During her time as cabin crew for Emirates, Jeenie Weenie got all the insights as to where best to travel when you’re living in the UAE and she is showing us all on TikTok how to save some money when booking your flight.
Besides her humorous videos on social platforms, where she posts various videos about her time as a flight attendant and all the funny and awkward situations she has been in, she also gives her fans valuable tips on how to behave on a flight and all the do’s and don’ts on a plane.
Excited to see what the ex-Emirates flight attendant has to say about saving money when booking your next trip? Then keep reading.
Travel Hack 1: Avoid booking your Economy flights in June as it’s the most expensive month. If you want to be boujee and fly premium. Deffo book your flight in July to save some money.
Jeenie Weenie says: “In Dubai, it gets really, really hot in the summer. So my thought was, hey, everyone’s going to travel in the summer because if you can’t go outside, you go somewhere else. That’s your time to travel. So prices do you think would be the highest? But Expedia busted that. It’s not, it’s actually not the highest. So the most expensive time is actually in October. Kind of makes sense because October has the best weather. So there’s more people coming into Dubai, driving prices up.
“But June is the most expensive month to travel. It’s actually up to 13% more than January. People should be aware of that when they’re travelling if they want to save money.”
Travel Hack 2: Be aware! Booking your flight on a Sunday instead of a Friday can actually save you up to 16%.
Jeenie Weenie says: “People think, that you can book at any time. It’s going to be the same price. It doesn’t really matter. It actually does matter. It really does. So if you book on a Sunday, it’s the cheapest. You can save up to 16%. Just by booking on a Sunday versus a Friday. And I knew this because I would always wait. I think Friday it’s because it’s the end of the work week. So everyone’s thinking, oh, I’m going to go on a trip. I want to book something. Sunday is when I was like, oh, I have to go back to work. I don’t want to think of anything else, but go back to work.”
Travel Hack 3: Booking your trip 6-12 days ahead is cheaper than if you book months before. So actually try being spontaneous. Sometimes it’s not best to plan everything too long in advance.
Jeenie Weenie says: “I didn’t know this one. So people book months, months in advance because they think you’re going to get the best price. It actually is not. As per Expedia, in the UAE, you have to book six to 12 days before your departure. That window is the cheapest time to buy your ticket. It’s up to 21% less than if you book two months in advance. Just book six to 12 days before. All of this is on Expedia’s Air Hacks report.”
Interested in hearing more from travel expert Jeenie Weenie? Keep scrolling
Cosmo ME: What led you to become Cabin Crew and what was the process like?
Jeenie Weenie: I actually didn’t think I could become Cabin Crew because I’m quite short. I wasn’t really sure but I had a friend that got hired for Emirates Airlines and she’s like, you know what? You never know. Why don’t you just try? I’d never travelled overseas. So it was like just a dream of mine to see the world because I’ve always seen it on a screen and one of my bucket list destinations was Egypt. I don’t know why. I had a fascination with Egypt and the pyramids and it’s just something that I always wanted to see in person.
So I was like, you know what? I’m just going to try and it was a very, very difficult interview process. I got hired in Canada. Emirates came to Canada to do all the interviews and like a thousand people showed up and they only chose 12. And out of these 12, only six actually made it to Dubai. It was such a fun time. I would do it again.
Cosmo ME: How long did you work for as a cabin crew?
Jeenie Weenie: Two and a half, almost three years. So I lived in Dubai for about three years.
Cosmo ME: How did you like living in Dubai?
Jeenie Weenie: It was my first time kind of moving away, especially to a different country and I had to go by myself. So I was scared at first because I didn’t know what I was getting into. And I was very shocked at first. Living there, in a different culture. As long as you’re respectful to the culture, you will have the best time of your life. Don’t try to bring the culture that you’re from and try to embrace and learn. And just have a great time. I made a lot of great friends and learned a lot too. So it was really, really great.
Cosmo ME: How did you use being cabin crew to kickstart or to jumpstart your social media career?
Jeenie Weenie: This was way later. This is actually 10 years after I quit. It was during the height of COVID. I had nothing to do. We were all locked in our homes. And so I just started sharing stories about my times as cabin crew, passenger stories, flight stories, and bringing people into my world of what I experienced. And people just couldn’t believe it. They’re like, this is not true. There’s no way. And at the time, the short form storytelling wasn’t really as popular. It was just hitting off. Being able to kind of experience it through my eyes, people loved it so much. And so instantly, it went viral. And I just started sharing more and more stories.
Even today, I still share stories because I have a lot of cabin crew friends. I’m always asking them like, “Hey, tell me your stories. What happened on your flight today? What happened on your flight this week?” And they’re like, “Oh, it’s still so crazy.” That’s why I continue to write skits about that. Yeah, that’s how I started. It’s been really, really great.
Through my social media growth, I got to partner up with amazing brands, travel brands and flight brands. I did a partnership with Emirates. They flew me in business class. It was my first time flying business class ever. It was just a really cool moment. I had to make a YouTube video out of it.
Today, I’m partnering up with Expedia. So I get to do all this cool stuff with brands, especially Expedia and share my insights with them and do amazing interviews like with you. So it’s very cool. I’m like, wow, how did I even get here?
Cosmo ME: What was, what was the most exciting trip you ever took as an Emirates flight attendant?
Jeenie Weenie: My most memorable was Korea because I am Korean. It was very weird. It was a culture shock for me, even though I was Korean. I’m like, oh my gosh, I’ve never seen so many Koreans in my life. Everything is Korean. I was just not used to it being a Canadian Korean. It’s just so different. So to me, that was the biggest culture shock. And now I go almost every year because I love it so much. And I do embrace my culture, my own culture. I think it’s such a beautiful thing.
Cosmo ME: What are your top three travel essentials?
Jeenie Weenie: I always bring Papa’s Ointment. It’s really good for anything that’s dry, especially when you fly, you have to hydrate your lips, and everything gets cracked. It is really good for rashes and dry skin and everything. I also put it up my nose because it gets so, so dry.
I always bring sanitizing wipes no matter what. Lysol wipes, I don’t care, just pack a little bit in a Ziploc and wipe everything down. That is my go to. Please, please. I talk about it all the time, how dirty planes are.
And a face mask. Always during a flight, I put a face mask on and off I go. The best time to do it.
If you pack anything in your carry-on, it needs to be these travel minis.