My two cents worth - and I am a QF driver. I'm sure that all of us in QF feel a great deal of sympathy with the Ansett pilots who have lost their jobs in the lead up to Christmas.
However I do agree with Borg that holding a window seat in a previous company does not provide an automatic entitlement to a window seat with a new employer (particularly when this involves bypassing those who have already done time in the company). To the ex-Ansett guys I would say "Please don't sell yourselves short". By offering to fly for whatever rate, you are only encouraging companies to pay lower and lower wages. This in turn puts pressure on EXISTING wages and conditions. I totally empathise with those who have mortgages etc to pay, but QF have said that there should be continued employment opportunities (probably over 100 pilots) next year.
As Borg has said, being a 744 S/O on existing pay and conditions would probably pay a higher wage than working as a 767 F/O for a lower rate than currently exists. QF have said that ex-Ansett staff are encouraged to apply for job vacancies, and that these vacancies will be filled by existing recruiting practices. Some have expressed outrage that they have worked in an airline and have missed out with QF. I was in the RAAF and have similarly seen several very experienced multi-engine jet transport pilots miss out with QF. This is just an exigency of the process.
To sum up - please don't sell yourselves short. Apply to QF. With the current expansion plans for the next 6 years you would probably be back in the RHS within 2 years. Being prepared to work for next to nothing will only put pressure on ALL of our wages. Interesting too that the LOWEST wages drive pilot's conditions, whereas the HIGHEST wages are used to justify CEO and upper-level management wages (called WORLD'S BEST PRACTICE I think)!!