Well at least Basil has finally shown his true colours and brought out his 'engineers earn less than you' line. Well all your arguments apply to them as well Basil. Every now and then someone comes on to this forum and gives us that spiel, so let me remind oyu once again that is is the Professional Pilots Rumour Network. Guests welcome, but if you don't want to discuss pilot things, don't come here. You obviously think most BA pilots (or at least me!) are ignorant, but you are wrong. Contrary to your belief we do 'get it'. You're right, nobody forced a gun to our heads, but if/when we start flexing some industrial muscle for better pay and conditions I bet you'll be the first on here criticising us and accusing us of greed. I'm actually pleased for you that you are in a position where you can do your job for enjoyment alone, it must be very gratifying. The rest of us do it to keep the roof over our heads. Why shouldn't BA pilots expect to be on the first level for pay?
Exactly what example would you like us to lead by? We've already self-financed a redundancy deal for our F/Es, changed rostering rules once again to improve productivity, changed crew rest rules to allow services to continue to a couple of 'hotspots' in the world, introduced new flight planning systems to save millions in fuel costs, reduced and compressed sim checks to save cash, accepted swingeing cuts in Ts & Cs in the regions to pay for new aircraft (theres a novelty, all regional staff fund the companys new aircraft out of own pockets, company takes cash and doesn't produce aircraft), cut crew meals, turned off lifts and escalators to save cash,etc etc. I could go on and on with cost saving initiatives led by flight ops. Or perhaps you mean more touchy-feely lead from the front, being 'senior manager on board' stuff, fostering good CRM with the cabin crew and ground staff, eliminating the stuffy and pompous attitudes of the minority old guard. Do you mean sending all new FOs to different business sections of the company to get an understanding of the operation, or doing the same with new skippers, so that all are better 'on-the-day operations managers' (both initiatives now cancelled of course to save cash), sending pilots to LATCC and LHR tower and bringing ATCOs on famil flights and into the simulators. Tell me, because I really am at a loss to understand, what exactly do you think BA pilots should do before they deserve a raise? (and don't say work harder because a fair chunk of our workforce is finding its roster restricted by CAP371 at the moment). I have absolutely no intention of following you suggestion of 'getting a perspective'. Nobody ever improved their lot by looking down instead of looking up. If the people you consider 'below' me don't like it then they can always have a crack at doing my job. After all, its really easy to get into, and nobodys forcing them to do what they do.
JetGirl- I can't turn a 737 around in 25 mins four times each duty because I don't fly one, and as far as I know Easy and Go guys don't do it either because they only do a max of four sectors in a day. However I can and frequently have turned around an A319 in less than 25 mins four times each duty. The only reason our standard turnaround is 40 mins is because it takes longer to board pax with with preassigned seating, we have to load 126 meals + bars and we have cleaners clean the aircraft properly (yes that means hoovering and under the seat squabs too) instead of getting the cabin crew to have a cursory clean up. If you know of any Easyjet or Go guys who've worked 11 5 sector days in a month in addition to the usual load of 4 sectors with only 10 days off then I'm keen to know how they did it cos our guys were absolutely shagged after that month.