This is despite having no bidding power, no pension
All the BA cadets have a final salary pension. Their ability to bid for work will increase dramatically in the next few months as new entrants join!
Lots of debate about the job. Please read Fate is the Hunter, the job is constantly changing. In future years aircraft will get bigger and the responsibilty will increase. The people who insure aircraft will insist that those in charge are the "right types". In the long term I can only see pay and conditions going one way. Amazingly that is up. Unfortunately that will take 5 to 10 years and by then the only flying I shall be doing is in the most expensive passenger seat that I can wrangle at check-in. It will be a case of supply and demand. Nobody is training pilots these days and the armed forces are shrinking.
But the bottom line is you either have the bug or you don't. If you have the bug then there is little that you can do because there is only one job that will satisfy you. It's not about the pay, it's not about the hotels, the responsibilty, seeing other countries etc etc. It's about how you feel when the wind is a howling, the rain is crashing into the windscreen and the engines are groaning in protest at the sudden changes in demand you are making. It's about how you feel when you cut the power with one hand, flare the aircraft with the other and kick it straight with your feet. It's about the feel of the decelaration as the brakes clamp onto the wheels and the sound of the reversers howling as 200 tonnes of aircraft slow down with rain and spray everywhere whilst you try to make out the fast turnoff. It's about looking to your right and seeing from the First Officer how relieved he is to be back on the ground. It's the feeling of the blood and adrenalin that now freely pumps round your body as you can finally relax.
If only it was just about the money, life would be very simple.