BA Direct Entry Pilot.

[A340Yumyum]

Originally Posted by thetimesreader84

Has anyone contacted BA to ask about the "white tail" rumour?

It's not a rumour.

[Buter]

Willing to pay for a type rating and take a reduced salary to join BA?

Tell you what - I'll auction off my airside pass and the idiot's guide to the 380*.

Pay me 30k up front and half my salary for the next 6 years and you'll be living the dream.

(Sorry Wiggy, et al... the very thought of paying for a type or voluntarily reducing a salary in our company is shocking)


*clearly not a serious offer

[Hotel Mode]

I've already started a crowd funder on the fleet Buter

Its going great.

[Buter]

That's why I love y'all!

Must wind up the rest of the company to know that we're now the best fleet to be on and it's a closed shop!

My sincere best wishes to all those in the hold pool.

[Stocious]

I'd certainly view being an airline pilot nowadays as a stepping stone to something better.

Curious as to what you consider better?

[hunterboy]

Anything with a better balance of risk v reward v health. That will depend on your personal circumstances.

[bex88]

Euro millions fleet is probably better but I don't see much else. "A stepping stone" to what? I don't feel particularly qualified to do much else.

[zzz]

Just to correct Enzo's figures, basic pay point 24(old scale)/34 (new scale) long haul skippers pay is £164k. Variables would amount to about another £20k pa. A TRE earns an additional 18% on basic. So something in excess of £200k with no overtime for a full timer TRE.

[CXKA]

There's a very good reason they have to offer start salaries that high in Qatar!

[Snapper5]

I'm sure that kind of salary would be on pp34 , which most would never see .
Also I'm very sure that BAs T&Cs will change again during the next 5 years and certainly in the next 34 !!!!

[hunterboy]

I reckon you'd be lucky to take just over 1/2 of that 200K home. Subtract the housing and commuting costs and see what you're left with. Then decide if it suits you. It works for some pilots, and not others. Great thing, this free world we live in.

[zzz]

If it really is the starting salary at Qatar, then go for it, you're welcome to it.
It's the same salary as pp34. Anyone who currently joins under the age of 31 (and most do) can achieve it. Whether it is the same salary scale in 30 years time is purely subjective.
How it is taxed is at the behest of the government, not BA.

It's great to have choices.

[sudden twang]

Aiming High
Got facts to back up a starting pay of £200k or was that a wind up.
There are plenty of easy LH commutes where you don't pay tax or v little.
If Jeremy had got in they'd have needed the 380 on the LIS. 😎

[Enzo999]

Originally Posted by AIMINGHIGH123

Ok. All Figures are in QAR but you paid in USD.
Base Pay 22575
Housing 13000
Utilities 300
Transport 1500
Flight Pay based on 70hrs 7280
Mobile 33
Total 44688
$12341 a month
Ok if you use there accommodation take 13000 gives 31688 or $8751.
So you would be approx £9400 or £6725 a month. Ok I admit I am using my situation in the figures in the fact I live in UK and wouldn't live in a tax haven and commute to the UK. To earn £9400 a month paying UK tax I would have to be on nearly £200k a year.
People will now say high living costs in Middle East etc etc horrible life but honestly 5 years and you can make a lot of money. I know guys who have done it and guys who are doing it.

There are several issue with the pay at Qatar (and I talk from experience having spent 3.5 years there). Firstly the housing allowance you will never see they will put you in company accommodation and only pay the allowance if the choose to or need to, if you rent privately 13,000 is not enough so you will be loosing even more of your pay. I have long argued that this is dead money and people have rightly pointed out that if you are considering a like for like comparison then you need to consider UK housing costs. My mortgage costs me £1500 a month here or £18000 a year (far less than to rent a small apartment in Qatar), the difference being my house makes far more than that annually in appreciation, so in effect my house is an investment that does not exist in Qatar (remember non nationals are not allowed to buy property in Qatar)

So forget the housing and you are left with 8700 dollars a month which under current exchange rates is a lot of money, but they are at historic lows! A figure closer to 1.5 or 1.6 dollars to the pound are far more representative of the past decade. At those levels it brings your take home closer to £5000 a month, which was about what I was making. Now 5k a month is only slightly more than most BA FOs are making and the difference in living conditions are beyond comparison. To put it nicely Qatar is a boiling hot hell hole full of desperate and greedy individuals, it is an incredibly unpleasant place to live and 6k a month is not even close to a worth while amount.

The head line figures look very appealing but dig a little deeper and remove post Brexit exchange rates and actually things are not so great.

[anson harris]

For us we just don't see a good future in the UK.

Good luck at Qatar - there are plenty of threads in the ME section, but this one is about BA.
As my Mother used to say "don't come crying to me". No whining when you get to Qatar, ok?!

[sudden twang]

Aiming High
Ok you meant £200k equivalent with a bit of reversed maths.
Fair enough best of luck I've only spent an hour there.

[bazilbutler]

Originally Posted by AIMINGHIGH123

Countryside is nice to visit but I don't know how people live there.

haha. the exact same could be said for London!

[JaxofMarlow]

Originally Posted by AIMINGHIGH123

PS We don't live in central London we are zone 5, wouldn't want to live further out. Countryside is nice to visit but I don't know how people live there.

We have shops and electricity now.

[JB007]

Running water in my village!

[CXKA]

Think of all that extra flight pay at Qatar as you have to fly round the ME region just to get in and out ;-)