Man Flex:
If you arent prepared to pay £ 250 to give yourself a better chance of meeting BAs requirements,- and thats when you are the applicant to join them , not the other way round,- its not likely that you are going to convince them to have you aboard. They are entitled to have their own requirements, for whatever reasons, and if you arent prepared to meet them then its game over. One of the prime requirements must be to be enthusiastic about joining them and a determination to do what it takes to convince them that you are the right person. That includes any sort of test they may wish to set you and how you deal with any obstacles,- including a One-Eleven sim.
Its unlikely that they are going to have problems recruiting as many people as they need, even if they do end up having to pay for type ratings for some.