concorde, you are right. NO AIRLINE can afford to be complacent these days. As for BA's 'protected position' the only point I was making is that BA is no more protected in their home market than most other flag carriers.
Bermuda II that you mention covers only one country that BA serves. Yes, it has more flights from the UK - the US than any other airline. But so does Air France from France, and Lufthansa from Germany. Many other countries are also covered by bi-lateral agreements with the US (such as australia and loads others). And bi-lateral agreements also apply between other countries all over the world.
VIRGIN, UNITED AND AMERICAN ARE JUST AS 'PROTECTED' BY BERMUDA II AS ba IS, AND ALL BENEFIT HUGELY. Also Continental who codeshares with Virgin ex LHR. It isn't just BA's private party! Virgin may only have 2 or 3 flights a day to New York as you mention but this has nothing to do with BA's 'protected position'. It is entitled to use it's slots as it pleases and if Branson wanted to match BA's 7 daily new york flights he is more than welcome to.
As you already mention many european countries have 'open skies' agreements with the US. And yet, their flag carriers continue to dominate the route, despite it being open to anyone. Their flag carriers and their partners completely dominate them....AF/DL at CDG, LH/UA at FRA, KL/NW at AMS There is no 'Virgin' or 'bmi' equivelant in France or Germany. This is down to supply and demand. Just because anyone can fly a route doesn't mean that you can all of a sudden fill more planes.
We are constantly being told at BA that we have to benchmark ourselves against our competitors and that we are so much more expensive compared to Virgin or bmi crews. But how about benchmarking us to AF or IB crews? Maybe then BA would see they don't have it QUITE so bad.
Just out of curiousity concorde, what sort of things do you think BA needs to change for it's cabin crew to 'get it's house in order'? Are you suggesting less money for same amount of work? More work for more money? More work for LESS money? Just curious.....