Ladies 'n Gents
Those of you from Canada will want to think very very carefully about a move to EK...
1. Check out the thread on "EK Salary Declines"... the value of the arctic peso has dropped like a turd from a 10 foot camel in the last 6 years against the currency you're paid in here (the AED). More than 25% - it hurts like hell and there's no way to fix it. It's costin' a **** load more for the mortgage than it used to! That changes holiday plans, disposable income plans, savings plans, kids education plans... Think about it!
2. You join now and you're gonna be an FO for a long long time, 'n spite a what the recruiters say. We're well past the half way point to our required manning levels based on current growth plans - it ain't rocket science. The work force is relatively young, there are no retirement bulges...
3. The cost of life here has become brutal - you can't get enough money out of the company to pay all the school fees for your kids if you want to send them to the better Amecian schools. If you don't give a **** about yer kids, it won't matter...
4. 42 days vacation sounds good, but you can't have it all! 21 days max in row and you only get one flight home per year... what 're you gonna do with the other 21? The flight ops management has gone through some clever Clintonesque parsing about what the language in the 'contract' means... and their position is that although 42 days accrue, there is no mandate to release you from work to actually be able to take it. Think about it.
5. Read ALL the threads you can about EK on this site, there's a ton of info avaiable to re adjust the tint from the rose coloured perspective offered by the recruiting road show.
6. Targeted block hours: I averaged over 700/ year in the last 4 years... that's hard time folks, brakes off to brakes on, one hour credit before duty, nothin' after the brakes 'er set. 15.5 to 16.5 hour block times on the longest sectors - plus the 3 hours before it takes to get yer butt outta the hotel and to the airport and traipse around duty free... very long duty days folks.
7. The allowances are crap. They're based on discounts negotiated with the crew hotels - (see associated threads on this site) -yer expected to remain in prison on your off duty time. Two recent memos emphasizin' that the hotel and nightstop are fer restin' not guestin' so don't be goin' out an havin' too much fun, 'er workin' out too much at the gym... God forbid!
8. Dubai is like a Las Vegas version of a Cape Breton coal mine around the turn of the century... The company owns everything in town... you get paid and have to spend it all at the company store - provide yer own computer, live on line communicatin' with the company (pay fer yer own internet connection on the road at most places out of yer measely 'llowance, cause you gotta run through myriad online trainin' courses, all very low quality, at yer own expense [time an' money] outta said meagre allowance).
Yer take home pay is gonna take a lot more hits than advertised and it rankles it just chisles away and they won't change it, improve it, or even listen to you try to get them ta change it.
You come here and you're on a roller coaster of a ride that is very difficult to get off of...
good luck for all that 'n happy contrails
k-o-t-s