How is it on BA Mixed Fleet, are you enjoying it?

[Betty girl]

I don't think it is fair to have a go at Young Paul for pointing out some things that obviously upset his friend.

The lack of a breakfast allowance is bound to upset M/F crew as at LGW, the crew there, who are also on an hourly rate, do receive it at some destinations and as mentioned by Young Paul, many low cost airlines provide breakfast to their crews when night stopping and this is what he is comparing things with. However I think that the new revised M/F pay scales are higher that those at LGW. The LGW crew do however do longer trips though and therefore clock up higher allowances in general but don't receive the quarterly bonus that M/F crew can benefit from if they hit their targets..

One of the problems you get when salaries are low and crew rely on other payments to make up their wages (and this is the same for all the fleets) is that your end wage is very dependant on the type of roster you achieve! Some M/F crew are probably taking home an ok wage some months but in other months when they don't achieve such a good roster, I expect the money can be tight. This also happens on WW and E/F but as our basic salaries are often higher it is not so critical, however those E/F and WW crew on post 97 contracts can also suffer from low wages if they do not get a good roster or have a lot of leave but the situation is probably more critical on M/F. Of course as mentioned by many on here, there are other people on the aircraft also receiving an hourly rate but of course they have the benefit of a very high basic salary and unlike cabin crew are not reliant on bringing some of these allowances home, so some sympathy for Young Paul's observations would not go amiss.

When we had the 737 at LHR, we were allowed to hold load our bags but that is because it is a bulk loaded aircraft and does not have containers and it was also prior to the liquid restrictions. Even if the Airbus and the 767 were bulk loaded, which they are not, it would not be feasible for BA to organise for us to check our bags in at the long haul crew check-in area and have the extra costs of loading our bags, like they do for crew on long haul flights. As we take our bags to the aircraft we have to go through security, so even if we could load them in the hold, we would still not be allowed extra liquids!!
I personally have not found it a problem as you can buy small bottles of most products nowadays.

It is sad that M/F crew have these, often, tiring rosters but that is why BA set this fleet up, to save them money. I personally have said all along that the wages were too low and I was glad when they were raised.

I do however think that you have a right to say how you see it without being accused of being a troll. That is after all what this thread was set up for, so thank you for explaining how it is for your friend.