BASHLH,

Thanks, hopefully the next 12 months won't be too agonising! Appreciate you giving a heads up on anything you manage to find out, in the mean time I shall be in contact with recruitment as frequently as possible without being an outright nuisance!

Hello

Regarding the leave. I gather its bid for 6 months in advance and over 2 bid seasons, and that you have 6 weeks allotted including the un worked weeks. A few questions:-

1/ Is it possible to achieve 3 blocks of leave in each season or are you restricted to one 2 week block and one single week?

2/ If you have a weeks leave of 7 days are there any "wrap around" days attached to the 7 days off in lieu of normal days off?

3/ How does a month with leave affect your requirement to achieve CAP? Does leave count towards CAP.

Many thanks.

To answer the leave questions:

Leave at LHR is two weeks a season, with a duty free week

You can take these in blocks of a single week or as a two week block, you could, in theory, put the DFW up against the leave block of two weeks.

The leave blocks have 3 wrap days attached to them meaning that you can make the week into 10 days.

Leave and the DFW attract the daily rate of CAP. So divide monthly cap by the days in the month and you attract that much credit per day on leave and DFW

Wrap days and DFWs can be worked in, leave cannot.

Leave is bid for but is not seniority based. Each leave block has an attached value in points. This adds to your pot. More attractive leave blocks earn less points. When the leave bids are allocated, the highest points gets the leave allocated first.

Points last for (i think) 8 years, so after that time the points you earned 9 years ago are wiped - but the points for the last 8 years remain.

Many thanks for answering JT.

I read it as "1+3" rather than "1 of 4" boxes. So 3500 TT etc, then including one of the next three criteria.

The instructions in the Annual Bid document states the same. Otherwise, some of our early FPP chaps could easily have 2000hrs plus one year in BA come the start of their command course, but they've all been denied.

All this is irrelevant unless you are in BA, Bid line , leave , nice to know but really, anyone commited to all the time n effort necessary to get into the pool dont give too hoots about the complexities of Bid or leave.
Its gotta be better than most loco J2 or Monarch!

You don't know anyone's situation. I'll ask what I like thank you all the same.

and if you are in BA then I would assume you know the answers. It may be better than eJ and Monarch but how would we know if we don't ask ?

Really?

I would say it depends very much on your age , and where you live.

Why age now? If commands are happening at 1-2 years after joining, what difference does age make? Age was only a thing cause it meant financially other options were better wasn't it? But now BA seems to be offering quick commands that most would give their right arm for (apart from current BA employees strangely).

And so now you can make FO money on a part time Capt salary if you want so who cares about seniority or bid line. Or just kick back and as you work up the list you get all your weekends back.

BA command on SH happens fairly quick if you got the requirement, especially A320 LGW base. :ok:

Wrong!

Many captains and FO's have recently declined their moves back to LHR next year. Most are enjoying life at LGW with great crew and a real variety of flying. More importantly, the roster control you get as a junior pilot at LGW is far better. Ultimately this will result in LHR becoming the most junior command by some margin.

Guys I' ve said it for a long time, the future is low cost for short haul, period. Just different flags, but same story. I think this is to keep in mind when thinking career moves etc..It will come for long haul too, not just yet though.
Good luckto all

Well if you've said it for a long time, and yet it still hasn't happened; perhaps, just perhaps you may be wrong.
I think personally there's a market for full service and no frills. BA seem to be proving this.

I was talking about contracts, lifestyle and hours per year...and as you can very well see it has happened already..

SkyRocket10
To be accurate. In 2016, any pilot in BA with the required experience for command can achieve LHS A320 IF THEY BID FOR IT in the annual bid. Certain freezes (including type freezes) have been waived.

Anyone with the experience, can achieve a LHR command. Anyone with the experience, can achieve a LGW command. It just depends which you prefer? Long, four sector days = LGW. Multi day Euro tours = LHR. LGW pilots achieve fewer days off, and will eventually bump up against a pay cap.

The current time to command is a TOTAL one off. Don't make ANY plans expecting it to last!

There are reasons why SH commands are unpopular in BA.

If LHS of an Airbus is all you want, go to/stay at Easy.

4468 : Good closing point. Does remind me, though, of Trident SBY at the Queens (not a pub) and expressing a desire to exit BA after the merger saw many of us go backwards through the Seniority Lists, I mentioned that a faster time to Command was achievable by joining the so-called Independents. I was smartly put in my place by a T3 SFO who proudly asserted that, surely, it was a BA Command that was the aim. All history now but I agree that, surely, a LHS on anything with BA painted on the side has got to be well worth aiming for and maintaining, once achieved.

You'd have to be mad to leave a command at easyJet on the assumption that you could get a BA Heathrow command after 6 months. There's absolutely no guarantee of that happening and even if it did, you would take a massive pay cut to do so. Over on the easyJet DEP thread, someone has posted a very comprehensive review of the Captain package at easyJet. It is significantly better than the BA package on pay point 1, and for many, many years thereafter it remains better, especially once you factor in the share schemes and bonuses that easyJet pay. Not only that, but your lifestyle would take a major hit for a long time as you ended up flying blind lines with no roster control (to the new EASA FTL limits!).

If, however, you want to go long haul then clearly there is an argument that now is a good time to make the move.

As for low cost short haul being the future, the term "low cost" would be better replaced by "low wage". The future of short haul is increasingly in the middle ground in terms of service. Passengers want some extras like frequent flyer schemes and newspapers and wifi etc. Even "low-cost" carriers like Vueling are realizing this. The key to providing it all at an attractive price is to ruthlessly drive down labour costs. The incoming Executive Chairman of BA wholeheartedly subscribes to this view of the world and will doubtless drive forward its implementation.

If this is the argument, then I rest my case.

Apparently no longer the case due to a number of people declining the base transfer from LGW. I believe this is also combined with a rumoured change to manpower levels, which will obviously affect available positions.