@ all who consider joining CV:
1. Upgrade Perspectives:
We have a very unbalanced age structure. A huge bunch of pilots are around 30-40 years old. Meaning that an upgrade based solely on others retiring, would take very, very long. In short: Your upgrade totally depends on ongoing expansion. It's a snowball game....
When I joined, there were just a few guys being upgraded after only 2 years of service (having considerable previous experience), due to rapid expansion.
Right now, upgrades take place after 7 years. When it's my turn, I'll have close to 10 years. Any future perspectives depend on the devellopment of upgrades/year. At present: aprox. 20, so 200 people in front of you means 10 years. But don't count on it! We've had virtually no upgrades i.e. in 2003 - don't think this can't happen again...
2. Working conditions:
Yes, the newly signed CWA contains some slight enhancements. The main thing being, that the 3 "floating" OFF-days must now be granted in a block of 3. The main problem is though, that this new CWA has only a limited continuation after its expiry in 2008, namely 9 months. If no new agreement is found by then, we'll be down to legal limits!! That means, the company can then, basicly push through ANY claims because time plays for them. That's why I'm quite pessimistic about future working conditions - they will IMHO be a mere matter of market laws.
3. Rostering practice:
Anything is possible - just don't expect anything! There may be trips that you like, but don't complain if you get a few s**ty rosters in a row....
The worst thing are 24h layovers, getting in at night, to leave again the same time next night! If you get that constantly, you'll wish you'd rather fly island-hopping on a piston-plane....
4. SENIORITY
In Cargolux, seniority means everything. There are unfortunately a lot of guys at the top of the list who couldn't care less whether you can get your life organized at all or not. Don't expect to get a single vacation request with low seniority - it will be allocated somewhere in February and November. There has been an attempt to fix this, but failed, because too many old guys have an outdated attitude of "everybody has to go through the same hardship like I had to".
Same with the bidding for trips + OFF-days: With only few people behind you, there's no point in even bidding for anything at all - the system will not even make it down to you. Also, the AIMS bidding system that CV uses is Web-technology of the 80s (=takes a lot of time to work your way thorugh).
Once you get your lucky upgrade after, say 10 years, the whole thing starts over again.
5. Salary and Per Diem:
The statements in this thread on salary are quite correct.
Just PLEASE don't calculate the Per Diem as part of the salary, especially if you're not used to long-haul-ops. You'll yet have to find out for yourself, howmuch of the 96 EUR per day you'll need on the road. You're not going to make many friends by only dining at McDonalds. Apart from eating, you may need some money for certain activities, that make life on layovers bearable in the long run. Some play golf, some tennis, sightseeing, etc. etc. All this doesn't make it a great life, it just keeps you from getting depressive, which you will if you spend your time only in your room. Of course, the shorter the layovers get, the less chance you'll have to spend money...
6. Travel on company A/C
There could be some nice opportunities of taking your wife/girlfriend along on a trip. But always exciting! All of a sudden some horse grooms pop up (or some relative of the CEO), and she gets bumped off at Melbourne (lots of stories of that kind).
Travel with kids: very, very limited...
7. Culture in CV and LUX
Whowever thought that there was still some cooperation between management and pilots, shoul know better by now. It seems that at least some key persons in management hate pilots. There seems to be a great lack of mutual understanding. Not a good precontition for your working atmosphere.
The LUX system looks great at first, with nice laws about money (salary index, low tax however progression is strong here too), vacation (comes on top of any OFF-days), state benefits for kids....
The catch is, that LUX is not a real democracy in terms of separation of powers. The Luxies all know each other, and corruption is a big issue. So there's no real enforcement of law available for you, at least don't count on it...
8. Company strategy for the future
I'm not sure if there is any. We had a very capable CEO until 2001, Heiner Wilkens, who really put the company on the track we're on. He initiated the expansion, and I believe the current management has finally got it that this has to continue. All management is currently doing, is keeping track. If any turbulences ever arise, I doubt very much that they will be capable of steering us through.
Bottom line: Decide for yourself if this offers indeed a career perspective for you. Give it a 2nd thought!