Weekend in Paris: American Admirals Club Paris, British Airways Club Europe Paris to London

Many pilots choose to stick with the FO position from a quality of life perspective. Moving over to the left seat generally means starting over from the bottom of the seniority list and leads to years of inflexible scheduling and possibly being placed on reserve. In contrast, being a very senior FO may not come with the same pay, but pilots at the top of the seniority list get first bid on their trips and stay home during holidays, etc.

The breakfast looks about 20 times better than UA's business class breakfast, which is mysterious indeed.

roflmao on the comment from 1F. 🙂

-David

@Michael - BA pilot scheduling is not based upon seniority. You are assigned flights and you take what you are given, with limited flexibility to swap a certain number of trips per month. Similarly, one does not bid for command as in the case of US carriers but rather one is selected for command based upon experience and merit, rather than merely seniority.

"Senior First Officer" is an actual rank at many airlines (in contrast to "First Officer") and denotes that the First Officer holds an ATPL as opposed to a CPL/MPL. SFOs wear 3 stripes as opposed to 2 stripes for regular FOs.

Finally, an Airbus SFO at BA is usually nowhere near junior within the organisation. The juniormost pilots at BA are usually assigned to 747s and 777s where they gain experience in relief crew settings.

This is actually the way most airlines in the world (outside of North America where unions still cling to seniority/bidding) operate.

I note all of the comments above and I'm a little embarrassed that our LUCKY author does not know (or remember) these details. SFO is a rank of genuine honor and recognizes many years of experience. As others note, many (perhaps most?)'foreign' airlines to not follow the North American strict seniority employment model for their pilots. There are real benefits to a merit v. seniority assignment plan. As a thoroughly experienced "World Traveller" Ben ought to know this stuff, probably does and likely had a brief brain fart. It happens. As for complaints about the flight, WTF does one really expect within 45 minutes of airtime? While this 'hop' may qualify as international, it really a quick, domestic hop for the folks that operate it. A domestic flight of 45 minutes in the US, or within a single country in the EU would likely net the business class flyer a cup of coffee or a cocktail and little more. The reviews ARE FUN reading, always. That said, let's try to keep them in persepctive and piss/moan only when it is relevant. From my point of view, I'd have booked the Paris-London seat in coach. The upper cabin perks are great, but where is the benefit in wasting those valuable points and miles on 45 minutes of air time. Save them for thos 15-hour+ flights where they DO make a difference. I'd agree that the breakfast meal was close to very bad, but that's probably the only flight in the EU that offers a meal during 45 minutes of airtime. In the end, criticism, evaluating and reporting are wonderful things. They still have to be reasonable, dude! -C.

I feel ill just looking at the breakfast. Why do airlines continue to believe that serving a hot breakfast, no matter how disgusting, will always regarded as higher in quality than a cold breakfast.

@cedarglen This is the first segment of his return trip. If you read the last sentence of the post, he's heading to the TRANSFER Center to go to Miami. No extra miles was wasted.
@MS: I totally agree with that. on CO I love their cold breakfast. It's a healthy and balance meal.

@Sean M. - Thanks for clarifying, I didn't realize this. I only know how it works at the US airlines, where there are many very senior FOs for the reasons I specified.

You could have scored with the girl had you showed her your miles balance. Her new hero of the skies.
Regarding the breakfast, it looks pretty tasty to me (as it looked the first one). Much better that those french toasts with nothing but jam or butter

That last picture looks like a plane skidded off the runway into the grass....hehehe

@Sean M. Very interesting thank yo for clarifying.

@Cedarglen: "More miles" "upper class" you don't really know what you are talking about do you?

@Cedarglen: He didnt even use miles for this trip - he paid for it with $$$.

Hi, Lucky. I don't know if you monitor comments on these older posts, so if I don't hear back in a few days, I'll post to your general question page.

I want to ask about the Admirals Club in Terminal 2A at CDG. I will be flying YUL-CDG on Air Canada, arriving in Terminal 2A. We will have only carry-on luggage. I have the AAdvantage Citi MC.

Question: Will I be able to access the Club immediately on arrival (i.e., remaining airside), or will I be forced outside security to clear immigration and customs, and then not be able to get airside past security and back into the Club? Thanks.

@ zow -- You'll be shuffled directly to immigration, unfortunately.

Tiffany, thank you.