Lost For Words - Re. working out your seniority at retirement .... Easybid (mainline bid program) will draw you a graph of your seniority against years.
Or their are plenty of bar graphs of the number of retirements floating around to work it out from.
Dora - I heard from the person in charge of fleet promotions/bids that BA will recruit DEP's towards the end of 2003 or early 2004, and direct onto long haul fleets with priority to type rated people (777 744).
Beware of what they offer you at interview - I was told long haul fleets, ended up in a holding pool for 2 years, reinterviewed after 1.5 years, took the first thing they offered which was Airbus, am now fleet frozen for 5 years on an expanding fleet with no chance of long haul if they recruit DEP (like I was) direct onto long haul .... aaaaahhh !
Its number on the list at BA that counts, take the first thing they offer assuming it has wings (although a midland capt. friend of mine taken on as a DEP spent his 1st 6 months on 'printer duty' at checkin area straight after 911 ).
Lost for words - Yeah, Carmen system at LGW is maybe a less totatly seniority driven system to mainline bidline .....