Excel. Where do I start?
I recently worked there and I can confirm that it’s much worse than the above posters imply.
This company is shocking. The long term planning horizon is the next 12 hours. Aircraft and crew are rostered using the legal limits for planning purposes so as soon as ANY aspect of the operation doesn’t run exactly to schedule – it’s chaos.
Flight crew are treated with contempt – cabin crew with total contempt.
The roster is a useless document – rarely issued more than 4-5 days before the end of the month and irrelevant anyway because you are regarded as available every day. You’re also assumed to be permanently logged on to Email – roster changes are notified to you this way (except on the day itself). So if you get up at 0400 for a 0600 duty having gone to bed early, it might have been changed overnight (by Email) to a 1400 start without you knowing about it - or more likely vice versa! Expect to be called on your days off and expect changes to at least 80% of your duties – frequently changes of > 6 hours to a duty start/end time at very short notice – i.e. disrupting your planned rest – assuming you ever managed to plan it.
Cabin crew are subject to disciplinary action if they refuse to work a day off (for which they receive no compensation) without a good reason – being a rostered day off doesn’t count as a good reason. The systems supporting crewing seem to be hopeless – don’t be surprised if they ring you thinking you’re on a different Continent. Also be aware that retrospective roster changes will be made to make it legal for you to work e.g. you had 2 days standby last week but weren’t called? – we’ll change them to days off to make the duty we want to give you legal.
As others have mentioned, the aircraft are old and tired and insufficient account of this is taken when planning. The 5 767s have 4 different flight deck layouts/configurations since they were originally built for different customers. Naturally, the 757/767 fleet has all 3 different airframe/engine combinations.
If you decide to work there, check the aircraft’s legal docs before departure VERY carefully. The FMSs have no pre-stored routes and no SIDS/STARS/Approaches for any airfield except LGW/MAN. Some destination airfields aren’t even in the FMS.
Don’t forget to brush up your manual load sheet technique either – you’ll also need it everywhere except LGW/MAN.
Trivial perhaps to all you super aces (!) out there but all the “low level hassle” (and there is plenty more – see above) makes the job much more wearying than it needs to be.
Positives – yes there are some – your colleagues (flight and cabin), genuinely mixed 757/767 long and short haul flying (none of this bo**ocks of rostering the 767s by seniority for example – but then they’re too disorganized to manage that!), there’s a good cross section by background/age of very experienced and knowledgeable flight crew who will have lots of useful tips for you. The people who prepare the FPL/Notam/Wx paperwork for you pre-departure have the patience of Saints.
You’ll have to decide for yourself if you want to go there (which of course is tricky without taking the risk of going there and seeing for yourself), it all depends on your personal situation and experience but keep in mind that there are plenty of 757/767 jobs out there at the moment – but be quick because Excel people are filling them as fast as you can read this !! If you’re already in one you’d be very ill advised to quit to go to Excel.
The particularly demoralising thing is that there’s no hint of improvement – indeed, no hint that the “management” recognise that there’s a problem. Hopefully, the trickle of departures turning into a flood will disabuse them of their complacency but as ever, by then it’ll be too late.
Re Saddest’s post about the 737 people – Excel has actually taken over Air Atlanta Europe and there are some particularly unpleasant Excel folks who think they are God and the ex-AAE 757/767 people are untermenschen spoiling their cosy little world on the 737 fleet – something the substantial body of BA retirees with their ACTUAL experience of ETOPS (and years of long haul experience on other types) are not particularly impressed by.
All in all, this is a nasty mean spirited company where flight and cabin crew are regarded by the (invisible) “management” as a problem obstructing the smooth operation of their airline.
To be avoided.
PS Oooops forgot to answer the original question. 757/767 (you won’t be 767 only) captains get GBP65,000 plus GBP2.28 per hour from check-in at base to check-out back at base. No (more) over 60s.