I think the 4 year type freeze is for those who bid to go to the aeroplane. It may not apply to S/Os allocated to it. I'd need to double check that in the EA.
Sandy, yep. Day 1 lottery again. S/Os will start in June, July, August, September, etc on the A330 while crew senior to them will be on the 787. It won't make too much of a difference in the first two years. It sure as heck does after that.I tried to warn them they were going to continue the day 1 lottery.
If someone starts on the 787 in May I suspect they'll train on it and 'check to line' the same as anyone else- probably in the back of a JQ aeroplane with a JQ TRE or CAT and a QF TRE or CAT doing the flying so I don't reckon they'll stay on TSO pay until the jet arrives months later.
If you do the maths it sort of makes sense with starting the courses in May. When the first 787 departs on it's service the second 787 will have arrived. Thus they'll need 30-40 S/Os ready to go by early December. They can't train them all at once and will need some lead time. So if your last S/Os finish early December you need to have started them 3 1/2 months prior to that. That makes it the beginning of September for them, a month earlier for the previous 8 (August) to take us to 16, July course take us to 24, June course for 32, May course for 40 S/Os by December.
Of course, what do you do with the S/Os who check out in late August/ early Sep? I dunno. time will tell I guess.