Diplome,
That's a really hard question and one you'll probably regret asking! I'll try to answer but this is only from my experience as crew, both in a charter airline that has operated a mixed flying programme for years and at BA, which has come to the party relatively recently. (I'm not included the earlier mixed fleet at LHR as they would have had different T&C's of which I know nothing about.) I also have no experience in flight ops or scheduling so there may be factors I know nothing about!
Is there a perceived benefit to the way BA is rostering now?
In my point of view, no. There may be initially as at LGW, they are certainly utilising the cabin crew to the max but it's all in a bit of a haphazard fashion. We jump around all over the place between earlies, lates and long haul. There's no rhythm, if that makes sense. We also jump around from aircraft to aircraft (bare in mind we are checked out on 3 types, with 7 variants. 737-400, A318, A319, A320, A321 and 777, 777 ER) We generally have 2 days off after long haul but can also do 6 days on short haul and only 1 day off on the end. The minimum days off in a month are 9, unless you take leave. Then the minimum days off will drop, depending on how many leave days you take. And finally, they also mix short haul and long haul in the same run. So like I say, in BA's eyes, it's great as we really are utilised to the full.
On the downside, we are tired. Very tired. And sickly too. The majority of crew are somewhere in the sickness policy process although I have managed to get out of it for now. We never get time to re-adjust. And because of the constant swapping around of flight and cabin crews, we rarely get to settle into a routine with a particular crew. I dread to think of the number of times that someone has asked me for the Captains name and I have had to shamefacedly reply, "Erm...Bob?...Fred?...George?...Chuck?...No, hang on I've got it. It's Susan!" That's awful but over a quick 2 day 6, that's the way it becomes. I know them but can't remember who's on what sector. And once we've figured out who the pilots are, we have to get to grips with what aircraft we're on. Over 7 sectors and 3 days, we can operate 737, 737, A319, 737, A319, A319, 777. It gets to the point that if another crew member asks for ice, you reply "No problem. It's over there...no it's not, it's down there...or up there...I don't know!
(We do make sure we know where the important stuff is on each flight. It's the little stuff that leave us scratching our heads!)
Luckily, as LGW is a small base and we obviously have all of the best pilots and cabin crew down here, it's not as bad as it could be!
I think what I'm trying to explain with that long, weary and unintended whinge fest is that while this type of rostering may pay off in the short term, in the long term, I feel they are burning us out. In my previous airline, we were worked hard but in a more structured way that gave as a chance to adjust to each change of routine. Then again, they'd had many years of practice to get it right and we had a union that knew when to stand strong and when to give a bit back.
With BA, it feels like they haven't thought through how some of the scheduling agreements actually work in practice. Sadly, here we don't have the sort of mature representation that will sit with management and have a sensible, constructive discussion on what is and what isn't working, so as far as the management are concerned, everything is tickety boo. How long we can carry on like this, I don't know.
Does that make any sense?