Allow, you mention of good quality of life but I'd like to hear from LH people who've been in a few years. The picture painted sounds far sounds as hard work as anywhere with roster assign, high CAP figures and impending EASA regs.

5 trips a month is pretty hard work, but the potential of 6? What's your honest opinion of quality of life on long haul as a junior?

The tipping balance for me is when you stop coming home and feeling like you're at home instead you feel like you're flying in for a brief visit between trips and heading out still jet lagged. The money isn't the most important for me. The lifestyle is in a job balanced by decent enough money.

Wireless

1) Roster Assign - As a Blind Line Holder, your entire roster is 'assigned.' (As opposed to 'awarded' which is when you actively bid for a line/trip.) BLHs already pretty much cover the month's 'hotspots', so in many ways RA is much less of an issue for juniors than seniors.

2) High CAP figures - ANNUAL CAP limits are laid down in Bid Line Rules. BA have to pay overrun payments to every pilot on any status, if they exceed these by a set margin. They would rather gnaw off their own gonads than pay this money. So if CAPs are high early in a year, they will invariably be lower later in the year. Ask any 767 capt what their monthly CAP is for Dec, for precisely this reason! Thus far, BLHs rarely work to CAP anyway. Part of their credit is achieved by Time Assignable days, which are often unusable!

3) Impending EASA regulations - British Airways are in the process of a MASSIVE recruitment process, increasing their pilot numbers to record levels, just as EASA commences. Care to hazard a guess why??? EASA is going to be at least as big a problem for BA as it is for any individual pilots.

You mention 6 trips a month? I can't GUARANTEE that there won't be odd months when you MAY fly 6 trips, but if you think that means 72 trips per year, you are WAY wide of the mark! Every other month, you can have a week's leave, (plus 3 wrap days) or Duty Free Week (with 1 non assignable day) If you have kids under 18 you are entitled to four weeks unpaid leave for every qualifying child. I'd be staggered if you reach 50 trips in any year on LH! Probably much less.

All these considerations ONLY WHEN YOU'RE JUNIOR! Once you're senior, then you can virtually write your own roster, flying to some of the greatest cities/islands in the world. If you want to do that from day one, then tell me where you're going to work?!

Not sure I've ever done 6 trips a month except when prostituting myself for overtime. Looking back over the last 6 months I haven't worked more than 15-18 days per month and I've been in the company 10 years and I'm only 25% from the bottom of the 777 list. And I've never had a blind line except when I've missed a bidding date or forgotten altogether.

Busbo,

BA is full of commuters, they make it work and I'm sure you can too. If you are half interested, go through the process and see what you get offered. I'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed with the job but you will certainly add complexity into your life. You will spend a few nights a month at a Heathrow hotel if going posh or a B+B if not, you will have a new hobby swapping trips and checking ibid and find all sorts of shortcuts to get your flight home on time. The big question when flying for a loco (which I did for many years too) is, can you keep on doing the same kind of flying until retirement? Variety is the spice of life and BA probably has as much variety as you can hope for in an airline.

If you are 320 rated, you may well find the offer is not for long haul in any case despite the current campaign.

Good luck

PK

[old f*** warning]

I'm sensing there's a bit of a thought that (whatever their construction) Blindlines aren't really a problem (if indeed you perceive that they are) because you're not on them for very long.

Could I make the observation that BA is in a state of almost unheralded recruitment/pilot number expansion and many have rightly enjoyed their rapid rise up their status list in the last year, possible helped because many on Short Haul are currently stuck with engagement freezes.

At some point recruitment will slow down (hopefully not stop), and for sure engagement freezes will expire. In the past when that has happened it's not unknown for junior pilots on Long Haul fleets to drop back into Blindlines (senior internal transfers move in above them, most especially if the fleet is expanding), or simply not rise above Blindlines for the best part of a decade (as myself and a few others can testify).

I'm not saying don't join BA because of Blindlines, people do make them work, but I'd certainly be aware of how they work (post EASA), factor them into the pros and cons of joining, especially if you are a commuter. "TASS" (time assignability) is not simply a bit of padding on the line to make up credited hours up without going to work, you can get used. If you don't live locally to LHR you will need to have a plan for handling the likes of a 1759 UK time phone call out for a 0600 local report from TASS.

Above all I'd caution against the seemingly increasingly popular view that you will inevitably blow through Blindlines in a matter of months....because at some point people won't.

Wiggy

(>25 years in BA, > 8 on Blindlines...........see comments about juniority on expanding fleets.)

