David Paul - everyone has their right to a different opinion, but I believe it deeply unprofessional of you to have written what you did write on this thread behind a pseudonym. I'm glad I don't fly with people like you every day, and it is perhaps worth reminding yourself that as the FO, you are the 2i/c and responsible for motivating the crew and teams around the aircraft every day. I hope your attitude to this is a great deal more positive than the impression you appear to give here.
If you want to leave to Emirates for a command in <5 years (as a handful have left BA), be aware of the grass seeming greener, and the reality of a non-seniority structure, and management who
will fire you with no union representation should you fall afoul of management of make a mistake, the opposite of the no-blame culture promoted within BA. Good luck to you.
There's always a couple who slip through the net during recruitment.
What you dont hear is this: 'A lot of pilots in BA are very unhappy and hate the job / airline / lifestyle'
The truth is that a few (minority of) BA pilots are very vocal on BALPA forums on various topics, but while pay rises have not met RPI since 2008, 99%+ feel extremely fortunate not to be in other European carriers with their contract / industrial / deep financial problems. To a [wo]man, everyone cherishes Bidline and the flexibility to work when they want to work. Beat that at Emirates or easyJet.
I once spent the whole day dissuading a member of crew from applying to this or any other scheme and to not follow a career in aviatipon. He left by saying thanks for ruining my dream.
What a great motivator you must be. Present your arguments with balance. The truth being that all of CTC Wings and the majority of Oxford & Jerez will find a decent starter job with a lo-co, albeit at the cost of c.£110,000.
I have also spent the day with guys who hove spent over £100k mortgaged their parents home and have very little to show for it, who claim that nobody ever warned them, I ask them whether they feel that they should have done more homework and should they shoulder some of the responsibility, they usually feel that the school led them into it...
Yes, they exist. Undeniably. Again, balance is key. The top guys on the courses who perform are all in paid employment with airlines. The stragglers never had a chance and were conned.
Firstly you must look at incentives:
The schools need your money or they will go bust quite quickly
The airlines need cheap first officers
The union needs subs and newbies to pay the old guys their salaries
First two are fine, but your final point is awful. Are you that resentful of the skipper sitting beside you? You really need to grow up and move on - there will always be someone on a better deal than you. If you really resent the skipper, and are a demotivational 2i/c for the rest of the team around you, you are in real danger of ending up on the eternal FO list or worse...
Nobody buy nobody cares about you or your lifestyle, you only need to look at BA mixed fleet cabin crew to see that. I often spend time with these guys too, and they are often crying, catching a coach to glasgow to go home to save £15 on the cost of a stby.
There have always been the Delsey diners, who were too cheap to eat out even on Worldwide contracts - Bidline does care about you and your lifestyle as you are in control of it. Furthermore it, as appears, you are a PP2/3 FO on the Airbus, you won't have been working a huge amount on reserve lines when you first arrived, but were paid full time. If you want a command, bid for GSS or Openskies. If you want longhaul and more time at home, bid 787. If you just want to be a 777 skipper, well suck it up and wait your turn like the rest of us!
MF crew are a pleasure to work with in general - there are always those who are clueless and unrealistic as to where they are living. It's their choice to get a coach instead of s/by. Nobody forced them to live in Glasgow.
Most people become pilots and crew because they 'know instinctively' that thats what they need to do. This is not the case, it will wear off very quickly.
I do not currently know a single person I trained with who doesnt want to get out of flying.
Again, you must be a miserable individual - this is completely the polar opposite of my experience. Maybe it is just you with the problem?
A great many people (myself included) are now considering joining Emirates, this is a last desperate attempt to earn enough monrey to have any kind of lifestyle and a big part of that is that there you may get command quite quickly and be able to move if you have to. As a first officer you are basically worthless in the industry, and only jet command time on something over 50T will really help.
Good. Please leave and I'll progress up the seniority list. My suspicion that you have no patience in life is confirmed. If you want C777 in BA, then just wait your turn like the rest of us. If you want to be a 777 skipper with minimum rest turnarounds in Africa with an Emirati ex-cadet FO who doesn't have any airmanship skills, again, be my guest.
Perhaps you should have remained at easyJet and taken a command with them to get to another airline. On their terms. At a European base. Away from your family & friends.
I'll bide my time at BA thanks.
The only time I recommend this path now is to those who are not particularly gifted academically and whose parents cant help them into a professional career, to these folks the £80 - £100k may be a wise investment in increasing future earnings above what was likely to have been achieved.
For those with any kind of ability whatsoever almost any other professional path would be better.
Doing a job you love to do is the best advice you can give to anyone. If you don't love your job, please resign and stop bed-blocking my command.
This path will lead to a poor lifestyle, low earnings and a very disrupted life in general. Please also consider that the older pilots in any airline will also want you to join as they recognise that you are needed to keep the show on the road to pay their salaries.
That is how a seniority system works. Perhaps you need to read about deferred gratification and the Stanford Marshmallow experiment on children and its determination of development?
Delayed gratification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New entrant pilots into BA can expect that throughout their entire career (job is a better word) they will have low pay and very poor prospects for command.
The recent BALPA letter highlights how dire the promotional prospects are.
Make no mistake, you need to be a captain in todays aviation world and in that respect you are far far better off joining easyJet / Ryanair or a ME carrier. Though as I say the best bet is to stay flying as a PPL and forget becoming a commercial pilot.
The detailed letter simply works through the retirements so you could guess-timate a time to command - if you join a seniority structure in a 40 year career, an average 20 year to command is a logical outcome.
Did you perhaps not do
your research before you joined BA, just as you chastise those self-sponsored in the FTOs?
Somewhat ironic eh?
Everyone else - good luck with the application!