Hi,
I just wonder how bad could "bid lines" be and how little the annual vacations days are?
I work at a major airline in Europe. I work almost 900 hours a year (that's the legal limit) and 1000 hours for the last 12 months. I frequently fly to airports with special crew training requirements. (I'm not complaining, it is fun to fly to those destinations). Most of the time I fly with first officers with minimum hours. Like 300 total flying time. (200 hours from the flight school, 100 hours from Lifus training) With deadhead flights included I fly 90-100 hours monthly. For instance this August I have 105 hours scheduled. Having said that, I make 10-11K dollars monthly. I have 25 days paid leave total. 16 days in winter period, 9 days in summer period. I can't even get it as a 25 day block. I have many night flights starting in the late evening until the late morning. I can't bid on any destinations and the layovers are like 12-16 hours at most. Roster changes are frequent and when you complain about a roster change you get a standard message saying "Due to operational reasons". I do not exaggerate a bit.
Even so, I am happy because I love flying and I respect my job. I try to do it as good as I can.
I am seriously considering applying for the EB2 Visa. My question is, people are complaining about being a junior captain in the US and terrible bid lines whatsoever. How bad could it be comparing my current flying schedule? If I were to work there and ended up with less favorable flights after others have bid for the desirable ones, would it really suck for me?
Thanks a lot. Happy contrails.