Originally Posted by
SaulGoodman
If you fancy money, prostitutes and do not care about living in a dictatorship you choose EK. If you are British and aspire any form of family life you choose BA. if you are a European, and you do not wish to live in a 2nd world class system you don’t go to either of them.
All jokes aside: do your 5 years in EK, get ur command, and then enjoy a far inferior package at RYR or Norwegian in a base you do not fancy or you just do the time in BA / Virgin / AF / KLM / Luftie / Ezy etc and go part time and enjoy life.
I agree with your first sentence.
Second one already is not really correct anymore - e.g. RYR new CLA deal in Italy for instance is really not bad IF it is a base you want and you DO NOT need to commute. Fine for me, I enjoy 5/4 and a not really bad salary(actually a better one that I had during my fantastic time with Qatar in the other dictatorship due to a very very bad Euro-Dollar exchange rate many years ago).
If you join one of the other gigs you mentioned as an experienced skipper AND you make it really into the mainline(seems BA went already a bit down the drain) then it means you go RH seat for at least 10 years again HOW could that be anything ok financially but as well "quality of life wise"?
EZY might be ok(maybe a bit to much "british company culture" for a mainland european, but hey. Problem with EZY is the very limited availability of good bases so you would not need to commute back and forth between work and family - HOW would that make you enjoy life?
Very onesided review of yours I must say. RYR has it's defintive downsides BUT the 5/4 on your base that you are living at with your family(preferably Italy as it is pretty good tax and salary wise on a RYR contract), THAT is QUALITY of life. Every day at home, NO commute, good salary.
To be honest it is much more likely to get a base you DO fancy in RYR then it would be in any other company you mentioned. Simple as that. There are all the known downsides in RYR(my god, I buy a black trouser and use the white shirts of my previous employers, big deal), I always prefer to be AT HOME with my family and not anymore in bloody hotels all around the world. Again - THAT is quality of life. Who cares which paintjob the bird has, honestly. Grow up.