EXCLUSIVE: the new British Airways cabin crew pay offer revealed – big cuts for legacy crew

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Claire says:

  15 May15 May 23:34

  Terrible the company should be ashamed doing this to people. I have a friend that works for them who just took unpaid and has done in the past to help them in bad times they feel betrayed as the company has been cutting costs for years and working with its employees is now taking total advantage while Mr Walsh I believe has earnings of over 30 million

• Gavin says:

  16 May16 May 00:57

  Essentially this is branding cabin crew as a job to do for a few years while living at home and not a career. Or a job to do if you marry a pilot.

• jimA says:

  16 May16 May 02:45

  If – and its a huge if – there are crew who live abroad and commute to london for 3or 4 flights per month and they live ion that then they are grossly overpaid

  • HK Ray says:

    16 May16 May 04:38

    There are. I’ve lived in Asia for 10+ years and used to fly Club World back to London every couple of months. I’ve spoken to lots of BA crew who lived in Spain, France and Scotland, but worked out of Heathrow. In fact there was often a scramble when the flight landed for the crew to get off the plane and make the first early flight back home (there was often one or two waiting at the door in order to sprint off as soon as the doors opened!). Team players!

  • NigelthePensioner says:

    16 May16 May 07:10

    There are many – very many indeed. I have chatted with one from Cape Town and another from Melbourne that come to mind straight away. It really isnt unusual.
    Interesting to see even more insight into Walsh’s tiny mind – cabin crew will get bonuses on in flight sales; so is he suggesting that he considers their role is primarily one of sales and bottom line profit and not of passenger safety? The pre departure flight deck script will have to be re-written!

    • Optimus Prime says:

      16 May16 May 10:16

      Wow, people commuting from Australia to Heathrow? That’s a stretch…

      Over at the FT thread there’s a discussion about this commuting and someone said that due to health & safety reasons they’re not allowed to have silly commutes such as above. I guess those people will get to London 2-3 days prior to their working flights?

      • CV3V says:

        16 May16 May 17:10

        I knew someone who was cabin crew for JAL, they commuted from UK to Tokyo to get to their base. They would they fly around the world and back into Tokyo, then commute back to London. It was fairly common. But JAL only gave out fixed term contracts of a few years to foreign staff, ensured a turnover of staff, for some reason.

  • Michael C says:

    16 May16 May 08:01

    As Nigel t.P. says, a LARGE number of both crew and pilots live abroad.
    Sitges has a massive BA community, and queues for the jumpseats on the morning flight to LHR!

    • Rob says:

      16 May16 May 09:24

      If BA lets you commute for free then surely it makes sense to live somewhere pleasant and cheap nowhere near Heathrow.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    16 May16 May 08:36

    They probably are over paid but not because they are willing to take a FREE flight to commute to work.

    Don’t forget while they are working their expenses are pretty low, accommodation paid for and allowance for meals.

    They then have all the downtime to take up other part time employment or a their small business side hustle.

    • John says:

      16 May16 May 09:15

      Commuting flights are most definitely NOT FREE….!!!

      They are PAID for and often doesn’t even guarantee getting on the flight or a seat…!!

      • TGLoyalty says:

        16 May16 May 13:48

        Ok I should have clarified they are very cheap and usually taxes and fees only. Not guaranteed but obviously they’ve made it work otherwise they wouldn’t have kept the job for the past 10+ years.

  • MAD says:

    16 May16 May 08:41

    Yes, terrible that in this day and age of sweatshops and zero hour contracts there are still people out there making a good living wage and not have to work their socks off for it. I am sure there are plenty of Romanians out there that would just be grateful for a job and be happy to work for peanuts and to subsidise their meagre wage with tax payer funded handouts to make ends meet. They would probably be more then happy to sleep in the hold as well during stopovers thus saving BA hotel costs which can then be passed on to shareholders.

    • BlueThroughCrimp says:

      16 May16 May 09:35

      Hear hear. Some of the jealousy in the comments is ridiculous.

  • Bob The Builder says:

    16 May16 May 08:59

    JimA
    You don’t no what your talking about stick to your job of licking stamps & attaching onto envelopes of which I think is showing your true potential……

    Grossly overpaid!

