Hi
Firstly pay. This can obviously depend on your roster, but a new entrant basic is just over £10,000 (I am sorry but cant remember the exact figure). You can expect to stay on that for between 2 and 3 years when the basic for a Senior goes up to just over £12,000. On top of this basic salary you will receive allowances for each trip. I would say your average allowances per month would be in the region of £400, but this can vary especially if you get a Hong Kong or Narita. You will also receive flight pay of £26 per trip and with the average 5-6 trips per month this can bump your salary up a bit. there is also the Duty free commission, although this isnt much to write home about.
As I say a typical roster will normally be 5 trips (6 if really busy) but again this depends. Most trips are 1 nighters (3 Day trip) but there are also 5 night Cape Towns and 4 night Las Vegas'.
Virgin, like any other airline has its pros and cons. It is hard work, but generally the people you work with and fantastic destinations you fly to more than make up for the bad times.
As for where to live. That is totally up to you. Virgin crew live all over the UK and Europe and the long haul lifestyle does enable you to do that, but I would recommend that to start with you find somewhere down South , see if its the life for you and then move back up North and commute.
Best of luck with your application. Let me know if you need any more info and maybe I'll see you downroute sometime.
Regards
Northern Star