Being paid to sit in hotels? C'mon Chimbu, get a grip. The only time the 5.5 hours a day kicks in on the long haul flying is when the COMPANY decides to have us sitting around doing nothing. ALL OF US want to be at home instead of away on a trip. I'd prefer to have efficient flying and get 8 hours for every day that I'm away from home and do 1000 hours per annum but the REALITY is is that QF can not schedule us to that because of flight time limitations.
The J* crew will be held to the same FTL and so will sit around in the hotels for the identical amount of time that the mainline crew did. If they operate under the dispensation then THAT is a safety issue. I flew with a bunch of the former AN crew now in QF and ALL OF THEM that I've spoken to have said that the dispensation for international ops was dangerous. ALL OF THEM that I've spoken to have talked about multiple times when both crew were asleep at the controls. In reality when it comes to the international schedules, it just means that they've saved themselves a second officer on the flight. Nice way to save money and increase the 'risk' exponentially. One wonders whether those kinds of rosters could also be seen as broaching OH&S legislation but that hasn't been tested in court yet.
Next, it's pretty hard to clock up more than 800 hours per annum if the company is choosing to sit you on your backside for three days because they only fly into the joint three times a week. If they ARE choosing to do that, I'm sure the J* crew will love getting paid 17 hours pay for a five day trip only to get two days (or less) off at home and then bounce back out again. Not sure how they'll clock up the 1000 hours at that rate!
I've got no doubt that the J* guys won't even think about the mainline guys when they vote on this deal but I DO hope that they think about their very own futures. This isn't about 'screwing it for mainline', this is about being short sighted and screwing it for themselves and everyone else who follows- just as 58% of the QF LH pilot group who voted did with our recent EBA. Whilst the pay rises that come with rapid promotion may be great in the short term, they won't hold up in the longer term- especially with lack of time at home that will occur with long haul lack of frequency.
So I DO reckon the deal is under cooked. I'm sure that the J* pilots could and should be able to do better than that. The 'threat' from the company to get someone else to fly it is nothing new and we've seen it before many times. No one ever bothers to stand up to it though.
So if they vote it up, they're welcome to it and I hope they enjoy the flying. I'm sure that they are all very capable pilots but don't believe for a second that the offer is a 'good' one.