BA LGW Recruitment

[bunnygirl]

Very strong rumours at the moment from within BA, that they are about to announce a recruitment drive, for LGW short haul (Eurofleet)

It will be for LGW short haul ONLY. As all new entrants will start at LGW, and will be able to transfer (on seniority) to other fleets after 2 years service. LGW Eurofleet is very short staffed at the moment, and many crew are waiting to transfer to LHR Eurofleet, hence the recruitment.

Apparently, it will be announced later on this week..will keep you all posted, watch this space...!!

[YYC F/A]

Hi bunnygirl...

If I remember correctly, BA 'EuroGatwick' is a seperate contract with different work rules and different payscales from LHR Eurofleet - is that still the same?

I applied (way back when, about 4 years ago) for EuroGatwick but ended up being hired for bmi at LHR which was my preferred base. At the time there was no 'through-flow' from EuroGatwick to LHR Eurofleet, but I gather that has changed now...?

Now that Eurofleet LHR has a new form of 'bidding' for rosters, does the same apply at LGW? Can you bid for days off / days on? I know some friends of mine at LHR Eurofleet were able to commute and lived in Spain as they could block up to 7 or 8 days off in a row at least once a month... can you do the same at LGW?

Any info on the pay / rosters is appreciated!

If BA do recruit, good luck to all that apply!

[Shadowpurser]

Hi YYC F/A I'll answer your questions for you.

1. a)The payscale is different in the way you get payed allowances - at EFLGW we get and hourly rate at SHLHR they are on the payment scheme which is based on the destination and time of day you work and turnaround times etc etc. HOWEVER the taxman is investigating this rather outdated system and it would seem enevitable that cabin crew on all fleets will see the end of the payment system and go onto an hourly rate. The pilots have already done it and it is the way the company wants to go, so it will happen at some point.

b) The working rules are different as well and we do not have things quite as sweet as our fellow workers at LHR but it's not too different.

2. There is a throughflow to SHLHR now and over the past 2 years we have seen around 200 crew transfer - it used to be 50 per year - but it's all down to opperational requirements so if they need more they send more.

3. We do have the same bidding system as EFLGW as EFLGW have. It was in fact introduced at EFLGW first where bugs etc etc we ironed out (although it's still not perfect). It enables you to bid using a points priority system for destinations - nightstops - trips - leave - days off - or a general lifestyle. There are no guarantees at it works on seniority, so if your at the top of the pile you should (I emphasise should) get 80% of what you ask for. New entrants should get 40% of what they ask for, but it all depends what you bid for. Also it's a bit more complicated than this but I'm not going to go into it.

With refference to your friend who commutes with 7 - 8 days off. That kind if time off period every month only comes with a 75% contract which gives you a week off every month, and you can get days on tagged onto this period either side which can give you a nice little period away from work. HOWEVER 75% contracts are not being handed out at the moment (and to be honest I wouldn't hold your breath for any either), they were freely available after 9/11 but now we are short of crew and the waiting list is still pretty long as it is such a fantastic contract to have.

3. The big question - PAY

Pay is ok - as a junior your basic will start at £8500. Add to this allowances and commission etc etc, and your probably looking at taking home £1000 - £1200 p.m. average.

After 2 years you can apply for Purser where you basic goes up to £12,200 plus allowances. With a take home of £1200 - £1400 average.

This is all academic and depending on rosters - time off - holiday - etc etc.

There is NO MORE FINAL SALARY PENSION SCHEME FOR NEW ENTRANTS so you'll have to do your own thing for that now.

4. Rosters

There are loads of nightstops at EFLGW so if you want to be away there is loads of opportunity. But ifyou want to be at home...well you can bid for that too. I'll use myslf as an example - I bid of ATH (which is a there and back) and finishes before 6p.m. (so I can play football) and I got 4 ATH and 3 nightstops (all finishing before 6pm). BUT you get at least 1 block of standbys every month and you get easily get more nights away on those.

It all depends on how you bid and how senior you are.

A few extra points so you have the full picture as well:

One of the points you brought up was transfers. It has been a big issue in the past and on other fleets as well, so the company gas changed the way it will recruit cabin crew. As of this year - THERE IS NO MORE DIRECT RECRUITMENT TO LONG HAUL OR EFLHR. All new crew will come through EFLGW and then (if they want) go to EFLHR then LHLHR/LGW if they wish. SO if Longhaul LHR is your goal, your looking at a long wait indeed as the list to go there from SHLHR is looooooong.

