Go on tour for a few days and look what happens....
Let me try and clear the water a little here, at least as far as my own position is concerned.
The main thrust behind my earlier posts was to try and educate at least some individuals in the BA community that not everything is unequivocally better at BA versus CFE.
Now I accept that may come across as 'living in the past' and therefore it has been suggested that I concentrate on the future. Now thats a valid point, but its one I'm already aware of.
The only reason I raise these issues is to dispell the opinion, held by some but not all BA pilots, that BA is so brilliant that everyone must be overjoyed to be there.
After all, as the saying goes, to fail to understand history is to be doomed to repeat it.
Apreciate if you all can, that 'better off' and 'worse off' are relative terms. Although my lot in life may have deteriorated, its still way better than what I had to go through to get to CFE. Whatever else you may think, the overall process of getting to CFE and thence to BA can not possibly be considered as 'being handed to me on a plate'.
But by the same token I want to make it clear that I have no problem with the CEP population. If you've managed to get BA to shell out for your training and give you a job, then good for you!
However, please don't interpret that as meaning I will silently give up my role as a short haul captain at LGW just because the company has choosen to juggle aircraft around, and some SFOs think they see an opportunity to advance to the LHS. As far as I'm concerned, a plane is a plane. If the P&P rules direct us to LHS anything, then I would have thought that will only happen within the confines of the rules. To those that tell me I have misjudged the feeling of the mainline community in this regard I can only plead 'Guilty'. But surely you're not suggesting that the rules will only be applied if they benefit mainline pilots...
Fundamentally, the events of 9/11 have meant that many peoples career progression has taken a temporary halt in progress. But as far as I can see, (within BA) only the ex-CFE LHS community is looking at a massive step backwards.
To those who have expressed sympathy to our situation, I realise that I have been remiss is expressing my appreciation. Sorry! I do at least feel that some people are now better aware of our circumstances.
Now, finally, can I just return to the topic of discussion earlier in my post.
I say "I'm worse of at BA than CFE".
Can I respectfully suggest that instead telling me to shut up and be grateful / I'm not worthy / CFE integration 'disgusts' part of the BA community etc. etc, that a more useful response would be:
"BAs T&Cs have been so eroded that some things were better even at CFE. This is a sign of how things are going. We must stop it."
Because you can't on one hand tell me how brilliant BA is, and then with any conviction argue the opposite viewpoint when negotiating with management.
Out.
CPB