BA Direct Entry Pilot.
Join Date: Dec 2005
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Flys4Funs - Yes, you are essentially correct. In the Summer 3 of the months can have 8, 10 and 11 days off consecutively; the winter three of them can have 9, 10 and 11. Golden days can easily be booked to achieve a weekend day off in the 6 remaining months if required.
Breakdown for clarity:
Summer - 10 day block (7 leave + 3 wrap days), 11 day block (7 leave + 4 wrap days), 8 day block (Duty Free week plus one ‘non-assignable’ day).
Winter - Same 10 and 11 day blocks, Duty Free week is now 9 days instead of 8 (agreed in the recent pay settlement).
The only caveat is that leave is bid for on a ‘points’ basis. If you take unpopular weeks (mid-November, say) these are worth about 6 points and Christmas week is worth 1 point. Your points total over a rolling 4-years is then used to decide who gets first pick of leave next time around. It’s a fair system which means everybody gets a reasonable crack at having popular time off, summer holidays for instance. What it does mean in practice is that new-joiners won’t necessarily have first choice leave straight away.
For completeness, LGW system is very similar except that all six leave and duty free blocks are 10 days long including wraps, and the golden days are called ‘trump days’ which can be taken in six pairs rather than six individual days off; therefore a whole weekend off can easily be achieved in every month of the year if desired (if not more than one during the quiet winter).
Breakdown for clarity:
Summer - 10 day block (7 leave + 3 wrap days), 11 day block (7 leave + 4 wrap days), 8 day block (Duty Free week plus one ‘non-assignable’ day).
Winter - Same 10 and 11 day blocks, Duty Free week is now 9 days instead of 8 (agreed in the recent pay settlement).
The only caveat is that leave is bid for on a ‘points’ basis. If you take unpopular weeks (mid-November, say) these are worth about 6 points and Christmas week is worth 1 point. Your points total over a rolling 4-years is then used to decide who gets first pick of leave next time around. It’s a fair system which means everybody gets a reasonable crack at having popular time off, summer holidays for instance. What it does mean in practice is that new-joiners won’t necessarily have first choice leave straight away.
For completeness, LGW system is very similar except that all six leave and duty free blocks are 10 days long including wraps, and the golden days are called ‘trump days’ which can be taken in six pairs rather than six individual days off; therefore a whole weekend off can easily be achieved in every month of the year if desired (if not more than one during the quiet winter).
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: somewhere hot and sticky
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Im a year in, direct onto LH. I can't complain about weekend working so far. .. just lucky I guess, I don't normally bid home on the weekends, but JSS often gives me some weekend days off (though I worry what's happening higher up the list to the pilots who can't get those days off due to global constraints. ......)
Also, as a junior pilot you can have some luck with weekends by bidding for reserve. .. as the 7 days off prior to reserve cover a weekend.
Also, as a junior pilot you can have some luck with weekends by bidding for reserve. .. as the 7 days off prior to reserve cover a weekend.
Join Date: Aug 2008
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Thanks for clarifying - very interesting.
I had another question on Dupre’s reserve point - if you bid reserve, you get an additional week up front - I guess you can’t bid reserve and take a leave period in the same month - i.e. get the seven days off for reserve and another 8/11 days off?
How does the reserve work, you get allocated a time slot and are on two hours notice for that period. Is this for the entire rest of the month (7 days a week) after your first week off?
I had another question on Dupre’s reserve point - if you bid reserve, you get an additional week up front - I guess you can’t bid reserve and take a leave period in the same month - i.e. get the seven days off for reserve and another 8/11 days off?
How does the reserve work, you get allocated a time slot and are on two hours notice for that period. Is this for the entire rest of the month (7 days a week) after your first week off?
Thanks for clarifying - very interesting.
I had another question on Dupre’s reserve point - if you bid reserve, you get an additional week up front - I guess you can’t bid reserve and take a leave period in the same month - i.e. get the seven days off for reserve and another 8/11 days off?
How does the reserve work, you get allocated a time slot and are on two hours notice for that period. Is this for the entire rest of the month (7 days a week) after your first week off?
I had another question on Dupre’s reserve point - if you bid reserve, you get an additional week up front - I guess you can’t bid reserve and take a leave period in the same month - i.e. get the seven days off for reserve and another 8/11 days off?
How does the reserve work, you get allocated a time slot and are on two hours notice for that period. Is this for the entire rest of the month (7 days a week) after your first week off?
How it works...(Long haul) you have to be on the end of the phone for three hours every evening to possibly be assigned a duty the next day. That duty might be a trip or it might be a home standby where you are on 2 hours notice (timed from phone call to crew car park at LHR).
Join Date: Jul 2000
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Thanks for clarifying - very interesting.
I had another question on Dupre’s reserve point - if you bid reserve, you get an additional week up front - I guess you can’t bid reserve and take a leave period in the same month - i.e. get the seven days off for reserve and another 8/11 days off?
How does the reserve work, you get allocated a time slot and are on two hours notice for that period. Is this for the entire rest of the month (7 days a week) after your first week off?
