The narrow body to wide body course at Turkish Airlines: how you get it, what it involves, and the roster change that follows
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#1 Istanbul, narrow body, three years, and I have just been given a wide body course date after two and a half years of waiting, so this is the post I wanted to read when I was waiting, written now that I know the answers.
How you get it
Time on narrow body, which for Turkish crew is two to three years now and was less before. An appraisal record without serious negatives. A language advantage, which pushes you up the list (the foreign hires, as Zoe wrote, go almost immediately). And a spot on a course, which depends on how many wide body crew the operation needs that quarter, which depends on the fleet deliveries and the route launches. You put your name on the list and you wait and one day the message comes.
What it involves
Around three weeks at the training centre: SEP for the 777 and the A330 and A350 (the types you will fly), which means new doors, new equipment, new numbers, and the same 90 percent pass mark. Then the long haul service: the multi course meals, the front cabin standards, the crew rest procedures, the long haul specific things like the rest rotation and the second service. Then a supernumerary long haul, watching, and then you are wide body crew.
The roster change
From six sector domestic days to two long hauls a month with real layovers. From 26 sign ons a month to 12 or 14. From home every night to away eight to twelve nights. From lira allowances on domestic night stops to hard currency allowances in Tokyo and Toronto. The pay changes more than the basic suggests, because of the allowances, and that is the honest reason everyone waits for it.
What I will miss
Home every night, which I did not appreciate until I counted the nights I will be away. The narrow body crew, who are a tight group and who I will see less. And, strangely, the six sector day, which is the hardest flying I have done and which made me good at this.
For narrow body crew waiting
Two and a half years is the number now. Keep the record clean. Learn a language if you can, it moves you. And do the narrow body years properly, because the wide body pursers can tell who did.
Course starts next month. I will write the training version after.
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#2 Same base, same wait, six months behind you on the list. The 'wide body pursers can tell who did the narrow body years properly' point is the thing that keeps me doing the six sector days properly. Write the training version. I will read it twice.
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#3 Wide body, three years, and everything Amir says about the roster change is exact, and the thing I would add: the first Tokyo is the moment you understand what you were waiting for. Enjoy it. Then bid it every month like the rest of us.
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#4 British, went to wide body at three months, and I have always felt slightly guilty about it around the Turkish crew who waited three years. Reading this I feel it again. The narrow body crew earned it in a way I did not. I try to remember that on the Tokyo.
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#5 @zoelayovers nobody holds it against the language hires, genuinely. We know why. And the Tokyo is big enough for all of us.
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#6 Narrow body, two years, and the 'learn a language, it moves you' advice is the one I am acting on. Japanese, badly, on the crew bus. If it gets me the course a year early it is the best investment I will make.
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#7 Lufthansa, and the two fleet structure with a waiting list is the same at every legacy carrier: short haul first, long haul when the operation needs you. The Turkish version has the language accelerator. Ours has the seniority list. Same wait. Different queue.
