Re: BA pilots 'prepared to strike'
Big Tudor - BA have tried to increase CAP 371 limits in the not too distant past by asking to discount time in the bunk from the annual 900hrs limit. The CAA sent them packing in short order. BA still has the same fleet of aircraft flying the same type of routes except now the pilots are all closer to the 900 hour limit. It would be interesting to see how BA would try to claim that flying more was now actually less fatiguing than when they previously tried it on.
Suvarnabhumi - most of the heavy crew flying in BA is due to FTL restrictions, not union restrictions, the difference between the two rarely being more than about half an hour. Of course WW could remove the third pilot on trips where he was only required in one direction but then he'd have to position that pilot out to operate the return service (at the cost of a seat in the cabin). Also said pilot would still be doing a days work by positioning, so no extra days would be available to BA to use him, and the company would lose the FTL advantages of an extra pilot. I can guarantee you there'd be no use of discretion on a 2 man long range trip planned to CAP 371 limits, and those in BA know that an awful lot of flights require a lot of goodwill and often discretion to get away from LHR.
Your assumption about a Virgin pilot being cheaper than a BA pilot hour for hour is also incorrect. VS may be cheaper up to 750 hours but once they get over that their overtime is very expensive, and also entirely at the discretion of the pilot unlike in BA. When you compare BA to VS on BA flying hour totals the two are very very close.
By the way, how does the cost of living in Dubai compare to the UK these days?