Has anybody any recent experience of the selection process.

What a fantastic group where short sightedness will do nothing but leave it in shambles

Probably scared !!!!less of Jet2 pushing their boundaries - hence hedging to remain ahead of competition by reducing the biggest cost -salaries/T&C,s

Caveat Emptor

FWIW, when I was at Thomson, they gave me a duty on every single rostered blank day, at short notice, no block window protection and no Flexi.

not impressed

To be honest, you must have been at Thomson quite a while ago as block window protection has been one of the good things about the roster for many years. But this is the sort of thing the company wish to change.

As far as I know it’s always been the case that on blank days you can be asked to work but don’t have to (the only caveat to this is that when operating operating away from your home base, when asked to you have no choice). As you say it does not attract flexi (day off payment) so nobody (I know) does it and I can’t remember the last time Crewing asked so at home base these blanks are effectively just more days off.

Totally agree, never worked a blank day.

FWIW

May 75/6 roster

3 off
5 on
5 off
1 on
6 off
5 on
3 off
3 on

3 nights away and one extended duty in there too. I’d expect to be slightly busier july-september. So 17 days off will probably reduce by a couple.

Would I join again? depends on union/company talks, I’d expect with expansion plans next Summer, not much will change but who knows. I wouldn’t leave a LCC with a command imminent though as we are still 10 years plus for LHS.

Morning haven’t posted for years, but for info.
Current command review board will be looking at joiners from 2013/14
Recruitment for lower experience will open in the next couple of weeks, north of 100 needed on top of the 30 or so in the current recruitment.
As a 737 trainer I have met many new joiners over the last years and very few regret their decision. I’m not going to say what anyone should or shouldn’t do, but generally there is always two sides to a story from the miserable posts. The current climate with management has definitely changed due poor communication mainly, but personally I’m not worried.
Oh and it’s not a Xmas bonus, it’s a end of company tax year bonus, which just so happens to be paid in December. Yes it was a joke that it wasn’t paid in it’s two forms-but BIG BALPA are on to it

Apply, go through selection and then make your own mind up if given the opportunity.

I look forward to meeting many of you in the future

As I’m sure you know five minutes is a long time in aviation, so there is a chance much of the above has already changed!

Does anybody know if there are any alternatives to the forced winter Scandinavian detachment? PYW for example?

This very factor is deterring me from booking an assessment at the moment.

The company aren't currently offering summer only contracts, everyone joins full time and can bid for part time working the day they join.

The have been a number of 757 rated pilots in the last 12 months who have joined straight onto a UK only contract. If you join and are indeed sent to Scandinavia in the winter (the work/trips on the 767 are quite good if you're willing to do some long haul), you can bid for a UK only base. With the expansion I wouldn't imagine you would have to do more than one winter over there, if that...

As theflyingbus says, not many people come here and regret it. I'm not worried about what's going to happen - I hope (and dare I say confident) there won't be any cuts and maybe positives to come. It's a great place to work and whatever those who experienced the 70/80s say, it's still one of the best career airlines in the UK. If you're close to command at an LCC and the left seat is important to you, don't bother. If you're after better options of lifestyle (long haul, short haul, lots of bases, part time, RTW trips, detachments etc.) and willing to wait to move seats then apply and see what they have to offer you - can always say no! It's a long time to command because very few people leave and I can't see that changing, however this is falling drastically with expansion happening.

Good luck.

G1991 many thanks for taking the time to reply and shedding some reality on how things are at the moment. Like you say, it's probably worth taking taking the 'pain' for 1 year to feel the gain long term.

I have heard that a former (before my time) colleague went to TOM 18 months ago and has grossed £104k this last year. Obviously in an FO position.

I am indeed closing in on Command in my current outfit, but I fully appreciate the fact that a command is not the be all and end all....

G1991

Many thanks for the reply. Certainly some food for thought in there.

All the best.

If you enthusiasticly partake in the Flexible Working System then you can easily break the six figure mark Y1, why you’d want to with Hammond sniffing around I’m not sure, but you can always offset it into your pension etc. We used to be able to offset a certain amount into company shares but that was a U.K. benefit and now we’re ‘Global TUI’ we take part in their post tax (albeit it not too dissimilar) scheme.

