Mike Mercury - my genuine congratulations! Firstly because you have managed to break airrage's record for most verbose posting on PPRuNe, and secondly because in my five years of PPRuNeing yours is the first post I've had to print out in order to digest and respond to. I'll spare all other readers the misery of scrolling up and down reading yourpost, but here's a response to your points:
1) CFE were profitable before the merger, but that was also before the economic downturn hit and before 911. BACE are not going to pick up any route previously operated by CFE so your point is irrelevant, nor are BACE currently profitable.
2) Currently nobody in BAR is being retrained to fly the RJ. Yes they will get a supplement, its the price BA pay for our agreement to allow you to fly BA RJs. If we hadn't agreed you wouldn't get the RJs, end of story. Deal with it.
3) In whose opinion did Highland Division produce a better and more experiencedpilot? Yes, the HD guys kne how to operate an ATP outside of controlled airspace but we dont really need that in a jet environment. I fly with many capable and respected colleagues, some flew ATPs, some have flown nothing smaller than a 757. All equally professional and capable. Its not the aircraft, its what you do with it.
4) When I said 'Regional recruitment' I referred to the BA regional bases of MAN and BHX. No reference was inferred to any BACE base. Current recruitment to BACE is indeed a one-off event.
5) You refer to 'BA longhaul with their route cherrypicking'. Would you care to elaborate on this in any way which provides meaning? Long haul isn't franchised, what cherrypicking? As for 'allowances', it has been stated previously (on this thread or the BA pay offer thread) that allowances exist as part of a historical throwback to the nationalised days when it was a convenient means to increase pay without triggering a rash of claims by other workers for an identical pay rise. Historically allowances have been accepted as part of our pay, but I would be happy to renounce allowances for an equivalent basic pay rise.
6) What pilot surplus? As for the the number of potential strikers within BA, you have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER of the current level of anger amongst BA flight crew. If we go out on strike, we will win, no ifs, no buts, and there'll be no benefit for anyone but BA flight crew if were forced down that route.
7)Well at least you've displayed your total ignorance of BA. The vast majority of BAR Captains wish to remain in the regions and seniority for regional commands has gone through the roof. Clearly there is significant demand to work in the regions. Frankly I don't care what you think about the pay differential for the seconded BA mainline crews. If you don't like it then don't fly the RJ.
As to your final comment on multi tier pay rates, well you've really excelled yourself here. I quote directly:
the better paid the upper tiers the better, as the lower tiers are dragged along like a jet pump, in the same way that the BA pay awards have traditionally been used as a benchmark by the rest of the industry
Yet there you are proposing the introduction of lower tier pay just so it can be dragged up to higher tier rates. BA used to have perfectly reasonable, seperate rates of Prop pay and Jet pay, but now you'd like to create lots of lower tiers so that even more people can be shafted. Great idea. Rest assured if it all goes tits up then it certainly will not be the best thing that could happen to BACX, no more than Swissairs bankruptcy helped Crossair.
Thanks to anyone who could actually be bothered to read this post, I know I gve up on this thread a long time ago.