Hey, c'mon guys, some sensible well thought out posts, good debate for both sides, no emotive abuse..................are you trying to get us all kicked off PPRUNE
The point about paying back any costs to CX/KA is a little moot as was pointed out, cadets accept the conditions in the 1st place, I would be interested to know how many guys would have accepted a CX/KA career " off the street " with zero flying hours and effectively no out of pocket expenses v the way most expats did it, that is somewhere in the vicinity of $500,00HKD outlay with absolutley no gaurantee of a job flying a bugsmasher around the outback let alone an airline job.
I for one, not being a gambler in the least, would have taken the cadet path.
It would also be interesting to note the difference in pay between " local terms " and most non-airline jobs, I don't exactly know the local COS but I can tell you I averaged $2000HKD/month for 5 years ( not a misprint ) and I was considered reasonably lucky to only take 5 years to get an airline job ( sure there are some that did it in less and lots that did it far tougher, inc guys/gals that never made it to airlines )
And yes, for the non cadet locals, that met the same requirements as any expat, I think it sucks.