British Airways Direct Entry Pilot
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 112
Likes: 7
From: Neverland
Plenty of people live a stone’s throw from a J2 type base and then drive an hour and a half to Heathrow every time they go to work, you’re doing the opposite..!
Absolutely 100% move. BA seems to have ridiculously quick commands from looking there. And in 30 years you’ll be a senior 350 captain on an awful lot more than at J2. Even the lowest pay point Heathrow short haul captains at BA likely come out on top financially vs LCCs in the UK when everything is included.
Absolutely 100% move. BA seems to have ridiculously quick commands from looking there. And in 30 years you’ll be a senior 350 captain on an awful lot more than at J2. Even the lowest pay point Heathrow short haul captains at BA likely come out on top financially vs LCCs in the UK when everything is included.
LHR short haul FO life is pretty relaxed and generally better paid than EZY or WUK (not sure about J2 atm) and command is fairly fast. But being a pay point 2-10 captain would put you earning less than a year 1 ezy or j2 or even wizz captain for well, close to 10 years. And you’ll be the bottom of roster seniority for god knows how many years. Weekends off won’t exist as a choice outside of leave and golden day usage or tactical reserve for probably a decade as anyone in the company before you moving over will just keep your seniority on the fleet stationary. Also we spend far more time dealing with Heathrow than any sane and person wants to spend 🤣
Long haul straight away would change things as it’s a good pay bump compared to short haul and you’ll be working less. But it’s still 18-22 years for a long haul command. You’ll certainly get there in the end and it’ll be amazing.
Do a spreadsheet comparing the pay points of a planned BA career path compared to staying at your company as you are, with expected command upgrade times and do a calculation on your earnings over your planned working life. It’s not as clear cut money wise as it used to be with PP34 in effect especially if you’re over 30 and won’t have as much time at the top compared to someone joining at 20-25.
Ancilliary benefits are definitely hard to beat. Staff travel is fabulous. Pension is great! If you can master JSS, or just be happy to be flexible with work your rostering can be great (much harder though as a junior with kids wanting weekends off your only option for some guaranteed time will be part time)
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 103
Likes: 2
From: UK
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 330
Likes: 0
From: UK
Not quite Potatos_69,
Re: junior SH Captains at LHR not getting weekends off for years - everyone is now guaranteed 2 x weekend days off (may be separate) a month (this reduces if you have leave etc. which already give you some weekend downtime that month). This is a big change, essentially promised since 2016 ish (‘JSS will preserve the gradient’ etc.).
Time will tell if this recent change reduces general roster satisfaction a little but the key seems to be how clever/realistic you are at bidding. In the future you will be able to waive the weekends off thing too which should bump up general satisfaction a little again.
Junior with kids means you can also use parental leave (unpaid obviously) to create firebreaks in the roster/get some more weekend time off (alongside the above 2 days). Part-time an option too as touched on.
Agree with many of your other points.
ATB.
Re: junior SH Captains at LHR not getting weekends off for years - everyone is now guaranteed 2 x weekend days off (may be separate) a month (this reduces if you have leave etc. which already give you some weekend downtime that month). This is a big change, essentially promised since 2016 ish (‘JSS will preserve the gradient’ etc.).
Time will tell if this recent change reduces general roster satisfaction a little but the key seems to be how clever/realistic you are at bidding. In the future you will be able to waive the weekends off thing too which should bump up general satisfaction a little again.
Junior with kids means you can also use parental leave (unpaid obviously) to create firebreaks in the roster/get some more weekend time off (alongside the above 2 days). Part-time an option too as touched on.
Agree with many of your other points.
ATB.
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 250
Likes: 14
From: UK
Rediculously quick only in euroflyer. That could be joining or upgrading in a year. However it is the worst pay and conditions in the UK for an A320 equivalent job on the left or right seat.
