2015 - I left easyJet and joined BA on the A320.

I love the job and I'm happy I work for BA (it isn't perfect and its best days are certainly behind it, but name me an airline where this isn't true), overall I'm glad I left easyJet.

Take the negative comments here with a pinch of salt, the problem with most of the bitter old BA pilots is that they've only ever worked for BA and they don't realise how good they've had it, or how good they currently have it.

They'll tell you the 747 is a sh1t fleet to be on, that it used to be fantastic - but if you're joining from easyJet/Ryanair it's still going to be a fantastic experience compared to lugging 180 tracksuit wearing Brits around Europe.

I rarely sing BA's praises. They haven't (yet) managed to f e c k up the 747 fleet. It does shorter trips now than the SIN-SYD and similar epics of the past - suits me as I like shorter trips - but it's a good place to be, despite being relatively junior.

Happiness remains V1 at LHR though.:}

For me it comes once I've left the BS bravado of the CRC behind.

Some pilots are currently getting their knickers in a twist because current ops have made voluntary airport standby available for long haul pilots to help with snow disruption - BUT THESE ARE ONLY MEANT FOR SHORT HAUL PILOTS! God forbid..

If you don't want to do it don't volunteer and move on with your life.

:ugh:

Crew car park in the rear view mirror.

Student88


Want to put some numbers on that? I can’t speak for the bitterness percentage but the top of the seniority list is actually more diverse in terms of background than it has ever been, or possibly likely to be...

The older pilots are mostly mid 1980’s/ early 90’s DEPs who almost all had been around the block a bit and had flown for some time before joining BA (ex-mil/Brittania/Air Europe/ and a thousand and one outfits now long forgotten...plus a few who came up the self improver route) plus a few of the very senior original ex Prestwick cadets who you obviously can tag as only ever working for BA. It’s no longer rammed with pilots who went through the same training school on the south coast.

Wiggy is correct, it used to be BA "Nigels" now its Rupperts

While that may be true, most of the stories I hear sitting in the RHS are about how great life used to be back then. 7 days in the Caribbean, bus juice, one out one back to somewhere in Europe. I don't often hear stories about how awful the old days were and how great it is now.

I don't think it's unfair to suggest that most BA captains, certainly most LH BA Captains at any rate, are unlikely to have experienced the real low-cost world that started with the birth of Ryanair. How many could honestly hold their hands up and say they have worked 5 days of 4 sector days, 25 minute turn arounds, helping to clean the aircraft, filling up water bottles from taps outside portacabins, not getting any food or drink provided, paying for their own hotels...the list goes on.

Full disclosure; I can't say I've experienced that level of low cost either. It sounds horrific and I tend to agree with jettropo above that its interesting, at the very least, that people have popped up on this thread to make the case for Ryanair, just as BA launches a large recruitment drive. Particularly bearing in mind the well documented retention issues at Ryanair currently.

EDITED to add: Many of us in the RHS won't have experience of ultra low cost either. My point is that whether we like to admit it or not, some (most, all?) of us have probably forgotten or never knew the worst excesses of the low-cost end of the industry. I'm not suggesting we shouldn't fight to protect what we have either, just that we should be aware that what we have is still a pretty good deal, comparatively speaking.

True, but that wasn’t the claim being made in the post I responded to...

But we are back to the four Yorkshiremen sketch again....I don’t remember being pampered in that portion of my flying career in the 70s and 80s in my life before BA - being ******rushed, hassled, secondary tasks (sometimes unpleasant) not even staying in hotels, buying your own food etc etc isn’t something new and it wasn’t something suddenly invented by the LoCo sector 20 years ago....I’ll resist the urge to tell folks to pull up a chair...

I think some of the supposed “ bitterness” is down to some of the older pilots experiences before BA, and their intimate knowledge, gained from years of experience of how “BA” can behave when it suits them.

BTW I take it those here who couldn’t get to work because of the snow have written their letter to the headmaster.........

I doubt that very much as the pilots in BA are in a totally different situation to those in FR. Proper union recognition with the power to take action with all pilots on the same contract in 2 UK hubs. Also BA has a customer base that would be more wary of booking with an airline with potential strikes than those customers at FR who are mostly price driven and return to buy more tickets even if they have been disrupted in the past. BA pilots have far more power within their airline to not let things get to those lengths.

Right so..... back on the pool topic, any further info out these days?

This threat has been off topic for far too long now! If your stupid enough to believe the majority of recent comments on here, don’t apply!

If your not, apply and come on in! It’s great, Iv never been happier!

To be fair that’s largely dependent on what you were doing previously...

As in working for an Orange LoCo....?

Nothing, things have gone very quiet whilst they shake the Airbus tree.

Oh, how very, very true!

However. I have worked 14 consecutive (LONG!) Days. Living in a sleeping bag. In a freezing cold tent. Going flying wearing an AR5 respirator. Eating cardboard sandwiches, from a cardboard box! Without a pot to p1ss in! (Swing the Tillie!) All in the mid eighties. A year or two before “low-cost” (perhaps even you?) was a twinkle in Stelios, and/or MoL’s eye?

(In fact elsewhere, I believe my record was 28 consecutive days on duty. Available for call out 24 hours a day!!)

Oh, and at times, people were shooting at me!

But of course, being one of those LH Jonnies, I’ve never known what REAL hardship is!:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

I defer to your superior experience.

Four Yorkshiremen indeed!

And yet, I have also known, 7 day trips to the Caribbean! Bus juice. One out, one back. Etc. Etc.

Does that make me a bad person??

Yet bizarrely, actually. The times in a scratcher in a tent were by a country mile, the best of my life!

Just because you’re sitting next to a fat old git in the LHS. Please don’t presume you’ve lived the same life they have! You MAY not be entirely correct!

Oh dear. I suppose I should have seen that coming really.

I certainly didn't mean to cast aspersions on those who have served in unpleasant conditions at Her Majesty's pleasure, or indeed anyone else who has worked different unpleasant jobs in other industries. No doubt there are countless examples of both. But then this not too brief diversion from the main topic of this thread has been about commercial aviation (which makes money for shareholders) and the stark differences between BA and some low cost carriers.

I think this point provides a good opportunity to retire from the debate and let it drift back to the central theme of BA recruitment.

So, other than having a dig at captains, what's your point?

Either senior pilots stand up for you, and try to fight deteriorating t&c's or they don't.
It would appear you'll criticise them either way.

Hi guys,

Understand its been mentioned a lot in the past, but could not find any info/examples on the following for the Day 1 assessment:
- The new style Verbal Reasoning test
- The current computer tests being used

If anyone could post any info it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Bailey,

Computer based tests you will find examples on latestpilotjob.com under BA section, for the verbal resoning you do not need real practice like the older days but I guess if you type in on google Follow instructions verbal test you will get a good idea of what you are expected to do.

Hope it helps.

Thanks for the info Mizar.

The email invitation for day 1 still gives SHL practise papers for the old style verbal test. And suggests we still do the two computer based tests. Perhaps they have gone back to the old way of things ?