Wings,
It's not all doom & gloom.
I worked for Jetconnect as a SH CSM. The money was alright, with the allowances I was earning about 40-45K a year, which for the hours I was working was pretty good money!! I know that long haul work pretty hard, but all of the people I have known who went accross say the money is better then short haul and most are ex CSM's, so the money can't be that bad.
The actual Jetconnect team were great to work with, it was great to go to work everyday, I really looked forward to actually going to work! Sure some people's morale was low, but you get that in every airline and it's all about how you react to it.
I agree though, Jetconnect isn't a career airline, but it's a great start to a career, I left there in 2005 and I'm now in a great job with an Australian airline, which I would never have gotten without my experience from JC.
Like any job, it's all what you make of it. If you want to get some experience, see some different places and have a bit of fun then it's a great place to be - if you just want a high paying flying job then you need to move to Australia, because in reality, there aren't any at all in NZ and they are quickly disappearing over here too!!