[/old f*** warning]

Old f***?

Your next post will be your 3000th though.... :ok:

Aaarggh...

oooh ....Thanks for the heads up. Should I expect a Pprune recognition of long and loyal service bottle of champagne to arrive in the post ......or is the long service stuff here a bit like at BA :E?????

Your certificate is in the post....unframed!

Hi all,

I'm starting at BA soon, A320 LHR. I will be commuting from Amsterdam. Planning to stay in a hotel when I'm at LHR. Any advice with hotels or other housing options?

Thanks!

NLP

A few of the Bath Road hotels, such as the Ibis, the Arora, the Premier Inns (both the "T5" one and the Bath Road one), and the Hilton Garden Inn at Hatton Cross (formerly known as Jurys Inn - handy for the Training Centre) frequently offer discount, also there are a handful of crew B&Bs near the crew car park again just off the Bath Road.

You might want to contact those hotels direct at this stage and see if they can offer anything ahead of your joining BA/before you get ID. I'd best not put any required log-ons here - once you're "in" you may be able to find out full discount details via in company intranet/BALPA forum.

Clearly using a P instead of a C in that post means my terminology is very sloppy. Either that or I haven't a clue. Either way, I don't expect you LHR boys will change mindsets easily.

I'm not sure if the Easy guys do work less and get paid more to be honest. Ask the guys that are based at LGW that are ex-Easy (those giving up Commands as well) to see why they moved. I'm not sure why the comparison is made either - new joiners will be paid exactly the same as our own LHR colleagues. Have a look at a few recent months rosters to see how hard we're working.

It's unfair that LGW has the reputation that it seems to. My opinion only of course, having worked at LHR and LGW, and living almost midway between both it's a no-brainer for me.

One thing I've been noticing with regards to Easy v BA argument, you don't seem to have many BA guys justifying why they stay at BA....

Or why they left BA for easy

Well this is very straightforward in the first instance - you can happily argue that there is no sensible starting package for an experienced pilot at easyJet. At least incomparable to the starting BA offer.

However I have to say from my personal experience that those who are happy at easyJet, living by the lake in the sunshine with part time fixed pattern rosters, simply have no interest in PPRUNE lifestyle debates and are certainly far too busy in their swimming pools to ever feel the need to justify their lifestyle choice.

Be careful the decisions you make based on a very limited and not necessarily complete survey group.

So near yet so far !
 

Just fishing to see if any others are in a similar boat to myself, trying to make the last leap into the holdpool.

Aug, passed Day1. Sep, passed Day2. Since then I have been trying to get a SIM assessment slot but to no avail. I know an awful lot of hiring has taken place in this period but as a NTR ex mil mate without qualifying experience for the Long Haul slots I guess I'm pretty far down the list.

Last week my application was put on hold pending the next round of NTR recruitment, however no timescale given.

Rumours of huge recruitment are welcome, rumours of more NTR recruitment even more welcome.

Congratulations to all that have made it !!! :D

There are plenty of those types in BA as well!

Stocious
Oh dear. Did it ever occur to you that many of "you LHR boys" actually used to be 'LGW boys'? (and girls??)

You know a little of BA. That's perfectly understandable. Many have been on the same path you are currently on. They moved on. As will you.

I've been in 10 years, joining as a DEP on 777.

As probably mentioned, lifestyle means different things to different people. My preference is flying East with the odd Caribbean and South American trip for variety. I rarely go to the US, maybe twice a year. I can achieve this easily and I am about 35% from the bottom of the list.

Swapping and sector swapping is very popular and with luck you can re-write your whole roster.

Blind lines only by bidding mistakes, I was wiped recently as I underbid and was given 3x5 day trips for the month.

Can always get leave in summer, but have not really tried for Christmas.

Have the seniority to achieve Airbus SH captaincy but would think about maybe 787 instead, just for a change, but equally happy on the 777.

When I last looked we had 50 different destinations and there is usually enough time to make the most of any place.

My choice to go East, others like going West or beach or golf or kite surf of time at home or weekends at home. Consequently used to the time change, can sleep down route and have no issues forgetting about work and relaxing in the UK.

Thanks for the education.

LGW...

Isn't that what they put next to that extra 5 tons of fuel they load? I've never actually known what that stood for.

I always thought it was like some kind of soccer chant. You know, like "Let's Go Worldwide", and here's lots of gas to do it...

BA: great for some, ****e for others. Kinda like everything else in life.

Best of luck to everyone trying to get in.

Cheers

Buter