In an ideal world, they'd pay.

However, having flown for three different airlines and worked for three (big) companies in a previous career - including recruitment and management - none of them remimbursed expenses. The same goes for the dozens of other interviews I've attended over the years. The only exceptions were two sandpit based airlines that paid for a return ticket for the interview, plus a night in a hotel. And they only did that because otherwise no-one would make a 6,000 mile return trip for an assessment. The last company - in fact the only one - that offered to pay my travelling expenses to an interview was way back in 1990. God I feel old.

It's not just airlines, it's the modern world I'm afraid. Airlines - make that employers in general - don't expect to pay expenses and candidates generally don't expect to claim them. It would soon change if everyone refused to attend interviews unless their expenses were paid, but I suspect that's as likely as no-one paying for a type rating . . .

It wouldn’t be a problem to compensate if people would only apply to one company but reality is they apply to 3-5 various outfits and see where they pass and who offer the best t&c. So it will not happen any time soon.

You still get that at BA - especially if you land off an unstable approach.

Admittedly it is many years since I attended an interview, but I never paid. If the airline would not cover costs, I figured we probably would not get on with each other, or that perhaps they could not afford the basics, so what else could they not afford?
Later, as a chief pilot, I never expected candidates invited for interview to pay. This sometimes brought me in conflict with the CEO and sundry beancounters. But one must be very selective, almost to the point of being ruthless, to weed out potential time wasters by looking closely at claimed experience and following up references first.
It can be costly for the airline when duds and fakes slip through to final selection, only to prove their ineptitude in the simulator evaluation. MCDU2 alludes to this.

Now for some thread drift resultant from Sheppey’s post #8...
A rigorous simulator evaluation is money well spent. I believe that the New Zealand airline described above is on the right track. Now that I am relegated to a back seat, it gives me comfort to know that some operators still want pilots who can fly while dealing with stress and distraction!

TOP TIP: Part of that ‘distraction’ is knowing when to say “I’m concentrating on the flying. Let me answer that when I’ve done the A+N of ANC”

If an airline has spent time looking at each applicant properly and researching their work history, so can be reasonably sure that they will pass the interview and want the job: they can put them in the company hotel, (£50 corporate rate), and be fairly sure they will get their money back.

A guy did this to me during a SIM check for my first airline, many years’ ago. The SIM was a completely manual piston twin and I had to deal with that and fly a route consisting of VOR and ADF tracking and holding, leading to an ILS and go-around etc. The guy was being very chatty, and initially I thought he was just a pleasant sort of bloke and I was chatting back, but then I realised that he was doing it to try to distract me from my flying and navigation.

As soon as I realised this, the simple comment, “Standby”, from me while I was busy entering the hold or turning onto the localiser stopped him talking, and when I had finished the manoeuvre and had some brain space, I would then ask him: “Sorry, say again”.

I passed :)


@filejw, I am sure I am not alone in that I can work out many mathematical things in my head, such as a formula for the area of a hexagon from first principles, but if someone is metaphorically leaning over me demanding an answer, my ‘maths brain’ sometimes locks up. Knowing how to deal with this sort of pressure is a good trait to have as a pilot. :ok: