If you lost a nights sleep, it was once a month or two instead of once or twice a week. It is not sustainable and it hit me hard after about a year on the line. After that it does not go away because there is no structure to the roster. You will go from midnight starts to early morning, midday, late and anywhere in between in one week, mixing between ULR/mid and turn arounds. You can't understand it until you experience it. I say this because I know, and I was warned before I came here but could not fathom it. Some people deal with it better than others, but not me.
If you put yourself in the company’s shoes, how should they go about sorting out the issues of having ULRs mixed around with TAs? This is not a trick question, I genuinely would like to know. Was the “short haul” type roster (5 on/4 off) brought up at the pilot forum last week?
I actively avoid ULRs, and have been very successful recently. My sleep pattern has drastically improved as a result and there are always enough guys that are willing to take your ULRs. As u said, some guys deal with it better than others, so personally a night in Jakarta (DXB +3) beats 2 nights in Seattle any day!