LHR short haul FO life is pretty relaxed and generally better paid than EZY or WUK (not sure about J2 atm) and command is fairly fast. But being a pay point 2-10 captain would put you earning less than a year 1 ezy or j2 or even wizz captain for well, close to 10 years. And you’ll be the bottom of roster seniority for god knows how many years. Weekends off won’t exist as a choice outside of leave and golden day usage or tactical reserve for probably a decade as anyone in the company before you moving over will just keep your seniority on the fleet stationary. Also we spend far more time dealing with Heathrow than any sane and person wants to spend 🤣
Long haul straight away would change things as it’s a good pay bump compared to short haul and you’ll be working less. But it’s still 18-22 years for a long haul command. You’ll certainly get there in the end and it’ll be amazing.
Do a spreadsheet comparing the pay points of a planned BA career path compared to staying at your company as you are, with expected command upgrade times and do a calculation on your earnings over your planned working life. It’s not as clear cut money wise as it used to be with PP34 in effect especially if you’re over 30 and won’t have as much time at the top compared to someone joining at 20-25.
Ancilliary benefits are definitely hard to beat. Staff travel is fabulous. Pension is great! If you can master JSS, or just be happy to be flexible with work your rostering can be great (much harder though as a junior with kids wanting weekends off your only option for some guaranteed time will be part time)
LHR short haul FO life is pretty relaxed and generally better paid than EZY or WUK (not sure about J2 atm) and command is fairly fast. But being a pay point 2-10 captain would put you earning less than a year 1 ezy or j2 or even wizz captain for well, close to 10 years. And you’ll be the bottom of roster seniority for god knows how many years. Weekends off won’t exist as a choice outside of leave and golden day usage or tactical reserve for probably a decade as anyone in the company before you moving over will just keep your seniority on the fleet stationary. Also we spend far more time dealing with Heathrow than any sane and person wants to spend 🤣
Long haul straight away would change things as it’s a good pay bump compared to short haul and you’ll be working less. But it’s still 18-22 years for a long haul command. You’ll certainly get there in the end and it’ll be amazing.
Do a spreadsheet comparing the pay points of a planned BA career path compared to staying at your company as you are, with expected command upgrade times and do a calculation on your earnings over your planned working life. It’s not as clear cut money wise as it used to be with PP34 in effect especially if you’re over 30 and won’t have as much time at the top compared to someone joining at 20-25.
Ancilliary benefits are definitely hard to beat. Staff travel is fabulous. Pension is great! If you can master JSS, or just be happy to be flexible with work your rostering can be great (much harder though as a junior with kids wanting weekends off your only option for some guaranteed time will be part time)
Are you sure you checked the spreadsheet on years 2-10 LHS SH correctly? Add the TAFB disregarding the pension.
As a year 1 FO I have been pulling in no less than £4.8k after tax paying 6% pension. I might pick up a trip or 2 at NCP if a trip takes my fancy but don’t go nuts. Yes JSS is a learning curve. I bid the same every month and sometimes it’s given me the opposite of what I bid for. However I always manage to move things around in IOT/EOT plus swapping to get back to what I wanted.
Yes you will get command at the airlines you mention quicker if you want but don’t forget the numbers as an FO.
Ok agree low seniority LHS doesn’t seem the best in terms of bidding and yes LHR can be painful. Compared to the airlines you mention I found SH to be much better on my body clock compared to previous. Night curfew is a god send really. Landing at 2/3/4am after a 10-12 hour day is bloody tough on you on days 3/4/5 etc.
Joined: Aug 2023
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
From: Istanbul
Hi all, I need some info about capacity test day, I would appreciate it if you could guide me about it. What should I expect on that day? Will there be a group and hr interview on the same day or just the capacity test? According to the documents provided, I think it is going to be on the same day however, if I recall correctly, I read in some posts that they are on the different day.
Joined: Dec 2023
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
From: London
What place in gatwick can help prep? I have my sim soon (havnt booked a date yet) and im a little nervous being one of the first few to have to try the assessment on the airbus. Never touched an airbus and I had a lot of intel about the 744 sim which was really useful, now I feel like im going in dark. Will they ignore the fact that the 380 can only go into certain airports in the UK or will the sim assesment be limited to a380 capable airports in the UK.
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 112
Likes: 7
From: Neverland
Agree pay at Euroflyer is below par in both seats.
Are you sure you checked the spreadsheet on years 2-10 LHS SH correctly? Add the TAFB disregarding the pension.
