"To add insult to injury I gather a very pleasant member of our cabin crew fraternity has been on Trip Advisor complaining about BA pilots getting preferential treatment at a certain T5 coffee bar and as a result the days of cheap coffee (by that I mean free coffee but with a healthy Tip for the brilliant staff) are over too....."

Probably the best way to describe how the corporate culture works in BA to a newcomer. Just don't take it personally.

Yes it was indeed a classic example of the behaviour sometimes encountered off the aircraft:

"I don't see why you should get that, I want it was well and if I can't have it I'll darn well make sure you don't get it either" :oh:??

As you say - thick skin required (especially in the early days) and try not to take it personally....

Any idea what the new hourly flying rate is guys....?

Probably about £10 per hour.

Personally I would rather have no variable pay whatsoever, we are not blue collar workers on a piece rate. We work to a contracted amount of hours per year - call it CAP or real hours it makes no difference. We should not need to be bribed to come to work and the concept of measuring how hard we work by the hours flown is somewhat specious anyway. Hours spent in a uniform might be a better metric or perhaps sector pay. It all depends whether you are a long haul pilot where hours are king, or a short haul pilot where sectors may be better. Either way the only people that really benefit by variable pay are the companies that can manipulate the establishment downwards knowing that they can rely on sick people coming in to work when they really should not for that part of their salary that is variable. The company would, no doubt, like a return to a large proportion of variable pay for that very reason. Just because we have always had variable pay does not make it a good concept.

Any truth to what I've heard about pilots on the 787 fleet not working as much due to the relatively small (but expanding) fleet and all the new joiners (internal plus DEP) taking a lot of the sectors for training? If this continued will the new pay structure impact this fleet disproportionately?

May have been a probelm historically but looking at April's numbers for the 787 it doesn't look to me as if they are short of work at the moment.

That said the problem you describe can crop up on a growing or a shrinking fleet.

that was more like what i was expecting it to be, so thanks for that.

No, just a P77L for me :O

Juan

For the avoidance of doubt, I would prefer no variable pay - just not at the expense of several thousands of pounds per year. Anyway I think the company is wrong about its suspicion that sickness rates have gone up because we are no longer on a variable flying hour rate. They have chosen to ignore the fact that they are now roster assigning people over the days off that they needed and therefore bidded for. You can have a low sickness rate and allow people to get off a roster assigned trip if they really need to, or you can accept that people will start actively bidding for trips over days they need off, planning to go sick because it is less likely to raise suspicion than going sick on a roster assigned trip. I'm not saying it is right, but it is what is happening and no amount of variable pay will change that.

Oh good grief :bored:...it's started already.

Both are BA Longhaul Fleets :cool:

One fleet has an extensive list of destinations from Australia in the east, through India, down to South Africa, south America and then up to the American west Coast. For those that like polling the aircraft it has a high proportion of "non-augmented" sectors, and shuttle sectors (the Caribbean is rather nice at this time of year)

A very definite advantage of the 380 is you will never ever have to fly with me...........

Apologies for my ignorance, but...
 

Can anyone explain what these bid codes mean? P38L etc?

Ta!

The basics:

C = Captain, P = P2

78 = 787, 77 = 777, 38 = 380, I'll let you work the rest out....

L = LHR , X = LGW

So P38L is a 380 P2 Heathrow based, P77L is a 777 P2 Heathrow based.

C77L would be a 777 captain based at Heathrow, C32X is an A320 captain, Gatwick based, etc, etc.

I previously attended a BA roadshow . I recorded the whole thing, inc the questions and answer session with Lindsey Craig and his colleagues. 90 mins of Lots of interesting stuff inc heads up of useful information on the interviews and where BA is going and what fleet does what and the bid lines.

If anyone wants it, please PM me and i will put it on You Tube if enough folks have intrest .

Thanks Wiggy, very clear now! Confirm LGW base is only for A320?

That wasn't an exhaustive list, just a few examples to give you an idea of how the "coding" worked - there are lots and lots of C32L and P32L ....

highfive

Sorry to be an old f*** but just a bit of a health warning - be wary of some of the old info pertaining to Long Haul (even if it's from the recruitment team and even if it's recent)...and remember (?) Bid Line is going.

Firstly fleet destinations change seasonally, if not more frequently. Secondly any Long Haul final rosters produced before Feb '16 won't reflect the significant EASA driven changes that came in that month. Also be aware that by the end of next year under JSS heaven knows what the monthly roster will look like.....(e.g. one big change will be the introduction of pre-constructed Long Haul back to backs)

Sorry, I wasn't too clear. I was trying to ask are there any P74X, P77X, P38X, P76X, P78X or are those fleets only LHR based?

