Sorry Brakes to Park, You are over a year out of date with your comment.
Initially, when Thomsonfly was started, it was on lower terms and conditions than BY. The company could never have seriously thought that more than a handful of guys would bid to move accross on lower salary, and have to leave the Final Salary Pension for 5 years (and then probably have to fight to get let back in!) There were about a dozen who did their homework and decided that the command, plus salary increase would offset years out of the pension etc.
The terms and conditions were harmonised about 12 months ago, since which time many BY F/Os have taken commands on the 737. There are few F/Os left in the 'old' BY who are near a command now, save the very senior ones biding their time for a 75/6 command.
There are issues and it's not perfect, but what job is? Having said that, £80k as a year one captain is completely realistic and within a couple of years ex-BY guys and direct entry captains and indeed all pilots will be flying the mixed model (charter and low cost). There is block window protection (+/- 2hrs on roster) sector pay and duty pay and plenty of days off, which you can offer back for sale to the company if you so choose, at the rate of over £500 a day for a captain. So if you are fed up of continuous low cost flying this is worth a look. And of course, given time (and seniority) long haul becomes an option on 767s currently or whatever replaces that in a few years.
You have to jump through a couple of days worth of HR hoops to get in and I heard that last year something like only 1 in 17 direct entry captain applicants were getting in, so don't underestimate the selection procedure. They are still expanding and recruiting direct entry captains, but they won't be forever and the only issue if you join next year will be that you will be joining the bottom of a seniority list which has expanded massively over the last couple of years. (I joined BY 2.5 years ago and there are 230+ pilots below me on the list now).
It is a career airline with market leading terms and conditions and the proof of the pudding is that pilots don't tend to leave.
PP