I had another question on Dupre’s reserve point - if you bid reserve, you get an additional week up front - I guess you can’t bid reserve and take a leave period in the same month - i.e. get the seven days off for reserve and another 8/11 days off?
How does the reserve work, you get allocated a time slot and are on two hours notice for that period. Is this for the entire rest of the month (7 days a week) after your first week off?
1. Yes you can bid for reserve and leave in the same month. They can abut each other too, though it must be leave followed by reserve not the other way around (as you can't put leave on your reserve available days). Doing so comes with a caveat as well - the time zone acclimatisation rules are a bit tighter before reserve so it is not a great option for a holiday to Australia. But if you are staying in Europe it's a good way of getting more time off.
2. Reserve works line this: they can call you up to 8pm for the next day's duty. Can be a flight, a standby or day off. If you are given a standby duty it is either home standby (2hr callout) or airport standby. There are 21 consecutive days of this in your reserve period.
hope that makes some sense!
Join Date: Jul 2017
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Feedback on recent BA A320 DEP selection ?
Good morning,
Any feedback available on the recent selection process?
Regarding the phase 1, is it still only 3 tests?
- numerical
- verbal
- flight capacity test.
In the past they used to have 2 other tests :
- Flight Director
- Shape test.
Thanks a lot for your answers.
Any feedback available on the recent selection process?
Regarding the phase 1, is it still only 3 tests?
- numerical
- verbal
- flight capacity test.
In the past they used to have 2 other tests :
- Flight Director
- Shape test.
Thanks a lot for your answers.
There’s a danger we are going to confuse people here, possibly because a 28 day reserve block can (and usually does) straddle two calendar bidding months. Just rowing it all back a bit to a CliffsNotes version of the relevant bidline rule (JSS version).
A bid for a reserve block will not be accepted if there is any overlap between Leave/DFW days off and any of the 21 available days of the 28 day reserve block..so no you can’t reduce a block down to 14 available days by having a leave in the last week. If you bid for such it will fail.
You can do what want in the Fixed Days off, but as Dupre rightly says you need to acclimatised on the start of the available days.
You can however have up to have to 14 credited hours of preassigned duties embedded in the available days, such as combinations of Golden Days, SEP, Sims....more than 14 hours and a bid for reserve will fail.
A bid for a reserve block will not be accepted if there is any overlap between Leave/DFW days off and any of the 21 available days of the 28 day reserve block..so no you can’t reduce a block down to 14 available days by having a leave in the last week. If you bid for such it will fail.
You can do what want in the Fixed Days off, but as Dupre rightly says you need to acclimatised on the start of the available days.
You can however have up to have to 14 credited hours of preassigned duties embedded in the available days, such as combinations of Golden Days, SEP, Sims....more than 14 hours and a bid for reserve will fail.
Yes, that means for the first few months your bids will be a shot in the dark but TBH whether you craft a bid using logic worthy of Alan Turing or just stick a pin in a few bid commands/toss a coin chances are due juniority results will probably be the same. .... however I’d seriously suggest new joiners consider buying a bidding app once they are on-line ...the company interface would have the aforementioned Turing struggling to produce anything meaningful.
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Spain
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Based on the PRIAM results I would expect plenty of hiring on both the 787 and 777 this year. However, there might already be sufficient people in the hold pool to cover these needs. All longhaul fleets need pilots.
I don’t think there is any harm in being aware of what is vaguely possible or impossible, that might swing the decision as to whether to join BA or not, but yes, there’s a danger of TMI. I agree with a comment made upthread about not trying to get your head around bidding until you get on the line....
Yes, that means for the first few months your bids will be a shot in the dark but TBH whether you craft a bid using logic worthy of Alan Turing or just stick a pin in a few bid commands/toss a coin chances are due juniority results will probably be the same. .... however I’d seriously suggest new joiners consider buying a bidding app once they are on-line ...the company interface would have the aforementioned Turing struggling to produce anything meaningful.
Yes, that means for the first few months your bids will be a shot in the dark but TBH whether you craft a bid using logic worthy of Alan Turing or just stick a pin in a few bid commands/toss a coin chances are due juniority results will probably be the same. .... however I’d seriously suggest new joiners consider buying a bidding app once they are on-line ...the company interface would have the aforementioned Turing struggling to produce anything meaningful.
Join Date: Jan 2019
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Why is that? Have not as many people as would have been expected bid for long haul?
Trust me, there are about 4000 people who continue to be surprised....
Feb rosters came out yesterday and on company yammer we have the now traditional questions being asked which are usually along the lines of “WTH didn’t my bid work this time around???????”
Feb rosters came out yesterday and on company yammer we have the now traditional questions being asked which are usually along the lines of “WTH didn’t my bid work this time around???????”
Join Date: Mar 2009
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Our good friend “Global Contraints”.
All of my bid groups feasible but most failed due to GC. JSS is a total shambles that no one seems to really understand. Still can’t find anyone on the line willing to admit they actually voted for this s***!
All of my bid groups feasible but most failed due to GC. JSS is a total shambles that no one seems to really understand. Still can’t find anyone on the line willing to admit they actually voted for this s***!