Ok just to defend the BA pilot bashing and BALPA bashing. I have been in two airlines before BA and to be honest BA is much like the others but I now work harder than before. These snipes I take it are driven by the stories of jumbo skippers on £150K, final salary pensions whilst drinking their tea out of china cups? Well I am sure the stories are true but for the very vast majority in BA it is nothing like this at all. In my previous airline I worked three at a push four days in a week but at BA its more like 5 or 6 and just recently 7 on, 1 off and then another 6 on. All I am trying to point out is that most BA pilots don't fit the stereo type given.
On the BALPA side of things I have been less than impressed with it and quite frankly I have very good reason for being so. I decided to stay because without representation as a group we have nothing. Out of the blue I get a email about holiday pay and it informs me that both ex BMI and BA pilots will be receiving a settlement. BACC looking out for ex bmi guys, yes I was surprised too. It also said that this issue affects our colleagues in cabin crew and that all information was being shared with UNITE (no mention of bassa) and BALPA was supporting these unions. It also said that this test case now opened the doors for the hearings for easyjet, virgin, thompson and thomas cook employees in the coming months.
I think this defends the position against BALPA only looking out for BA pilots. When your not in BA BALPA is the British airways pilots association. When your in BA it becomes the British Airways long haul pilots association. Having seen a industry that went down the route of split unions I certainly expect we would be far far worse off.