Demomonkey,
Re taxation on allowances, not quite true, in that it doesn't affect flight crew in the same way as cabin crew for several important reasons.
Firstly we (FC) negotiated a while ago to have some of the allowances rolled in to our basic and move to an hourly rate, which incidentally makes bidding a lot 'fairer' and balanced. This means the amount we had to show we spent was much less, and spend it we did.
Secondly we (FC) actually took the tax exercise seriously.
Our reps have been busy arguing our case with HMRC, and we are likely to get a very similar tax rate as before.
Compare and contrast with the cabin crew. Oh dear.
Firstly, many many crew weren't taking it seriously. No idea of the future impact. No thinking ahead. Huge amounts of selfish crew 'ah, someone else will do it'. Loads of commuters who don't pay uk tax, 'why should I bother'. Then your own worst enemies, the hundreds of crew trying to defraud HMRC by collecting handfulls of receipts from the coffee shop and submitting them. (7 coffees within 5mins of each other, 30mins after you were airborne? Really? A full shop from Waitrose 2hrs after clear time? Don't think so.
The general consensus from people in the know is that CC are a) going to get totally hammered for tax (how many spent their full ZRH lunch when you don't even get off the plane on a day trip) and b) are lucky not to be arrested for attempted fraud.
Everyone could see this coming, you can't justify a ZRH lunch payment when you don't step off the plane etc. BASSA could have captured the allowance spend when it was at a record high (due 1 euro = 1 pound) and converted it to an hourly rate that would have benefited everyone, and balanced bidding.
But, NO NO NO for the same reasons. 'It'll be 20p/hr" No, it'll be what you negotiate it to be. BA would save admin costs, you could have had a cut of those too (like BALPA got) but you can never , ever, EVER have a sensible discussion with CC about hourly rate because they have been brainwashed by the very people who are supposed to represent them.
The people who, funny old thing, would lose out from an hourly rate because it is FAIR. The people who are in BRU/ZRH/GVA/LIS a bit too much.
Ordinary, hard working CC, let down again by the greedy troughers at the top. (Some of whom don't pay uk tax so won't be clobbered anyway)