Guys,
I was one of those 230 pilots who left ( March 2005), to move to the desert, did the different basing ploy on upgrade (LTN and BFS) worked the random roster and 6 and 3, not 5254 (although I voted against it!)
I did just under 4 years at EZY, fun sometimes, kna**kered most of the time, and thought that if I didn't leave I would either lose the medical ( thou fatigue) or kill someone/myself due a mistake(thou fatigue)
Good things about EZY,
The training is brilliant ( 3rd airline now, still the best for initial and recurrents by a long,long way)
Most flight and cabin crew were great to work with, personalibly and professionally.
Money wasn't bad,( althou not enough for the pound of flesh they wanted off you!)
Good equipment (althou the older 300's were more challenging!)
A few more but not anything to write home about.
Bad things,
Knack**ed!
Fatigued!
Roster instability,
Long 4 and 6 sector days (2 sector 8 hour duty qualifies as a half day, so the management plegde that office/admin staff should have the same number of days off/leave as they sit on their asr*s is a bit rich)
Crew food is a joke
staff travel is f**king appalling( based in BFS for the command, and not being able to get home on your days off really winds you up, not to mention the other half)
A lot more too mention, but I haven't got all day
So in conclusion,
I now work for EK, and as regular ppruners know, there is a lot writen about their T and C's lately, not that great compared to BA/Virgin etc. and quite a few thinking about leaving and hence asking me about EZY,
It takes me less than 5 mins to disuade them them that that move would not be in their best interests, to put it mildly!!!
There have been 5 others join EK from easy in the last 6 months, 4 of them were left seat, taking right seats for a minimum of 3 years, it not be the best around but I haven't heard any regrets from any of them! We do work to the 900 hr limit, but the Duty time are less, the days off are more, and we have a life outside our cockpits!!
Therefore if you must join EZY, do so, get great training, get some hours and get out as soon as possible!!
And PS don't blame BALPA, they are doing the best they can with 51% membership