General atmosphere
What’s the general mood in the company at the moment? Many many happy people, they've done a great job of recruiting the right sort of people over the last few years. Doubled the workforce in that time frame and basically everyone is a good egg. Not to say there aren't complaints from folk, some valid, some need a reality check. It's a freight job after all, not a silver spoon airline. If you keep your head down then there will be no issue whatsoever.
Are most people broadly happy or is there a lot of underlying dissatisfaction? Most people broadly happy. Complaints usually come from pay (or the UK tax system), paxing around the network (makes sense to the company) and being on standby down route (fully paid in a 5 star hotel, often not called out...free holiday sometimes). And standby if you're a commuter (sometimes trips get canned and you get put on standby instead, annoying and HOTAC in EMA not covered in EMA (unless you have 2 flying duties separated by less than 20hrs in EMA, so not that often). Apparently BALPA HQ rate them as the happiest airline but I haven't seen that published, just crew room chat.
Roster and lifestyle
I’ve been told that on the 777 it’s typically one trip per month, occasionally two, with trips up to around 14 days.
Does that reflect reality? Perhaps for now, but likely to increase to about 2x 5-7 day trips a month as the triples arrive - 4 more due this year. Seems that the super long 14 day trips aren't on the rosters anymore.
How predictable are the rosters in practice? Predictable as in your days OFF will be un touched. Roster published well in advance. Trips change, get re routed etc, expect often changes to your working day route before a trip but not many changes to the trip once you've started it. Thats the nature of cargo. I take the glass half full view that my work days are for them to do with whatever they want. I know i'll be home on my off days. I get annoyed booking hotels and Air BNBs last min but I'm a commuter and knew what I signed up for, take the wins with the losses. It's not a scheduled airline like pax land, things change. People get annoyed at that, I don't really get annoyed at that to be fair. My biggest factor is that I rarely take any work chat or complaints home to vent to the wife.
Also on rest:
I’ve been told rest is half the preceding duty plus one day, but I’ve also seen plus two days mentioned elsewhere.
What is it in reality? Long haul over 4x timezones is the latter. Otherwise its +1 day. Mostly +2 days. Bedrooms available in EMA on return of duty if you're too tired to drive home. Airport standby is catered and you get a bedroom in the crew room (I think ASBY is only on the 756/767 though).
Command timeline
For now, about 5 years for a new joiner, but that's purely guesswork. 3/4 years ago, people were getting commands within the year. Might improve as more units arrive but for now there are a lot of command ready FOs that have left their previous command gig.
Command process
Very fair. Internal command/management course to be done first then a sim assessment before the command course, high success rate.
Overall move worth it?
I don't see myself leaving for a while, i'm glad to be away from the 900hrs a year and last year I did 250 hrs. Obviously a lot of time down route but I like that. Good social aspect and the company have deep pockets. 5% pay rise in april, bonus that's never not been paid, not once has anyone been made redundant ever...some proper career safety.
I'll also add that there's many part time offerings available, the best one looks to be a 91% contract, which is basically full time flying roster but instead of 42 leave days, you get 70. Many folks on that and it's really no battle to get part time, they offer it once or twice a year and I don't think I've heard anyone not get it.
You'll alternate working xmas, one year on and one year off etc. That's peak season. But you'll NEVER have any issues getting leave any other time of the year unlike a lot of other places.