I like to talk about how lucky we are.
If we had bidlines we would be incessantly involved with choosing the best patterns and whingeing about other people's patterns. With our current system we have very little choice so we can whinge equally;-)
If we were paid as much as other airlines in our home countries we would have to pay so much more tax...16% is a lot you know! I appreciate my company's help in minimising my tax bill even if others aren't so grateful.
I appreciate that education and medical is a huge burden on our company and I think it is right and fitting that we contribute more and more even though the amounts are far in excess of what we would pay at home. After all, its not like CX is some expat employing airline. Its a career airline. Air is so good in HKG you can taste it. We should be paying them for the right to live here!
CX has incredibly high standards. Unlike EK, where it only takes 3-4 years to work the system out and get a command, CX invented aviation. It takes at least 9 years for us to be ready for a command- maybe. They have an incredibly rigorous selection and training process that has a 'star chamber' in oversight that ensures any past political, personal or professional mis-demeanour does not go unpunished. Fortunately with retirement age likely to move to 60 or 65 that will give candidates an extra few years to be screened.
The good news is that with a later retirement age we don't need to earn as much nor do we need as much in our PF as we are closer to dying when we leave! Silver lining to that cloud. But I don't think it is fair to the company to pay normal salary and benefits after 55. We have been such a burden to them for most of our career. It is only fair that we start to give back in our golden years.
And unlike some I don't think we should be recompensed for the falling US$ even though EK does. If we are not happy we could just move back on a basing right!? Three or four family moves between countries in a career, at your expense, is good for clearing the attic of old junk. Its good for the kids to make new friends - teaches them to deal with abandonment issues early on in life. So no whingeing about the exchange rate in my cockpit.
So yes, in my cockpit, we just talk about how we are lucky to work for CX. They are a learning organisation - cutting edge stuff. They have learnt through the 90s that just imposing pay deals doesn't work. I look forward to a large, jointly negotiated, pay rise.