Hi Guys,
anyone booked in for a Sim Slot next week?
I’m on the early slot Monday 5th and would appreciate getting to know the other person before the day. So if its you, drop me a message.

Hi everyone,

At the moment I am in the holding pool for about 2 weeks now. I did not receive my Sim feedback yet. Anyone knows how long that normally takes?

Thanks!

I did receive the Yes for the sim though. I am just a bit confused as it is stated in the “assessment outcome” email that a sim feedback will be send shortly after the said email. I am quite fed up with my current employer, that’s why I might be a tad impatient ;)

Some rare optimism from me, I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised by the results of dry run 3 with JSS however they have to be treated with caution as global constraints and crew repair were not in play. My line was very similar to those unobtainable commuter friendly ones in Stage 1, the ones that always go to the same 6/7 people. Will be interesting to see how it all pans out though, especially for Long Haul.

Dutchflyer, have you considered KLM? I ask because the word is that an unspecified number of Orange “Nigels” are leaving (or are about to leave) to go back home. Might be worth thinking about.

Rex,

Unless you are towards the top of the pile, I would take the result with a large pinch of salt. The accepted wisdom is that Global Constraint and Crew Repair will go quite a way north, meaning what you’ve seen (bearing in mind there were a proportion of “fake” trips there) is going to be quite different to what you actually get.

Tay Cough I did say treat it with caution but I’m 60% off the top at the moment of the P32L status list. I’d imagine I’ll be north of 50% at the very, very least by 2019 end if recruitment is as forecast. There’s enough tours going around to grab enough of them at that seniority and crew repair isn’t getting that far up. My point is it will be possible to gain access to “commuter lines” far easier than it is now with bidline, which is a good thing for some. If anything else it shows I’m doing the right things with my bid, even if I may be shafted with the real thing.

Except it will Jumbo2 because you’re ignoring the fact that most of the lines in bidline are preconstructed lines which are basically a mixture of daytrips and tours. There’s only a handful of commuter lines (you don’t just need to be in the top 25% to get those, you need to be in the top 5% to have a sniff of those unless there’s other preassignments that make it unviable credit wise or unattractive to bid for those lines) but there are loads of tours available amongst the rest of the lines, it stands to reason that anyone in the top 50% could very well construct a line basically consisting of tours. Yes they might not be 4 five day tours every time but certainly the ability to build a more commutable work pattern will be far greater than it is right now and that is the one saving grace of JSS.

I didn’t get the sim feedback until I got my offer mate. I got the “yes” from the sim on the Monday, then that Thursday I had a call with the job offer and Lucy quickly read through my sim feedback. And that was it.

When I got call with course date Lucy read me my sim feedback over the phone.

I got a call last friday with an offer. Took just over 3 weeks. Got the sim feedback over the phone.

Be patient. Manpower are very busy sorting the jigsaw out for next year and seeing where the holes appear for new joiners

Post self deleted Buter as it wasn’t necessary to keep bickering about the amount of five day trips available on a BA recruitment forum.

January JSS dry run however has (as hoped for) thrown up a far more commutable SH roster than currently is the case with Bidline pre swaps which was more or less my point. Should only get better too with increasing seniority. However it’s a moot point for me as I’m off to sample the delights of Carmen!

Hello everyone,

Just looking for some advice, if anyone is ‘in the know!’

I recently attended (and passed) the second stage interview and group assessment and wanted to get some info regarding A320 command opportunities. It was claimed that with over the applicable command hours requirement, one could expect a short haul command, if so desired, at LGW (or even LHR!) within 6 -12 months of joining. Is this a real possibility? Are the command slots really going to those that junior?

Many thanks in advance.

Not sure about 6-12 months but 18-24 seems feasible at the moment, probably LGW rather than LHR although JSS means all bets could be off.

Would you have got a command in that time frame if you had joined in time to bid for the following training year? 2016 = yes but not LHR, 2017 = no, 2018 = no for LHR, yes LGW. 2019 training year, rumour is yes for LGW but I believe it’s no for LHR but they have gone very junior. Hopefully that helps.

