goldcup - thank you for asking, but no I did not. I am in my fifties and have never filled-in the application form. Consequently I have not had the experience of being turned down. I was in the RAF for many years and took a different route upon leaving which I have, thus far, had no cause to regret. At my age and stage it would be professional suicide to join BA, but for a young lad/lass in their early twenties it would be very difficult to recommend any other choice of company
I am, however, a Training Captain at easyJet and am very familiar with the product you consider 'sadly lacking'. In years gone by BA recruited likely young folk to go to Hamble and then carried all the risk themselves in taking them onto the more demanding airline flying. No longer. They now have the likes of CTC who run a very thorough recruiting system and, better still, get the aspiring pilot to pay for it all themselves. They then hand the successful candidates over to easyJet who take all the risk and all the hassle with young pilots who are going through all the struggles we have all had. At the end of 18 months or so you have a top-quality, highly-trained Airbus or 737 pilot who has flown all over Europe in all weathers. He or she has been subject to a rigid training regime that has done everything within its power to produce the very best from that individual. They then go through the BA selection system and in most cases, not surprisingly, do very well. BA are gifted a polished individual who is keen as mustard, but young enough to be molded to the BA way - and yet, another company has taken all the risks. Does it get any better?
Now, as 757_driver has so clearly said, it is BA's train set and they can choose whoever they want. If some young chap applies to BA believing they owe him a job, they are going to get shown the door pretty quickly. The nature of youth is that it is foolish, and some people have to learn the hard way about preparing correctly. I have personally known many young easyJet pilots who have been accepted by BA and a few who have not. My honest observation is that, like all selection systems, mistakes are made. They have taken a few people they should not and rejected some people they should have grabbed gratefully. Overall, however, they have got it about right. EasyJet are providing BA with a source of top quality, highly-motivated pilots. There are probably now literally hundreds of ex-easyJet pilots at BA - that statistic alone says that easyJet are doing something right and that goldcup's statement is, as I said originally, 'utter sanctimonious codswallop and drivel'.