American Leaves CO for CX...

[Rice bowl licker]

The attraction to CX (or the value the rest of us appreciate for that matter) is that in addition to your bring home pay CX pays a non-taxable housing allowance for officers based in hong kong, about 4,500 Euro p/month which equates to about USD $70,000.00 annually on-top of your salary (tax free).

As far as retirement schemes, CX has one of the best pilot retirement schemes available. Here in the States, B Plans & A Plans are disappearing fast as a result of airlines bankruptcy’s and being replaced with "matching" programs like 401k but require deductions from your own personal bring-home pay. Some of the most competitive programs are offered by FedEx, UPS & Southwest Airlines but still only match around 6-7% of your own personal contribution.

At CX, they are setting aside 15% of your monthly earnings into either a provident retirement fund or pilots can just elect to take the money upfront for investing in a retirement account. So, instead of a just a 13th month's salary "bonus" or whatever it means to you at the anniversary of your contract, CX is “gifting” you, tax-free, an additional USD $20,000-25,000 specifically for your retirement.

Inclusive of your housing allowance, at CX senior captains probably averaging an extra tax-free $90,000 USD ontop of their salary which is more than any 13th month salary bonus guys are getting in Korea, Japan & Taiwan. I think the whole idea is that CX wants you to stay for a career and even if you're based in the USA (I think) it's still a fantastic place to work.


Here in Nevada after age 65, private healthcare coverage thru Blue Cross probably wont run you anymore than auto insurance, but again that's here in Nevada with our Casino's picking up much of the tab.

As far as taxes go, (also a joke in Nevada haha) in Hong Kong they're so low it's often been said that Hong Kong is a "tax haven." In the U.S. on the other hand where we're typically taxed on our worldwide incomes, we're given an $80,000 tax CREDIT for Income Earned Overseas. So, if you're not already taking advantage of that or taking the discretionary factors above into consideration hopefully it's clear now why there are still so many guys out there who think CX pays a decent salary…