Bambe,
Are you serious or are you so sh*t scared about this new deal that you're clinging to any kind of positive that you can find?
This deal is nothing but bad news. As has been said before, it is another step in bringing down the Ts & Cs of the industry, exploiting the large number of youg people who want to get into this career. At the rate it's going, Bambe, you may well HAVE to get a 2nd job to cover your loan, bills and, if you ever manage to get one, mortgage as the salary of a pilot will not be enough to cover these things.
People slate WWW for his views, but when will you guys WAKE UP and realise that CTC is no longer what it used to be. The airlines and CTC are taking advantage of the situation to cut costs and screw you guys over. There is NOTHING good about this deal whatsoever. Once the recesion is over, the FlexiCrew scheme will not go away. Why should airlines pay more for a comododity of which there are plenty of and plenty of who seem to be happy to be paid fu*k all for and some who even willing to pay the airline to do the job.
As for those of you like PAJ who reckon getting those 400 hours on a jet will suddenly open all doors to other airlines, time to think again. 400 hours on type is sod all. There are guys coming out of XL, Silverjet, Maxijet, Sterling etc etc etc who have 1'000s of hours. You think you're going to be in a position to compete with them?
However, it's not actually these 1'000s of hours guys you will have to worry about, it's the next batch of Pay to Fly, FlexiCrew or whatever scheme comes up next cadets that will be filling the slots you're hoping you would fall into. 400 hours on type? Now time for a job at XXX Airways? Sorry mate, XXX Airways is only taking FlexiCrews, keep looking old boy!
If this type of scheme is allowed to prosper, it will be the very cadets who are 'benefiting' from that will be the ones suffering.