Originally Posted by
Cots889
Hi,
I’m fortunate enough to have been offered positions with both BA and Virgin A350/A330 respectively.
Just trying to gain some up to date to advice and information on what would be the better route with regards salary, benefits, stability and long term prospects.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Congratulations! I wouldn’t worry about the redundancy stuff. You’re going to be at the bottom of both seniority lists for a while and both airlines have shown that their company councils have no issue chopping the list.
I’m not 100% on how BA roster their 350 trips, but based on where they fly I presume they are at least 3 pilot trips with an onboard flight crew bunk. On the 330 at VS there is no rest area at all and every trip will be 2 pilots (even 10 hours down to MIA/MCO etc). The new temporary scheduling agreement gives you more time downroute to make up for it, but it’s still knackering. Hopefully this will change with the new pay/lifestyle deal being negotiated.
In terms of fleet and route variety if you’re looking at making a career in Blighty I think BA is the better choice. If you get bored of the 350 you can bid to move to a different fleet, seat etc. Outside of a command bid there isn’t the same policy at VS, they want everyone dual rated 330/350 but it’s a slow process and at present seemingly completely random. Fleet transfers only happen if the company is short on one fleet (this year the only transfer available to preference was 78 to 330, a lot of 787 FOs were given command on the 330 as well).
The thing VS does have going for it is what someone mentioned before. Go to BA and expect to be in Lahore or some other unpopular trip on every Christmas and New Year for the first 5-10 years. At VS you get assigned one of three bid groups which rotates every month for trip/preference bidding and every leave bid (twice a year) which means that whilst you might be at the bottom of a group, you’ll still be above 2/3rds of the company.