From what its worth IMHO, having seen a fair few BA and VS rosters, and known people who do both jobs, and you already know what LH is like and you would have zero seniority starting with BA which will only slowly become less onerous, VS is the correct answer. If your lifestyle changes in the future and you want stable SH, move to Easyjet :-)

Since it got mentioned earlier on every time I taxi past Terminal 3 I notice more and more Delta aircraft at the gates and less Virgin Aircraft. I get the feeling Virgin is expending at places like Manchester and Gatwick but shrinking at Heathrow. Since I don't work for Virgin this is just an observation. Is it a correct observation that Delta has taken over quite a few of the Virgin slots at Heathrow or are they just covering the slots because of the ongoing 787 engine problems?

Anything over 30 I would head to VS personally for the reasons quoted above, unless you really want short haul. In that case, head to easyJet.

BA only really has 2 pros:
1. Job security. They're making cash hand over fist. (Ask yourself how... LHR slots (What happens if the 3rd RWY is approved). Old aeroplanes that are owned, but will cripple the airline if the oil price rockets as they'll suddenly need to invest in new airframes, but the production waitlist for 350/787 etc is long. And above all COST CUTTING.)
2. Variety if you want to try different places/fleets etc. (Already being long haul, Im sure you've realised that after around 4 years the excitement of visiting places for 24/48 hours soon wears thin)

VS pros.
Retirement bulge coming = Fast cmd, and increased seniority.
Better pay initially inc pension on flight pay.
Being at the bottom of a BA seniority list, looking at JSS coming in, ROTATING SENIORITY is a huge plus. This means at least every 3 months you'll be bidding at 33% down the list, getting some important days off. OK 1 in 3 months will be :{, but in BA that will be 12 in 12 months. When you do get some seniority, it is still rewarded as your worst month will now be 88% and best 22%, BA every month will be 66%, just about starting to get some weekends etc.
750 Hours PA! Granted sims etc don't count, but as Wiggy mentioned, they don't really in BA either as we work to 1051 credit hours. For info, leave is only credited around 2:51 per day. So 14 days leave in a month leaves circa 48 hours left to work in 2 weeks, ignoring wrap days.

Ignoring all of the above, they both seem to have very different cultures. At the end of the day, you need to fit in. Are you Red or Blue?

First off, congrats flightpattern, you're in a great position.

I'm BA P2 LH and reasonably senior. I agree with your pro's and con's although I'd also highlight that the time to command in Virgin is likely to be very much shorter than in BA. The current time to command for LH in BA is around 18+ years, whereas my mates in Virgin seem to be coming up for command after about 12 years at the moment. From what they tell me that time to command is likely to reduce further due to the upcoming retirement bulge in Virgin. While BA recruitment is racing ahead we still have a lot of relatively young LH Captains as a product of the cadet scheme back in the 90's who understandably wont be going anywhere for a while yet. BA short haul commands are currently coming up after as little as 2 or 3 years although there's a reason for this! I think you'd struggle to find many pilots in BA who would say that full time BA SH is a sustainable career choice so I'd weigh that against the pro of being able to switch between LH and SH.

My own experience is that most BA LH pilots will be doing something north of 800 hours before overtime. As stated above blindlines, reserve and or broken aircraft ala 787, will keep your hours lower than average although pilot shortages on certain fleets and triplines will keep your hours high.

The rotating seniority at Virgin is a massive plus to my mind. I did nearly 10 years of blind lines albeit with hindsight I could and should have bid off my fleet sooner to get more control. My situation was unusual as a result of the retirement age being extended and being on a very senior fleet but my point is that if there is unforeseen stagnation for any reason you could find yourself stuck at the bottom for a long time whereas at Virgin at least you'd still have the opportunity to have some control over your working life. Just note that on achieving a new command at BA, you'll be back to the bottom of your seniority list and have to work your way up all over again, although you would go across to the P1 pay scales at your current pay point whereas in Virgin you'd go back to P1 pp1.

The pensions at both airlines are similar now but bear in mind you'd be joining BA onto 34 paypoints (changed from 24 a few years ago) also that Virgin has a higher starting salary and the potential for a much quicker command at Virgin while working approx 10% fewer hours than at BA and I could certainly see a strong case for going to Virgin over BA. I have a mate who joined BA in 2004 and shortly thereafter resigned to go to Virgin. When he resigned the BA manager was aghast as to why he would leave BA to join a lesser airline! He's now a Captain, quite happy as far as I can tell and steadily moving up the seniority list whereas in BA he'd be a relatively senior FO on any LH fleet, with about 4-5 years to go to command, earning a lot less than he currently does and working 10% harder for it!

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Someone up above commented 'are you red or blue?'. That's a very important factor to consider as the two airlines are very different habitats. Over the long term this could be a deal killer if you select the wrong one for your personality.

In BA senior LH pilots normally fly the longer flights, the junior pilots tend to do the East Coast, Central Africa and Middle East. The junior pilots work harder, have more fatigue, but may not do as many flying hours per year.

Comparing flying hours is not everything, but junior BA pilots will normally work considerably harder than Virgin pilots. You will normally be junior at least twice, on joining and when first getting a LH command (more than 2 times if you go DEP, SH command, LH command).

20+ years ago a friend and I left our previous airline at the same time, he chose Virgin and I chose BA. He has earned far more money than me (LH command 13 years earlier), worked less and had far more fun. I chose BA at the time because it seemed more secure. BA outsources every job that they practically can, but that is most unlikely to apply to line pilots (training is another matter). I still think that BA offers greater security but wish that I had joined Virgin all those years ago.

Thanks all for your honesty, advice & input - it really has made for an interesting read and helped make an informed decision.

Could anyone be so kind and explain red vs blue thing? How is culture/mentality in each of the companies? Thanks!

Trust me there are about 4000 that think it and believe it......

And you know them all on a personal level to make such a statement?

This topic was going so well with respect for each other, until Riskybis and Barcli came along...

There's approximately 4300 pilots in BA and during my 4 years in the company I can assure you that the ratio of c@ck : good guy/girl is no different than anywhere else. The misconception that we're all a bunch of Nigel's poncing around thinking we're the best is frankly just outdated utter b@ll@x.

Absolutely spot on. I never knew how difficult a single sector could be made until I joined BA - I regularly find myself in total disbelief as the guy next to me conducts a 30 minute brief on a straight forward approach in CAVOK conditions. Even returning to LHR can be turned into a long drawn out affair. As you say, an astonishing lack of pragmatism.

Some places on the network obviously warrant proper discussion, and I appreciate many people have also come from long haul where briefings presumably become a novelty. But we're flying 6 day blocks, comprising anything up to 20 sectors, and you have to adjust accordingly. Quizzing me about the rad alt or MSA on our 5th approach into Heathrow will a) totally disengage me and b) make me want to punch you.

It's definitely something I think ought to be addressed in the training department as I’ve found it makes for an altogether more tiring day - especially if you’re with one of these people for 4 or 5 days in a row.

Interesting discussion on briefings. I tend to tune out fairly quickly if the other bloke or bloke-ess is droning on. Briefings lose their effectiveness very quickly if they're too verbose, and in my experience the people who do the longest briefs tend to miss out the bits which are actually important.

As an aside, a colleague (to prove people weren't listening to briefs) once said "At the end of the runway I will ask for both FACs off, pull into a vertical climb and perform a flick roll off the top of the loop." It didn't register with the FO.

With all of the above comments it would indicate that Virgin is best :D