Give the ME a big miss, give EK a miss, done 5 years here at EK and it's now really doing my head in, the company, management and the place.
The real problem is once you spend a few years here it gets harder to move away, but it soon becomes obvious after a while there's no real financial future here with EK, they might give it to you in one hand but they will for sure take it from you out of the other.
The best is yet to come...... watch out for the next so called pay rise, watch what's going to possibly happen to our duty pay on ULR/ Long Haul flights, they've done it to the duty times, wait for the flight duty pay adjustment, it will happen rumour has it!!!
Be sure there is nothing to gain by coming out here flying for EK, nothing at all.
Look beyond the free house and utilities, cost of living is going through the roof and pay is NOT keeping up with it.
Layover allowance, it's awful to say the least, go away on an eight day trip and come back very much out of pocket, and that's not living it up, that's eating like a normal human being.
Emirates want to treat you like mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed on sh1te.
You read a lot of threads here on pprune about EK, most of which is very true, as the saying goes, "there's no smoke without fire".
20/20 hindsight is a great thing to posses, but one thing's for sure, given a secure job back home I wouldn't be here now.
Good luck to all you guy's and hopefully gal's thinking of defecting out here, be sure, be very sure it's what you want. This is not fun, this is not even enjoyable flying. You will work very hard indeed and get very tired, "back of the clock" flying nearly all the time and a blame culture waiting to jump on you should you step out of line or transgress,
My god I could go on and on, never have I felt this way about a company I've flown for in twenty years, but that's enough. Venting over with for now, time for more wine and pork.
Sleep well, sweet dreams and think long and hard.
Puff.