Crew guides · Crew life
How crew share layover tips, and what gets lost
Group chats, Facebook groups, saved map lists and word of mouth: how crew pass on layover tips, what goes missing, and why On Chocks pins crew picks.
Updated 29 October 2026
Crew have long passed on layover tips, and a tip from a colleague who ate there last month carries weight. The channels are the weak point, and each one loses something.
Where tips live today
- Group chats. A chat with your base or your regular crew gives quick answers from people you trust. Only the people in that chat get the answer.
- Facebook groups. A big group reaches more cities and more crew. Posts from different years sit together in one long feed.
- Saved map lists. A list you built yourself is a good checklist. It tells you where a place is and says nothing about whether other crew still rate it.
- Word of mouth. The conversation on the bus from the airport can turn up a tip you would not find online. It depends on who is sitting next to you.
What gets lost
Old messages sink. A tip from two years ago sits under hundreds of newer messages, and you have no way to tell whether it still holds.
Places close, change hands or change their hours. A chat message about a late-night noodle place does not say when late ends, and no one edits an old message when the hours change.
Context goes missing too. A chat tip may not say whether the spot suits one tired person at 3am or a table of eight, or whether it is a short walk or a long one.
What a crew-only list changes
On Chocks pins only spots that pilots and cabin crew have added and backed with Recommend. It carries no paid listings and no scraped reviews. Verified crew add and rate spots, and each spot shows how many verified crew recommend it and what they said.
Each tip adds details a chat message leaves out: up to three tags, such as Quick or Late night, a price level and a line from the person who went. Opening hours show in the city's local time. If a spot has no hours, crew can add them. Crew can report a spot or a quote that is wrong, and the app refuses hotels as spots.
The app shows other crew your nickname, your role and the quarter of the year you posted. It keeps your airline private. Your own saved places stay on your phone until you choose to share them, and you can bring a Google Maps list in as a private checklist.
Short-lived news travels another way. Crew alerts, from the red button on the map, clear after about six hours, and no one sees who posted them. A warning about a taxi or a protest does not sit in a feed for months.
What it cannot do
On Chocks cannot promise that a place is open or that a recommendation still holds. Check the hours and the date on a tip, and read the official advice for the country. Smartraveller publishes travel advice for each destination, and tips from crew sit beside it rather than replacing it.
Our guide on what makes a good crew spot explains the tags. To turn those spots into a plan, read planning a short layover.
If you have a tip to share, add the spot in On Chocks with a line about it, and the next crew to land there will see it. On the day you land, the map shows the crew picks near you and which of them are open now.