HS, my dear fellow, I wasn't offering advice re the hotels in the first place. I was making a flippant comment. Hotel names duly deleted. Even the naff hotels you describe are a notch or two above the hotels which EZY uses when the need arises. And, as I'm sure you are aware, no matter how senior you are it is impossible to avoid the less attractive work totally. I didn't "cream off" easy trips for years. How could I since I was only in BA for 17 years as you could have read in my original post?
I am well aware of the nature of the early HEL (did a few over the years) and RIX (liked going there). I don't believe that they were a constant feature on lines for those with limited bidding power, were they? They were fairly well scattered up and down the TL as I recall.
I was junior once too and had to do my fair share of the unpopular work on both the 75/76 as an FO and the 'bus as a Capt. At no time did I find it as relentlessly fatiguing as life at EZY. I am talking about falling-asleep-at-the-wheel-while-driving-home fatigue. In my original post on this thread I referred to the commuting which adds significantly to fatigue. At my base (LGW), lots of young FOs live close to the airport in shared, rented accommodation. Some captains whose domicile is elswhere also rent rooms or flats. However, there are many who have a commuting drive of an hour or more (as I do). As a result, there is frequently only 9-10 hours available for rest at home between duties. Normal life is suspended during a five-day block and going to the pub is out of the question. This summer we also have the joys of 2300-0300 simulator slots to which, being a TRI/TRE, I am exposed. At least at BA there is someone else to drive you to and from hotels during your tour and you could choose to have an afternoon nap as soon as you had checked in (as I would often do on an "early" tour).
Another aspect of this is that any additional work which one needs to do has to be done in one's own time. At BA, if I had to do some ops manual study or prepare for a simulator check, my books went into my nightstop bag and I did the work in a hotel room on tour so that it wouldn't impinge upon my time at home. I would also deal with private business that way. At EZY that is not an option.
In spite of that, I enjoy EZY and I still find it a breath of fresh air after BA as do many ex-BA skippers who are here. I don't find myself bad-tempered at work now which used to be a feature of my working life at BA from time to time due to all the silly internal bickering, jealousies and the frustrations of LHR. I stand by my original comments on fatigue. Having done both BA and EZY, I think I am in the better position to pass judgement on the last aspect, don't you?