747world, I do get your points and they are all valuable contributions to this discussion in an attempt to shed a different light on things.
There seems to be one thing you are forgetting systematically, and that is the fact that you are in a privileged position as a pilot who was hired straight on to the 330 or 777. You have been given a gift in form of a postion on those fleets which for almost 1/3 or 500 pilots in this company would be considered a career move!
This policy, combined with the current right to left seat command upgrade policy on those fleets, is a slap in the face for all A300 (yes, we still have those) and A320 pilots. This pilot group has been systematically neglected by the management. The rosters are absolute hell, the fatigue levels are through the roof, the management as well as many fellow pilots flying heavier/modern equipment turn their backs to them and they earn less money!
So please do not expect these pilots to join your QR love parade. To put it very simple, A300 and A320 fly for a different airline.
The funny thing is that it is a fact that these airplanes form the financial backbone of the QR ops. The A300 is a pure money maker and the A320, in its role as feeder airplane to the long range network as well as its deployment possibilities on short as well as medium haul routes, is an essential part in the network. Long range as well as ULR flights, in many cases, are flown for reasons of prestige and strategy (spreading the qatari flag). Economically they do not make much sense in general and the company is happy if it can see a break even on thse routes.
Yet our management elects to ignore these fleets and its pilots?? Strange..
All this is about to be changed as the future plan is to try to hire all direct entry pilots and second officers on A320/A300 only. Command upgrades will be done predominantly on these fleets as well. So, after many years, the problems mentioned above have been reckognised! This will allow pilots to pursue a more normal career progress and some of the injustices done in the past will be taken care off.
Question remains: is it not too late?
But 747 man and consorts, please stay aware that people like yourself remain, due to company policy so nothing personal, remain a thorn in the eye of many of your colleagues here. Rubbin it in will not help this.