The stereotyping going on now by several posters is frankly getting tedious and TBH shows at best that some are either at best woefully ignorant of what is going on behind the scenes or at worse deliberately trying to create friction and discontent.

I suspect part of the problem might be that unlike some communities most pilots ( BA and elsewhere) try to get on with things rather than make a song and dance about how darned important to the airline they think they were on farcebook...

Just to raise awareness of what those greedy and selfish BA pilots are getting up to I'll point out:

BA pilots are setting up a pilot organised, pilot support charity to aid those being made CR,

Some BA pilots with homes in "nice" parts of the UK and the world are offering up accommodation for free for pilots (and families) made CR in need of a break...

Many BA trainers have been trying to organise simulator sessions in their own time to help ensure those laid off leave BA with their ratings as "fresh" as possible - though BA seem to be very resistant to such an idea.

There's more, but that gives a taste.

Personally given some of the attitudes displayed by some here I'm almost regretting applying for VR ......I'm certainly wondering where a £5 million pension pot came from - somebody's CETV??

Greater experience due to time spent on the job. And judging by your post, maturity.

BA management will be licking their chops looking at this thread. As if last year’s capitulation wasn’t bad enough, they now have a successfully divided and in-fighting work force to plot their next, and probably imminent, attack against. Thankfully for the rest of us, the days of benchmarking T&Cs against BA appear to be behind us, so argue away.

From an outsider (non-BA)/insider (same industry) perspective - Anyone at the top of the list has earned the right to choose how and when they ride off into the sunset, however if you’re holding on for no other reason than a deluded sense of self worth or that your life will be meaningless without four stripes on your shoulder, maybe it really is time to take a look in the mirror.

As you were.

TBH I'm not sure there's too much of that going on Vokes, the problem for some in deciding whether to jump or not is the quality of the VR deal, but nevertheless quite a few right across the seniority spread and from both seats have already left BA or are leaving in the next day or two.

..and you are absolutely right that BA management would love reading this...and yes, considering benchmarking against BA T&Cs has been risky for some time....

I suspect BA management are well aware that the more divisive comments on here have not come from current BA pilots.

Actually for those of us lucky enough to be in that position the retirement benefits were not so much "given" as "paid for" by putting between 8.5% and 15% of pretax pay for 35 years into an independent fund that was well managed by independent trustees, with contributions from BA in the years when it didn't take a holiday! And it's readily acknowledged that as we didn't have any choice in the matter, and were advised to think of it as "deferred pay" because of the early compulsory retirement age, we have been extremely fortunate as a result, and some of us are contributing to the scheme I mentioned earlier and also noted by Wiggy..

MissChief


What a load of nonsense.

Anyone can be £££ driven, not just pilots (how about footballers?)

Nothing wrong with working all your life to benefit from a decent pension, on which income tax will be paid.
This is not greed.

Where are these C777 with £5m pensions?
No evidence, because it is unlikely to be true!

You ask where is the generosity?
Well, the pilots have just set-up a charity to help-out those CR’d.

And aviation will come back; it already is: Wizz announce they’ll be operating at 70% in September, for example.
We also need cargo, mail, or shall we go back to just ships that take weeks to travel the globe?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....39a4693077.png
I think not

Slast,

I believe you have missed my meaning. The pension you received was that which you were contracted to receive and thus paid the contributions necessary, as in that which the details were given within the contract, not that the pension received was a 'given', to use teenager parlance!

Perhaps I should have worded it better!

I also have contributed to the charity you mention above! I only wish my pension pot were the size that some Daily Mail readers tell us all they should be!!!

I hope you’re right. I know there’s a few of these types across most airlines, and I’m not sure too many of the people sitting to the right of them or behind the flight deck door will be as impressed with their Porsche, yacht, villa in Cannes or pension pot as they would’ve been 6 months ago.

On a side note wiggy, I’ve always found your posts very balanced and informative and wish you a happy retirement.

this makes little sense at all. How does one “crystallise” a pension in naps? Or if the 55+ take their pension out, I presume you mean via CETV?, well the trustees are hardly likely to give out sums that leave the scheme funds empty are they

Has BA permanently closed the LGW A320 base or just reduced it in size?
TIA for the answer.

wiggy


It’s a very small minority that give BA pilots a bad name. The one that springs to mind is a certain captain who broadcast his refusal to retire a few months early, purely so they could gift their child the last 3mths part time salary- 24k if I remember rightly. How very selfless! 🙄

MissChief

A question from the sidelines. Why should a senior pilot be expected to give up his / her retirement dreams and retire early with a reduced pension, so as to allow a junior to continue with their life style? A lot of the "senior pilots" had survived the Airline School of hard knocks in the past.

SkyRocket10

It's not me! But I believe the chap in question had 3 months to retirement. So wasn't offered VR,
Retiring 3 months early may have actually worked against the CR calculations. It was a slightly tasteless remark but his actions didn't "save a job".

Permanent is a long time so I doubt anyone can answer that, but in the current plan, all Gatwick A320 pilots are officially becoming Heathrow based A320 pilots. A small handful are entering the CRS but I suspect they failed to enter a supplementary bid (for whatever reason) and so have got what the system thinks they wanted. There are actually a handful of 747 Captains becoming A320 FOs, but I do not think it is a case of being given preference because over 250 Gatwick pilots transferred out of seniority so why deny a handful?

GS_Alpha,
Thank you very much. It must be an awful time for anyone not being able to retain their seat and base. I feel that once a vaccine becomes available things will start returning to as near as normal more quickly than is feared.

Shaman,

I feel you're right, things will return quickly. What will drag will be administrations paperwork handwringing as they try to politically 'backside' cover all eventualities.

I just hope that those who have been badly stung by this whole mess will have an opportunity to return if they wish to do so. If they didn't I could fully understand their reticence after the way the company has treated them.

I hear a 90 sec Covid test was trailed at LHR .If this test is accurate and can be rolled out, it could be a game changer.

Not sure about it being a game changer unless it is widely used at numerous airports. It might identify more people with the virus! I am not convinced that people will return to flying, let us hope it prevents a Phase 2 of restructuring