Guys, it's satire and as all good satire does, contains more than a kernel of truth.
As far as the good old days at EK, I would have to differ with some. I really don't think that they have changed much. The guys running the airline are pretty much the same faces and they certainly keep the Flight Ops management on a pretty tight leash. When I joined 12 years ago, I was put in an absolute dump and when I complained was told that I could either leave or take the allowance (it wasn't good for much then either). The company then decided to unilaterally change the annual increment from 4% to 3% (the long term effects on my pay and savings were huge). A year later they decided to change part of my contract. I was called in and told to sign the change. When I replied that I didn't want to, I was told to either sign it or to tender my resignation as I would not be continuing employment. I was also told a few falsehoods at my interview regarding school allowances and the like. I understand that they are not above leaving out a few "important details" at the interview now.
To my way of thinking, not much has changed. The pay certainly has not kept pace with the cost of living but that has been mostly due to the falling dollar. The pay was never that great - it's just been in the last few years that a captain made more than $100,000 a year. They will do whatever they think that they can get away with to cut costs and increase profits. They are not stupid and have improved some things over the years, primarily because they had to. The average standard of pilot accommodation has definitely improved because in the late 90's, pilots stopped coming due to the poor standard of the villas. The frequency of the company messing with me (either through increased pay deductions due to "overpayment" or just changing my terms and conditions) has reduced - mostly due to the fact that they are in a sellers market for pilots and they know it. I have absolutely no illusion that any pay rise will be the absolute minimum that they can get away with and will be sold as more than it really is. I also have no illusion that should the market conditions change, that we can see more "cost-neutral" pay adjustments in the future. The company hasn't really changed. The upper management really hasn't changed. The only thing that has really changed are the market conditions and the number of pilots Emirates needs to recruit. In fact, I understand that the target numbers for the coming year are already being changed downwards, no doubt due to the inclusion of flight time factoring (and 24 hour layovers in IAH and GRU) in their calculations.