In a lot of us BALPA member unionised airlines there are many captains who refuse quite rightly to fly with cadets who pay for line hours or do them for free. We actually think that a young lad with thousands and thousands of pounds debt hanging over him is more dangerous than any of us egotist pilots you talk about.
Can you imagine the PA to passengers "and my first officer who is paying us to fly you to Benidorm today is......."? half of the plane would walk off!!!
You can dress it up all you want and I sympathise with you in these current times but its just not right. And remember its not a career you are starting with FR its 6 months before you are chucked on the scrapheap and another lamb to the slaughter takes your place.
My mate from Uni graduated with a first class law degree, at the time there was no jobs for him in the area he wanted to work at, did he go running to the law firms saying he would pay to work for them? NO. Did he wait until the job he wanted came along?YES. Are him and his colleagues now charging £150 an hour for their services? Do they have great pension schemes? YES (well until recently
lol), do they have a free water fountain in the office?YES.
Listen guys, I understand your plight and wish you all the best, I really do, just so long as it doesn't affect my T's&C's somewhere down the line which one day ultimately it will.