Goodstick,
As for the number of pilots to hire, that number varies greatly depending on who you ask. It seems they are hiring around a net of 250 year right now, but I suspect that they want more than that. Upgrade time is also very subjective. We have people going for freighter command after two years with the company, but most had significant experience before joining Cathay. That said, I think pax command time is around 9 years right now. There are tons of open pax FO spots in the US right now, I believe including SFO, but it is likely that the company will begin hiring DEFO on the pax fleet in the US soon. This could do away with many of these spots, if they can find the crews to join. Schedule out of SFO would be just as stated by someone else above. SFO-HKG return around three times per month. Hope this helps you out.
box
PS- Always remember that no matter where you work, some people will always wake up on the wrong side of the bed!!!