Some interesting recent posts from fellow new joiners. I appreciate that we all have different situations and priorities, and that one man's oyster is another man's saucer of snot, but my experience FWIW...
After several years flying regional TPs for Exeter Airlines, and a couple of years in the Gulf, trying to avoid being shot at and/or falling asleep at the wheel, BA is pretty damn good. Not perfect, far from it, but I'm struggling to think of an airline I'd rather work for.
I'm very lucky, being long-haul, and I probably wouldn't be this cheery if I was on the minibus, but the quality of life is pretty good; rostering (and swapping) is a different world to the sandpit, and I haven't had so much usable free time since the good old days of Flybe's small bases. I'm forty-something, so more than double the age of some of our younger cabin crew,
which makes long haul command pretty unlikely. That said, there's more to life than 4 stripes, and I enjoy working for a company that generally treats me like a grown-up, with generally great colleagues and a very flat authority gradient. And then, of course, there's the job security. Nothing's ever guaranteed, but it's a lot better here than most other places.
For sure BA isn't the promised land, and if you're stuck on shorthaul with a young family and struggling to finance a mortgage in the South East, I can see how it ain't all that. However, it
can be very good indeed, even for a new joiner - it just depends on your expectations and what you're used to. For me, it sure beats month after month of 4 & 6 days flying around in crappy weather, and it most certainly beats working in a country where the the same family are in charge of both regulator and airline...
