British Airways Direct Entry Pilot
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,233
Likes: 83
From: N/A
The availability of part time is pretty random and seems to change from quarter to quarter - there is no consistency in anything at BA and the plan changes like the wind, so just see how it goes and rest assured it'll happen sooner or later.
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 305
Likes: 5
From: earth
Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 122
Likes: 27
From: World
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 351
Likes: 9
From: uk
the average hours flown figure of 713 probably includes the PT pilots achieved hours.
You´ll be full time, hitting close to 900 pa.
Commuting: very difficult irrespective of destination. Flights are regularly full, standby difficult, full fares expensive. Staff travel is often a very disappointing experience. The north of the UK airports (NEW MAN EDI GLA) are also oversubscribed with other commuters, inc crew.
If you want a SH command consider a regional Easy base. or Jet2 ..... they pay more anyway
You´ll be full time, hitting close to 900 pa.
Commuting: very difficult irrespective of destination. Flights are regularly full, standby difficult, full fares expensive. Staff travel is often a very disappointing experience. The north of the UK airports (NEW MAN EDI GLA) are also oversubscribed with other commuters, inc crew.
If you want a SH command consider a regional Easy base. or Jet2 ..... they pay more anyway
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 995
Likes: 100
From: Botswana
Personally I wouldn’t say commuting was very difficult as such, it’s just a complete faff and constant source of hassle to be perpetually booking flights and hotels. That’s why SH is particularly bad for it because the number of hotels you will need is significantly higher than on LH.
(As an aside this is where the company are going to have particular difficulty convincing mid seniority FOs like myself to bid for SH command regardless of whatever HPtE brings. Personally and I can speak for a lot of others, as commuters it’s not about money it’s 100% lifestyle. You can incentivise me with as much money as you like or cap me at a lower paypoint if you’re trying to coerce me, I will simply never go back to Short Haul).
(As an aside this is where the company are going to have particular difficulty convincing mid seniority FOs like myself to bid for SH command regardless of whatever HPtE brings. Personally and I can speak for a lot of others, as commuters it’s not about money it’s 100% lifestyle. You can incentivise me with as much money as you like or cap me at a lower paypoint if you’re trying to coerce me, I will simply never go back to Short Haul).
Joined: Jan 2025
Aviation Qualifications: SLF
Posts: 166
Likes: 137
From: Mars
Commuting on long haul you’d need a maximum of 5 hotels around Heathrow in a month I’d say (if you are unlucky and don’t get a single afternoon/evening start - quite a possible occurrence as I found out). Depending on your taste, with the various discounts around this will cost £300 to £400 a month. You shouldn’t need a hotel for the return, but this will depend on connections to your hometown.
BA flights are practically full everywhere, especially to the regions. Rely more on hotlines than standbys for your commute planning. On that note, as others have said, I have found staff travel to be all but useless unless you are going somewhere practically nobody else wants to go (such as Riyadh or Bahrain off the top of my head). Delete any and all hope of going to Dubai, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur or Sydney in club. Your own “onload code” will be relatively high if you are on the booking, but there seems to be an infinite number of people on annual bookable trips who will trump you in the standing order if you are on regular standby travel. If you need to make any solid plans (which you would if on leave or commuting) then it can’t be advised.
Depending on the station, some seem to take an attitude towards staff travellers too which can dampen the mood a bit. Most are lovely and helpful though, just beware.
BA flights are practically full everywhere, especially to the regions. Rely more on hotlines than standbys for your commute planning. On that note, as others have said, I have found staff travel to be all but useless unless you are going somewhere practically nobody else wants to go (such as Riyadh or Bahrain off the top of my head). Delete any and all hope of going to Dubai, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur or Sydney in club. Your own “onload code” will be relatively high if you are on the booking, but there seems to be an infinite number of people on annual bookable trips who will trump you in the standing order if you are on regular standby travel. If you need to make any solid plans (which you would if on leave or commuting) then it can’t be advised.