Now the truth about a junior command. Really really bad rosters. You will work at least 9 in 10 weekends if not more. Generally 2 day 6 again and again. The bonus was TASS which could mean a few extra days off per month over more senior guys who choose their work. Under the new JSS rosters that will have gone. You can expect to work 18 days a month or more all year on low credit trips with long turns at LHR. Add to that 3 reserve periods each year. It’s ok for a bit but for years and years you will sit stuck at the bottom as more senior guys parachute in above you. Essentially it destroys your life. It’s ok though because you will be rewarded with a captain pay check........except you will be paid 30-35k less than at EZY or RYR. Colleagues of mine have not had a clear weekend in a year! (Excluding leave)

LGW is probably a better option due to the rostering system.

BA is a good company to work for but the seniority driven rostering is terrible.

Any chance you can pm me the descent/climb issues?
rgds

BA can at any time within your engagement freeze direct you to a new posting. Its covered in our agreement. But as you suggest it is probably cost and training capacity that are the driving factor.

Haha that’s a good one, I’ll bite. Joining direct onto a Long Haul fleet and bypassing the seniority of eligible internal FO’s (for the reasons of the training footprint and cost no less) then moaning that you can’t now take a SH command for the exact same reasons, which are why you guys are on your Long Haul fleets to begin with? Clear case of having your cake and eating it there Tricia, gotta call it I’m afraid and for once I’m on the company’s side.

(And before we use the term “directed” in the same breath as DEP Long Haul I’m sure there were plenty of these people attempting to turn down Long Haul for RHS on the Airbus :hmm: )

If you want to make BA your career the only smart move is taking the earliest start date on whatever fleet you are offered. I was only offered long haul as at the time they didn’t have enough internal bidders who met the hour and insurance requirements.

Don’t join BA if your sole reason is expecting a very early command would be my view as you are likely to be disappointed, if only because those who are now getting very junior commands will be in those seats for a long time with very little movement. The only reason Gatwick particularly is going so junior is the need to man up and fly the slots acquired from Monafch internally.

Fully sympathise Tricia however when you joined it was very likely there were bidders senior to you who were denied their move to Long Haul because it was cheaper to employ Direct Entry Pilots and only pay for one course, rather than two. To the vast majority of Short Haul Pilots in the RHS, Long Haul is seen as the golden ticket, granted it wasn’t in your circumstances but I would suggest that’s fairly rare.

Given that this has been happening for the last few years (and has happened in British Airways for a long time now) it should be of no surprise to you that BA are now using the same rule set to give junior commands to those who are rated to reduce their training costs. I post this point of view as someone who wanted long haul but didn’t get it, why should people like me not now benefit from being rated on type - BA have clearly shown precedent - if they want to gain their command? (I don’t BTW)

I’ll take that wager ;-)

Tricia, LC and the rest of the PnP team have previously said that some type freezes will be waived this year for those with a valid C32X bid. If you’ve put in for a Gatwick command, there’s a very good chance you’ll get it.

Of all the multitude of rules within BA, I have always presumed that the one rule known to all new joiners (be they DEPs, TEPs, CEPs), was that you go wherever the company sends you within your first 5 years period. Then once you are in, you learn “bid only for what you want”, but you won’t get it unless BA choose to unfreeze you. BA are hardly going to choose to unfreeze people where it would cost them money to do so. They do it when it suits them, and that is all. Some people have been known to do 3 courses within their first 5 years because they’ve been in the right (or wrong) place at the right (wrong) time. The great thing is, when you are eventually unfrozen, you’ll have lots of people stopping you from being bottom of the list.

There has been a little bit of talk about DECs, and bids like yours are precisely the reason why that will not be happening any time soon. All the while there are internal pilots wanting short haul commands, BALPA will insist they are unfrozen first, and I am sure there are plenty of frozen bidders available.

There is another huge reason why DEC will not happen any time soon and that’s because BA is about as attractive as Anne Widdecombe for potential DEC recruits, potentially earning £30k less than at easyJet/RYR to suffer horrendous rosters working every weekend broken up by reserve every other month, for a long long time too.

There is some info a bit further back in the thread.

Generally 2 sector day trips. Some tours but not that many, mostly 2 day 6 sector stuff but some longer and better layovers available. Typically in the summer expect 10-14 days off per month with the winter more like 14-18. It’s noticeably seasonal, summers a full on, winters aren’t. At the bottom of the list you can expect mostly weekend work. If that isn’t a problem you can get fairly good rosters.

Expect to move pretty quickly up that list, assuming recruitment continues at the forecast rate.