Re: BMI- British Midland

[Cabin Pressure89]

Applying for a job as crew with them.

Is take home pay good?
Promotion to Purser?
Many night stops?

Any info would be great applying for LHR base!

Thanx

[YYC F/A]

Hi Cabin Pressure,

I flew for bmi for about 3 years, both as cabin crew and as a flight supervisor.

The best thing about bmi is the people you work with, friendly, outgoing, and truly professional, I sometimes wonder if I'll ever find another work environment that could live up to that.

The flip side is that traditionally bmi crew work very hard, and while the take home pay is reasonable, opportunities for pay raises and other benefits for length of service are lacking. This tends to lead to many crew staying at bmi for only a year or two, then either moving to another airline (notably BA, Air New Zealand or Virgin - i.e. the change of longhaul), or people leaving the industry altogether.

Take home pay is VERY dependant on your flying schedule. I remember one month, my schedule was: 5 day trip to Rome, 2 days off, 5 day trip to Munich, 2 days off, 5 day trip flying BHX - FRA, 2 days off, and 5 day trip to Hamburg, 2 days off. Not much time off, and A LOT of time away, but this meant AWESOME flight pay, much of it tax free, which can easily mean you take home about £1500 a month or more after tax.

Unfortunately, it has to be said that things seem to have changed. All the german flying on behalf of Lufthansa seems to have stopped, along with the night-stops. Likewise, night-stops in BCN, MAD, FCO have all but evaporated. Bases at MME, EDI, GLA, DUB etc means very little night-stopping at those bases, and to be honest with you a typical roster nowadays seems to be 5 on 2 off, and of the 5 on, most of those days are either Airport Standby (0600 start) or a 4 sector 'early dublin' or 'late belfast'. Without the nightstops, and with a lot of standbys, you can be looking at taking home a lot less, closer to £900 - £1000 a month after tax, or even lower.

I've been thinking about returning to the UK, and had the time of my life at bmi, and overall felt they were a great company to work for. I just wish they did long-haul out of LHR - I would be back in a flash. Personally though, 5 on 2 off shorthaul does not work for me right now, otherwise I would def go back to bmi.

If you want a job flying for a respected carrier, doing mostly 'day turns', being home each night, earning reasonable money, and with good chances for promotion, all of which looks great on the CV - then bmi is the place to be.

If you want to 'travel the world', enjoy lots of night-stops, or have more than 2 or 3 days off at a time, maybe not so hot.

On one final note, bmi's staff travel policy is one of the best in the industy. VS go on about their '7 free flights a year', and it is true that at bmi you only get 1 free roundtrip flight a year to start. But, it is offered as a roundtrip ticket anywhere on the network, for both you the employee, and your companion, and your family. After a certain length of service, you also get free 'confirmed' tickets. Better still, at bmi you get star alliance benefits which are ridicuously cheap. bmi employees can fly on Air Canada, Lufthansa, SAS, Thai airways etc. for a lot less than BA employees pay to fly on their own airline, so it has to be said that the staff travel rocks. If only you had the time off to enjoy it!

Good luck, all in all I loved bmi, and I hope you make a decision that is right for you!

S

[Cabin Pressure89]

Thanks so much, great help.
I work for VS at the mo and money is pants 750 pounds after tax!!!
But the grass does always look greener x

[flymeagain]

another thing that bmi has an advantage is the amount of holiday you get, I've never had so much!!! I worked out I ended up with eight weeks last year!
I've been with bmi for seven years now and i'm still happy. I was at LHR for 5yrs (hard work) but been doing longhaul since it started out of Man. O.K. we might only have on ly the two routes, but the crew are great, lots of time off and the monies great. I take home £1,600 on average a month for doing 4 trips!! think that might be better than B.A.
If you apply to bmi though don't expect to go straight onto Longhaul. theres a big queue!! evan flight supervisors taking demotion to be on it.
LHR is hard work its either 6 on 3 off or 5on 2 off. But you can request days off together at the end and begining of your roster so that you can finish on an early have 4 days off then start on a late, so you can use those consessions (which are fantastic).
The best thing about bmi are the people you work with. Its not like it used to be, but you get to know people easily, its very relaxed and easy going and I had a great laugh at LHR. I'm sure that longhauls gona come to LHR soon, in which case the money will be great as there will be london weighting to be added on to that (approx £220 p.m.).
if you got any more questions, just ask.

[Cabin Pressure89]

Thanx guys great help!

So about 1600 take home at LHR!?

Do you get many night stops at LhR??

Sounds fun, will pop the application in the post!!

[YYC F/A]

Hi Cabin Pressure,

£1600 is NOT what you would take home at LHR, certainly not on shorthaul. Flymeagain is getting the 7 year payscale up in MAN on Longhaul, the allowances and pay structure for longhaul mean that the guys up their get paid more than the guys at LHR. Sometimes it seems a bit unfair, especially given the costs of living in MAN vis a vis the cost of living in London. Also, on shorthaul, it can be very tiring and hard work doing 4 sector earlies 5 days on a row - thats 20 flights with just 2 days off, and on longhaul they do 2 flights a week average!

But that's the way it is, so yes it's great fun and a good professional place to work, but as a new crew member at LHR your pay would be much more like £900 - £1000 a month take home, or even less if you get a lot of home standbys that you don't get called out for. And as I said before, a lot of the nightstops are gone, and a LOT of crew list themselves as 'max nightstops', so their is never enough to go around sometimes. My last few rosters before I left would only have an average of 1 or 2 nightstops a month, which means much lower flight pay and lower take home.

If you get Flight Supervisor at LHR, your pay scale goes up, a typical Flt Sup will take home between £1000 - £1300 a month depending on flying and nightstops.

[flymeagain]

YYC F/A is quite correct, I am on a higher payscale at MAN! only goes to show that the company (sometimes)values experiance.
While I was at LHR before going to do the L/H at man my take home was about 1,250 on average inc all allowances as the lowest grade flt supervisor.
Basically its pay v lifestyle. I recently saw one of our girls who now flies for virgin and commutes from Man. She looked rough and tired and wished she hadn't made the move, said she was overworked and being paid peanuts for it. As everyone says, the grass is not greener on the other side, but then if you don't try it youll never know. but the bmi lifestyle may not be for you!! I love it personally and have made great friends over the years.
Maybe your just getting itchy feet at V.S. What about going for promotion? would that not be more pay and make the job more interesting??

[Cabin Pressure89]

Is promotion quick?
Is interview hard?

Sorry about the blunt questions, just running late for work, off to LAX