Originally Posted by
rvfanatic
Being bunkie is not junior, being a RESERVE bunkie is junior. One of the best parts of international is the commutability. Many pilots commute up day of, fly night departure to Europe and return two days later just after lunch then commute home. Contrast that with 18 days on call for global reserve with no scheduled line in sight and living in a crash pad.
To add onto this, most people prefer productivity and maximum pay. A 25 hour IRO trip will usually go senior to a 18 hour flying seat trip with the same footprint. My seniority pretty much guaranteed that I’d be IRO unless it was Christmas Day or if I flew one of the really unproductive trips. It was still a great job, but there were some downsides. You’re always getting 1st break, landings class pays like an extremely unproductive 2 day, and the training department never buys the IRO seat.