Originally Posted by
midnight_aviator
Question aimed at BA pilots. I am a current 320 captain at a well known orange airline, 1000PIC, 5000TT. Still have a longhaul itch that I might want to scratch at some point in the future which I cannot fulfill at my current airline. BA obviously offers options for short and long haul to tickle any future itches when my kids are older and I don’t want to regret not leaving earlier when I could. If I were to jump ship to BA, would I be completely mad? Also I assume there are never any DEC positions that come up so would I go in as FO at paypoint 1 and bottom of the seniority pile or is there discretion to go in at a higher PP? Would I have to wait for my seniority number to come up to get my command back, be it short haul or long haul? I am pretty clueless about how it all works in a seniority based airline and don't know how rigid it so I would like peoples thoughts and insights please. Thanks in advance 👍
Many friends have crunched the numbers, and if you are 30+ you are unlikely to ever claw back the loss of earnings. However, if you desire long haul its difficult to ignore and the earlier you leave the better.
There Is a chance of DEC at Gatwick for euroflyer, and you could feasibly transfer to Heathrow after 5 yrs, but this would still have you very near the bottom of the P1 seniority list, and all that goes with it wrt bidding etc.
if you join as P2 at Heathrow on the 320 you ‘could’ achieve a command after 1-2 years atm, but again, salary scales are way below the easy equivalent.
There is no escaping joining at PP1 unfortunately, whether that be short haul, or long haul.
On current PP34 scales, it would take approximately 15 years as a captain on the 320 to be earning what you currently earn at easyJet as a captain. Long haul commands historically run at about 20 years in the company.
HTH