tofster I don't drink alcohol but if we ever fly to Bologna together you could take me out for a pizza
There are good and bad points at both bases. The most important thing is that you don't let people bring you down, especially even before starting.
It's always difficult at the beginning, in any base and any company-new work shifts, flying wears you down more easily and you get paid only the basic salary for the first two months.
One thing that happens at LGW during the training: you get paid every day, you get meals allowances, and when you stay at LHR for the SEP they pay you more and the usual over night allowance. It surely helps!!
Also the good thing about being only on the 737 fleet.....
Today I was supposed to be on a double, but there's been an aircraft change....an A320 took our flight and the only girl on my crew who got trained on the airbus had to do the flight, and the rest of us got sent home....
There're always two ways of looking at things of course, but I cannot say I am not happy that I got an early MAN and I have been home since 9.30am!!
With LGW short and long haul merging, it's true, the contract will be not as good as the current WW contract, but the crews who do longhaul from LGW now will be surely offered to transfer to LHR long,shorthaul or to stay under the new terms and conditions.
Most of them already came from LHR EF, so there will be hundreds of people flying to LHR WW, so even if you went to EF LHR now you would have to wait ages to get to WW. If that's what you're after.
Once again, if you know how to bid money can be good, but you have to learn how to play with Carmen (the system) I've only just realised how to bid effectively and I wish I had had somebody who taught me that when I joined
If you need anything, you can count on me.
Days off-we get a minimum of 8 on a 30-day month and 9 on all other months including November. If you get two single days off in a month one of them will count as an extra (for example you'll get 10 instead of 9).
There're no restrictions on how and when you can take your leave, as long as there're slots available.I could ask for a day tomorrow and there would be no problems. You can also add 2 wrap days off before or after your leave if it is 7 days or longer.
You'll love Jubilee House and the airport standby's usually pass very fast because there'll always be friends around to talk to.
You'll see how friendly most of the crews are.
There's a tv room, a computer room, a canteen, staff shop, coffee shop, and a quiet room. There're showers and lockers on the ground floor, there's a cash point, money exchange and dry cleaning shops as well. It's not as big as the compass centre but we have pretty much everything, and you won't find these facilities in other airlines around here. People always moan after a while, but they should see how other companies treat their employees. My life is much more stress-free since I joined BA.
That's all I can think of now. If you have any questions/worries or just want to have a chat, please feel free to PM me. I know our scheduling agreement inside out and I am more than happy to help
Take care in the meantime and be happy!
Ciao
FBW
*** Love at first Flight ***