First of all you would need a crystal ball to see what the future will bring..when I left BA there were 4 great airlines world wide airlines -three have gone and the last one is CX.
My take is what is most important - career or family.
I went from nearly every night at home to magical mystery tours, finally sometimes 8 nights a month at home.
I had 20 years right hand seat and my last employer went from 4 years to command to 13.
BA procedures; monitored approach was introduced because many couldn’t manage the trident along with it’s analogue systems. We basically pointed the aircraft using the flight director with the captain monitoring and over riding the auto throttle, The myth was one couldn’t fly raw data with manual throttle. The VC10 did the opposite to BEA.
As to not flying a circuit with the airfield on the other side of the cockpit - what a load of rubbish. All down to training and standards.
Whilst BALPA helps there are incidents of being sold down the river by them; but they do help especially against some of the types BA got in management and training.
There is a video about how BA returns so much profit..basically by cutting everything down to seat pitch being less than Ryanair.
The old days of employees and customer service being important seem to have disappeared.
My last employer chucked enough money at us that I could afford an au pair and take my wife on trips or the whole family which helped with the time away.
I think my course mates who went to Britannia had the best career.
If you want to get satisfaction from flying than I suggest either executive jets or gliding especially in the mountains. The flying I did doesn’t exist in European airlines anymore.
Being a copilot is harder than being a captain.
One of my course mates got to top of BA seniority list..that’s a privilege.
I now live in one of the best towns in Ireland, I envy those who have lived here all of their lives - my home town has changed due to corruption and the wealthy drug dealers than moved there.
The job is what you make it.
Last edited by blind pew; 6th April 2026 at 12:39.