Originally Posted by
baknedicem
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.
I would say come on over. You probably won’t have anything close to what you describe in your schedule here. So even if you upgrade to Captain after you have your 1000 hours in the right seat it will feel like vacation for you. For better Qol you can also stay in the right seat and will still make more money than you’re getting now. I know a lot of people who fly 3/400 hours a year. As a junior Captain you might fly close to 800 though. But you get paid much better then.