Andy
Yep, I agree reward is reward..and if he keeps the airline afloat you'll get no arguments from me about his payrise. You'd also get no arguments from me if all the Crew of the BA38 or the Flight Crew of the 744 who had the flap issue out of JNB recently had also got significant financial reward - their efforts also helped keep BA afloat....but the Company line is they were just their job - as is Willie.
Look, Willie will be worth every penny if he can keep BA afloat, but he hasn't done that yet. What he has done ( or someone has done it on his behalf) is significantly raise the temperature of the debate and IMHO made it difficult for the Reps of even the moderate Unions such as BALPA to sell a cost/cutting/benefit cutting/T&C cutting package to their members. If he didn't mean to do that then taking the payrise was massive blunder, if he did mean to do that then I sure as heck hope he has a cunning plan......