having even a little influence over rostering is still more than that enjoyed by those of us here in loco-land (nil)
Fair enough. But just for info we are now seeing instances of people having work assigned (i.e. added) to their rosters prior to final publication, despite them them already successfully bid to work over the monthly target (CAP). In one extreme case on the 744 last month an individual was assigned extra work into a gap on his line despite having already bid to achieve almost 100 hours, and similar has happened on the 380 this month. It is also possible, now, for the company to remove work from your line and then add trip(s) to improve your efficiency. This was possibly a price worth paying to avoid being drafted at the aircraft side on arrival for a duty the next day but it's still a major, major change, hence my warning about not taking too much notice of those now outside BA who still paint a rosy picture of Bidline. Fundamentally now, outside of leave, it's pretty much impossible for an individual to protect or predict specific days off in a month (we don't have a fixed pattern of days on/days off).
Just to be clear I'm not looking for sympathy (I know where to find that in the dictionary, thanks ) and I accept that's probably what you guys are used to in the LoCos, especially if you don't work to a fixed pattern, I'm just pointing we are all headed for being in the same boat.....don't join BA because of the rostering system...some who can are thinking of leaving because of it.