Looking at current lists and the way things are moving I reckon it's going to take any new entrant at least 3 yrs before they even get the opportunity to transfer to LHR - so be under no illusions.

AT THE MOMENT (things may change - but it is gonna be a while yet) If you do transfer LHR you will loose any seniority go to the bottom of the mainline cabin crew pile and your basic will go back to £8,500 as you are joining a different company in effect!! NOW I KNOW THIS SUCKS and those reading must be thinking what is he on about, but that is the way it is at the moment. Things may change in the future - but again - don't hold your breath. I've been here 5 1/2 years and big wheels move slowly! But it will all change at some point - could be another 5 years - but it will change.

BA is a good company to work for. It does get slated by some and it is BIG, so you can feel like just a number. BUT you do stay in nice places and nice hotels, and the back up you do get if things go pear shaped is great. It's also heavily unionised so you always have them looking after your interests as well.

EFLGW is a very young fleet and it is well know we have lots of fun! (more than the other fleets at least) So if its nights out downroute you want then this is where it's at! We do work hard - but we play hard too!

It's also a smaller base - so it's easy to make friends and get on with everyone. You'll be seeing people you know all the time after the first week and you feel at home very quickly and have made friends with half the fleet after your first year. Which is probably one of the great things about the job as it's a little family type atmosphere.

Opportunities to move around insdie BA are huge when things are going well. You can apply for training or sellection when positions become available, as well as ad's in the BA news such as management opportunites - medical training - or ground staff.

Well there you have it.

I'm sure I've missed stuff - and if there is anything i have got wrong then please feel free to correct me or add anything.

Oh.....

And anyone who is successful might be trained by me!!!

MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!:E

Good luck all - Hope to see you on-line soon.

[bunnygirl]

Totally agree with all that Shadow says above...sorry I didn't reply...was on a trip (SP..you can have any ATH that I get....:ok: )

Eurofleet LGW is a great base to work out of, and it will really give you a grounding for anything you might want to do in the future. Its very friendly, and as Shadow says, you work VERY hard, but we certainly do play VERY hard as well.

Good luck to anyone who applies...will keep you all posted as to when the recruitment campaign is announced;)

[Mattuk]

Sorry to sound so much like the wannabe i am, but how much choice do you get when your base is being selected?

thanks

[Shadowpurser]

If you read my reply you'll find there will ONLY be recruitment into EFLGW from now on. There is no more direct recruitment into BA at LHR or LHLGW.

The only way into BA mainline (dunno about MAN base but I suspect the deal to be the same) is through EFLGW. THis ensures a steady transfer of crew from all fleets keeping people happy. Also at the moment means the company keeps costs down as your basic goes down when you transfer to LHR, but in the greater scheme of things you end up earning the same.

You'll never work harder at BA than at EFLGW as bunny has said, but it will give you a good grounding for the other fleets and we will train you in the ways of partying and having fun. :}

[Disko Biscuit]

When BA do start to recruit for EFLGW do they generally only take on crew with previous experience?

Thanks

[bunnygirl]

Not at all, all types of experience are taken into account when recruiting . It is not necessary to having previous flying experience....

[YYC F/A]

Thanks Shadow Purser and BunnyGirl for all the info!

There's nothing on the recruitment website at the moment, but I'll keep an eye out.

SP - was kinda surprised that the total monthly pay INCLUDING all allowances is £1000-£1200, I know that at EuroFleet crew sometimes can sign up for overtime and it really bumps the pay up, are their similar opps in LGW?

Oh, and one last question. EuroGatwick used to be 737 and 757, now that CitiFlyer is merged in, how does that work? Do EuroGatwick crews fly on the Regional Jets too?

Thanks, and Safe Flying!

[bunnygirl]

You can opt to work on a rest day, but that is subject to still having the correct amount of days off. And it only happens when they are REALLY short of crew. Oh, and you do get overtime after working 10.5 hours in a duty period...but again most duties are rostered well within this now. You would generally only get overtime after a delay etc....

Currently the fleet at LGW consists of Boeing 737-300/400/500's and about 4 ATR 72s (But the ATRs will have gone from the fleet by end of September). There are no RJ 100's at LGW now (BHX and MAN have them all!) And it is expected that the 737's will be replaced eventually, by the Airbus 319..latest is that is due to appear at aNorth Terminal stand near you, from next year.....

