Jagbag in answer to your questions.
a) If you have got bucket loads of hours and don't mind staying on the 8 there is some command potential although quite limited. Impossible to give accurate but certainly going to be a shed load longer than months. Most in BACX won't touch the 8 because we've all seen what happened to the 41 and ATP. There is no capacity anywhere else in BACX to take up the slack if the 8 "suddenly" ceased to be of use. Although management being very positive about the fleet at present so who knows the future may have props after all !
b) Unfortunately NO. Just been told that even with expansion potential at BHX after DUOs demise BACX will not be taking on any more hulls on any fleet for the forseeable future. Even with rock bottom priced RJ100s around and routes to operate them on.
c) Blanket ban on use of flight deck jumpseat. Can only be used as an absolute last resort when positioning a crew to operate. RJ sometimes have spare CC jumpseats but not sure what the policy is. There are no freebies or even cheapbies outside normal staff travel for staff wishing to commute to work.
d) Standard £1.50 hour minus tax - 30% of total at top rate. Rumour that it may be increased as part of ongoing pay round. Not holding breath though.
I hope I haven't put you off too much. No matter what most people say BACX is no worse to work for than any other company. You have to remember they are not running a charity and they will treat us as badly as they can get away with and at the moment the cards are stacked in the bean counters favour.
Everything I have written here could change tommorrow and we'll suddenly be getting 150 Emb 190s. We could also be going all Emb 145 or being shutdown altogether. it just depends what rumour you believe on what day.
The Dash 8 to us in the company looks like a dead end but I bet it doesn't to someone looking for their first sniff of an airline job. If you got the hours and experience and getting a command is the be all and end all of your life don't come to BACX best go orange or wear a harp but if not there are a lot worse places to be than RHS Dash 8 with BA painted on the side.