Wait til you has a look at the EK salary scale!! It's the same except for a few annual bonus's. Have you seen the cost of living in Dubai lately? Suggest more research before throwing the baby out with the bath water. Strange you should expect more money because you have >6000hrs, thats not a lot in this part of the world. And your calculation of $3500 basic sounds a bit off to say the least. Should be more like $4500 with no allowances, if you come out with less than $6000 pm gross it's a bad month, really! Things are very busy and OT is available every month and you can choose to work days off at $270 a day. By all means knock the job for lots of things but money is not a good one. With no tax in the gulf you will have a hard time matching it elsewhere, not impossible though I suppose.