Well, I can not speak for myself because I am still doing my first, albeit rather long, tour of duty in the sandpit.
What I have seen however is two cases of two guys leaving to join a major carrier in the UK, only to come back here after a few years.
One of them went from A330 senior FO QR --> A340 FO Virgin Atlantic --> A320 FO QR!!
Rather crazy you might think, untill you actually talk to the guy.
His arguments are:
- Fed up being stuck in comuting traffic for almost days/month
- Fed up of the corporate BS mentality in most european big carriers
- Fed up paying taxes at foolish rates
- Fed up flying only ultra long haul
- Fed up having no carrer perspective whatsoever
So he came back, requested the seat on an A320 and so far he is happy, even though he lost 5 years worth of seniority!
So I guess its not that bad overhere afterall, although sometimes that idea alone is hard to grasp!