Krugerflap, I understand you are pissed and probably rightfully so, we all are after a certain time for sure.
But please do not make it worse than it already is. By telling people the truth, which by the way an many aspects is bad enough, you will do us all a much better service than when spitting out emotional blabber!
1) A320 roster --> The most demanding roster in this airline as it is full of night turnarounds etc. Expect 70Hrs flying time and 160hrs duty time as an average. Warning: you are only paid by sheduled blocktime, so the extra duty time is a gift to the company.
Future should be better with more airplanes coming and more European destinations added to the A320 network due to economical downturn.
2) pprune can give you a general idea about what is going on. Afterwards you will have to draw your own conclusion. But do not believe everything you read here, it is a rumour network and most people posting here are upset and disgruntled!
3) Leave is allocated based on seniority and family situation. That being said, keep in mind that the major source of frustration in this airline is the way sheduling department (and thus leave allocation) is being managed . There is no fairness in rosters, there is no normal bidding system and the pilot who knows the person in charge of his rosters the best, will get the nicest rosters while the others are flying the S*%*T routes! Rostering is an abolute disgrace overhere, especially on the A320 fleet!
DEC-JAN and JUL-AUG are in general un-obtainable for new joiners, unless you pay the right amount to the right person! (Joke but not too far of from the truth!)
4) Provident fund. Has been promised to us for over 5 years now and still we havent seen/heard anything from it. So answer: NO!
5) You are allowed to buy a house, if you are CRAZY enough to do that! As a new joiner you will be forced to live in company accomodation with no chance to move out, so that means no Housing allowance for you. In any case, we all feel by the tips of our toes that our management is making plans to reduce the housing allowance in the nearby future and to even abandon it totally in a couple of years!
So go and buy your overproced house in Qatar, but do not count on your housing allowance at all to pay for it!
6) Command. Last year about 25 FO's got their command here. Command upgrade is happening but painstakingly slowly, at a rate of 4/month average. At the moment there are almost 600 FOs in front of you so....GOOD LUCK!
7) Purser can report you, but lately this backfired on some of them heavily. Personally I do not give a rats ass aboutall this. Treat people nicely, and they will in most cases treat you very nice in return. The few rotten apples still in the basket are slowly but surely being erradicated. (Cfr the blacklist on this forum)