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#1 Wizz Budapest, senior cabin crew, five years, and the promotion question arrives from the year one crew who want the timeline and from the year two crew who have been passed over once. The timeline depends on the base more than on the crew member and nobody has written that part. Here it is.
The time it takes by base
At the fast growing bases and the new ones (the Abu Dhabi base in its growth years, the new Italian and Albanian bases, the bases that open with a senior shortage), crew have been promoted at twelve to eighteen months because the base needed seniors and the ones who were ready were promoted. At the established bases (Budapest, Warsaw, Krakow, Bucharest, Sofia), the wait is two to three years because the senior positions are filled and the openings come from the seniors who leave or move. The crew member who wants the fast promotion goes to the base that needs seniors, which is the Wizz career move the ambitious ones make.
The assessment
The nomination from the base management (the performance, the sales, the punctuality, the reports), the senior cabin crew course (a week or two, the leadership module, the paperwork, the briefing, the handling of the crew and the situations), and the assessment flights with a check senior. The crew who fail are usually failing the paperwork and the briefing, not the service; the senior's job is administrative in a way the junior's is not.
The responsibilities that change
The briefing is yours. The paperwork (the sales reconciliation, the reports, the crew documents) is yours. The decisions in the cabin (the disruptive passenger, the medical, the delay communication) are yours with the captain. The crew's mistakes are yours to catch. The sales target is the whole cabin's and you are measured on it. And the relationship with the base management and the captains changes: you are the one they call.
The pay difference
The senior allowance on top of the basic and the sector pay, which at the Wizz bases is a meaningful step but not a transformation: the senior earns noticeably more than the junior on the same roster, and the difference is in the allowance and in the sales commission share, not in the basic. The seniors who promoted for the money and not for the role are the ones in the next paragraph.
The seniors who regret it
The ones who liked the cabin and the passengers and found the senior's job to be the paperwork and the management. The ones at the hard bases where the sales targets fall on the senior's head. The ones who promoted at fourteen months at a growth base and were seniors before they were comfortable juniors. A few have asked to step back and the airline has allowed it at some bases. The regret is real and not common, and it is about the role, not the pay.
For the crew who want it
Be at the base that needs seniors or be patient at the one that does not. Be the junior whose paperwork is already clean. Do the sales because the senior is measured on them. And want the role, not the allowance, because the allowance is modest and the role is the job.
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#2 Budapest, senior, four years, and the established base wait being two to three years is Budapest exactly: the senior positions are full and the openings come when someone leaves. The crew who went to Abu Dhabi for the fast promotion are seniors now and some of them are back. Viktor has the base map.
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#3 Krakow, three years, passed over once, and this thread explains why: the Krakow seniors are not leaving and the base does not need more. The senior's job being the paperwork and the briefing is the thing I had to hear. I still want it, for the role.
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#4 Wizz Abu Dhabi, and the growth base promotion at fourteen months is exactly what happened here: the base needed seniors and the ready ones were promoted and some were seniors before they were comfortable juniors, as Viktor says. A few stepped back. The honest version.
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#5 Warsaw, three years, and the sales target falling on the senior's head is the thing I watch my seniors carry and the reason I am not in a hurry. The pay difference being the allowance and the commission share and not the basic is the honest number. Good thread.
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#6 Krakow, 18 months, and the 'be the junior whose paperwork is already clean' is the advice I can act on today. The base map (growth bases fast, established bases slow) is the thing nobody had said out loud.
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#7 Rome, two years, and the Italian bases in their growth years promoting at eighteen months is what happened to two colleagues here and both are good seniors, so the fast promotion is not always the regret. It depends on the person, as Viktor says. The role, not the allowance.
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#8 @nataliekrk wanting it for the role after hearing the paperwork part is exactly the senior who does not regret it. @martinaroma agreed, the fast promotion at a growth base makes good seniors of the ones who were ready and the thread is about the ones who were not.
