Flying free on Ryanair.

[tallinnman]

Exactly Smith and I felt the original post should have been in a different thread.

I in no way want to open any can of worms for other employees in the industry.

The Ryanair operation in very impressive - it reminds me of the successful British Cycling team. The one with the department of 'marginal gains' - 1/10th of second here, another there all adding up to game changing performance.

Many have questioned the cycling team's legality (extra round wheels!) but the single governing body appears robust and the rules clear. Their success was hard fought but legal.

With the recent TV programs, flex MTOW, airport subsidies, consumer law breaches, tax & possible APD evasion issues involving Ryanair it appears to me that MOL also pursues every 'marginal gain'.

Hope they're all proved to be above board and legal.

[RAT 5]

It has been alluded to, but could someone please confirm the facts: it seems you can position free on RYR a/c before & after a duty; must be in uniform, appear on the crew voyage report, be fit for duty if required, i.e. no sherbets en-route to TFS, but your roster shows DAY OFF and you are not paid. Positioning time is thus not credited towards weekly, monthly or annual totals. Is that correct?

[kick the tires]

RAT says It has been alluded to, but could someone please confirm the facts: it seems you can position free on RYR a/c before & after a duty; must be in uniform, appear on the crew voyage report, be fit for duty if required, i.e. no sherbets en-route to TFS, but your roster shows DAY OFF and you are not paid. Positioning time is thus not credited towards weekly, monthly or annual totals. Is that correct?

Is it me or is this a strange post that is trying to dig up dirt.

Must be my suspicious but I smell a, ahem, RAT......

[Too Few Stripes]

you might smell a rat but the poster is spot on!

[Yaw String]

Maybe enough said...and original poster could delete this thread in the name of diminishing perks!

[felixthecat]

Why give the FR pilots a hard time for the free positioning perk? What will you get out of it? Nothing, FR guys have a hard enough time as it is without winging outsiders looking to take further potshots at the company thought the already hardworking pilots.

That said as an EX FR skipper who has deserted to the desert Ahhh positioning now for a duty, first class, and flight pay as well Come to the desert the grass is greener Plus half your mates are here now too

[737Jock]

ALT CRZ GREEN

[Wirbelsturm]

If UK plc wasn't in love with petty pointless rules in every walk to life

Have you ever tried to get through security/immigration in the US as a non national??? Get a crew members Visa???

Or even, indeed, tried to do business in the US?

Please look inside before throwing platitudes.

[Narrow Runway]

WIRBELSTURM

Wirbelsturm,

What are you going on about?

I was in the USA this weekend. I found the immigration staff entirely fine, at both entry and exit points.

Have I ever applied for a crew members visa? Yes, it was a non event. Very simple indeed.

Did you perhaps fill out the paperwork incorrectly, or did your narrow minded viewpoint present itself naturally for immigration officers to pounce upon?

I'd expect a broader spectrum of tolerance from a BA pilot.

[Wirbelsturm]

or did your narrow minded viewpoint present itself naturally for immigration officers to pounce upon?

A little harsh without knowing the details I think. I haven't always been an 'Airline driver' and have had the priviledge to serve with the armed forces in the past, including excercises and operations with the Americans. Rather than see this for what it was I had to endure a grilling at the embassy as I declared my previous 'life' weapons training. Was that necessary? No, not really. Does it happen every day? Probably not but that was my experience. (much imporved for the renewal I might add)

The problems with the immigration staff do not necessarily need to be me, or my 'narrow minded' viewpoint but the crew under my responsibility. I have found that almost 7 times out of 10 I have had to go to secondary clearance in order to support my crew in US airports. I have also seen immigration staff deliberately force the crew to wait as one passenger out of 250 had failed to fill out the immigration form which the staff took to be indicative of the crew not performing their duties correctly.

My point was simply observing that the 'petty pointless rules' that a previous poster alluded to in the UK also exist in the US and are not the sole preserve of the UK.

[JW411]

If I might be allowed to be a trifle frivolous; a friend of mine (who is still flying for a living) remarked recently that getting a crew visa for the USA is difficult nowadays and should be made impossible.

[Loose rivets]

The ultimate uniformed PAX flight had to be Commander Ian Flemming's flight on a Lufthansa scheduled flight - during the war.

Flemming argued that under the terms of international agreement, the captain could not refuse him. Portugal to Madrid or somesuch.

[RECSAM]

duty/non-duty travel

When I worked for FR some years ago I frequently used free travel in uniform both to travel to work and otherwise, including travelling to destinations for job-seeking opportunities. As a perk it was very beneficial and the discomfort of lying with them either in flight deck or cabin was inconsequential. But on one occasion I was arrested and nearly spent a night in a cell because as positioning crew one was allowed to pass through security etc without a boarding pass, but if deadheading then one of these was required. And I didn't have one, nor was operations control aware that this was a requirement! So when Mr Plod gently fingered my collar I was suddenly on the wromng side of the law!

[smith]

The ultimate uniformed PAX flight had to be Commander Ian Flemming's flight on a Lufthansa scheduled flight - during the war.

Flemming argued that under the terms of international agreement, the captain could not refuse him. Portugal to Madrid or somesuch.