Good luck with your application.

100k is possible on the 75 fleet but unlikely, that person would be looking at selling 50 days a year back, which would mean working most of their leave days. More realistic is to expect a couple of flexi’s (day off payments) a month putting there pay into the 90s.

I would reiterate that doing a large number of ‘Flexi’ payments is theoretically possible, but it is highly unlikely. The 6 months from May through October are busy and expecting to do a couple a month during that time would be reasonable. And that’s about 12. Which works out around £5000 extra.

Those who suggest FOs will earn significantly more than this are either being disengenous or are promoting an expectation based upon the experience of an almost nonexistent few.

I agree - don't come expecting to earn over 100k. I would say earning that in year 1 is not impossible but rare. You'd have to do a lot of flexis, even more when you consider that everyone has 7k deducted from their gross salary in year 1 for training.. and probably not on the 737 either due seasonality.

For what it’s worth, I’ve grossed £85k as a year 2 FO and received 11 day off payments, but that doesn’t mean I worked 11 of my off days, some duties are worth up to 3 day off payments for 1 day off. I’ve turned down a lot of flexi out of shear laziness and could have grossed an extra 5k easily. So £10k+ on flexi alone is certainly possible.

I saw my buddies payslip last week, he’ll hit 95k as a year 3 FO on short haul. Long haul FOs will earn more.

FWIW

I would agree £90-£100k possible as a F/O, but having done both SH and LH, my experience now is that pay is higher doing SH. I think it used to be the other way around but the advent of duty rig changed that. And def more Flexi available on SH.

Afternoon Gents,

I've got my assessment day this month, can anyone help me with a few questions?

-Firstly, any hints or tips for the day? anything in particular the company is looking out for would be great.

-What are the chances on getting straight onto something that isn't the 737? (I'm completely happy with Scandi basing for a few winters)

-The figures stated above for the gross salary for a new FO (circa 85k), are they after the 7k training cost reduction? and I appreciate everyone's different but how does that work out as a net salary? I know I could put it into a calculator, but every airline seems to have it's own approach to how things like sector pay end up being paid (gross/net/combination).

Any other information you think would be good to know would be great too!

Thanks in advance!

Really they're just looking for a capable, honest and personable pilot. Somebody easy to sit next to on a 13 hour duty. Plenty of info in this thread.

Historically, people have been assigned the fleet they are already type rated on, but it isn't a rule by any means. It all depends where the shortfall is I guess. But with the 787 and 757 going down to less than a years seniority, you could probably bid off the 737 quickly enough assuming nothing changes. Again, it all depends on what seats they fill up in this recruitment round and where there is space. I'm not somebody who is in the know, these are just my observations.

The 85k is without deduction. The pay scales on PPJN are accurate, there is a decent pay rise at the year 5 FO mark so I reckon 100k+ is possible from year 5.

In terms of take home pay, without working any days off, 4.5-5k is my average. With day off payments your net pay can go through the roof. But I wouldn't count on flexi being available every month. There is a small combination of how duty pay is taxed but I wouldn't worry about it. When I was paying back the 7k OCC costs I usually netted 4.1-4.3k unless flexi was involved.

Great response, cheers.

I recently joined the company at the beginning of the year from FR and if there's anybody out there thinking about making the jump then I can highly recommend it! From the off, the company are trying to cut costs (who isn't?) and it remains to be seen what path they try to take. My decision was largely a lifestyle choice - I was offered command shortly before I handed my notice in but there's no way i'm moving to Romania on crap pay without any idea of when I could get home.

The flying here is great - there's nothing like flying to ALC and back and being back home by midday. I could fly with the best crew on the planet at FR but the flying was soul destroying - 4 and 6 sector days, max duty with min rest in between.

The training has been excellent. It's a VERY short OCC - 4 days GS, 4 days sim, 3 days LT - and the procs are very different to FR. We only have about a third of the callouts that FR do so the hard bit's forgetting the stuff from before!

