The tools and apps crew actually use: roster apps, currency converters, hotel review sites, jet lag calculators and the ones that waste the phone

Wizz, senior, and every course produces a new joiner who downloads twelve aviation apps in week one and uses two by month three. Here is the crew phone as it actually is after four years, category by category, with the ones worth having and the ones that are decoration.

The roster app

The airline's own, obviously, and then a third party roster app that imports it and puts it in your phone calendar with the sign on times, the sectors and the hotels. This is the one app every crew member on earth uses. The airline's app tells you the roster; the third party app tells your partner and your mother. The roster to calendar tool on this site does the same job for free and I have used it.

The currency converter

One good offline converter with the layover currencies preloaded. Used every trip for the per diem maths and the restaurant bill. Do not rely on the one that needs data, because the data does not work in the hotel basement.

Crew hotel and layover information

The crew groups on the messaging apps are the real source: the airline's crew group for the route, where someone posted the good restaurant three years ago and it is still pinned. The crew hotel review sites exist and are patchy. The layover threads on this forum are better than most of them for the cities covered.

The jet lag tools

The jet lag calculator on this site is the one I use because it takes the roster and tells me when to sleep, and I do not want an app that wants a subscription for the same thing. The light exposure apps are science and I could never stick to them. The senior crew's method (stay on home time for short layovers, adjust for long ones, blackout curtains) beats every app.

The per diem calculator

Useful in the first year when you do not know what a month will pay, and the one on this site does the maths for the allowances by hours away. After year one you know your months and the app goes.

The FTL and rest checker

The crew who check their own duty limits against the regulation are rare and valuable. The FTL check tool on this site is what I used to learn the rules; the airline's crew portal shows the legal limits on the roster once you know what to look at.

The packing list

Every new joiner downloads one and every senior has the same bag packed permanently with a list in their head. The packing tool on this site is the one I used to build my permanent bag. Now the bag is the list.

Waste of the phone

The flight tracking apps (you are on the aircraft, you know where it is). The airline news apps (the crew group knows first). The meditation app you downloaded on a bad layover and opened once. The aviation weather app, unless you are the kind of crew who wants to argue with the captain about the divert, which you should not be.

The honest phone

The roster app, the calendar, the converter, the crew groups, the maps, and the photo of the passport page. Six things. Everything else is optional and most of it is decoration.