As a year 1 FO I have been pulling in no less than £4.8k after tax paying 6% pension. I might pick up a trip or 2 at NCP if a trip takes my fancy but don’t go nuts. Yes JSS is a learning curve. I bid the same every month and sometimes it’s given me the opposite of what I bid for. However I always manage to move things around in IOT/EOT plus swapping to get back to what I wanted.
Yes you will get command at the airlines you mention quicker if you want but don’t forget the numbers as an FO.
Ok agree low seniority LHS doesn’t seem the best in terms of bidding and yes LHR can be painful. Compared to the airlines you mention I found SH to be much better on my body clock compared to previous. Night curfew is a god send really. Landing at 2/3/4am after a 10-12 hour day is bloody tough on you on days 3/4/5 etc.
Are you sure you checked the spreadsheet on years 2-10 LHS SH correctly? Add the TAFB disregarding the pension.
As a year 1 FO I have been pulling in no less than £4.8k after tax paying 6% pension. I might pick up a trip or 2 at NCP if a trip takes my fancy but don’t go nuts. Yes JSS is a learning curve. I bid the same every month and sometimes it’s given me the opposite of what I bid for. However I always manage to move things around in IOT/EOT plus swapping to get back to what I wanted.
Yes you will get command at the airlines you mention quicker if you want but don’t forget the numbers as an FO.
Ok agree low seniority LHS doesn’t seem the best in terms of bidding and yes LHR can be painful. Compared to the airlines you mention I found SH to be much better on my body clock compared to previous. Night curfew is a god send really. Landing at 2/3/4am after a 10-12 hour day is bloody tough on you on days 3/4/5 etc.
10 years in wizz as a captain and you’re on close to 200k (company still terrible to work for but that’s the money you can expect)
So yes, for the first 10-11 years you’ll be the cheapest a320 captain in the country by quite a lot.
Regarding our FO salaries, they are great if you want to be a career FO and enjoy LH life. But money wise, it would take you being a PP20 LHFO or a PP26 SHFO to match the money you’d make as a year 1 captain at J2, EZY, WUK. Of course money isn’t everything, but it is a benchmark.
If long haul is the goal then yes of course, BA is the best bet in the country. Not everyone wants or will be able to get it though, so people who are in a position of being ready for an upgrade in the next year have a bit more to think about finance wise if they’re looking at SH long term.
Lifestyle wise it’s still better than a ULC, but I have mates in J2 working 4 flights a month in winter and still getting about what we get paid as SH FO’s. Fundamentally, it’s all swings and roundabouts, for anyone younger than 30 BA is the best place to be, for anyone over their mid 30’s a good look at where you are and what you want to do career wise is important not just blindly rushing in to something that can leave them financially worse off due to less or no time at the top pay scales.
Joined: Dec 2023
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
From: London
Good evening everyone !
I've read the entire thread this afternoon looking for some information on the selection process as my best friend has been called for round 2 (capacity tests)
Could anyone be so kind to PM me any details about these capacity tests and the other selection stages (interview/group exercise and sim check) ?
I've been through the selection process myself (currently 380 SFO) but my info is outdated (selection done in 2015)
Thanks a lot for your help !
Also, I've just joined PPRUNE so not sure how many messages the system will let me receive being so new - hope it works !
Have a great evening everyone
All the best for those who are currently in selections !
I've read the entire thread this afternoon looking for some information on the selection process as my best friend has been called for round 2 (capacity tests)
Could anyone be so kind to PM me any details about these capacity tests and the other selection stages (interview/group exercise and sim check) ?
I've been through the selection process myself (currently 380 SFO) but my info is outdated (selection done in 2015)
Thanks a lot for your help !
Also, I've just joined PPRUNE so not sure how many messages the system will let me receive being so new - hope it works !
Have a great evening everyone
All the best for those who are currently in selections !
Joined: Dec 2023
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
From: London
Hey everyone !
Not sure if anyone tried to send me the details of the selection process as per my post above but as I was new, I couldn't receive private messages just yet.
This should work now so thanks in advance for any help on this !
Have a great day
Not sure if anyone tried to send me the details of the selection process as per my post above but as I was new, I couldn't receive private messages just yet.
This should work now so thanks in advance for any help on this !
Have a great day
