scraping to get access to sensitive internal data.

My second-hand impression is that aircrew scheduling is a bit different from most jobs.

The flight attendants are not assigned a fixed schedule, but instead “bid” on specific trips: depending on their preferences, some crew might want flights of a particular length or on a certain type of plane, to arrange layovers in a specific city (or none at all), or even to work with/avoid certain colleagues.

They also alternate between periods where their bids set the schedule (“line”) and where they are on reserve/standby to fill in on flights where someone is missing. This could be because of illness, but flight delays and working hour restrictions (via safety regulations) add a lot of complexity. Another added wrinkle is that most crew don’t get paid until the flight doors are closed, so they really do not want to spend a lot of unnecessary time at the airport.

Thus, it’s a lot worse than managing schedules at a coffee shop, and I can totally imagine how a specialized app could help.

More: https://www.cabincrewchitchat.com/flight-attendant-bidding/