Craggenmore,
Whilst I agree with you penny pinching dross idea I have to say that comparing BA to EZY based purely on flying hours is a little wide of the mark.
Certainly one can't compare 850 hours per year on the 777 to 800 a year on SH Airbus. Also bear in mind that the hours flown are credited flying hours using a minimum block time for short trips to say Manchester where the minimum credited block will be 4:30 and you start to see where the 800-850 hours comes from. Any company would not be pulling its weight if they under utilised an expensive asset such as pilots. Add to that the flexibility of the Heathrow Bidline system and the roster compilation becomes your own.
This is why seniority becomes king in BA. The higher your seniority is dictates which of the lines of work you bid for comes your way. If you bid for all day trips with all weekends off then, if you are senior enough, you will get them. The roster is rock stable and, if required, you can trip swop or drop trips. If you move fleet from SH to LH you take your seniority with you and hence your bidding position.
Also hours flown on the 777/747 are factored in a totally different way to SH. The pay is higher as the achieved 'sectors' doesn't deliver the same bonus as on SH. Also there are alot of 'heavy' crew where half of the flight is in the bunk. Alot of flight crew take their other half with them and, in many cases with my friends, their wife writes the bid for them choosing the places to go and visit.
Hotels in BA are run by a seperate department. All the flight crew hotels both SH and LH are in the city. There are no airport hotels. Night stops can be in any of the major capitals of Europe and world wide. Crew transport is clean and reliable and the social aspect,even on SH, is generally excellent.
To sum up. You can be home every night if you wish to be. It does sometimes take time to climb the list but the effort is worth it. SH can be a tourist tour of Europe. Socialising is always to the individuals taste, there may be many who wish to stay in the hotels. But above all in BA seniority is KING. Start building it as soon as you can and it will follow you through the company dictating the path of your career.
W2P
Fingers hurt now from the typing
