To add a bit of balance from a BA perspective there are certainly a few advantages over virgin.
1) You can fly both long haul and short haul in BA which gives you all career options. Be based at either lhr or lgw to suit your commute and fly any one of 320,380 soon to be 350, 747, 777 or 787.
2) When you get your command you slide onto your same pay point on the captains scale be it 3,7 or 20 years. In Virgin I believe when you get your command, you start on captains pay point 1 irrespective of how long you've been in the company.
3) The top pay points in BA are noticeably more money than virgin.
4) You really are a master of your own destiny in BA, you can become a training FO, senior Manager, or whatever else suits your fancy based on merit and irrespective of your time in the company. Again I'm led to believe as an FO in virgin your career options outside of line flying are very very limited.
5) seniority......now this goes two ways. Of course to start with you deal with all the crap but you know that as your career progresses you are gaining more and more control over your life. You are working towards something. In virgin with rotating seniority you could have been in the company 10, 20 years, you've done your time and you know at certain points you can't even be sure your going to get the leave you want for that wedding or family holiday but the guy that joined yesterday can.
6) Roster manipulation, Bid for what you want when you want it. You can swap as many trips as you want without getting the company involved, swap leave, bid for days off, destinations etc etc currently called bid line . This will change with the new system but we are aiming for the same flexibility with the new JSS system. Again when your new your control of your bidding is very limited but we are looking at this over ones whole career.
As a 12 year 777 FO im currently 14,15 days off per month on average, this is more than my virgin friend on 340 who seems to get closer to 11,12. Last year new joiners were getting commands on shorthaul after only 18 months in the company. The normal is closer to 5-7 years. Long haul is of course much much longer but if we are comparing to the LOCOS this would be comparing apples and pears. I contribute 6% of my salary and BA 12.6% (18.6% total) into my pension. Even if you are on the new 34 point payscale, your pensionable pay follows the 24 points and is therefore no different to mine. We have 28 days leave and about 16 wrap days per year and another 14 days off called a duty free week. This is a total of 58 possible leave days which again I believe is more than Virgin.
I left a LOCO 12 years ago at the age of 24 and have been long haul ever since, I Don't have any regrets. I have almost complete control over my lifestyle from month to month. I choose roughly how many days off I have, which days they are, where I go and when I take my leave. I can choose which aircraft I fly, if I want a shorthaul command or stay where I am dictating my lifestyle on long haul. If I become a training FO, a manager on the ground or if I want to go part time.
We all want different things from a 'career' but do you want to sit where you are, flying the same aircraft to the same destinations with the same people for 30-40 years or do you want options and the ability to have a say over all of those things? For me as a 20-30 year old deciding on what to do, it would be a very easy decision (BA or possibly virgin). As a 35+ year old with a family knowing I may never possibly get a long haul command it wouldn't be quite such an easy decision.