No one knows what the future holds. Any choice you make may very well turn out to be wrong. CAL may furlough, merge, fall off the face of the planet, who knows. CX MAY be a safer bet there, but who really knows? The only guarantee in the airline business is that things will change, and sometimes drastically. CX has never furloughed the way they do in the US, where you sit fat, dumb, and happy (often complaining at full tilt) and then the axe strikes...wham! It's not personal, and it usually isn't permanent. It's a crappy business decision with no individual target. You go down in seniority, and it may very well be a life changing event.
Well, CX doesn't furlough, it selectively fires or runs people off the property. You will not fall as a group, but as an individual. I have seen so many great people fall here with my own eyes that it is really unbelievable. In fact, the topic of conversation (especially on the freighter!) in public groups at some point always turns to who/what/when screwed up their latest PC, failed their interview, has a big target on their back, you name it. These conversations DO NOT occur like this in companies like FEDEX,UPS,SWA, etc. People are not pushed out, and they DO NOT voluntarily leave. Sure there are always some very rare cases who do resign for various personal reasons or are fired for extremely egregious (usually criminal) behaviors.... did I say rare?! You might think it would be a good thing that cx gets rid of rotten apples, but the guys I have seen were far from it. When you work here you will look around and see this, and understand why no one is safe.
I say talk to people at CAL and find out how many are leaving. Compare that to CX, and you might get a clearer picture on which way to go. Here's my two cents for what you paid for them. If you go to CAL you will often think "maybe I should have gone to Cathay, I wonder how that would have been". If you go to Cathay you will often think " Fu@k, I wish I had gone to Continental!!"
Last edited by hog tied; 27th Feb 2007 at 14:33.