Young Paul
I don't understand what you are trying to achieve with your argument except a bit of trolling......
so to summarise, bear in mind that if you go to BA now, your basic salary is low (as in, you will probably struggle to live on it, it is not "market rate + 10%");
The rates are available and published. People can make their own decisions. With unemployment rates as they are and the outlook not looking good for some operators; some folk will be happy to get any reasonable job. Sure it now pays less than EF & WW, but there are (several) much longer threads regarding that issue, so I won't repeat.
from your allowances, you will need to fund all subsistence away from base
As do all Cabin & Flight Crew at LHR.
if you are travelling around Europe for several nights, you will need to be quite ingenious to take your toiletry supplies.
As do 1000 MF, 2000 (?) EF & 1200 shorthaul pilots. It is amazing what people can squeeze into those little bags......
As for hold bags - why complicate matters for the sake of a bigger tube of toothpaste? T5 is almost exclusively container loaded bags. There is a "bulk" hold on all the shorthaul aircraft, but on the A319 accessed only once the containers are removed. The A319 can have a 35 min turnround, we are not particularly good at passenger items such as buggies & wheelchairs, so playing with crew bags will just be a mess. Crew bags would certainly be a low priority. Even on long haul some crew don't trust the baggage system and will take their bags on as cabin baggage.
Or was BA keen to shave the last £1 per room off
It is BA, so emmmm... Yes! Always
The £/hr isn't just a subsistence allowance. It is a productivity payment
Yes & No. The Tax man is not stupid and applies different rates to the allowances of MF, EF, WW, & Flight crew that recognise the different proportion of the allowances that each group earn v. spend.
Come on Paul. Not sure of you agenda. I'm not not advocating MF as good or bad. I just want the facts that are published to be accurate so that people can make a valid decision. There is no need to spread falsehoods.