Key Points
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On long-haul flights, airlines use extra crew and scheduled rest rotations to keep flight attendants alert, with part of the team always available in the cabin.
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Modern wide-body aircraft have hidden crew rest compartments—separate from passengers—featuring bunks, seat belts, reading lights, and storage.
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These areas have evolved over time, becoming more comfortable and often tucked above or below the main cabin behind unmarked doors.
Long-haul flights lasting 12 to 15 hours feel like a marathon, even if you’re just sitting there the entire time. But how do flight attendants survive a whole flight without getting tired?
Airlines use careful crew management to keep flight attendants alert throughout the journey, staffing these flights with extra crew members who rotate through scheduled rest breaks in hidden compartments, ensuring some attendants are always available in the cabin while others recharge. This rotation system allows the crew to maintain the high level of attentiveness needed for passenger service and emergency response on ultra-long flights.
Crew rest areas are hidden from passengers.
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A Lufthansa cabin crew member stands in the rest and sleeping area for the cabin crew of an Airbus A350-900.
Daniel Bubb, a former commercial airline pilot and aviation and airport historian at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, explains that many people often think that flight attendants rest on benches and pilots sleep in the cockpit—but that’s not exactly true. “There are hidden compartments that they call ‘crew bunks’ where pilots and flight attendants can rest on long-haul flights,” Bubb says.
Shannon Brown, a Detroit-based flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, says there are scheduled breaks for cabin crew on longer flights.
“The spaces are pretty simple—dark and quiet, with a seat belt you buckle while you sleep,” says Brown. “[They] provide an opportunity for crews to take breaks and reset. We rotate through in shifts to ensure part of the crew is available for customers. Many customers may not even realize there’s a place for us to rest on board, but modern wide-body aircraft are designed with specialized crew rest areas that are separate from the main cabin.”
Crew rest compartments have evolved.
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Flight crew rest bedding on the Boeing-manufactured 787 Dreamliner.
On-board accommodations for crew members have changed and improved over the years. Bubb explains that passenger planes have gotten larger and now fly longer distances without refueling, extending the time that flight attendants are on the plane working. As a result, crew rest compartments have become more important.
“Crew members are only allowed a certain amount of time to work before they are required to rest,” says Bubb. “Historically, many crew members drank copious amounts of coffee to stay awake, but with designated rest areas, that practice has slightly changed.”
Modern crew rest compartments are much more comfortable than they used to be, especially on bigger planes. “The newer, wide-bodied planes have larger beds and different locations for the crew rest compartment,” he says.
Newer crew rest compartments are longer and wider than they used to be, and there are sometimes reading lights and even places for crew members to stow their shoes now. Locations can vary by aircraft model, though. On some planes, crew rest areas are tucked above the passenger cabin, accessible by a narrow staircase behind an unmarked door. On others, they’re located below the main deck, near the cargo hold, requiring crew members to descend a ladder to reach their bunks.
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