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#1 Wizz, Budapest, four years, senior cabin crew for the last 18 months, and the Budapest base has a specific character because the head office is twenty minutes away. Here is the senior role, the base, and the head office effect nobody warns you about.
The senior role
The senior cabin crew member runs the cabin: the briefing, the crew allocation on the aircraft, the paperwork, the liaison with the captain, the passenger issues that escalate, the on time performance of the turnaround from the cabin side. On the A321neo with four crew you are also working the service. It is the Wizz version of the number one or the cabin manager.
Getting it
An application when the base advertises, a minimum period as junior (it was around 18 months for me), a record check, an assessment with a scenario interview and a role play, then a short course and a line check as senior. The base managers know who they want; the crew who volunteer for the difficult flights and who never have a lateness are the ones who get the nod.
The pay step
A higher basic and a senior allowance per sector. In forint it is a meaningful increase, roughly a fifth more than a junior on the same roster. The responsibility is the bigger change.
The Budapest base
Large, one of the biggest in the network, the original base, a lot of A321neos, a network to the whole of Europe and the Middle East. Two crew rooms. Rent in Budapest is rising but still manageable outside the centre. The crew are mostly Hungarian with a growing number of foreign crew who came for the base and stayed for the city, which is a good city to be tired in.
The head office effect
This is the thing. The Wizz head office is in Budapest. That means base management is close to company management, decisions arrive faster and are enforced more visibly, the on time performance culture is strongest here, and senior management is on your flights more often than at any other base. On the good side, problems get solved faster and the base is well run. On the other side, there is nowhere to hide and the base feels like the shop window. Crew who transfer from Budapest to a smaller base describe the difference as 'relaxing'.
Would I recommend Budapest as a first base
Yes, for the flying, the network and the base management. With the warning that it is the most watched base in the network and the standards are enforced accordingly. If you want to learn the Wizz way properly, this is where it is taught. If you want a quieter life, ask for a smaller base later.
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#2 Budapest as well and 'the shop window' is exactly right. Senior management on your flights, the OTP board in the crew room, the emails. It makes you good. It also makes the smaller bases sound like a holiday.
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#3 Krakow, and the Budapest crew who transfer to us describe it like Anita says: relaxing. We have the same rules and less of the watching. The head office decisions still arrive, just from further away.
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#4 Bucharest assessment done, waiting, and if I get a base choice this thread has made Budapest the ambitious pick. Learn it properly then move. Noted.
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#5 @alina2004 that is the right way round. Nobody regrets learning here. Some people regret staying ten years.
