Just to add to Wiggy’s excellent post, one of the benefits of the DFW is that you can elect to work during some or all of it, thereby earning extra credit which can be ‘spent’ by taking days off elsewhere. Thus, if the dates of DFW awarded are not your first choice, you can maybe get some better free days. This used to be easier under bidline and I’m no expert on JSS but worth considering anyway. You can’t work during leave, so that is the main difference.

You sure? Do you mean by selling it back?

Do you mind me asking if for the other 3 they offered you alternative dates? The theory goes that you can ask for upto 4 weeks per year per child and whilst your employer can refuse, has to give you an alternative time within 6 months of the original date requested.

(FWIW I tried that argument at a previous employer and they offered dates unpaid that I was already due to be on leave, not really in the spirit!!)

when I used to be at BA , Seattle was a night stop and supposedly rumours that SFO/LAX may get reduced to 1 night

It has been “suggested” by one of the very senior management...:*

I think it went something along the lines of “ you know, if you reduced rest down route it would mean more time at home”......I might be wrong but the follow up might have. been something to do with having a bridge to sell.

I guess the idea might get some traction with those who get bored with LAX, HKG or SFO etc but I don’t think most people are interested so IMHO it’s not an immediate threat but it is obviously on a wish list.

Riskybis - the slip timings you describe, a consequence of the ancient and cunningly named “West Coast agreement”, are still intact.

Are you sure he/she isn’t talking about the pre-selection personality profile, or has that been canned?

Not really true. The points you accrue by doing weekend work under JSS only become used as a tiebreaker when assigning reserve periods to people with otherwise equal points. (According to recent posts on yammer). Weekend points therefore make absolutely naff all difference to the frequency you’ll do reserve as a junior pilot, especially as all the junior guys will have broadly equal weekend points as they’re the ones who’ll be working all of them!

BALPA keep amending the inhibitors to try and broadly flatten the gradient slightly and allow a greater spread of work down the seniority list. However, someone’s gold is another person’s !!!!!. Everyone has their own preferences. I’m about 75% on the Airbus FO list and broadly get what I want (providing I don’t get shafted with global constraints). The downside is that I have to work every weekend to have a chance of achieving reasonable trips.

Weekends worked seems to be the main bug bear at the moment. I really think BA needs to perhaps introduce a minimum number of weekends worked even if you’re at the top of the list. Maybe 1 weekend in 4 or even 8 weeks with junior people getting 1 off in 4 (or 8). How it would be introduced is a discussion for later. Personally I don’t mind on the whole but it really affects others. Golden days are great but the lead time for putting them in is quite long and many of my friends outside of the industry haven’t quite grasped that. Therefore a lot of social invites for weekend get-togethers have to be turned down due to work.

Reserve is something else that needs to be looked at. A 28 day block is tough on your personal life. I believe BALPA and BA are thinking of introducing shorter blocks in addition to the current blocks to give people a bit of a choice. Without moaning about part timers, a lot of them haven’t done reserve for years if the computer is physically unable to insert a reserve period into their roster without clashing with their part time weeks. That to me doesn’t seem fair and would spread out the reserve duties a bit if it was fixed.

champ

As soon as they can plug you into the training plan you will get called I believe, particularly if you are already rated on a type we operate. No swimming as such these days!

Quite correct, but the Madrid viewpoint is no incident = no problem! Push is as far as you can and see what happens to the share price.

it seems the manpower team in flight ops, are critically short of well, manpower.

As someone with over 15 years in BA, I can say that, in my opinion BA is only worth it if you live within 60mins of LHR and want to remain living in the SE of England. To get any quality time with your family on SH you need to book parental leave and take strategic sickness to avoid alienation by your children and divorce from your other half. Pay is now on a par with EZY and the much touted safety culture is nothing more than a myth peddled by senior managers desperate to hit their punctuality targets at all costs. With hindsight, I should have joined EZY as the overall package is better, the training far superior and the operational culture more geared towards efficiency in a way that we could only dream of.

In contrast there are guys commuting from outside of 60 minutes of Heathrow residing in a more tax friendly regime on Long Haul 75% Part Time living the absolute life doing (due to a mixture of part time weeks and leave) an average of two trips a month every other month and taking home as much as their full time counterparts living in the UK. Granted these guys are (occasionally) having to spend additional nights in the UK pre duty post the Staff Travel Audit - but not a significant amount - and it’s a relatively unique position in which to be in but let’s not pretend it’s not still possible to make BA work for you.

If if you’re happy with the monotony (just my opinion, horses for courses etc) of doing multiple sector days day in day out for the rest of a 30+ year career then fill your boots, easyJet is a fantastic airline to work for I’d never argue that. I’ve been there and done it. However if you want many varied directions in which to take your career, many of which are not available in the land of orange, then BA is (despite all its flaws and there are many) the best show in town.

(I appreciate the lack of coherence that because a small minority of the workforce can have it spectacularly good so that’s a convincing argument for the majority to join. However it’s really just to highlight BA is a place where you can make it work for you, more so than any other airline).

Hear hear, tax avoidance at its best. Paying tax is for plebs. Or something like that.

Pray tell, if the guys and girls in question are residing and domiciled outside the UK in places where they have been born and bred then why the hell should they pay tax in the UK simply for setting foot in the CRC for an hour or so before their duty of which they will spend less than 10% of the time inside UK airspace?

Because they are ferried from Dublin via London to Barcelona on staff travel and have great pride in telling me they pay bugger all tax. My question, so what trip have you got.......”oh nothing I just need to attend a hospital appointment then I will go back to Dublin”

They split their time between Dublin and somewhere in Europe. I believe it’s some dodge in Ireland but they can only spend x days a year there so they split their time. Fair enough but the hospital appointment got me. Anyway....Corbyn government and maybe we should all do the same.

What was the original topic anyway ����

There are plenty of people commuting from outside the UK who pay their taxes in the countries in which they reside, and there are plenty of people who are pretty much avoiding paying tax altogether, by not actually being properly resident anywhere. To be honest I wonder why I don’t go and become one of them. The taxation system on some BA pilots is extreme. I will be working for the next two years as a high earning UK tax payer and my net income during that time will be zero! The tax man will receive it all, via a mixture of my income tax, national insurance, and tax on my final salary pension increase due to promotion. That is not a fair taxation system and the fact it drives many to extremes to stop giving the tax man any more than they absolutely have to, is of no surprise to me. Many would call me lucky to have a final salary pension scheme, but it doesn’t matter which way you skin it, working for free for two years is not a fair taxation system, and rebellion against that unfairness is why many people decide enough is enough and actively avoid as much tax as they can.

I wonder how all these ME and China ex pats sleep at night knowing they’re avoiding all these first world taxes? Pretty well, I imagine.