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#1 Virgin Atlantic Manchester, four years, and before Virgin I was easyJet Manchester for three. The 'moving from easyJet to BA' thread exists and the Virgin Manchester thread I wrote describes the base. The move itself, from one Manchester crew room to the other across the airport, has not been written and the easyJet Manchester crew ask me monthly.
Why I moved
The long haul. Three years of four sector days to Alicante and Palma and I wanted the Barbados and the Orlando and the 48 hours. Amy's cabin manager thread describes the easyJet path and I did not want the cabin manager path; I wanted the aircraft. Virgin Manchester was across the airport and hiring.
The assessment with the easyJet record
The Virgin assessment (the group exercise, the role play, the interview) with three years of easyJet on the CV: the recruiters knew the easyJet operation and the Manchester base and the questions were about the long haul readiness, not the basics. 'Why long haul after three years of short haul' was the real question and the honest answer (the aircraft and the layovers, not the money) was the one. The easyJet record (the attendance, the appraisals) was checked and it mattered. The short haul hands, as Gavin and Nina said for BA, were noticed on the mock service.
What changed in the first year
The aircraft: the A350 and the 787 after the A320, the galleys, the crew rest, the Upper Class cabin and the bar. The service: the Virgin style after the easyJet buy on board, the full meal service, the brand's cheek. The roster: two or three long haul trips a month after twenty short haul days, the layovers, the body clock. The pay: the Virgin Manchester scale with the long haul allowances, up from the easyJet Manchester total on a comparable year, with the allowances as the difference. The crew room: the village with the A350, as I wrote, after the big easyJet room.
What transferred
Everything Nina's short haul thread said: the hands, the boarding, the cart, the passenger handling, the medical, the calm. The easyJet four sector days made me fast and the Virgin long haul made me patient. The crew who came to Virgin from easyJet are the fast ones on the fleet and the Virgin lifers who never did short haul are the patient ones. Both are needed.
The honest downside
The seniority reset: three years at easyJet counted for the assessment and not for the Virgin bidding. Year one at Virgin was the trips nobody wanted. The body clock after three years of home every night. And the easyJet pension and the easyJet friends, left across the airport.
For the easyJet Manchester crew looking across the apron
The move is real, the easyJet record is respected, the long haul is the reason to do it and the only good reason. The Virgin Manchester base is small and it likes the easyJet hands. The bus stop is shared and so is the car park.
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#2 easyJet Manchester cabin manager, and Aisha was my crew for a year before she crossed the apron and I was sorry to lose her and glad she went for the aircraft and not the money. The easyJet record being checked and mattering is the thing the Manchester crew looking across should hear. Clean records cross. Patterns do not.
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#3 Virgin Heathrow, and the easyJet crew who came to Virgin are the fast ones on the fleet, exactly as Aisha says, and the Virgin lifers are the patient ones. The Manchester base has both and the Heathrow base has mostly the lifers. The hands cross the apron.
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#4 easyJet Gatwick, and the Gatwick version is the BA Gatwick move across the terminal and the 'moving to BA' thread. Aisha's Virgin Manchester version is the northern one and the honest downside (the seniority reset, the body clock) is the same. The long haul is the only good reason.
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#5 Leeds, aspiring, with Jet2, TUI and Virgin Manchester on the list, and the easyJet to Virgin path at the same airport is the one I had not seen: three years of short haul hands, then the long haul. Adding easyJet Manchester to the list as the first door.
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#6 Virgin Heathrow, no short haul, the patient one, and reading Aisha's 'the easyJet days made me fast and the Virgin long haul made me patient' is the thing I said about my own cart skills coming slow. The short haul first is the better order.
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#7 Virgin Heathrow, five years, Upper Class bar regular, and the Manchester crew who came from easyJet are the ones who do the bar fastest and the ones who learned the chat slowest. Both learned. Aisha has the move honest.
