It seems that a number of Rumours, Mis truths and damn lies seem to circulate on this subject!
Once upoun a time in a land far away known as LHR there were 2 airlines who existed in blissfull peace of each other , They had many things in common including similar fleets and aspirations. One had a big bag of money and was hungry to expand, The other had little money and survived by being a clone of Big Airways and paying them lots of money for the priviledge,As time went by this airline had less and less money until one day it was clear that the the money was about to run out,and all of the fun would have to stop. And so it came to pass that the airline with some money and plans to expand aquired the clone and set about freeing it from Big Airways , Alas this was a turbulent process and not without a few problems.But for those who wanted to embrace change the future was far from turbulent....
OK
It was never going to be a perfect situation when a group of crew whose working patterns were 100% mid haul trips were required to intergrate with existing crew whos working patterns were almost exclusivly short haul. !
Along the way there was bound to be crew who were required to operate a number of short haul flights and as result not fly trips , Conversley there would be crew who would fly trips and be away from base when they prefered to be at home most nights.
There would be crew who lived well outside of the "Callout time" zone who were used to commutting to LHR to operate trips who were having to operate a number of shorthaul trips for whom traveling was going to be be an issue.
And then there would be those crew for whom nothing there new employer did would possibly be right , Rosta patterns,Uniform,T&C's, Salary all would fail to meet there approval.
Many seem to have forgotten just how close to ceasing operations bmed were and with it would have come the resulting loss of jobs etc.
No one was forced, or cohearsed in to joining bmi, A large number of crew seem to have selective vision and hearing where bmi were concerned and seem to have choosen what they wanted to believe was being promised and offered.
I along with an increasing number of bmi crew are getting tired of hearing via on line forums, on board and in the QB how ex bmed crew are out of pocket by coming to work to operate 4 sectors - correct me if im wrong but you are all being paid a salary in addiiton to flight pay. What you really mean is that as you continue to choose to live a non commutable distance from LHR short haul flight pay doesnt cover your travel costs.
At no time did anyone promise or commit to you that you would only operate trips.It was very clear that you would intergrate in to the bmi rosta pattern and that was based on short haul flying.
Im not even going to dignify the complaints about the bmi uniform with mention here - suffice that the uniform has been in circulation for some years and it is common knowledge that it will be replaced next year.
There is certainly no agenda to "Push ex Bmed crew out" yes they are very different companies with different cultures and procedures - but a culture that has ensured the airline has survived nearly 70 years - Its not a perfect company but it is one that has endured the roller coaster ride of aviation over the last 60 odd years and seen many of its competitiors leave the industry.
In the last 7 days I have had spoken to a passanger who had travelled Mid haul and endured 6 hours of ex BMed crew bitching and whining about there new paymaster and indeed they refused the passanger a 2nd wine " Due to bmi cost cutting and the threat of disciplining crew who gave 2nd drinks to passangers " -ERM SINCE WHEN ????.
If your not happy dont take it out on the passangers and dont whine for 6 hours in the hearing of passangers!
I have also spoken to a crew member who has been only line a short while who had recently completed a 5 day trip where both the senior cabin crew and flight deck had spent the entire trip whining and moaning about having to work for bmi .
No one was forced to join bmi and indeed no one is being held here against there will.
Now im neither a management clone or a company clone but im getting a tad bored of the constant mis truths and lies being churned out by a small minority of ex Bmed crew. Some of who joined bmed after bmi aquirred the company !
bmi is not perfect by any means and as with all airlines has its own issues but its far from the depths of hell that the small but vocal ex Bmed minority would like you to believe it is.
Yes things have changed but had they not have changed BMed would not be here today anyway.
