Flying 20% less than I used to, excellent colleagues (same at EZY to be fair), decent number of weekends off even at the bottom, days are way shorter, control over the type of flying that suits you (earlies, lates, daytrips, tours etc), rock solid roster stability, weeks of leave in school holidays, helpful ground team that gives you compassionate / dependent leave.
Downsides are the company is enormous so can be difficult to feel at home when you don’t recognise anybody on a 2 day your with 5 different crew. Slighty awkward aircraft changes with 2 hour turns but there’s virtually always possibility for coffee and a decent meal in T5 that’s not crew food.
There’s a thread in the airline of course that SH is terrible and exhausting but it’s way better than the grind of long term low cost flying in my experience. LHR night jet ban is great!
Could all change at the bottom with JSS but I’m cautiously optimistic.