Long Haul or Short Haul ?
 

Can any one help ?
Im cabin crew working for a long haul airline and thinking about doing short haul.
If anyone has done both which would you prefer ?

Is the Grass Greener?
 

Hi Jtset25,

At Britannia we do a mix of both LH (15%)and SH.(85%) I'd prefer it to be 50/50 but most of it is with Mytravel (for the moment).

I love longhaul, it gives you the opportunity to actually see the destinations to which you fly and the time in flight to actually enjoy the job. Also as a charter carrier our trips can be up to 10 days long :)

But....

On our SH there are no nightstops/trips it is all base to base flying so pay in terms of allowances is naturally finite. I actually find short haul (the way we fly it at least) a little bit boring - and when your on your fourth Palma flight of the week you can be thinking to yourself "So I joined this job for the travel!???"

I personally would be very careful about giving up a longhaul position. The grass isn't always greener.

I think two factorswould be at the top of my list:

1. How does the Shorthaul carrier operate? i.e. are there any nightstops/trips? Do they have multisector days like Easyjet or is it 2 sectors and home like the Charters?

2. Could I be hasselled with very quick turnarounds, having to do seat pockets, tight time restraints on a seemingly never ending daily basis?

Maybe you should consider an airline that flies both L and SH. Like Britannia?? We don't fleet the crews so you 'should' get a fair mix of the work.

Take a typical month roster with us:
Week 1: Short haul base to base i.e. MAN-PMI-MAN then go home
Week 2: Short Haul again maybe three canaries (14 hour days) flights
Week 3: A Bullet Sanford(orlando) and two short haul flights
Week 4: 5 day Cancun trip and a Night tenerife.

We do get a nice mix but sometimes you can be gagging for a trip and one never appears!! Then when you do need to be at home you seem to be away constantly.

Swings and Roundabouts.

hope that helps and best of luck with your decision.

:)

Jetset, It depends on your lifestyle at the moment. If you have a family/children or 9 to 5 partner many times shorthaul would be best as you could spend more nights at home. If you are tired of endless nights in hotel rooms then short haul would be good as well. Long haul is for singletons or those in relationships where the partner is comfortable and secure in your absences. Less jet lag for short haul but more physically tiring. Would you have the opportunity to revert back to L.H. if you do not enjoy S.H.?

log haul or short haul
 

ok this may be a dumb question, but is there in fact a formal definition of longh haul and short haul??

i was asked to define it formally, which I thought would be no problem.. I looked on the ATA site and found nothing.

asking my airline friends how their individual airlines defined it turned up nothing either.,........

it's the sort of thing everyone knows but yet there's nothing written anywhere....

aircraft size
 

Although not set in stone , aircraft size could give you some guidance. Generally the 777s , 767 s and 747s do the longer flights and the rest do the shorter flights. I apprecaite that this is a sweeping generalisation but as a general rule , big for long flights , little for short flights.
Although longhaul means constant jet lag , I find that easier to cope with than doing 4-5 early starts in a row. However as someone pointed out , you need a VERY secure other half as for many , their fragile egos can't cope with the possible might happen potential.
It is fab to actually be able to talk to the punters and to spend a few days at your destination as opposed to quick turnarounds .
On the other hand , I would love the odd Rome / Barcelona nightstop.
Not sure which carriers do it but a mixed flying option is the best if the work is 50/50.
Whatever you do , think long and hard and talk to as many crew as you possibly can who are operating for carriers you are likely to work for.

Hi there, hope this is of some help.

I worked for a short haul airline for 2 years and really enjoyed it. I was away a few nights a month and sometimes up to 5 nights in a week. However, there were months where I had none at all. I then moved on to a long haul airline, where I was away up to 5 nights, however rare. I usually had 1 or 2 nighters that spread over 3-5 days. I will say that I enjoyed short haul a lot more than long haul. I think it will be worth it but it depends on the airline. I worked for bmi and found them to be great, good money but some very long days. However, it paid off when you got your 2-3 days off. You may, for example, have 4-5 days working and 2, sometimes 3 off. 6 days working and always 3 off.

Going on preference, mine is short haul as I have more of a life, even though I may have to get up at 330am. I'm sure you will make the right decision. Just think, if you don't like it you can always change it!!

Good luck

from long-haul to short-haul
 

Hello Jetset25,
Well, short-haul is very different from what you may have experienced while working on the long-haul sector.
First of all, keep in mind that your duty hours will completely change (i had wake-up at 4am for a sign-in at 6am, working 4 legs and returning at the base at 1pm, add an hour more to get back home and you'll have an idea of what it can give),
that you will need to live close to your compagny base
and that you won't be able to have those great shopping all around the world anymore except you can get on the medium-haul, let's say Europe if you work in England.
I was living about 600Km from by base so short-haul meant taking a second appartment where to live for those 6 months i had to spend as tray thrower ;-)
As pointed out by Galleywench, it depends on your family situation.
I personally hated short haul as i think that the mythe of the job is the far distance trip but that was mandatory to get my kicks on long-haul.
Best regards.

Thanks everyone for your help.
;)

Jetset, if you are still checking in on this one, i hope i can offer my view to you !

I have operated L/H for 5 years, S/H for 6 years and a bit of charter mixed also a few years back.

I currently do short-haul and love it.
The crew seem ALOT happier on shorthaul in general, and this ,makes the job alot more enjoyable.
This maybe due to the fact , that even with night-stopping etc.. you are 'always on your way home' if that makes sense.

With long-haul, i used to find that as soon as i started packing my case,i had this feeling of dread almost - the ordeal (the flight) and then maybe being somewhere you don't want to be , maybe also for a long time.
There is also the fatigue factor, and the trips where everyone has 'been there , seen that' and you don't see ANYONE for 6 days :uhoh: There are ALOT of 'delsey diners' .

The only misgivings i find on shorthaul, are the earlies (tho if you do a 0515 paris, you land back at 0900!)and the journey if you live far from the airport.
However, your real life continues and the crew work together very hard, and bond good too!
Heavens know why, but some L/H crew are bit precious / starchy!!

It depends what you want from life, if you have a great home life, stick to shorthaul, however if you want to explore a bit and go further afield then longhaul maybe for you.
The only difference is you may sacrifice some of your home life/personal life.

Even if iwas offered L/H on a 50% contract, i would have reservations!!, and continue S/H 100%!

Hope it all works for the best for You.