I completely agree regarding internal upgrades being preferred. The company professes to having the same view but when it comes down to it, guys who would make great captains don't get through and I can't understand why. They're consequently losing these folks to BA and elsewhere. This combined with a preference for taking low houred guys onto the pilot apprentice scheme is I feel going to result in an experience shortfall in the future.
(Regarding Thomson's pension, just going off what I read on PPJN - 10% in 2016 and 7% in 2017)