The current management team does little to promote the loyalty or respect of its front line staff. The company, under the auspices of our new owner IAG and its CEO are continuing the damaging slashing of costs that the latter started. Staff numbers are being cut, work/life balance is being adversely expected and the airline is expecting more and more for nothing in return.
The staff travel benefit is good if viewed by itself, but is far from being good according to industry standards. You are made to feel like a beggar when using the benefit despite still actually having to pay a fare (sometimes a reasonably high one).
Since the 2010 strikes a new fleet of younger crew has been recruited. This means that the older fleets are treated as second class citizens in all the company comms. However, if you were to join as cabin crew now this is the fleet you would join on. Suffice it to say that since they have little union representation the company takes full advantage of this. It isn't uncommon to see these new young people asleep around the crew report centre because they're so knackered, or in tears outside in the smoking shelter because of the way they're treated by their supervisors. There isn't a single fleet that's happy, and that shows in the atmosphere at work.
The standard of cabin crew management is extremely low, with a few exceptions. There is little expertise left after a series of rounds of severance where any staff who could get good jobs elsewhere left. These managers are tasked with communicating constant rounds of cost cuts and "the latest big idea" and it is starting to show that they're tired and just couldn't care less any more.
If you Still live at home and just plan on flying for a year then give it a go. The days when flying was a career and you were respected for what you do are now long gone within BA and it's really sad.
Even if you leave flying and decide to take a post on the ground the constant churn of endless reorganisations means that you'll have to reapply for your job every 2-3 years anyway and could find yourself out on your ear.
