Forgive me, I am intrigued by this as its a hot topic amongst the FO's at work of whom half are applying to BA or half are wondering whether they ought to have.
One thing is for certain, SH pilots cannot work any harder
Is it pretty common to be doing more than 800hrs flying/1500hrs duty in BA short haul?
The most common heard motivator I hear runs along the lines of "I can't do forty years of low cost flying" due to a perception of high utilisation. Generally people nod and accept that as a given. Yet like last year I look at my logbook and note todays rolling 365 is:
Flying time 695:20 Duty hours 1398:03
That's with three days sick, normal leave and full time roster in an orange minibus. If BA short haul really is worse than this rather than better then a few people's lifestyle calculations at work might need adjustment. Relocating to London to fly more hours on longer duties is not part of the generally portrayed brochure.