Carnage Matey - Yes, I agree that my £199 ticket won't go far to pay towards your pension (or not, in view of the dire deficit), but for a family of 5 it's a question of sense ; BA can get us there at a very cheap price, meaning we spend extra cash on a 4* hotel in Manhattan. Your point of 70 J and 14 F passengers being the real money earners is totally true, but only when the respective cabins are full of real wealth and not upgrades or BA staff! Let us not forget that your job also goes beyond (rich) passengers and includes transporting valuable cargo.
BA obviously would like to invest more in their products, but a lot of the premium revenue would appear to go towards subsidising the flight and cabin crews dated work conditions.
In essence, it appears that BA want to change the balance of power and get employee costs and productivity to a sensible level.