Originally Posted by
Boulanger
In places like Canada, cruise time is somewhat recognized since Air Canada has their own relief pilots, but the job market is full of pilots who gain turboprop and other experience right out of flight school, and those people are more marketable. Plus those at AC are all generally quite experienced anyways.
In the US I'm not sure, but all carriers that operate heavier aircraft there have fully rated pilots, and there is no equivalence of P2X time. I do know of SOs who went to the US, but they all had some kind of past experience in addition to an FAA license. Flight instructing might sound undesirable, but PIC time even in a single engine piston is much more valuable than P2X time. In the past few years, the US has been desperate for pilots, but I wouldn't bet the job market to be that rosy forever.
Keep in mind that if you consider CX, you will also be bonded for a number of years. If you do not get upgraded to a first officer in any reasonable amount of time (which unfortunately, has been the case for many), you might still not be that marketable by the time the bond is up.
As a general rule of thumb, P2X time is the least valuable experience compared to all others on fixed wing aircraft. While CX does give you some competencies in managing larger aircraft, it will be harder to sell yourself due to the lack of stick and rudder time.
It's still not very clear to me what exactly P2X time is, and how that time is defined in conventional ICAO terms... You mentioned Air Canada, which I always knew had cruise relief pilot (known as RP) positions. What I didn't know until recently, is that RPs at AC are issued RP type ratings, not full type ratings, which to me seems to essentially be the same thing as a CX SO type rating.
So with that said, if an AC RP can log the time while sitting in the seat during cruise as normal SIC time (P2 equivalent I suppose), I don't really see why CX SO time can't be logged the same as an AC RP with respect to ICAO standards... It's essentially the same job and type rating