Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear!
The last plausible reason for joining BA has finally gone. The bubble has indeed burst.
I have watched with some degree of fascination the postings from the idiots who have never been hungry protesting furiously that they could never ever demean themselves to join the likes of Ryanair or easyJet - they obviously like working in pubs.
From here on in you are going to have to join a money-purchase scheme and that means that the more you can put in your kitty the better it is going to be (always assuming that there isn't a stockmarket crash the day before you retire)!
Therefore, if you have anything useful to offer an aviation employer, it would make sense to go to those who offer the best basic salary. (Expenses don't count).
On the subject of which; I have an ex-BCAL mate who was taken over by BA. He spent his first 24 hours at Heathrow being taught how to "work" the BA allowance scheme. One little wheeze was to "pair-up" with a mate on the 747. When your mate was on "instant standby" and you were on a Far East flight, you would ring in sick at the last moment. He would then get called out at short notice and this was worth £3000 to go to HKG and back. After a decent interval, the favour was reciprocated.
Now I personally think that this sort of practice is quite disgraceful, immoral and indefensible and I was particularly offended by such events when BA was a state airline and I was paying a hell of a lot of income tax so that they could me out of a job.
PS. I have only missed 2 flights in the last 14 years due to sickness. Some of you youngters should realise that every time you pull a "sicky" you screw someone else's life up (unless you are in BA and it is all pre-arranged).