Hello! I've been reading positive and negative opinions here for only a few days so please don't attack or be presumptuous about how much I know or don't know or how smart or stupid I am.
I would like to express my view on how I see this situation and I need your input, as objective as possible, on where you think I am right or wrong.
The way this job (F.O) is described on EK's website, it seems ideal to me - the "2 month regional pilot" with a min $720 paycheck every two weeks. I think it would help, when you express your opinions, to explain the background you come from and compare and contrast what is so great/awful at EK compared to your past work experiences.
Being from a not so smoothly functioning country in Southeastern Europe (Macedonia) I know that I would be used to the lack of liberty of impact on company policies/decisions/actions/justice/fairness so that is one thing won't bother me working for EK. The US is not much better. I work for one of the top 3 regionals in the US and in the 2 months of being there I have already seen the company override the contract in several occasions such as displacing pilots out of seniority after a base closed and so forth. So as far as EK's integrity goes, or any other's, you will be stepped on no matter where you go. I've accepted this, check in the box.
As far as living in Dubai goes, I have already made a huge cultural leap when I moved to the US as an exchange student at 16 (now 25). So I have already dealt with what most people refer as a "cultural shock" (which I never experienced) so It wouldn't be as hard to do it again. Drivers where I come from don't really comprehend the term defensive driving as it is anyway so little details such as that wouldn't really bother me as much. Males staring down other females (or even other males) as if it was mating season is another phenomenon I am very much accustomed to.
As far as money goes, I think that a starting salary of approx. $75,000
tax-free with majority of expenses paid is a very genenerous salary. For the skeptics that may claim it gets taxed when you bring it back in the US, it doesn't - as long as you spend 330 days out of the 12 months of the year you are exempt. So if you spend 5 years in Dubai stashing most of this money away, not to mention your vesting fund, which if honored at 12% contribution should bring you a nice chunk of savings.
43 days off a year? Who can beat that? (other than cathay) I think it's not bad if you can't take more then 3 weeks consecutively off. Would you be able to do that anywhere else? A handful of places.
I'm gonna stop listing EK benefits as I'm sure most of you are much more familiar with them then me. My attempt here was to present my view, and my view only. I don't think I am right or wrong neither do I think that anybody else is right or wrong. My point here was to show that a negative thing for you may not be such a bad thing in my opinion. I understand if you think that's stupid just because It doesn't agree with your view. But RJ made a good point when he said this is everybody's perception of things and a collection of views. So I invite you to give me yours. And more importantly I would like you to elaborate more and possibly document some of your points, such as company provided housing with maybe some pictures of the areas where you live, the interior, exterior, surrounding area etc. or just pictures from everyday life. What are some ranges of rental fees for, apartments, condos, houses, villas or any type of common housing that is in the Dubai area, in particular, areas popular for westerners or EK pilots.
What does DHS 10,565 in housing allowance a month get you? Do you only get this for a year? Are you on your own afterwards? Is health coverage free? Sounds like a good deal. What is flying pay? Is this additional to your monthly salary of Dhs 22,720 a month or is it calculated in it? What about productivity pay?
The website gives very poor description of some of the benefits and I don't see any posts that discuss these things at length. All I see is you guys bickering over who's sees what
Please, do not criticize my post, as it is a waste of all of ours' time. I would love to read what you have to add as long as it is informative, not just your general opinion. Opinions are good as long as they are objective, which we as humans are rarely capable of producing