Applying to cabin crew with children at home: the single parents who did it, the childcare question in disguise, base choice and roster maths
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#1 Qantas domestic, two kids, and I wrote the married at 31 thread and the easyJet part time thread exists and the Scandinavian maternity one. The applying with children at home question is different from the having children while flying one and the single parents who message me need their version. Here it is from the crew who did it, with the maths.
The childcare question that is never asked and always answered
The recruiters cannot ask about children in the countries with the discrimination law and do not at the Gulf carriers either, where the question is the family one. But the availability question (the earlies, the lates, the nights away, the base flexibility) is the childcare question in disguise and the candidate with children answers it honestly or does not. The honest answer with the plan (the partner's roster, the grandparents, the paid care, the fixed pattern request later) is the one that works; the vague yes to everything is the one that becomes a resignation at month four when the 4am sign ons meet the school run.
The single parents who did it
A single mother at easyJet Manchester with a mother next door and a fixed pattern from year two. A single father at Qantas domestic with the ex partner on an alternating week and the roster bid around it. A single mother at Jet2 with the seasonal contract and the winter at home. A single mother at Air NZ domestic with the Pacific family network. All domestic or short haul, all with a care network built before the application, all with the fixed pattern or the part time as the goal from day one. None at the Gulf carriers, where the accommodation and the distance make it close to impossible, and none on the long haul in year one.
The base choice
The base near the care network, which outranks the base near the airline's best flying. The domestic and short haul base over the long haul one. The base with the fixed pattern culture (the European part time carriers, the Australian domestic, the US line holders at the junior bases). The single parent who chose Heathrow long haul for the network and lived two hours from the grandparents is the one in the exit threads.
The honest roster maths
Year one: the roster two weeks out, the earlies and the lates, the standby, no fixed pattern yet, the care network doing the work. Year two: the fixed pattern or the part time request (the European carriers), the line held (the US), the bidding around the care (the Australians). The money: the part time at half the hours is less than half the pay (Amy's thread) and the single parent budgets for it. The childcare cost against the cabin crew salary at a domestic carrier is the maths that decides it and for some it does not add up and the honest answer is the office job.
What the single parents say
That the first year is the care network's year and not theirs. That the fixed pattern is the thing that makes it a life. That the children adjust to the roster faster than the parents expect and that the days off in blocks are more time than the office gave. And that the job is possible with children at home at the right airline, at the right base, with the network, and not otherwise.
For the parents applying
The care network before the application. The domestic or short haul base near it. The honest availability answer with the plan. The fixed pattern as the year two goal. And the maths done on the childcare against the salary before the assessment, because the recruiters will not do it for you and the roster will.
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#2 easyJet Manchester, and the single mother with the mother next door and the fixed pattern from year two is my crew and the best cabin crew member on my base. The care network before the application is the thing. Tasha has the single parent's version honestly and the maths is the part nobody writes.
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#3 Manchester, part time on a fixed four on, and the children adjusting to the roster faster than the parents is true and the days off in blocks being more time than the office gave is the thing I tell the parents who ask. The year one is the network's. Tasha has it.
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#4 Jet2 Manchester, and the single mother at Jet2 with the seasonal contract and the winter at home is a colleague and the seasonal shape is the single parent's friend at the leisure carriers: the summer flying, the winter with the children. Tasha's base choice paragraph is the one.
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#5 Emirates, and 'none at the Gulf carriers, where the accommodation and the distance make it close to impossible' is the honest Gulf line and the single parents who ask about Dubai should read it first. The Gulf is for the ones without the school run.
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#6 Air NZ domestic, joined at 34 with a child, and the Pacific family network is the Air NZ single parent's care network and the domestic roster is the one that works with it. Tasha's maths done before the assessment is the advice I would add to my own thread.
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#7 United Denver, and the US version is the line at the junior base as the single parent's fixed pattern: the Denver single parents hold a line in months and bid around the care. The Newark reserve is the one that does not work with children. Tasha's base logic is the US one too.
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#8 Leeds, aspiring, with a seven year old and my mother ten minutes away, and this is the thread I was looking for and afraid to find. The domestic base near the network, the honest availability answer, the maths. Jet2 Leeds is the application.