Not all of us are on £50k pa. I for one am on a basic of 11k +allowances.
The reason that the payment came about was that BA asked cabin services (as it was then) to save X amount. Through union negotiation and the usual hand wringing the desired amount of savings were indentified. On top of these an unavoidable amount of say £2m (not the actual amount for argument's sake) extra was saved.
BA as a thank you for the savings said that they'd give it back to the crew. The best way of doing it and avoiding a higher tax burden on BA was the Destination Payment.
True, it has been put on certain less popular routes but only as a way of "softening" the blow of a long sector out to SEA for only a nightstop for example.
I cannot defend the bahviour of the small minority of crew who abuse the sickness system. Thankfully it seems to be on the decline with the attrition of said Windsor Witches (good one!) et al. One thing though, us tray slingers may go on about our money (especially at the lower end of the pay scale -- trying to make ends meet) but pilots are also known to go on about their pensions, bidline and pay package; people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
I recognise why pilots who work very hard for their licences are pi$$ed off when they find that some lazy, old, leather winged CSD is earning more than them for doing diddly-squat. Trust me, it's not nice for us the other side of the door working with them either.