leaving BA
Dear Chewiethewookie,
I left BA. I work for another airline. I love it and I do not earn less than I did at BA.
But I also loved working for BA. I found that sometimes I needed to amuse myself, and sometimes I met such interesting people and had very good times. The great thing was a variety of experience, sometimes wild room parties, sometmes sightseeing, often just a very pleasant meal and a glass of wine. I really enjoyed the company of crew, older, younger, the same age. In fact one of the things I miss about BA was feeling so young there and listening to the interesting stories and lives of the older crew. I have very fond memories of every destination, of wonderful camaraderie and walking through the Compass Centre knowing I would always bump into someone I knew. Even whiling away the hours of standby on the bitching bridge usually ended up with a good chat. And if there was no one, then I would study, read a book or ,as for down route, go out and explore on my own.
I was scared to leave BA since I knew that, of course, its the place that every UK hostee wants to work and one is constantly reminded by crew that pay, terms and conditions etc are "the best". That may well be the case, but if you don't feel that the "terms and conditions" of your own work/life satisfaction are not being met, then it is not the best for you is it?
Maybe I am very lucky, but what I have now works very well for me and I have achieved more than I could ever imagine. I wouldn't dare to advise which airline you should look at specifically in case you were to go there and find things not to your liking, but life after BA has been very good for me.
You can always reapply to BA and start again in the worst case senario. But don't procrastinate, take the plunge and do it. Otherwise you WILL end up one of those bitter boring people room staying people who other crew actively try to avoid.
Good luck and go for it.