Pete,
Most of what you asked is public knowledge but can admittedly be hard to find and verify, so I don't mind giving basic answers. The others are right that it's a good idea to approach the AOA but I guess there could be reasons to ask here as well.
1. We have very little say over what we fly. It's just a reality. I am an American and my brother flies for DL, and it's a different world over here. You can request, but that's about all. Some people have tried to target their start dates/training/etc. to get a certain plane but it's pretty useless. It took me just under 9 years to captain, pretty typical until recently for it to be 8-10 years. A few took longer but it was usually for other reasons. I'm not as pessimistic as some on here, but it is longer for sure now, probably 12+ years. I don't know of a stated age limit for promotion but don't know of any under 30? Others might. There may not be a limit so to speak but just the reality of getting close to 10 years in. I have heard stories of guys getting it at 27 but my guess is that was a long time ago. I never knew anyone that young in the left seat. As far as the top side, again I don't think there's a true limit but realistically they probably aren't promoting a 50 year old. I guess RA65 might change that but traditionally our cockpit crews are A LOT younger than what you're used to in the US. Personal guess, average CN is early 40's but can range from early 30's to obviously 54.99 or later now, FO is 27-35, SO is usually under 32 (they are starting to look a lot younger to me than they used to!).
2. My flying is almost all ULH and for the most part has been my whole time here, so there may be better answers. I did it years ago but only for a while. There are two types of "regional" flying. The first is ME and Oz, usually 6-9 hours. The second is more what US domestic pilots do, which is lots of Japan, Korea, SE Asia, etc. Almost all of our flights other than MNL/TPE are over 3 hours so no one flies four or five legs a day. On the first, you tend to go out and back as we don't fly multiple routes, everything is HKG-XXX-HKG (almost). So the trips are usually three days and let's say 16 hours. Do that and you might do five trips a month. I don't know if a lot of guys do that alone, though. The Asia regional trips I just don't know much about so others may have more input. My experience was 2-4 day trips with 2-8 legs. You might do something like HKG-NRT/NRT-HKG-TPE/TPE-HKG-KUL/KUL-HKG on a 4-day. Again, a long, long time ago for me and the schedules are really different now, so you might rely on someone else for that info. ULH you fly 10-14 days a month with 12-13 being pretty normal; non-ULH is probably more like 15 days. You're right, there is no bidding and never will be. You do have a "fair" amount of control over when you fly but almost none over where (except we can request a destination). You might fly 6-8 legs in a month and have one trip to a place you requested. After a while, most people just worry about the when and let the where take care of itself. Again, very different than your bid system and I personally think that's one of the hardest adjustments for Americans.
3. Yes, that's pretty much the case. It's even worse for Australians and some Europeans due to currency issues. At least for Americans we've kept the same exchange rate. On retirement, yes there are other benefits. We get a guaranteed payout at retirement.
4. People stay for lots of reasons. Yoke's perspective is probably the biggest reason. Americans stay because they like HKG or flying big jets at a younger age, or because they marry over here and have to stay! Also, while it's not great right now with the "negotiations", we have never had layoffs and the pay is still well above US for the most part. When you add in the 13th month and profit sharing, as well as the ability to take housing in cash once your place is paid off, you're actually making a lot more than people on here tend to think about. Also, don't read pprune as the pilot population. It's a b**** board most of the time, which I actually think is good. It's a way to let off steam without doing so in the cockpit or at your managers face-to-face (probably not a good idea here). But A LOT of pilots really do like it here and that's evident when you hang out on the road. Hint: If all ppruners left, we'd still be flying most of our flights. They're not a big percentage of the pilot population. I have been here 16 years and stay because a) the money isn't as good as I hoped when I started but far better than what I would be making if I had left after 5-10 years and returned stateside at UA or DL (interviewed at both in '96-'97 and really glad now I didn't go that route), b) I personally prefer flying the 744 to SFO/LHR/CDG to flying some M80 to DSM and DTW, c) I have made incredible friends here and enjoy the multi-cultural city as well as cockpit, and d) I still sit in a restaurant in Paris or London and realize I'm pretty lucky to do this instead of the other options.
PM me if you have other questions.
Last edited by 744Cap; 26th Apr 2009 at 23:59.