  • Flightsy says:

    16 May16 May 09:24

    How is a cabin crew member commuting to work from abroad any different to the thousands of Financial Services workers who do the exact same thing? My old boss commuted to Canary Wharf from Lisbon and many of my colleagues commute from Scotland, Wales and France. Never once have I heard anyone saying it’s because “they’re grossly overpaid” – it’s a lifestyle choice. Anyone thinking that a cabin crew member living near Heathrow can manage on a salary of £24k and pay their rent / mortgage, other household bills and support a family on that (if they have one) on a long term basis is having a laugh. Shockingly £24k is what a newly qualified nurse is paid – either way you look at it, it’s pretty bad.

  • ChrisBCN says:

    16 May16 May 09:30

    You realise that people live avroad because it is so much cheaper than London? Especially as the commute cost can be negligible. They don’t all live abroad because they are overpaid, but because rent in London is unaffordable and vastly cheaper elsewhere in Europe (and quality of life vs UK too of course…)

• Opus says:

  16 May16 May 03:20

  My opinion is BA shouldn’t change the mixed fleet contracts. In fact that should give them some more to at least build that morale as much as you can whatever may be left of it.

  Now, the sad reality is that in 2020 where in the world is cabin crew job one that gives you all you want? It rarely happens. In the Middle East I think the pay may not be that bad but they literally own their lives and the rules are almost unbearable. Here in Europe or Britain at least, don’t blame BA for the standard crew pay that’s what the industry pays seeing the entrants of LCCs. Dont for one second think BA will ever be prepared to pay above market rate. Does anyone know what virgins pay is? Also I feel sorry for legacy crew honestly. But this is actually life. This industry has been heading this way for a long long time. Does anyone also know the cabin crew rates in Asia and the states? Thanks

  • J says:

    16 May16 May 08:20

    Virgin do not pay especially well either but are said to have more generous benefits. Staff turnover is also much lower – Virgin recruit every couple of years. BA is obviously a much bigger airline but it is still notable that Mixed Fleet, like Ryanair, before the crisis were almost constantly recruiting. It’s also pretty obvious flying BA/Virgin that on board most Virgin crew love their job.

• BOB MORRIS says:

  16 May16 May 06:37

  To quote the group Status Quo ” Down down deeper and down” from the heights of what was once the “Worlds Favorite”. How the mighty are falling!

  Sad refelection on the times we live in. Theres an old adage ” pay peanuts -you get monkeys”.

• Should I put my head above the parapet? says:

  16 May16 May 07:20

  Genuine question regarding the expenses element of the £24k OTE, so I am in no way defending BA.

  I was once told by a friend who became a long haul purser that most airport hotels crew stay at have a crew room which provides food free of charge. His allowance was spent on partying at local bars.

  Is it still the case that hotels that host a large number of crew offer food and facilities to crew? Whilst I wouldn’t want to be at eg Haneda, stay in the hotel and not see Tokyo, the expenses could be seen as income in board and lodging is provided.

  • Bob The Builder says:

    16 May16 May 09:23

    Just to confirm and clarify!

    Crew do not get free food and beverages whilst down route , our allowances are paid so to purchase your food while down route.

    • PrinterElf says:

      16 May16 May 13:16

      Food at the always reasonable prices found on a menu in any hotel(!)

• Ken says:

  16 May16 May 07:30

  BA – making sure the taxpayer will subsidise cabin crew wages with universal credit.

  Britain’s favourite airline.

  • Lady London says:

    16 May16 May 10:47

    Also from what Rob said recently, amother wheeze is BA calling staff they would havr to recruit and train anyway “apprentices”.

    IIRC.this means the government (that’s your taxes and mine) is subsidising this Spanish-owned company and its higher management multi-million dollar pay packages to the tune of £1,000 given by us every month to British Airways per declared ‘apprentice’. And remember cost of crew allowances is taken off BA’s profits before they pay any corporation tax as well.

• Edd M says:

  16 May16 May 07:49

  The issue with hollowing out jobs to this extent is that it saves much less that it looks. You are constantly recruiting, training, and disciplining poorly motivated staff to do their roles, with huge levels of sickness and non attendance.

  Conceivably if freedom of movement ends, you may even run out of young crew to burn through (people over the age of 25 or with any family commitment will not want these jobs).

  I would contrast the skill (and pay) of Qantas crew to what BA is offering. It’s a bleak contrast and shows BA’s intended direction of travel.

  • J says:

    16 May16 May 08:22

    Yes it’s probably not cost effective with such a high staff turnover but I think it’s now ideological for Walsh/Cruz to attack long serving staff.

  • Rob says:

    16 May16 May 09:25

    Qantas has 600 crew in the UK, surprisingly. We had a tour of their base last year.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.