Originally Posted by
MikeAlpha320
Apparently making cap so high that everyone has to work most waking hours but letting us try to choose how we do it means that its not fatiguing? Add in forcing trips on people- a very poorly organised operation in and out of LHR and the attitude that BA is still the best and there is nowhere else to go and you've got the perfect recipe for this situation. Not to mention forcing captains into RHS so they don't have to pay FO's for the overworked hours in the working agreement. When will BALPA get out of the companies pocket and actually do something?
Interesting reading. Having recently jumped ship from EZY too, these thoughts aren't too far from my own.
Things to take into account. Many rosters are self inflicted - lots of guys appear to utterly shaft themselves for money, to the point of doing 7/1/7 as you say - that is THEIR choice. The company also appear to acknowledge that 320 FOs are working exceptionally hard at the moment, and appear to be actively trying to rectify that (recruitment/captain RHS). I also gather they are hoping to eliminate the daily aircraft swaps that seem to pointlessly add so much duty time to our day.
All that said, it's swings and roundabouts - BA is by no means the utopia I'd hoped it would be. Is it better than EZY? Apparently most seem to think so, or they'd be on their way back.
What is not so often said is
why such numbers leave EZY for BA - and for the most part it's the 75% EZY contract. The combination of training debt and comically poor EZY money appears to be enough to push many an FO off to BA, when perhaps they would rather stay at EZY if it was financially viable. The flip side of course, is that junior BA captains are then disgustingly cheap and many I've flown with are now very interested in the current EZY offering.
EZY-BA-EZY could soon be a standard career route it seems.