Maz11, I find this attitude of accept things the way they are, do as your told else there's the door please leave very odd. Surely there is scope to discuss conditions within the work place without the somewhat military attitude of this is how it is now just get on with it?
You quite clearly state that you are in a somewhat different position to the majority of GB's flight deck in that you are based at Manchester. For those that don't know this is a very small base, with only 1 airframe and very limited route structure and consequently very pleasant working conditions - only 2 real check in times, 9-11 days flying a month and little chance of getting called off standby. As such I'm not convinced that you have any real frame of reference to comment on the grievances of the pilots living and operating 'down south'. As for Belfast 6 times a day 4 days in a row, that does seem dull, but so does constant rotations of MAN-TFS-MAN, MAN-PFO-MAN, but each to their own I suppose...
If Jubilee House is such a none event, and it absolutely isn't, then why are BALPA taking an indicative vote as to whether the workforce has the stomach for industrial action over the move?
I've been here over four years and have never found myself unable to park in the Bee Hive car park, especially since the office staff were asked to park in the overflow across the road, so I don't really understand your point here, but being MAN based this is the type of thing you wouldn't actually know.
As for the Red Sea Charters there's not much to say, other than that (Sharm & HRG aside), they are charters, and I joined a Scheduled BA Franchise airline.
Concerning 737 lease, I was told (from the horses mouth in flight ops), that the real reason behind the damp lease was that there is insufficient work next winter for another airframe so the most cost effective solution was to lease and return after the summer surge. This doesn't quite conform to your rather optimistic constant expansion ideal, nor is it exactly representative of the easyJet business model!
The food is worse elsewhere, so it’s absolutely fine and we shouldn't attempt to improve things. Again that strange 'just accept it' attitude. It's also not actually true if you compare to other operators such as BA, Virgin, Thomson, Thomas Cook etc (remember we are still a BA franchise!)
As you quite rightly point out, profit related pay is intrinsically linked to a company’s profit. No profit, no bonus. More importantly however, a company consistently failing to make a profit leads where......not really that difficult to comprehend.
No need to welcome me to the Wonderful World of Charter, I've been there all summer! You make the helpful suggestion of trying going to work at 7pm, flying two sectors through the night, before returning home. Well I have (let's say for example a nice pleasant little run of night IBZ, night PFO, night IBZ(2110 checkin!), at least twice in the past four months. Again, I can't help but notice that you don't do this type of flying up in MAN so wouldn't have been exposed to these joys.
I think opening your post with the statement that people are whinging is neither helpful nor constructive towards what everyone wants - which is the continued success of GB along with best working conditions for its employees.
People who join from other outfits stating 'well things were considerably worse as a cruise relief pilot for International Afghan Air Routes', and so by direct comparison GB is absolutely fantastic, just confuse the issues at hand.
There is a need to realistically except the changes that have occurred in our industry, but no requirement to have an automatic reduction in lifestyle to match the worse in the business!