Simple life your contribution is next to useless!

It is totally pointless using figures that are 2 years out of date for Easyjet and then using the classic "good month syndrome" with an extra trip at BA and saying look what I've got!

What is Pay Point 2 for a long haul FO and what is your average monthly allowance over the last 6 months?

We all know there are numerous other variables to consider and anybody swapping companies will take them into account, but basic salary and sector pay are the beginning.

Tell us some hard facts.

Airbrake,

Don't know if it helps you but here should be some average figures for BA.

Year 1 DEP = £48500 (it's actually not a round figure but it's £48000 and a bit)

Average allowance is £12000 yearly

Yearly increase in salary (i.e. year 1 to year 2) is around £2500.

Don't work for BA but figures are from a friend who works for them.

Thanks CEJM.

Obviously the easy schedule makes some people a little tetchy.

However the figures I quoted were merely to help a fellow pilot make an informed decision. The take home amounts I quoted were average figures based on a rolling 6 months.

Go figure the 2 year inflation effect and don't be so nasty.

Surely, even in RPI terms that's not bad? And probably a decent negotiated cost of living rise as well?

BaronBlue,

What you need is a crystal ball!

:ok:

Number 2 trumps number 3. In BA an FO won't earn more than a Captain with equivalent years of service.

Airbrake,

Your little swipe at SimpleLife was a bit unnecessary, no one has criticized your move to stay at easy rather than move to BA as it was very carefully though about.

You seem the need to justify yourself on a financial basis, I like SimpleLife left easy in search of lifestyle, no amount of money would have made me stay and trust me when I speak of easy with my colleagues now it is always in good, the only thing that was negative was the lifestyle and the longterm effect it would have on my flying career.

All the best.

Gentlemen, it was not a swipe and I was not being nasty towards Simplelife. Comparing something 2 years out of date and giving no hard figures was as useful as last months met brief.

Nobody has yet disagreed with the figures CEJM gave. These are nothing like the sums Simplelife implied.

Some fresh wind blowing through the smog.
Compare :
with

and behold

is (naturally) untrue.

Might be worth factoring out the bonus as with oil at $135 per barrel none of us are getting a bonus next year:( Then again you could include the BA bonus, which stands at a whopping 2% this year.

The bonus at Ezy is paid regardless of profits.

The figures quoted by CEJM are correct. As a junior bod at BA you'll most likely do blindlines to begin with which means invariably you'll be flying every (or virtually) every weekend. The upside is that you tend to work slightly less than CAP (the target number of credit hours that BA set for us each month, usually in the mid to high 80's). From my own experience on the 777, on a blindline you can't really bank on picking up an extra trip each month. The reason being is that the overtime trips available nearly always fall over the weekend which seeing as you'll be working then anyway means that you can't obviously do it. I'm not sure if it's more feasible on shorthaul, over to someone else for that one! Also, on a blindline as you'll be a bit under CAP you only get the full overtime rate for the amount your new trip takes you over CAP for the month, so it may well not be worth doing essentially. As with everything at BA, the rules are complicated and will take some time to get used to, expect to make several errors before you get the hang of it!

For someone coming from easy to BA, I would suggest that money shouldn't be the motivator. Assuming you have, or expect to shortly have, a command at easy, the money £92.5k ish vastly outshines the initial BA salary £61k ish inc allowances. Sure, the BA salary goes up £2.5k ish each year but you'll be many years off command, maybe 15+ for a longhaul command anyway, not sure about shorthaul, less obviously. The BA Capt Salary is higher than that at easy but you'll be waiting a long time to get there which makes it more of a close call over the course of a career. BA pays in 12% of basic into your pension pot which I believe is a bit higher than at easy of 7% I think?

All in all, it's an individuals choice, lots of good and possibly not so good things about working for either company. I have several friends from my flying college days who are at easy, happy and have no intention of moving anywhere. Personally I'm reasonably happy with my lot at BA (it's testing at times for sure) though from chatting with my mates at easy I can fully appreciate why it works for them. Anyway... hope this makes the financial side of things slightly clearer.

What a fantastic inclusion that was into last years pay award!:ok:

I didn't include in my post, if you hadn't already worked it out, that you can probably forget any bonus for several years to come at BA. My bonus for us hitting the 10% margin for the first time ever is, wait for it, just short of one weeks basic pay...

Lets add a different slant to this -

ask any Easyjet Capt -
1)where he sees himself in 5yrs and
2) at retirement.
Do the same of a BA Captain.

The resounding result from my base is
1) Maybe Easyjet (if the tunnel collapses)
2) Not Easyjet

that concludes the results from a forgotten regional base.

If I was to stay in the UK for life I would join BA.

I am with easyJet and view it as a means to an end ( 90-100K pa means to an end)

My plan is to escape this grim broken country for sunnier climates.

What makes you think you need to stay in the UK to work for BA? Literally hundreds don't.

Very True

Spent my formative years with HM Forces and 9 with ej so not cost effective for me to join BA on the bottom rung. However if I was under 30 and not a slave to the morgage I would consider BA

Im mid 30's. Am about one to two years off command at EZY.

My G'f is a ten year SFO BA pilot. She will remain long-haul until retirement.

Marriage and kids within the next two to three years.

Money more or less seems to work out evenly at my stage of life. Higher earnings initially with EZY when upgraded to captain, but BA will match current EZY money in around ten year’s time. Meanwhile hers will be going up and up from here on in. G'f is also on final salary pension scheme.

Do I want l'haul myself? I'm on BA staff travel so I get to sit in 1A for £150 a few times per year so I'm semi-satisfied with seeing the world. Ideally if EZY did one or two more night stops and I had more time to get stuff done in a working block (lates in particular), would I move? I don't think so.

If only I knew what was around the corner at EZY but I think I smell changes to come.

She's keen for me to move across for the long term sake of the family to be. Roster planning, part-time working available...

I may or may not pass BA selection but if I do, should I go?

Craggs