Regarding the legacy carriers, and without wishing to be racist, the comment of the (apocryphal?) Irishman when asked for directions "If I were going there, I wouldn't start from here" seems relevant. However, they must
I think the threats being used by legacy carriers on their staff, with poor morale feeding back to the passengers will be counterproductive in the longer term, for anybody trying to offer premium services.
Bealine, I am sorry that you are considering your career. The industry needs a voice of reason amongst the chaos. However, you need to be supported by your employer, with a fair contract (in terms of respect etc) rather than being left to take the blame for its failings. On a happier note I saw an overworked BA customer service agent taking great trouble to assist a very confused elderly gentleman. Unfortunately, the negative messages sometimes overwhelm the positive ones.
I agree with F3G and Paxboy that BA's (and Lufthansa's etc) etc offer is confused. The terminal people may be dealing with a £19 european passenger one moment and a £000s Long Haul First Passenger the next. What does the sandwich given to me on a European Flight say about what I might receive if I choose to Long Haul First class.
One does not expect to see a Harrods or Fortnum and Mason in Peckham or an Aldi in Knightsbridge. Neither do I expect to see Fortnum's doing two for one on baked beans.
I note with interest LH and AF's experiments with dedicated premium services, although I have seen no figures on how well they are doing.
A split between short haul (low(ish) cost) and long haul (premium) seems a logical strategy for BA and a few others.