thanks to those of you who took the time to provide informaton and sipell or confirm some facts and rumors. Other information would certainly be appreciated.
I think one of the more prolific statements that was made here ,but that there is no place like home. When you leave your home to travel or to live or work, you have to expect that life will not be like it was.
To the 340 jock, it sounds like some places in the Gulf are more family oriented because they do provide greater housing and schools that other places don't. But was mentioned on the other forum, many people simply leave their families in their home country and spend 2/3rds or more away from them.
It appears that there are two major hiring areas for pilots in 2003 and those being Asia and the Gulf. Most all other parts of the world are stable with locals or are downsizing like most major carriers in North American and Canada.
So,just like on the Far East Forum, people seeking a job flying airline airplanes have to decide what sacrifices they wish to make.
Further to the Gulf, I noted that Emirates web site indicates that pilots get 42 days off per year vacation. That certainly sounds like a lot. Do you have to do that for sanity or do you get your hours in for the year and still have that much time off.
What are monthly schedules like?
I am curious to compare notes because my former carrier had a pure bidding system with seniority and my current one does not. Seniority has minimum impact now and you are assigned a schedule every month based on the needs of the service.
I noted that Emirates appears to rotate seniority so that no one is "adversely affected". But it sounds like for people with families who would like 1 or 2 day trips, they may be available. For those who would prefer to be gone most of the time because they don't like where they fly from or don't have their families with them.
From talking to some Singapore guys, they seem to ahve those based in SIN and those not based in SIN who have schedules like 8 on and 8 off which rarely change.
I would like to know more just to put things in perspective from the Gulf area.