Originally Posted by
VariablePitchP
Plenty of people live a stone’s throw from a J2 type base and then drive an hour and a half to Heathrow every time they go to work, you’re doing the opposite..!
Absolutely 100% move. BA seems to have ridiculously quick commands from looking there. And in 30 years you’ll be a senior 350 captain on an awful lot more than at J2. Even the lowest pay point Heathrow short haul captains at BA likely come out on top financially vs LCCs in the UK when everything is included.
Rediculously quick only in euroflyer. That could be joining or upgrading in a year. However it is the worst pay and conditions in the UK for an A320 equivalent job on the left or right seat.
LHR short haul FO life is pretty relaxed and generally better paid than EZY or WUK (not sure about J2 atm) and command is fairly fast. But being a pay point 2-10 captain would put you earning less than a year 1 ezy or j2 or even wizz captain for well, close to 10 years. And you’ll be the bottom of roster seniority for god knows how many years. Weekends off won’t exist as a choice outside of leave and golden day usage or tactical reserve for probably a decade as anyone in the company before you moving over will just keep your seniority on the fleet stationary. Also we spend far more time dealing with Heathrow than any sane and person wants to spend 🤣
Long haul straight away would change things as it’s a good pay bump compared to short haul and you’ll be working less. But it’s still 18-22 years for a long haul command. You’ll certainly get there in the end and it’ll be amazing.
Do a spreadsheet comparing the pay points of a planned BA career path compared to staying at your company as you are, with expected command upgrade times and do a calculation on your earnings over your planned working life. It’s not as clear cut money wise as it used to be with PP34 in effect especially if you’re over 30 and won’t have as much time at the top compared to someone joining at 20-25.
Ancilliary benefits are definitely hard to beat. Staff travel is fabulous. Pension is great! If you can master JSS, or just be happy to be flexible with work your rostering can be great (much harder though as a junior with kids wanting weekends off your only option for some guaranteed time will be part time)