I've been thinking about how all this might impact the RAF - it seems to me that it will certainly change a few things! For a start, I would expect that all PA Spine aircrew will opt for the new pension scheme and go for the extra £10000 a year pension and £30000 gratuity.
I was under the impression that someone on the PA Spine who PVRs would revert to the Career Spine pension. Or is that only true for the old pension system? If that is the case, then we can expect those already on the PA Spine to stick around until their retirement at age 55 - so I hope we chose the right people. Whilst that will be really good for retention, it will make it really hard for anyone else to assimilate at age 38 - if it hasn't become difficult enough already.
Career Spine sqn ldrs will be watching this of course and realise that they now have little or no chance of returning to flying duties unless they get promoted. But in a shrinking RAF, they will have little chance of further promotion unless they are really good and got promoted to sqn ldr in their 20s or very early 30s.
So I expect that a lot of them will stay on the old pension system, pull the plug quite quickly and build a new career in the airlines. And who could blame them after all their hard work had been so blatantly overlooked?
But all of this will be just another of those "transitional challenges" that will disappear over the next decade. But then again...
Just This Once...,
I'd be interested to know if your colleague, who is obviously aged between 35 and 38, decides to accept promotion to sqn ldr or goes for the PA Spine as a flt lt. I hope that he realises that his chances of promotion to wg cdr are extremely small due to his age.