ok so in response to the emails i recieved after my post.. and to all the the questions i recieved... when choosing btw EK and EY i cant tell u which one is best.... its all about ur own personal experience... im sure they both have their good points and bad points... and all i can share with u are my points with my experience from etihad.. yes, the company has disappointed me time and time again, and especially with their stance and action on a certain issue which i cannot state online. Please dont get me wrong im not someone who likes to whinge or complain about everything, cos if i was i would've left on the 2nd day of arrival, i just expected more from the company, regardless of how new they are, because being new cant always be used as their excuse for everything, especially when common sense should be involved. I guess the points that im allowed to go into detail are the following:
firstly before arriving, as im sure everyone also experienced this.... it took them about 3-4 months to sort out my medicals and security papers after i handed everything in to them. back and forth of endless phone calls and emails, which most of the time led to nothing. once arriving here they booked my tickets for 3 days late of my commencement date, which meant i couldnt join training from day one, which meant i was responsible in chasing up everything i missed out on (uniform fittings, medicals) without their assistance. next.... Accomodation is disgusting! Ok well that was my accomodation, ive heard that not everyones accomodation is dirty and has a creature invasion, its just the luck of the drawer and which ever building they put u in. (oh and before u say anything i wasnt expecting some nice villa or a mini emirates palace, i honestly was just expecting the basics of a nice and clean modest apartment) You can apply to be put into other accomodation, but there is no exact system for this. nothing is guarenteed, nothing is reserved, its basically first in best dressed and u need to visit the accomodation lady everyday which is mostly pointless cos she'll tell u the same thing every time u visit her.. "no sorry, we have nothing". School was nice, trainers are really nice and so are the nice cafeteria ladys. Some people had trouble organising a bank account and getting paid on time.... in ur contract u will recieve some information on bringing atleast USD$100, make sure u bring a lot more than that, as most of us were living off beans for 3-4 weeks..due to payment delays and HR's poor excuses. Also if ur bringing excess baggage, they most likely wont pay u on arrival of AUH as stated, u'll most likely be paid 1-2 months after.... With getting all ur paper sorted including medicals, perminent visa, liquor licence etc, its not all straight forward, u have to go to one person then to another then to another and its all one big confusion, infact most of the country is like that, u really need patience in this extremist country. Auh is nice and quiet, but if ur a party animal then Dubai is the place to be as u might be sick of AUH's total of 4 nightclubs, which are all mostly etihad crew
. On the plus side, generally the crew are really really nice, and u make friends fast. There are a few other points that i cant mention as to how this has been a run around, and there is no such thing as smooth sailing, infact the only thing that EY has done right and has gone 100% smooth sailing, is pairing me up with my flat mate, which coincidently we get a long really well, but like everything, that was just the luck of the drawer, i cant say that my experience will be exactly the way urs will be, its all individual. and if ur tossing up between EY and EK, again it all depends on ur individual experience, and u'll never know which one is for u until u try each one. im sure they both have good and bad points and from what i have heard from many people is that the salary and the layover time are both pretty much the same for EY and EK, the only major difference would be if u prefer to wear beige-sand colour or Grey-black everyday.... personally i prefer the grey-black
