Tfly. LGW. i´ve been called out on every single standby!!!

[jur99llk]

hi guys,

what´s the problem with Tfly (especially in LGW)???!!!! I´ve been called out on every single standby for the last 2 months (some times 4 days in a row) ! not just to operate flights from LGw but also from other bases. considering that we are still in the winter season, I don´t want to imagine how busy the summer will be.

Are we so extremely short of crew !!?? or is it just me who is being called out constantly!?

[banewboi]

Originally Posted by jur99llk

hi guys,
what´s the problem with Tfly (especially in LGW)???!!!! I´ve been called out on every single standby for the last 2 months (some times 4 days in a row) ! not just to operate flights from LGw but also from other bases. considering that we are still in the winter season, I don´t want to imagine how busy the summer will be.
Are we so extremely short of crew !!?? or is it just me who is being called out constantly!?

tom are completely undercrewed for the summer, aircraft checks ad recencies are well out, crewing don't know their arse from their elbow and tui are dertermined to plough everything by had built into the rotten earth.

[Banzai Eagle]

Dont worry the Pilots will be looked after and paid massive amounts to work on their days off and save the company subchartering out.
Q Why not give them less days off and put them on SBY?

[TFlyguy]

Forgive me if I'm being thick but is that not what standbys are for????????

And at least we can still only do 4 in a row!

[banewboi]

pilots don't do standby's but instead do something called flexi days however it still isn't really fair as if they do get called they get cop for it!

[Banzai Eagle]

banewboi - so i heard, there's a post on terms and conditions which suggests a TFLY Pilot got 19000 for a months work....

[banewboi]

i can believe it, i know a pilot who did a syd trip whilst we were doing them on cop and got £750 a day (18 day trip!)

having said that crewing are a joke, a 757 did a flight out of dsa the other day to ams, 80 pax 7 crew, 5 on cop!!!

they really haven't got a clue, all they are interested in doing is getting to the end of their shift with no concideration to the future of the flying program.

[TightSlot]

banewboi - To your credit, you've apparently put your money where your mouth is, and are moving to BA (according to your previous posts). This, or course, is the best possible answer to the usual "If you don't like it, then why don't you leave" questions.

With respect, I'd point out that yours is just one of many possible points of view. There are many operational issues affecting Tfly at this precise moment - conferences, training, late ad-hoc etc. These are having a detrimental effect on the roster, which is partly why this weekend they are looking to buy back leave: It is also why standbys will get used a lot just now: And BTW, standbys are there to be used - it goes with the territory. If fewer crew members took social sickness (yes, we all know they do) then the standby issue would be less of a problem.


Don't get me wrong, I'm no special fan of Tfly (although they employ me) - This winter has been the worst winter I have ever been through: There are many things wrong - breathtakingly poor management, incoherent company policies and strategies, poor or non-existent communication and the eternal problem of those who make management decisions that affect the line never setting foot on an aircraft unless clutching a G&T. Don't even start me on rosters - any sympathy I had for rostering redundancies has long disappeared since they have so consistently produced such lousy examples of the rosterers art, and in the process trashed my social and family life for some months now.


What it boils down to is whether you figure the grass will be greener elsewhere. The only thing I have learned is that the same S**t tends to happen everywhere. For me, I'm too old and set in my ways to change, and I suspect that many Tfly problems are echoed in other companies. The industry is changing, not to the ultimate benefit of the customers or the operational workforce - probably only to the short-term benefit of managers and shareholders. I believe (dark moment here) that we are due a number of fatalities in coming decades: That is what it will take in the end, to prove beyond doubt that you cannot fill the sky with an infinite number of aircraft, full of customers paying virtually nothing, staffed by crew with progressively lower experience and fatigue levels on minimum wages, outsourced maintenance and no down-time to fix defects. If aviation were the stock market, the the present situation would be a bubble; and they burst!

Phew - rant over! Not quite sure that I finished this thread where I started, but at least I finished.

[banewboi]

i completely echo everything you are saying, with one exception:

i think the grass is greener and if a company many times the size was tipping buckets of cash down the swanny then i honestly believe the company would be no more.

i don't think the current managements techniques and policies are sustainable and ithink tui have taken tfly to the wall, i wish i could stay but i honestly believe that my future would be nonexistent.

[yeoman]

Originally Posted by Banzai Eagle

Dont worry the Pilots will be looked after and paid massive amounts to work on their days off and save the company subchartering out.
Q Why not give them less days off and put them on SBY?

Please be assured that the huge majority of flight deck are sympathetic to the stupidity you guys are being forced to endure. The very simple fact is that the union has negotiated both our flexi working (working on a day off) and days off deals.

The £750 per day tale is false. Someone either (very stupidly and insensitively) pulling yer pud or just an urban myth. The rate for a Capt is @£525 gross - a hell of a lot more than COP I agree but then again, union negotiated. Like it or not, 1 FD missing = no flight. 1 CC missing = usually minimum crew. Tight Slot has alluded to Social Sickness. I can't find it in my heart to slag off you guys who do it, loyalty is a two way thing and I don't see much coming your way from on high at present. For all sorts of reasons, it is not as big an issue for FD numbers.

