Originally Posted by
FlipFlapFlop
Interesting question from a BA pilot. I am in the hold pool for now but will probably stay orange what ever happens.
With the risk of a bit of thread creep; Over the last few years we had quiet a few new joiners joining Shorthaul or directly onto Longhaul. Most had 1000's of hours and it was just luck of the draw on which fleet you would join.
The direct entry LH joiners are at the bottom of their fleet seniority list an will work mostly blind lines and therefor weekends, because they are less then 5 years in the company (unlike most their LH fleet colleagues) they do more reserve periods as well. They will stay at the bottom for a long period (4-5 years) as people who are more senior move onto their fleet above them. They do have the benefit of joining LH and having a relatively easier roster with more days off.
The FPP and direct entry SH joiners on the other hand are screaming up the fleet seniority list by almost 30% a year and are therefor getting relatively quickly senior on their fleet. With the seniority comes that their bidding power increases and they do get the lines of work they bid for, two years in and you could for example easily get 2 weekends off. The downside of SH is the busy rosters, multi sector days in and out of LHR and generally fewer days off each month then the LH fleets.
Then we had commands go very junior last year. A lot couldn't resist the left seat. But by doing so they joined at the bottom of the fleet seniority list and most likely will stay at the bottom for a very long time (10 years) (unless they decide to move seat again). By being at the bottom of the P1 fleet seniority list you will work only blind lines with lots of weekends and Time Assignable, also since the lines are less efficient your flight and duty pay aren't as high resulting in the pay increase from the RHS to the LHS being not that big.
Overall the beauty is you can adjust your work and career to suit your needs. It's all about choices and every option has got some good bits and some bad bits and you have to choose what best suits you. You just can't have it all (unless you are number 1 on the seniority list).