crew rest seats

[Fellowship of the drink]

fellow long haul pilots. .. . I would like to know if airlines operating long haul routes with double crew do provide crew rest seats in addition to crew rest bunks for their pilots and what class they are located in? . .. . Currently we have seats blocked off in business class. however rumours have surfaced that the seats will no longer be available in business class as the company is upgrading to newer space beds. These beds take up more room and thus less business class seats are available to the paying public. Instead the company will block seats in economy for crew rest (in addition to the crew bunk). . .. . Is this fair ? or are we overreacting. By the way I work for a major asian airline and I just want opinions from the other side of the globe. . .. . The Lord of the drink

[KC-10 Driver]

Until recently (I was furloughed 3 months ago), I worked for US Airways, and flew the 767-200ER for a time. My schedule was mostly trans-Atlantic, and our crew rest seat was in business class (we had 2-class service on that equipment). These seats were comfortable, but were definitely not fully reclining.. .. .We didn't have a full second crew, but only a type-rated additional First Officer (usually me) serving as International Relief Officer.. .. .As I understand, US Airways' A330 (with 3-class service) also had the rest seat in business class. As in the 767, these seats are not fully reclining.. .. .By the way, I recently interviewed with Southwest Airlines. So, if I get that job, I guess I won't have to worry about crew rest facilities! Wish me luck.

[ETOPS]

BA 777 on longrange heavy crew Flts have Club World rest seats in addition to the Bunks. On those aircraft that have been upgraded the Club world seats turn into beds. In general the Dispatcher will be faced with overbooking in that cabin so quite often will be happy to block off a First seat in exchange. Having said that most guys seem to go straight to the bunk. On the 747-400 it's a little different as First is downstairs and the Club seats just aft of the flight deck door have an obvious security advantage.........

[BusBoy]

On a certain UK Charter Operation the relief / Heavy crew sit on the flight deck jump seats when resting.

At least you have a seat somewhere and have a fighting chance of getting rest.

[Track]

On the B737-800 we often fly services with heavy crew, mostly on our 14+ hour days. Our resting facilities consist of two rows (nr 5 and 6 ) of non reclining cattle class seats that we have to share with two cabin-crew (this always ends up in a discussion as to who can have one row to himself). A curtain "seperates" us from the passengers. If you're over 1.8 mtrs in length you can forget about sitting comfortably, let alone sleeping, consequently most of us prefer the cockpit jumpseat (737!!). As we operate a one-class service our union has tried to get us some decent (businessclass)seats but as yet to no avail.:mad:

Anyone know if there are more 737 operators doing the same?

-------Track

[Roadtrip]

14+ hour days in a 737 with rest in a coach seat? Crew rest in a cockpit jumpseat?? That sounds perilously close to unsafe. Good Lord, what kind of labor contract do you all have?

[Track]

Roadtrip,according crew duty regulations (the law), with heavy crew we can stretch this to a maximum of 19(!) hours. Most of us stick to the normal duty limititions though (still 16hrs depending on reporting time) despite being scheduled with heavy crew.

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Track

[3holer]

Varig on its long haul flights (B777,MD-11,B767) uses either a double crew (2 Capts and 2 F/Os) or an agumented crew (2 Capts and 1 F/O). Our crew duty time regulations says that crew bunks are to be provided on both cases mentioned above, no addition seats in whatever class is provided though.

[DouglasFlyer]

Good morning!

In Swissair/Swiss MD-11's we use part and (eventually) full augmented crews (1 CMD & 2 F/Os or 1 CMD & 3 F/Os).

We have crew-bunk with two separated beds mounted in the ceiling (hatrack-area) of the foremost part of the business-class accessible with a fix-mounted stair. Two business-class seats are availiable to the crew, adjacent to the bunk (7H, 7J) and separated with a curtain from the pax.

I wonder what comes with the newly ordered A340-300's? :rolleyes:

Does anybody have experience with bunks/rests on the A340's?

Have a nice day!