SNOWYMAN...I see my last posting was in October of 2003 in the subject, so 18 months have gone by. A lot happened in 18 months in my life.
To answer your question, I recall the Captain pay to be between 8K and 10K per month. It changed because of the hours. they kept claiming they had a pilot shortage, yet would schedule us for 65 or 70 hours with days sitting around TPE doing nothing. Most people want to work more.
In terms of updating my answer, I only would say I encountered less than three pricks at CAL. One was the 744 Chief Pilot and totally unbearable. Even his own colleagues agreed. But I understand he is now a line pilot and possible instructor. you can't avoid any airline for one jerk. But I'd never take anything from this guy including a free beer.
One other guy was always pissed off at the world and ex-pats.
I think there might have been a few bad attitudes from a few (less than 5) locals, but I can say that I found the vast majority to be great to work with.
The biggest issues are being scheduled to a high number to make more money as long as you were going to eat up 80% of every month away from home. They should have rescheduled more American to America, More Canadians to Canada, more Aussies to Australia,.etc. when ever possible.
They finally did go to an ELO program I understand and I think it may have been extended to F/Os. It would ahve been nice to fly MIA-ANC-MIA and stay in one's region and only go to TPE every three months.
Actually I did enjoy TPE and enjoyed the hotel people, most of the crew schedulers and workers, and many others in the training department and the Chief Pilot office. There are people that read this regularly and I will tell them that I do miss the honest good citizens who I still consider friends. They know who they are.
And why did I leave? The main reason was a pending unexpected divorce. I took a leave of absence and they would not extend it any further which was too bad. But it was their decision and not mine.
There was also an incident (so minor that any other airline would have solved it with a :15 office visit) that got bigger because the then Chief Pilot made it so. I would do the exact same thing today and it boiled down to world politics. The Koreans don't like the Taiwanese and I was a Taiwanese pilot. End of story!
I still have friends there and a lot of people have moved on. I wish them and you well.