Ah, got it. Only two BA mainline types routinely operate out of LGW - A320s and 777s.

The BA 320s based at Gatwick have dedicated LGW based crews (C32X and P32X).

The BA 777s operated out of Gatwick are crewed by Heathrow based pilots ( they do a mix of LHR and LGW trips, but on paper they are LHR based).

Everything else is LHR, except I guess the LCY subfleet...which I'll leave to somebody else.

I think you're right..until the company needs them regardless of preferences to ensure work coverage :} ...

As someone going through the recruitment process at the moment a couple of questions please

Glad to hear the back to back scheduling is still an option. Do the company provide accommodation between trips? Are back to back trips easy to come by or are they much coveted?

Also, the 777 out of LGW; Are the trips out of there generally quite senior or as a new start are you likely to get a sniff?

Some great information on this thread so many thanks to all

At the moment in the normal process the company do not produce back to back trips that you bid for. Individuals create them ad-hoc, either by a combination of stage 1 and then stage 2 bidding or by trip swopping after final rosters are produced. Under EASA creating legal back to backs has become much more difficult than was the case before (basically nowadays the first trip of the pair has to involve a <= 3 hour time zone change from London, which restricts options).


At the moment assume the answer is no. If you do manage to create a back to back, you pay for it.

When/if people start working pre-constructed back to backs (as previously debated) then for some trip combinations the company will have to provide accomodation - at the moment we're being told that's probably not going to happen until the introduction of JSS late next year.

As far as LGW is concerned, you may get a sniff but there's a certainly hard core who like the beach...

It was suggested to me that a lot of the Middle East flights will suddenly become quite senior rather than populating junior blind lines due to the time difference being very favourable for back to backs.

Fingers crossed...

"will suddenly"....

Suddenly? As in midnight 26th March ??? ;)

I'd be very grateful in the recording. However, I can't work out how to PM you (new here)

Kind Regards

BA are going to be "saved by" British Summer Time!

I may have missed some information?

Can some confirm that you no longer need jet hours, and the Turb-prop weight limit has been reduced to be able to apply for direct long haul.

Not sure what the official line is but at the moment (8th March) this is in part what is written on the BA Longhaul DEP requirements page at:

British Airways - Careers - Job Details

I hear that some people are going straight from a prop (atr and dash8) direct to 777 and 747.

Curse my A320 rating!! Still as long as their start date is after mine I'll be laughing in the long run. I hope.

Don't forget these people may have previous Jet time, especially in the case of Q400 Captains coming over from Flybe where they would have banked the jet time requirement on the Embraer as FOs and SFOs.

HIghfive,

I would have thought that if you put it up on Youtube and gave a link to it on this thread and the "Wannabees" forum it would become very popular very quickly!

Is anyone who is flying long haul at BA and has had new children during that time willing to answer some questions via PM?

Yep. Go ahead and I'll have a stab at them for you

Sorry to change the subject however I am confused about some wording in the application, it says 12 months if you were unsuccessful at any stage of testing/interview/simulator assessment. You are welcome to reapply 12 months from the date you attended initial aptitude testing. I was invited back to do the interview again approx 8 months ago without having to do stage one again however my initial aptitude testing was 2 years ago, so as i see it i can apply?

Polepilot-If I were you I'd probably call the recruitment team to confirm. They have been very helpful on all the occasions I made any telephone queries during the recruitment process. The worst outcome would be to put in all the work and fall foul of something as minor as the 12month rule. Good luck!

On a slightly different topic- are there any fellow LH hold pool swimmers that have been allocated courses in Jul and Aug yet? I'm guessing the average lead time on call to course is 3-4 months due to the notice period most recruits have with their own operators. It seems the first half of the year for DEPs had a distinctly 787 slant. Does anyone know if this is still the case or are other fleets now soaking up some of the new entries?

RC10: I know people that have been offered 777 courses recently, with their start dates being in June.

And A380 with June start dates.

When I was given my offer on the 777, I asked the lady about a few things and she said the 787 courses were mainly full and no more would be going across until the Autumn.

Hello people. Does anyone know a way to prepare for the VTS1 test? Like a book or software or something else

I did day one just over 9 months ago, didn't pass, I believe BA have asked people in earlier than 12 months, is that automatic as I telephoned the recruitment team 3 weeks ago and they said it's still the full 12 months because of legality reasons the tests are still valid and that would need to wait, shame really as there long haul dep has been extended again now till April, are they getting enough applicants or are people struggling with the assessments