Depending on the station, some seem to take an attitude towards staff travellers too which can dampen the mood a bit. Most are lovely and helpful though, just beware.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 898
Likes: 73
From: UK
I will simply never go back to Short Haul
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 995
Likes: 100
From: Botswana
How about if they said you must have had a short haul command before you can take a long haul command, and also froze you on your current pay point? There are always ways in which they can change your mind should they choose to. I totally understand your reasons though.
In answer to your question it’s still a hard no, I did not join BA to do Short Haul. I’d done it for far too long at Flybe, Wizz and easyJet and had to do another 7 years as a result of Covid at BA. I have no wish nor desire to live in the U.K. so I’d sooner be frozen on my current pay and do Long Haul than ever go back to SH regardless of seat.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 898
Likes: 73
From: UK
Yeah my example of what they might do in the future was purely a hypothetical question to you. I don’t think it’s something they would likely ever insist upon. I asked because I felt just like you do, but I still found myself doing a stretch on short haul.
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 995
Likes: 100
From: Botswana
No that’s fair enough, I just really couldn’t contemplate it. Perhaps I should never say never but it would take a hell of a lot, I intensely hated all the dead time. Plus I’ve waited so long for Long Haul and just nicely settled in now to then go back and do it all over again I’d feel would be defeating the object of why I joined BA in the first place.
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 1,559
Likes: 55
From: London
I’ve been on short haul at BA for a year now, having spent time at easy before. There is more dead time at BA, but I’ve not found it terrible. Yes the changing planes is a bit of a hassle, but when you’ve got 90 mins between flights, by the time you’ve packed up, walked to the next plane and grabbed a coffee there isn’t much hanging around. It’s not often you have more than that, plus if you’re a bit late, it means you just eat into that time.
On the subject of commuting, I think short haul full time would be tough commuting.
On the subject of commuting, I think short haul full time would be tough commuting.
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 995
Likes: 100
From: Botswana
The dead time I was referring to was more related to time hanging around Heathrow between duties as a commuter be it in hotels or just around the general area which gets tiring and depressing very quickly. Oddly in addition to that using the local buses used to be a particular bête noire of mine so to speak.
Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 171
Likes: 31
From: European riviera
At the start expect to work hard with little control over the kind of work you do. You’ll end up with a mix of day trips (some 4 sector days for instance) or layovers with minimum rest and multiple sector days. Mixture of earlies and lates .
In winter and autumn when weather can be bad, expect very long days with disruption to your schedule.You will end up worn out very quickly, and I can’t imagine commuting in these circumstances. I would end up fatigued very quickly. That’s not to say people don’t do it, but they often end up spending every free minute trying to swap their schedule to fit their commuting requirements. Stressful . Expensive . And I just don’t think it’s worth joining BA under those circumstances . But that’s my personal view.
The good : decent company to work for overall . Far from perfect . Many frustrations but I’ve worked for other airlines so I know it could be a lot worse than it is . Vast majority of colleagues want an easy day and easy to work with.
Is BA worth the hassle involved in commuting to and from Heathrow on a full time shorthaul roster?
In my personal opinion, absolutely not.
I’m a full time short haul FO so can’t comment on LH or part time arrangements.
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 2,256
Likes: 293
From: London
Have they never considered (a return to!) small UK bases now they have an all A320 short haul fleet with aircraft night stopping at BHD/GLA/EDI/ABZ/NCL every day? Would allow a small pool of pilots to work outside of LHR and without the stress of London living?
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 6,726
Likes: 103
From: The Winchester
Have they never considered (a return to!) small UK bases now they have an all A320 short haul fleet with aircraft night stopping at BHD/GLA/EDI/ABZ/NCL every day? Would allow a small pool of pilots to work outside of LHR and without the stress of London living?
The situation ATM is all nightstops lead back to London in the AM, and then for the crews to do often at least one more round trip finishing the day at (maybe) LHR..so BA probably see it as being cheaper in terms of support costs and better in terms of rostering/crew utilization to suck up stuff like hotel costs in the regions for a nightstop than having to support regional bases….