Originally Posted by
HES1998
Hi,
Anyone able to share some recent interview feedback with Cathay ?
I don’t want to discourage you from taking the job, but I think you might need a bit of a reality check.
Yes, CX is an excellent gateway to get experience in wide body jets but is it really worth the crap they throw at you? If you have been following this forum, I’ll summarise what you should expect for you and your family:
Pay - Enough to Survive but not enough to enjoy life and take holidays. After paying taxes, school fees, groceries, utilities etc…. You will not be saving any money
Taxes - You’ll have to save to pay the IRD approximately 15% of your total income, this includes approx 15% of the school allowance and pilot allowance.
Schooling - Apart from the initial $5,000 per month, per child. If the schooling is more (which is guaranteed) they’ll happily give you another $3300 per month, provided you furnish a receipt and be paid in arrears. Oh, and that is taxed as well. Expect school fees to run you about $12,000 per month.
Accommodation - Welcome to Lantau Island! For what an FO1 can afford, You can live in a cockroach infested 700 sqft apartment (rooms no bigger that a jail cell) with a ****ty landlord that doesn’t fix anything and wants you, at the end of your lease to return the apartment in better condition than when you took possession. The silver lining is, you can choose one of 3 location, Discovery Bay, Tung Chung or South Lantau.
Medical - Apart from the abysmal private coverage (very low limits) and the conditions that come with it (I.e no private hospital coverage between 6am-6pm), you will have no option but to attend a public hospital, which, have a habit of mis-diagnosis.
Did you fall and fracture a finger while at an outport on duty? The company will cover your medical costs. But they will deduct the “hypothetical” cost from your already low private medical coverage in HK. Yes they will use your medical in HK to recoup some of their expenses.