Why dump a system which enables BA to roster it's longhaul crews to consistently achieve the 900 hour legal maximum per year? It is extremely efficient. Bidline also encourages people to stay with the company. Knowing you will, sooner or later, reach a point where you can choose when and where to work is well worth it to me.
Those who knock it presumably don't understand it. The main benefit however, is that rostering is COMPLETELY TRANSPARENT. There is no way a quiet word can be had in the ear of scheduling for a 'cushy' trip, for example. The principle of seniority ensures that if you bid for anything, no-one junior to you will get it instead of you.
I assure you it will be cheaper for BA to keep bidline than to pay for the strike which will result if they try to get rid of it.
So far they've shafted us on the following:
1) Pay - the reorganisation means that BA longhaul First Officers are paid broadly the same as VS First Officers but all BA flight crew are contracted for 900 hours per year instead of 750 hours at VS. It has also increased time to command.
2) Pensions - no Final Salary Scheme for new joiners which will inevitably mean that the FSS will eventually disappear for existing employees.
If you also add Bidline to the list, I and many of my compatriots will happily send the company to the wall as we will have nothing left to lose. Just watch us.
Shaman,
Please answer the following:
If Bidline is that inefficient, please explain how BA longhaul flight crew are consistently reaching the 900 hour legal maximum.
Oh yes. At the risk of thread creep, a very large number of ex military chaps joined at a similar time to me. Where did they go?
That's right, the -400, on the old pay deal (honey-pot?) by using their previous experience (ATPL). Sure some of them later moved to LGW to get an early command by using their previous experience (ATPL and required hours). All credit to them, they took the option that was there at the time. Indeed there are a number of LGW Captains (not including the CFE guys here as they came on board much later) who are junior to me, an ex cadet . However, there are a number of ex-mil people who remain in the RHS on longhaul who whine anonymously on this forum about what a raw deal they have and why they can't be longhaul Captains. If they were that desperate for a command, surely they would also be at LGW .... or maybe Virgin.
This is exactly why a seniority based system is important. I would not want to do 15 years with BA, to find someone who joined yesterday jumping into a command ahead of me, for which I was equally qualified. Just because you spent your formative years hurtling around in a grey pointy jet does not automatically give you the right to shaft people who joined the airline before you.
In answer to anyone who wonders why I don't have a LGW command, 737 LGW is not considered to be particularly popular. This meant that commands became pretty junior. At this point, I didn't have the required hours to be considered for a command there while the ex military guys did, hence the early commands. Now that I have the hours, the 'honey-pot' has been redistributed somewhat, which means LGW commands have gone senior (admittedly not as senior as LHR) and are out of my reach. So the 'honey-pot' has moved correctly, to the junior Captain's who were notably under paid, particularly at LGW.
To the ex military guys trying to change the rules, the old adage still applies:
If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined.
Last edited by Human Factor; 15th Aug 2004 at 17:20.