Ultra long haul is great for a few years but as your mate has about 30 years to go until he retires he needs to ask himself if he wants to be doing nothing but 7hr to 15hr sectors for the rest of his career. I didn't so I had no choice but to leave. Virgin had a brief flirtation with A320s a couple of years back but got rid of them all, and I can't see them going back into short haul. At BA you have the potential for a lot more variety in your flying.