Please Help! British Mediterranean Airways Interview

[Cabin Pressure89]

Dear Guys and Gals

I have got an interview for British Mediterranean Airways soon.

To be honest I dont really know much about them.

I have heard they pay rather well and promotion is rapid???

If anyone could give me any info on them, that would be great.

I have flown long haul and short haul. I currently fly long haul, would I be mad to give up long haul??

Any feed back would be great!!!

Ta very much!!

x

[Exxon-Valdez]

Promotion: Dead mans shoes and long waiting list
Pay: Junior £1200 take home approx
Don't give up the day job.

[Cabin Pressure89]

Do they night stop a lot? if so is it mostly min rest, do you get allowence at hotel???

[AJ]

Hi Cabin Pressure,

No answer, but I do have a question: I'm looking at joining Bmed too, just wondering how one goes about getting the interview. Did you email them a speculative CV, or was the job adverstised? If so, is it still possible to apply at this stage?

Ta

[pondskipper]

If you have an interview you may want to go to the Bmed website and just do some light reading on the company as i know they do like you to have a bit of knowledge on the company.

As cabin crew for Bmed i can bring home approx £1200 - £1600 depending on you trips.

The trips are long, between 3 - 6 days so you are away from home alot. You get approx 9 days a month off. We fly to some of the strangest places and you do get bored of them after a while but it really is what you make of it, as long as your up for a laugh you can always have a good time.

The company is still fairly small with approx 200 cabin crew so after you have been there a while you tend to know most people which is a plus because you know when you check in if your gonna have a fun trip or a boring trip! Most crews have alot of fun! At present we have 2 A320 and 2 A321 with another on order for next year.

The company does have it's negative points but you tell me of a company that doesn't.

Good luck.

[gladrags]

CabinPressure89,
My advice is the same as Exxon-Valdez...don't do it unless you've got NOTHING else to go to!!

I have 1st hand experience of BMed,and have several friends who are currently still flying for them.Most of them are looking for other jobs.

1: The routes are the most 'diverse' in the industry.
If there's a civil war/unrest in progress...you can be sure that BMed flies there!!
Currently layovers are in ADD,AMM,BEY,DAM,ALP BAK & TAS.
If you're hoping BMed will start flying to the USA or somewhere decent...forget it...they won't.
Bmed are also looking at operating passenger flights to Kabul.
They don't have plans to operate anything large then the A321 either.
Down route hotel accomodation is generally of a reasonable standard tho.

2: Cabin crew 'management'(ahem!!) who rule by fear,and are apparantley now solely motivated by gossip and small talk.
They're not called "The Regime" for nothing!!

3: If you have previous flying experience,don't expect this to increase your chances of promotion.However, if your face fits promotion may be fairly quick,if you're lucky.(Also it helps now if you're ex BMI British Midland!!)

4: You'll be expected to socialise down-route.Mind you,the places they fly to there's not much else happening!!

5: Only 8 rostered days off per month.

6: Roster changes are'nt unusual,and you'll be expected to put up with it.BMed are one of only a few British airlines that don't currently have any type of industrial agreement for cabin crew scheduling & rosters.In my opinion this is vital to maintaining decent working conditions for cabin crew.

7: The money is reasonable-but you'll work for every penny of it!!On a full time roster you can do up to 5 trips a month.
Back-2-back trips are'nt unusual, and I am not talking about a BA style B-2-B where you get hotac/allowances in LHR etc.So if you're contemplating commuting,you'll be required to find and pay for a room or a B+B near LHR yourself.

8: Demoralised crew who have little sense of camararderie.

9: Crew compliment of 5 on most flight's.It's hard work operating a full 2 class A321 or A320 with just 5 f/a's

10: Almost all trips are 4 sector mimimum,and that either involves 2 sectors out/inbound and/or a shuttle in the middle of the night.Most down route pick-ups for the inbound flight are before 5am GMT.
One trip at the moment involves a 5hr bus ride through Syria from DAM-ALP.This trip was implemented with the full approval of "The Regime" who apparantley seem totally uninterested in any security related concerns that the crew have about it.

11: Full BA/OneWorld travel concessions after the normal 6mth qualifying period.

