BA 747 Lifestyle & Roster
 

Hi everyone,

I asked my question on the main BA DEP thread, but the conversation has gone off on a bit of a tangent. I've also had a few PMs from other people due to join the 747 fleet, and we're all still none the wiser on the sort of rosters and lifestyle we can expect as junior F/Os on the fleet.

Please can anyone post here with any helpful info. Of particular interest is whether it's true that the long 9-day Bangkok-Sydney trips generally get taken by senior guys, or whether junior guys can expect these allocated to them? Could anyone please provide a roster example and let me know whether it was bid for or was allocated?

Many thanks,
Shortcut

The great aspect of being junior on the 747 is that most trips are still within reach. The 9 day BKK/SYD is a senior trip but on a blindline you may get allocated one, but chances are reasonably slim.

Other popular routes are SIN, PHX and the new LAS. However, most of the guys on the 'bottom page' have been to these destinations, albeit infrequently.

The real crunch for junior pilots is how much do you value weekends off? If you are prepared to work all your weekends you will probably get 'better' trips. But then one mans great trip, e.g JNB for golfers, is another mans dross.

High credit 3 crew/3 day trips are popular, SEA, YVR, LAS.

After time on line, you will work out what trips you like. There really are very few trips that are very unpopular, maybe MEX is not high on most peoples list.

As I said, you'll probably work most weekends to get the more popular trips, but you will still be able to fly almost all of the network.

This is a junior P2 747 roster from a recent month............

Day 1 Off
Day 2 BOM 4 day trip
Day 6 Off
Day 7 Off
Day 8 CPT 5 day trip
Day 13 Off
to
Day 16 GRU 5 day trip
Day 21 Off
to
Day 24 PEK 4 day trip

then off to end of month.

Thus 18 days work in a 30 day month but only 81 hrs 15 mins credit hours.
So if this pilot wasn't on a blind line he would have needed hours in the bank to avoid losing money from his pay packet.

Main point to note is this was chosen at random and there are other less desirable combinations.....

Bear in mind that the '5' day trips are really only 3 full days away with late departures on the 1st night and early arrivals on the 5th morning. Total elapsed time of 82 odd hours.

Well its all 3 crew with bunks is one good thing then.

It wouldn't be a roster I'd necessarily bid for (BOM especially is an inefficient trip if days off is what you want) but I wouldn't find it especially tiring. BOM and PEK are both near enough UK daytime flights home too.

It's worth remembering there is a very established swap culture on the 747 especially. All done by contacting the pilots by email or text and suggesting a deal.

Commuters are keen to 'back to back' trips, so as long as the legal rest limits are observed, they will swap so it gives them 5 or 6 days off together.

Everyone likes different things, so it would be easy to swap similar credit trips. If you liked the west coast of the US as opposed to going East, there are many options to create a roster more to your taste.

Many thanks for the info and discussion so far. My personal preference would be for as little time away as possible, would it be possible to achieve cap by only doing shorter 2 or 3 day trips? Is this sort of roster possible, and if so, is it likely achievable for junior First Officers?

Cheers,
Shortcut

It's very unlikely you will achieve anything but blind lines when you join, and in all likelyhood this will continue to be the case for your first 5-6 years in the company. Fully expect to work 3-4 weekends a month, except obviously during months with leave. To add to this you can also expect 2 periods of month long reserve each year. You will join in band 3, with almost all guys on the fleet currently band 2.
Aside the above, I think you will enjoy a variety of destinations.
Good luck.

Here's another 747 FO's roster - blindline, one of the most junior on the fleet:

1:Off
2-6: JNB
7-8: Off
9-12: PEK
13-14: Off
15: Time Assignable (an ad-hoc stand-by of sorts; they need to notify you the evening before if they intend to use you; used to generate credit hours)
16: Off
17-21: GRU
22-24: Off
25-27: JFK
28-30: Off

HTH

If you are on a blindine, you can't swap credit when you change trips. Hence if you swap a JFK for an LAX you will do the excess for 'free', ie in your own time. It's worth it sometimes if you really want to get to a certain destination.

As a grumpy 744 Captain, you also need to remember the time of year is a big factor.

CPT or JNB midwinter is not the same destination as a CPT or JNB in the summer. The east coast of the USA is best avoided all winter, and for most of the summer. OK in the spring and the fall... just. India is best avoided in the monsoon, and HKG in the typhoon season. Midsummer in the UK is also midwinter in SYD... so for me I will bid for a SYD in the UK winter, but never in the UK summer... and so on.

So as a junior pilot on the fleet all destinations are available, but less availiable according to the season and the day of the week.

What's so bad about the east coast during the summer? Too hot or too much weather?

Full of Americans..........

Shortcut,

I can assure you as a 'regular BKK-SYD' pilot that you are very unlikely to get one as its generally a very senior trip. However not impossible but as other posters have stated if you want the better trips be prepared to compromise on dates etc. Please don't be whining in 2 years time about lifestyle etc etc....!!! Its an awesome fleet and I have never heard even junior guys/girls complaining. A number of times I have completely forgotten to bid and have been assigned all the weekend supposed 'crap' but even then I have shrugged and enjoyed it.

The great thing about BA is the variety and all the Pilots have VASTLY different opinions about what is good for them. For personal reasons I love the East Coast USA and so am totally at odds with some of the opinions expressed here already.

Don't be blinkered or be cynical/jaded before you even join, try it all (you will get the chance) and form your own opinions of what you enjoy.

Welcome and good luck.

Toro.

Alot of good info on this thread.
As a junior FO, who would be more than happy to work weekends, how feasible is it to commute from Newcastle? From what I gather, it would be sensible to do high duty hour trips?

Commuting is possible on all fleets. On the 747 and 777, Newcastle would hardly even count as commuting! We have people who commute from Brazil, Canada, South Africa and Australia.... to name but a few...

Thanks for the reply fruitbat.
Im trying to understand how days off could be distributed? Is it possible to do fewer trips with high duty hours?

BirmEx:

Given that line of work one answer would be to try and trip swop with somebody else on the fleet. For example I'd try to swop the JFK on the 25th with another three day trip departing on the 22nd - producing a "back to back" with the GRU (I'm assuming such a swop would be legal from a Flight Time Limitations point of view)

No idea, to be honest. I'm a FEW at the momet; that's a mate's roster. I suspect the ultra-long haul commuters are mostly part-time/senior enough to bid appropriately.

2 hrs up the A303 is enough for me!!:ok:

Yep, from my experience that's pretty much the case - the senior guys might be able to generate a decent commuting line through the normal bid process but otherwise you do need to indulge in a bit of "horse trading" to make it work.