It used to baffle me how pilots (who at the time were well paid) often found themselves in financial difficulty. Trained professionals, well educated, who should know better. While I might be able to understand the ex-wife factor, most of the cases were well beyond this.
Kinda like that credit card with 21% interest well beyond. Who would DO something at an equivalent level of dumbness ?
Well, it doesn't baffle me anymore.
The company pays for 900 hours a year. It's an hours driven process. If you were to have a month on-month off roster (free and clear of other stuff) what remains would have to reflect 450 hours with a normal distribution of leave (i.e. instead of 42 days 21 days), G's, etc. with pay commensurate to half the work. And housing commensurate to their time staying in Hong Kong. And have some concrete assurances of length of time of contract and stability of conditions.
So I think it's likely to become another form of scam. Then again so is POS18 but apparently there are those who don't mind cutting their own wrists.
Pity in that there is potential for win-win but things here never seem to play out that way.
You'd think after the 23'rd Nigerian Prince trying to move money email that folks would catch on.