I'm just going by what CReW's website states, and by what the CReW contract offers. CReW is owned in part by ANA. So, according to CReW, their contract will never offer less than the PARC one. However, that is just what I heard from them, not necessarily a fact. I do know that the CReW contract's guaranteed consecutive days off changed in the last 3 months. As Fratemate says though, if PARC actually still does offer a better contract, go with them.
If you look on
www.crewresourcesworldwide.com you will see that both CA and FO, AJV (cargo) and AJX (pax) contracts, clearly state the 10 days off a month,
only 8 of which is guaranteed consecutive. The cargo side (AJV) contract recently changed on the CReW website. It used to state 10 days off consecutive, now it states 10 days off, of which 8 are guaranteed consecutive. Now, if you choose to "burn" vacation days, you can increase your days off, but of course you are left without a big vacation block of days off sometime later on in the year.
In my opinion, this is the best expat, commuting contract out there. However, it is important to clearly understand the commuting situation. You will be leaving the U.S. back to TYO two days prior to operation days. So, if you begin your work days on say, Saturday, you need to leave the U.S. mainland on a flight on Thursday. Both Thursday and Friday, commuting days, are still technically on your time off, which can effectively turn the guaranteed minimum 8 days off into effectively 6 days at home a month. If you are lucky to get the 10 days off consecutive, and add 2 days of "burned" vacation, you can make it 12 days consecutive. Still, they are completely clear that commuting takes place on your days off and that the 8 consecutive is all you are actually guaranteed by the contract.
CReW is very straightforward about all this, with no sugar-coating. You need to clearly know what you get into and they want you well informed. If you call them directly (number listed on website) they will answer any and all questions clearly. They offered me the contract, and I was truly honored by it, however the
possibility of 6 days at home per month (without burning vacation) was out of the question for me. CReW specifically told me that
"right now the practice is to give pilots the 10 consecutive days off, however, if operational necessity demands a change, the contract only guarantees 8 days off consecutive, both AJV and AJX"....