Carnage, you are right. Many crew at BA leave other airlines to come to BA because we are paid more and perhaps work a little less.
I guess the main reason for me wanting to come to BA (I worked at bmi), was because I wanted to work for a professional outfit. For once I had something, written in black-and-white, about what is expected of me and when I can say 'no'.
At bmi, you could get rostered a very rare two sector day, and when you land back from that and getting your things together to go home you are told by the dispatcher you need to do two more sectors as they are short of crew. Can you imagine the sort of service the passengers on those next two sectors received? Can you imagine the loyalty instilled into you for the company, by the company?
On top of that we were spoken to like crap by un-professional, nasty management with no skills what-so-ever.
That is not a way to treat anyone, cabin crew, pilot, cleaner.....
My personal opinion (and again this is my personal opinion) when I was on short-haul I did think I spent too much time hanging around compass/CAT, but I can see the reason for it from the unions point of view.
Anyway, I think it is generally accepted that things will change before the move to T5.
In regards to return catering, it is the cabin crew that do the swapping of trolleys, hots etc not caterers.
There are no 3 x 4 x 3 sector 3 day trips although 3 day trips with 1 sector at either or both ends are fairly rare. Scheduling adjust the trips depending on how over/under crewed EF are.
A few years ago LHR EF was so undercrewed, 1 sector days on trips were practically unheard of.
Now LHR EF are well and truly OVER crewed so more one sector days will probably happen so there is still enough work to go around. Also a couple WW LHR 767 routes are being transferred across to LHR EF as WW are under crewed and EF over crewed.
Within BA this isn't just an issue with cabin crew. I mean look at the bus drivers? Look at the type of conditions they work to?? What a joke! We land from a twelve hour flight onto a remote stand and after working hard to leave a favourable impression with our passengers they are stranded for half an hour because the bus drivers can only come into the central area so many times per day etc etc. At least even if we aren't the most economically efficient crew, we make a significant contribution to the profits. Where do the bus drivers come in?
Last edited by keeperboy; 24th Oct 2005 at 13:30.