Thomas Cook
 

Hi Guys,
Anyone have any information on roster patterns and conditions at TCX ? mainly the "other" bases like EMA A321/ roster would be greatly received and any information about them ? pm If you prefer, but ANY information would be very helpful.....thanks in advance and much love:ok:

Thomas cook EMA rosters
 

Come on guys, there has to be someone out there who can help ???

Pretty standard charter roster, but generally stable. Out and back rotations to the usual suspects during summer: some very early check-ins (04.30 - 05.30) some very long days: Antalya, Larnaca etc, though Turkey and Egypt questionable at present. Night flights. Expect to work most weekends. Winter is usually touring Scandinavia through Las Palmas for the TCX Scandies. Long haul goes mostly to the main bases. Salary and benefits not bad. A good scheduling agreement. Great colleagues. Leave system's a shambles at present but due for repair. If there's a way to piss off the crews the rubbish airline management will find it, but the tour operator seems to have got a grip at last. Whether the new UK DFO proves less contentious than the old one remains to be seen. New aircraft and routes. It's never going to be the must-go-to employer, but there are plenty worse places to work.

TCX
 

Guys thanks for the replies. much appreciated....:ok:

how do the scandi winter ops work ? just out of curiosity ? volunteer basis or rostered ? away for consecutive days ? with days off at home etc ? thanks

Rostered away for up to 8 days. Very inefficient operation with just one return trip to Scandinavia from LPA. They would be better off planning 2 trips to Scandi per visit and reducing the overall demand for crews in LPA.

Do you have the facility to bid for your roster?

Being junior to the company, I assume you will get a blindline of whats left (is that a correct assumption?). If so, what sort of input/requests or changes can be made if you are junior (e.g can you swap trips)?

And roughly how many hours per year do you average over a summer?

No bidline in TCX. Rosters are random and over a season you should get a fair share of good and bad according to taste.
Rosters can appear to be cut'n'paste affairs sometimes, you see a repeating sequence of duties for a few weeks.
You can swop trips if you can find someone to swop with. There is a place on our intranet website to offer them.
Seniority has no bearing on rostering. (it does on base transfers etc)
750-800 hrs sh per year.
Overtime system is an online bidding system for trips offered. Work given out according to least cost to TCX. You can place a permanent request for overtime which effectively reduces your days off by 2 per month.

Ok cool,


Thanks for that excellent answer.


Is LGW an A330 base and is mixed fleet flying based on seniority?


And if you are based at a smaller base, could you be asked to cover another base?

MAN is the main 330 base. MAN pilots can be 330 only or MFF. You can bid for 321 SH only.
LGW is currently a single 330. Almost all will do MFF, MFF is default position. It is likely mostly SH in summer.
If you wish to change from default, bid based on seniority.

Smaller bases tend to tour more in Winter. Quite a few LH W patterns.

If LH 330 is your target, MAN is essential. With the current expansion it would come quickly. It is also the base least likely to suffer employment disruption should the tide turn against tcx.

Ok thanks again. You have been very helpful.


But just to clarify, is the default MFF exclusively for MAN/LGW bases or are all pilots in the company (regardless of base) expected to do MFF at some point? (Even in the winter for some smaller bases)

yes, you'll only get MFF at LGW/MAN. Although there are folk about who have moved base and maintained their MFF. Usually trainers, but this is very much the exception.
TCX will train you up on the 321, then either, you bid for MFF and wait for your turn (if you are not based at LGW/MAN you will need to bid for the base change first) or if they need you, you will be put on a course whether you like it or not. At the moment, it is expected that all new joiners at MAN will become MFF as there is a shortage to LH FO's. I don't know the situation at LGW, it may take longer as the program is smaller there.

One thing to bear in mind, TCX has changed its mind on crew planning every couple of years, so info today may not be valid in the future. If LH is a big issue for you, this may not be your airline. However, the ability to change between LH and SH during the year makes for a more interesting job. It always makes me laugh, the amount of people who have left TCX for greener pastures, only to realise later that they were actually already on one of the best gigs in the industry.

Thanks, I’m not desperate for long haul for now.
I think I’d rather a smaller base as well.
Just one other question, I assume lots of weekend flying is partof the summer schedule.

Is it usual to work through your entire weekend, like Sat andSunday back to back all summer?

Also, after those longer days to Turkey, Greece and Canaries, whatis the day off/rest policy like?

Tricky to answer as the workload in terms of days on duty varies with how long the duty days are. The following is very general and comes from my old rosters.
If you were at a northern base where the all of the work was Canaries,Greece and Turkey, then you'd work about 10-12 days a month. 10 days off, plus some standbys/leave.
If you have quite a few Spain/Italy plus a few longer flights and you work at a base in the south of the Uk you could work about 14 days. Don't forget a night flight is spread over 2 days effectively.
Leave is quite generous and goes up to 50 days after a few years service. We also have a bookable day off system, so you have some control over some of your natural days off.
Nothing is perfect and you'll never always be able to get all of the dates you want, particularly weekends.
In the summer it is difficult to get an entire Fri-Sun free of duty, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you can book a GDO, I have done 2 summers where I worked almost every weekend. Winter is easier. You do need to understand and work the leave/gdo system to control your lifestyle. This is more of a problem at small bases.
We have a good lifestyle union agreement which overlays the EASA FTL.
Nothing is perfect, but it works pretty well. Sadly the old charter days of doing nothing in the winter are long gone.

So are you home most nights on A321 Short Haul?
And is the roster team ok with swapping trips on one of the weekend days (if you wanted to get one of the days off or a different start or end time than rostered)?
And on average, how many flights per week during the quieter winter period do you do?

Also, is anyone able to shed any light on the net take-home pay in the first year or two? I appreciate it is a bit variable, and also depends on retirement contributions, but a loose figure inclusive of per diem/duty pay would be appreciated..

Cheers

Rostering is manned by some good people who will do most things to help including swapping trips whenever they may occur providing of course it doesn't impact other scheduling. You can't always get what you want as you can imagine.

Winter depending on base 1 or 2 per week. Skippers have been doing more from what I've heard.

Net take home pay in Year 1, as mentioned before I'm on target for around £72k gross which is approx £50k take home.

Thanks for the info, Superpilot.

Is there going to be any NTR pilot recruitment in near future or is it mostly cadets being hired? Thanks

Thanks for the response, sounds like a nice operation and lifestyle. I assume all new starters train in the quieter winter months. But if already typed on the airbus a320, do they have a shortened type course to get you online quicker?