bbd> Now that's more like it - a relatively sensible reply - shame you had to try and be so patronising with it.
My aviation credentials aside - every time a post comes up which doesn't fit in with the perceptions of some of the more rabid correspondents here they're dismissed as a know nothing or a management stooge. It is possible that opinions other than your own are perfectly valid and have some merit.
InUSA made some valid points with helpful intent only to be rubbished as an ignorant 'yank'. The usefulness of an open forum is that it enables you to gain input from others and to allow your grievances to reach a wider audience (including the SCMP). The danger is that outsiders may reach the conclusion that CX pilots spend inordinate amounts of time on the net slagging off each other and the company, flaming outsiders and that CX recruits exclusively from the bottom left hand corner of the unstable/introvert quarter. At the present rate you'd probably be better off with a private forum as I cannot believe the views as expressed by the minority here reflect the opinions of the majority, yet it frequently gives a very negative impression of the pilot body as a whole.
Yes I am aware of the seniority issue but it seems things are so bad it's a wonder anyone stays. I got out of the industry for precisely the reasons you are complaining about, yes I know stay and fight from the inside but the fatal flaw with that argument especially in an outfit that isn't strongly unionised is that there'll always be plenty of self improvers who've mortgaged the house, slaved in McD's etc who'd cut their mothers throat for the job let alone yours. CX has nothing to fear about a lack of applicants - hence the B scale.
On that subject the slagging of A scalers by B scalers for their ills ! They let it happen, maybe, but no doubt as part of a realisation that competitive pressures made the change inevitable. What they didn't do was hold a gun to the heads of B scalers to force them to sign. If the A scale had been maintained most of those on the B scale wouldn't have been hired as CX would have been able to attract a far greater experience level to join.
Look if things really are that bad there has never been a better time than now to look elsewhere. Time to command in some UK charter operators is now running at 3 to 4 years,although doing a summer season with them would make you look at your rostering in a new light. Again a lot of it is a matter of perception - a friend of mine working as a captain for a UK charter, based in SE England (similar cost of living to HK) was talking about their latest pay rise, he's now on GBP55,000 p.a. and quote 'it's telephone numbers'! Well not by HK lights but he thinks it's reasonable even given that the company certainly takes its pound of flesh.
CX management obviously makes a judgement that the gain from flexible rostering outweighs the loss from pilot dissatisfaction and cost of training replacements etc. Unless sufficient trainers and captains force the issue or large numbers start leaving so it hurts the company will continue on its present course.
And from the co.'s point of view why shouldn't it? Hong Kong people expect to work long hours, the majority of people working 9 to 5 aren't knocking off at 5 and pulling long weekends. Complaints of a disrupted home/social life do not have the same resonance here as in the West.
So bbd you have my sympathy and good luck with your fight but I fear rosters will long be an issue here and elsewhere. However with your knowledge of well-run airlines you ought to be able to sort it out, you're obviously wasted as a pilot, you management genius you.