12: BMed have recently signed an agreement with Cabin Crew89 for union representation-this has'nt involved any major changes yet,and it may be a while until anything concrete materialises.


Apologies if I appear negative towards British Mediterranean,but I am trying to paint as realistic and as truthful a picture of the company as possible, as I see it.

gladrags:cool:

[phreegreens]

if you want the job, put on a grumpy face, avoid eye contact with the panel and appear totally disinterested in customer satisfaction... maybe a bit cruel, but on the AMM sector those are the types I have met.

In their defence they are often working like one armed paper hangers at the back of the bus, seems they cut the crewing to a minimum and you have to graft hard.

BA colours maybe, BA standards, nope.

[Exxon-Valdez]

Watch out for the big fat security chief

Although I hear he may not be around for long (one way or another)

[gladrags]

Let's hope you're right Exxon-Valdez!!

gladrags:cool:

[STARBUX]

Dear CabinPressure89


Have u been for your interview yet?

Anyway u mentioned that u currently fly long-haul......well I think u will find that BMED is most definately a long-haul op......after all they are BA's only long-haul franchisee! Unfortunaetly the aircraft they select to operate on their long-haul destinations are not so long-haul.

They operate a roughly 50-50 A320-A321 fleet....consisting of mostly new(ish) aircraft.....one of them being very new! The config is BA Club World seats ( the old ones) and BA World Traveller (old ones).

The money is not bad for main crew, however u will most certainly be expected to work for it, dont let anyone tell u that its easy going at BMED......they are tight with their money......I guess that makes good business sense tho. I think that most main crew (or Juniors as they used to be called) can expect to take home about 1400-1600 per month.....that will be the fruits of a solid 8 days off minimum roster period tho. It has to be said that u dont get much of a home life .

The flights and destinations themselves are very unusual.....some would say that is a polite way of putting it!! They are big on the middle east, caucasus regions and central asia.....they also operate a couple of destinations in north africa as well. The report times ex LHR are very respectable , none really before about 11.30am I think.....but coming back to London is a different story. Most or all of the wake up times in down route hotels are before 02.30local UK time....with maybe one or two being a bit later......a wake up time of 0400 local UK time is considered a lie in!!!!! The sectors are predominately double ones.....and down route they operate moon light shuttles to places like Bishkek and Almaty.......u can find those on the atlas!


In a nutshell, u will find urself to be thinking about beds and sleeping for most of u r waking hours.....u will EARN decent money(note the word EARN), and its upto u if u want to enjoy the somewhat obligatory boozy lifestyle downroute. Also the majority of the crew are pretty young as well........and alot of them are up for a good time( if u know wot I mean)...........

Happy and safe Flying!

[Exxon-Valdez]

for Chief of Security one way or another.

It's funny that people refer to BMED as a long haul franchise but before BMED took over the routes the same destinations were refered to as Mid-Haul by BA.

Example of why not to join BMED Cabin Crew have left BMED to join new LGW based charter Airline Flyjet. Do you think people would leave a Well paid long-haul airline where moral is excellent for charter from Gatwick?

Gladrags

I am sure it will be stamped on before long.


ExXon-Valdez

Burn that oil baby you make me richer.

[Off Stand]

I TOO HAVE AN INTERVIEW IN THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE. I AM CURRENTLY OPERATING OUT OF LGW AS A PURSER FOR A CERTAIN LOW COST (YEAH RIGHT!) AIRLINE. THE MORAL IS LOWER HERE THAN ANYTHING I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED AT ANY COMPANY. A FRIEND SUGGESTED BMED AS AN ALTERNATIVE, THEY SEEM TO ENJOY IT.

[STARBUX]

Hi Everyone,


I believe that BA only operated Beirut, Damascus and Amman when the franchise agreement was signed, so that BMED could operate said routes. I suppose one could argue that the above destinations are Mid-haul, however we are operating a long-haul product in having Club World seats available. I would most certainly put Addis Ababa , Tehran, Bishkek, Almaty and Tashkent in the long-haul destination category! Anyone else agree?

[Cabin Pressure89]

off stand when is you interview date?!?!

[Sheikha]

it helps if you arent british and if you have recently come over from the east block to pick strawberriers,then this could be the airline for you and residency in the united kingdom..you could do worse?!