Trying to raise a family in HKG on the new CX contract vs a decent turbine job in Australia, taking everything into account such as housing, medical, cost of living, lifestyle etc and it could be a close decision.
Bailing out of CX for QF at the first opportunity has been SOP for Australian S/Os for a long time, and with reduced terms and conditions likely to be the norm in the expat world for the foreseeable future, many pilots could decide that it’s not worth going back overseas and start lining up for the right hand seat at Virgin or J*.
Cadets would have a hard time competing against applications with thousands of hours airline flying.