Beta Light
The Indaba is an absolute
hole and I was very very surprised to hear that you guys stay there, I lived down the road from that place a while ago and Cpt. Underpants has a fair assesment of the place.
There is no way in hell you would find SAA crew living in a
hole like that (yes maybe thats why we dont make a profit...lets not go there) but SAA crew generally stay in similar hotels to other airlines around the world. Its obvious that Cathay is trying to save costs but good god, which moron said ok to the Indaba. By the way I believe your retirement age is going from 55 to 65 in one shot? so how long to command now, my mates working there estimate about 10 years to command...just asking its what I have heard.
SAA has abot 850 pilots, yes thats small compared to Cathay and most others, I have heard of 2 maybe 3 guys that have left, maybe a few others doing JAA licences, thats less than 1% of the total SAA crew numbers, lets not get all excited here and make a big thing about nothing, I know of a number of guys who left and basically begged to come back. I am quite happy at SAA with no intention of leaving, I am glad you are happy at Cathay, I like to come there occasionally and do what people do in Hong Kong, but I do not think I could live there with my family, I could if I had to but not by choice, as for Emirates, there is no way in hell you would find me there, yes nice aircraft, expansion, short wait to command, but lets factor in its a desert, its
hot, its full of Arabs, expats are second class citizens, 90% probablity that your wife will move back to SA or the UK and live there while you sweat it out in the desert, you work damn hard and finally if your kids do live with you at age 20 (or 18 whatever it is) they are required to leave.........nice place, no thanks.