Basing is very transparent and based on seniority. I was based far away from home initially but already have a base move confirmed 2 months after joining. You can input your bid from day one and the bid is run a couple times a year or as required.

There's the opportunity to fly in Canada and to fly different fleets and we've now got the opportunity to bid for mix fleet 737 & 787 flying (remember you'll be type frozen for the first 12 months but this can be waived for operational requirements).

Even with the 7k type deduction in year 1, I've already taken a pay rise compared to my pay as a TRI with FR. The training cost isn't great, it is what it is and I now see it as a 7k pay rise in year 2. The perks are excellent in comparison (I was a contractor with FR) and I can finally sleep well at night knowing i'm not on a :mad: tax-dodging contract, i'll get paid if I call in sick, hotels and transported are booked and paid for if I get sent away and I have a pension!

Just my opinion and experience so far, just though it may help if others are thinking of making the move. Good luck with the assessments!

I was made redundant from Thomson back in 2010 along with others. Had that never happened, I would have still been there now and never planned to leave. Great company, or it was back then. Great crew and training top notch. I can not recommend Thomson TUI anymore than it's an ideal place to aim for. Time to command is a long long time. There is a reason for that, very few leave.

To be fair command is expected to come down to the 2014/2015 joiners for the S19 bid. Bit of expansion going on now.

Worth remembering there was a big gap in recruitment for 5 odd years, so now all the guys with 10 years seniority are getting their commands the only people left for commands now sit at the 5-4 year mark.

Has the recruitment window shut? No sign on the tui recruitment search.

Closed 6th April.

It's not a decision maker, but can anyone give an idea on the staff travel process at TUI? e.g. What's it like on own-brand flights?, are they any agreements with other operators e.g. ZED tickets?

Cheers

Standby tickets are available with ourselves and all major airlines. Unfortunately, it's done by emailing a scanned copy of a form to our staff travel department who then issue you with a ticket (it used to be a paper ticket in the post up until a couple of months ago!). ID90/other electronic means of booking standby tickets is apparently coming. But it's been "coming soon" for 10+ years. I think it's now actively being looked into. After 1 year service we are given online access to BA staff travel (it's available from date of joining but via the form described above until you get online login). This can only be used to book standby tickets.

Confirmed seats AKA "late seats" are also available but are only confirmed 3 days in advance. Generally, you'd give staff travel a few destinations in order of preference and they work down the list. Nice for spontaneous last minute trips or taking the other half on a week trip to Costa Rica. Standby and late seats are very cheap.

Being a 'holiday airline' we are issued with concessions every year to be used towards a package holiday. The amount depends on years of service. I think year 1 is £500 or £750 and is capped at something like £1750 a year. Don't quote me on the numbers. These are confirmed seats/airport transfer/hotel rooms etc, can be booked well in advance and are great for taking the family away.

Evening, are there many of you still waiting for an assessment date after being offered the temporary hold pool? Cheers

Most likely movement will happen once our internal bid results are published, this will show where the recruitment is needed. I suspect this will concluded by the end of May.

Cheers, fingers crossed!

Applications open for military pilots, low hour CPL holders and 'no airline experience' pilots. All non type rated. Closes this Sunday.

https://tuijobsuk.co.uk/view-jobs.php?area%5B%5D=Pilots&location_alt%5B%5D=&keywords=&sea rch_source=13027&search_page=search%2Fairline-jobs%2F&results=Search

Answer is: No idea. But official comms say approximately 100 pilots needed so plenty of space for the best people. I assume they'll probably want a mix of all the backgrounds, but who knows? (not me).

With the permanent uk basing and temporary Nordic is there a chance you could be stuck on this for a few years? one season would be hard on my partner but not insurmountable. More than a season it would be a no go. Am I right in thinking it’s pot luck surprise if that’s what you’re offered?

I understood Tui to have a long time to command of 10 plus years but there’s mention of year 5 FOs being in line. I take it that’ll be temporary with expansion and expect the command time to return to the 10 plus year point?