Interesting Homer.
Is this a wind-up, I wonder? Hmmm. I have heard a similar rumour but it involved RJ FO's. Believe me it's really doing the rounds; they're mostly elated. I have also heard that there are one or two skippers who actually bid for the rhs aspirationally. I nearly did myself, because when the accounts were done I probably would only have been about £500.00 worse off (taking into account lower tax and increased allowances probably about on par with a shorthaul captain's at LGW). For me there were a few unresolved issues about the way it would be handled, too numerous and boring to expand on here.
The story doing the rounds at the moment is that one of our FO's actually rang (is it JH?) the chap who deals with it and was told that on the initial run all the RJ FO's had been awarded their initial bid. In the majority of the cases this was for 777 and 747 but as we all know (or think we know!) there is no room on the twin.
I immediately got to thinking that it sounds pretty ludicrous to suggest that the FO's have got their bids but no mention of the skippers. Maybe because the ringer was an FO himself and the skippers' plight wasn't entered into, who knows?. Still, one thing is for sure, they can't deplete the fleet of FO's without removing skippers at the same time. This particular FO is a little prone to his flights of fancy and I wouldn't put it past him to be a little overzealous in his interpretation of what he heard.
In any case, and please correct me if I'm wrong, don't they do various dry runs on this before the definitive article is published? Often, I hear, bearing litlle resemblance to the original run.
Interestingly enough Balpa did mention that BA are considering buying up to 20 new 747s in the next few years. They are cautious in the present climate and so it's not rubber stamped yet. If they go ahead with it then I guess it's the movement fleet.
A couple of points, Tandem:
Firstly, unless this particular fleet is still overrun by the proverbial 'Atlantic Baron', then I don't fully understand your comment about CRM.
Secondly, it does make me laugh when some of our more naive youngsters and prostate sufferers alike dream of going long-haul and living the expat life. I don't think some of them understand that their premature ejaculation off the RJ and into their dream fleet, is also going to mean the drudgery of being at the bottom of that fleet's seniority for quite some years to come as those presently frozen, and more senior, pilots join at a later date.
I seem to be one of the few who does realise it and am willing to accept my lot if I should be lucky enough to be put on it. In fact, I can even come up with a bright side to it all: I won't have to fly with the Atlantic Barons of old because they get all the plum trips which I won't be on.