Secondly, we do do STBY. We can volunteer for it which means you can plan your life ahead, the bid is done months in advance, the advantage being that there are set days off associated with each block of STBY. If there aren't enough volunteers, they are allocated supposedly months in advance again but occasionally rostered in just the same way. We can bank on working the lot and if MAN or LGW better pack a suitcase and find a book on things to do in NCL, CWL etc etc etc. Again, BALPA have pushed for all this and for such things as Block Windows.

We are extemely privileged to have the T&Cs we have as FD. Having listened to your BASSA reps down route, you have a really hard working bunch of people desparately trying to get good deals for you but there are some stumbling blocks: With the best will in the world, reps are enthusiastic amateurs (I mean that in a respectful way) up against proeffsional management. IT will be an unequal battle and if I may be blunt, there are enough CC around who don't give the reps the support they need to make a difference. Divide and Rule is a very powerful tool and the company use it to it's full extent. There seem to be a lot of experts on BASSAs shortcomings who go real quiet come standing as a rep.

In short, thanks to you all for your contribution to making my life bearable every time I go to work. Get behind your union and please, pretty please with milk and a little sugar, don't have a go at flight deck, it is beneath you no matter how understandably frustrated you are.

[TFlyguy]

I promise not to have a go at flight deck if you get me home safely every time! Deal?

And i have to say that BASSA have managed a few things for us - at least now we have a set payment for COP and we can only do 4 days flying between days off - a lot better than some companies!

[yeoman]

Originally Posted by TFlyguy

I promise not to have a go at flight deck if you get me home safely every time! Deal?
And i have to say that BASSA have managed a few things for us - at least now we have a set payment for COP and we can only do 4 days flying between days off - a lot better than some companies!

Deal! Yes, BASSA are doing the very best they can and there is much more they could do if they get the backing of the troops. Here's to a safe Summer.

[TightSlot]

Originally Posted by yeoman

...has alluded to Social Sickness. I can't find it in my heart to slag off you guys who do it, loyalty is a two way thing and I don't see much coming your way from on high at present.

A thoughtful post, as always yeoman - I can also sympathise with social sickness: At the same time, if one person doesn't do a duty, often somebody else has to. The problem is that while evrybody does it from time to time, there are those who do it with regularity - and seem immune to sanctions!

Anyway, I won't further hijack the thread onto social sickness.

[TFlyguy]

Especially as its a Sunday and you were supposed to be at work!

Joke!

[banewboi]

it may be a myth that a pilot took £750 per day but i can't see it being capped, i, myself, me, yours truly did a 6 day trip and took crewing to the cleaners on a daily basis for cop, i cleared nearly double my wages and there was no cap, i know it's people like me that cause the probs etc etc but when wqe get no support from crewing why shouldn't we grab what we can when given the opportunity, we are meant to all be singing from the same sheet but it's a constant battle with screwing and i really don't feel like they are part of the team, if anythin, they're the enemy!

so as pilots you have the choice to do sb? well maybe if you had to have it rostered things would be better, i'm not saying things would be better but they might, it feels like the company are saying they're (fd) it and you're (cc) s**t!, i really do wish you a safe summer, i could think of nothing worse than a major incident but if i am to be just as honest it wouldn't suprise me.

take care guys and we really should get behind the union like ba do!

sorry to bang on, but i'm dead excited!

[jur99llk]

So, is Tfly very short of cabin crew now and for the summer? or do cabin crew call sick "too much"? maybe i should also start to call sick when i feel tired having operated 2 flights... because that seems to be the normal thing.

[damicod]

I acknowledge the fact that TOM cabin crew work very hard to satisfy the most important people to the company (PAX), however its got to be said that crew are their own worst enemies when it comes to the link between social sickness and the effects that has on their colleague being called out on STBY.
If you are rostered a STBY, 9 times out of 10 the only reason you will get called is if a colleague has just called in sick.
I think that is why that person in LGW got called out 4 times in a row, simply because there were so many people in LGW calling in sick at that time.

[jur99llk]

because there were so many people in LGW calling in sick at that time


I think the main reason is that there were too many people partying in BarMed on tuesday... and the same thing Fri and Sat night.

[britanniaboy]

No one likes being called out on SBY, but it comes with the territory. If he'd been called out on COPs then I'm sure it wouldn't have been a problem.

Everyone knows about social sickness, but when do you ever see more than a handful of people out in Bar Shed on a Tuesday, and none of them that I know have pulled a sicky on the Wednesday; they just get on with the hangover.

And perhaps if our leave and GDO system were better and didn't break it's own rules (tryied booking a GDO ten weeks in advance only to be told I had a rostered duty!?!?) then sickness wouldn't be a problem.

[damicod]

Just a thought, you guys are lucky you get 4 STBY's in a row, Sleesyjet, Ryan, Monarch, Air2bob, My-tech, you name it... all have much more than 4 STBY's in a row and often get used for every one.
Not to mention 4 sector days!