Hope the above helps...PM me if you need any further info

[Shadowpurser]

Wow you've got all the questions!!

We fly on 737 300/400/500 and ATR turboprop aircraft.

All ATR should be gone by the end of the year. All RJ's have gone to MAN base .

As for only earning £1000 - £1200 average, I think you'll find the amount of work you do for that money compared to your average charter outfit very easy.

Your friend at EFLHR may give you stories of earnings of around £1500 - £2000. But that is at LHR and you'll find a lot of people on older contacts with much higher basic pay (before JAN 97 starting basic was £12,500!!), but that's all long gone never to return. Plus the allowance system at LHR means you can earn more money depending on times and destinations.

BUT earnings depend on rosters, and a friend of mine who transfered to LHR recently brought home £1100 for a full months work with no leave and usual days off - just all his trip were worth nothing in allowances. So it's not thee land of milk and honey you might have heard it is.

And for all those reading this a final thought -

The golden days of flying are over! Don't expect to get a job with BA as cabin crew and be rich. If you read the thread in this forum on easyjet at LGW you can earn as much if not more working for them...it's just you'll probably work a lot harder and not have loads of nightstops.

If it's longhaul BA you want (and believe me you'll be at the end of a very looooooong queue - with me at the front) where the earning potential is a lot better than shorthaul (especially at the holygrail LHLHR - then your gonna have to do your time on the breadline at shorthaul like the rest of us.

May sound harsh but it's the way it is. The longer you spend in the company the more you earn - simple as that, and this way no-one gets pissed off any more (as was happening at EFLGW a few years ago).

Phew - any more questions?

Ahhh see bunny beat me to it!!!

Hey bunny you out in Bar Med tonight?:ok:

I'm going later to sample the local ales - might even bust a few moves on the dancefloor:uhoh:

[Xtra Crew]

Where do you fly to from LGW as every time more and more BA-flts are being operated by one of its franchise partners (eg. GBAir, BMed, ...).

How many nights per month can you spend away nightstopping if you bid so.

In which cities do you get your nightstops?
Is it just a very late arrival at night and then very early in the morning you fly back or do you sometimes get a morning or an afternoon off at destination?

Thans for answering! X-Crew

[Shadowpurser]

At the moment at EFLGW we nightstop in (you'll have to look up the codes) PSA - NAP - BLQ - VCE - MAD - BCN - CDG - MRS - AMS - EDI - ABZ - GLA - NCL - JER - MAN - TLS - MUC - HAN - GVA

We do there and backs to (will put a * by destinations we have nightstopped at due to different timetable or charter ops) DUB* - GOA* - VRN* - FCO* - BOD - NCE - KRK - BIO - ATH - FRA - LUX - BRU - MJV - FSC - ALC - PRN - CAG - PMI - AHO - AGP - DBV - BIA - EFL - FAO

As you see we are doing a lot more charter ops but they are all good fun and make a nice change to scheduled stuff.

There are early and late nightstops at each destination. Sometimes is only get minimum rest (about 12 hours) sometimes more - I had a NAP this month where I got there at 11am and left at 5am next morning. There is also a BCN where you get there at 10pm and leave at 3pm next day. But be sure that not all trips are this nice and lots of them have 2 sectors tagged on the end of them.

As for how many you get - well that depends on your bid and your seniority.

If you bid for BCN which is popular then you might not get many - but if you bid for TLS which is not very popular then you might get quite a few. I'm not going to go into the nuances of bidding as it's too complicated but I would say if you want to be away you can get about max of 8-9 a month maybe even a few more.

I don't bid for them and I got 3 - you can also pick up more nightstops off of standbys as well.

I think that covers it all.:ok:

[bunnygirl]

Dont forget the delights of BRE (Bremen) as well, famous for its beer, beer and MORE beer..how could you forget that one SP!!::\

[Shadowpurser]

AHHH you got me there! Probably coz I got all the code off crewlink and I'm not ATR trained.

Never mind when all those ATR's are gone I shall be sampling the local ales there too!!

Oh yeah!!!! 200 points BRE nightstops!!!

[Xtra Crew]

hi shadowpurser,
many thanks for your detailed information on ba´s destinations ex lgw.
as there and back´s you include ALC, but i always thought that ALC was operated by GBairways (or is there more than one alc flt, one operated by GB and the other one by BA?)
Saludos de ALC!
X-Crew