Oceanic
'I'm sure you would agree that the levels of flying 'experience' are vastly different.'
Yes, I would agree with you and as an ex crab I am fully aware of the inherent poling skills of the winged master race. However, I have flown with many, many 'civilians' whose poling ability has been equally on a par with ex mil.
I would also point out that for every civilain pilot that can log 20 hrs on a return trip to Singapore, there are half a dozen that would take a week of 4 sector days to log the same time so that 3000hrs only comes up in a short period for a minority.
And don't fall into the trap of equating experience with ability. Whilst I understand Virgin wanting crew that are already familiar with Boeing or Airbus systems, I think they are misguided in discriminating between ex mil with no commercial experience and and civil pilots with a great deal of the aforementioned.