It’s all about how your body can cope with Jet Lag and Red eyes combined.
If you find your a quick to recover and a natural night lark LH is great.
If your an Early Bird or struggle to get over jet lag LCC is for you.

At the end if the day money is very close. Yes at Legacy you’ll earn more eventually but the money you earn in the short term can be worth more with compounding, or debt paydown.

There is merit to waiting your time, but I fear Ollie maybe missing the changes that have occurred over the past ten years where his friends have gained a good lifestyle. For example, PP34.. an extra ten years to get to the top of the tree now, so many joining in their thirties will enjoy only a couple of years. This coupled with the loss of NAPS to an industry competitive pension further reduces the significant benefits of a long term BA career.

Other things that must be considered (especially short haul) is the ‘Heathrow factor!’ Slot delays, 25 minute taxi times, holding inbound, waiting for stands, Aircraft and terminal swapping, 2 hour waits between flights in Pret. When you add these together over a 12 month period these add up to 10’s days of lost time ( or effective earnings ). You can also factor reserve periods into this. Considerable loss of earnings and stability can occur during your three week period of reserve. If you get unlucky and sit at the bottom of a fleet you will be enjoying plenty of reserve, regardless of weekend points. Compounded since the loss of fixed flight pay which was in existence when Ollie’s mates joined. Also, long haul are working hard, loss of back to backs due EASA makes life more difficult. Busy long haul fleets can often see five or more trips with just two days off in between. Being junior on certain fleets can be brutal, with reserve, weekend work and lack of roster control.

If you hit a sweet spot during a recruitment bulge and go in as a DEP to a long haul fleet, with 1 or 200 coming in under you on seniority, you may end up with a fairly comfortable lifestyle. However, the desire of management is to reduce lay over lengths ( short haul already enjoy many 12-14 nightstops ), address the hotel budget ( not a good thing when we spend our lives in them ). Who knows what else is to come??

BA is certainly still a decent career in the UK, but it has changed beyond recognition and our new union has a huge battle on their hands. To get to a point where you can control your roster ( tanks to JSS) and enjoy the ‘big bucks’ (PP34) is far longer than previous! Regional based flying with front loaded earnings certainly competes now, hence the frustrations of the many at BA and this thread. You certainly accept less career stability (well at the moment), but you are potentially going to enjoy a far greater work life balance ( something we take for granted whilst we young and have our health). With that said, if you can make BA work, on PP34... You may just earn more on a payslip over thirty years.

This whole thread, starting from the title, is total nonsense.

VJW I get your sentiments but to be fair you can’t really compare a DEC easyJet position to a DEP one at BA financially. It’s fairly obvious that one is going to come out way ahead of the other and different qualifications/experience are required for each, hence it’s apples and oranges, particularly as one who is in a position to apply for Direct Entry Captain already has their command and a certain financial status and, by virtue of their decision to apply to apply for a BA DEP position, is presumably taking a longer term view of things than the immediacy of the first payslip.

I’m not sure how you can be relaxed all the time when your health is being degraded by being flogged to death over 40 years.

That’s the point though, if you relax and don’t get stressed about the inevitable slots and delays then perfectly fine! If I’ve got a block of earlier then I go to bed at 8 the Night before and then I’m not tired and actually enjoy the job!

do you have kids ? Does your other half let you off for going to bed at 8pm ??

yep. Lie ins too after a long trip. It’s about management and fairness. I bring in the coin. She manages the household/kids. I’m amazed at the number of people who seem to have partners that don’t get the requirements of the job, seeming to think that staff travel, cheap luxury holidays and being in the top 3% of Uk household earnings happens support free from the other side of the relationship. If she is earning mega wonga too, why wouldn’t you get an au pair?

If you’re someone who can get straight to sleep at 8PM on an early (especially the first night) then you’re a very lucky man and, believe me, very much in the minority.

This sums it up.

This reply only shows that you have no idea what you are talking about. Having been at EZY now for the last 18 months, I am far from being flogged to death. So far I average just shy of 700 hours for the rolling 12 month period.

Also due to the preferential bidding I tend to only do early flights and two sector days. In general I leave home between 4 and 5am and am back home around 1pm. In my book that is far from being flogged to death. Yes, I do the occasional 4 sector day but on average not more then two per month. In my previous company I would normally fly close to 900 hours a year and most of these were Canaries, Turkey, Cyprus or Egypt so long days out.

Institute for Fiscal Studies website puts you and your partner in the top 1% of UK households, never mind 3%. You may not feel well off, but you certainly are. Obviously it depends how much of that income is disposable and what choices you’ve made.

CEJM You have been with EZY for 18 months. You know nothing about the long term effects. If you were a member of BALPA you would be aware of the alarming statistics.

Over 15 years in and yet to suffer burnout. Yes I am tired, but I am not fatigued. When it becomes too much I just call in fatigued.

Yes on earlies I go to bed at 8pm and I have school age children.

why does your son going to bed after 8pm affect when you go to bed, or what time you get up? As I said, get an au pair in. Double mega salary requires sacrifice. That’s what we get paid mega bucks for.

i suspect another family chained to the south east rat race. Couldn’t do it myself.