Methinks Lady S has acheived what we all desire far too quickly and didn't have to do the hard yards. I spent 18 years in the RHS out of Hamble - just the way the cookie crumbled. I joined BA behind many others from the schools, all of a similiar age. I might have been able to get a shorhaul command perhaps 18 months quicker, but that was it. Striaght to WB command though.
After 18 years at BA you've left it far too late to move to the US. You're interested in a larger salary, you won't get it in the 'seniority based' US for years. In another 18 years at a US legacy you'll be where you are today or ahead, having lived on a lower salary for years. Go to the ME or China, (it used to be CX too) for a mega salary but beware the T &Cs and labour laws - or lack of them.
That's my take on it. S
S