I thought I might comment on this cabin crew thing. If Britannia are offering a position in the company, initially as cabin crew but with the prospect of being a pilot at some point in the future then it would be very foolish to turn this down. I realise that most of the discussion until now has been about taking a job as cabin crew with another airline which I agree will do you no good at all, but if Brits are offering the people who went through the pilot selection process temporary positions in the cabin then you really must go for it. Britannia have done this in the past and those who took them up on the offer got higher seniority than those who elected to wait until a pilot course came up. And they didn't have to wait long either. The most important thing is to get into the company asap and get onto that seniority list. In this kind of situation recency is meaningless as the type rating course will automatically renew everything anyway.
It is looking increasingly likely that there will be course(s) in the autumn, and I would personally be shocked if there weren't any because of the number of retirements we have and we are getting too low on numbers as it is. There will be no summer courses simply because they cannot spare the training captains it is as simple as that. But if Britannia are offering the opportunity to work the cabin in the summer with the possibility of a course in the autumn you would be mad to say no unless you are already flying a jet somewhere else. If you are instructing I would leave it and work the cabin. You will gain a lot of hours once you are on the line with Britannia, believe me.
Lazlo