Originally Posted by ChinaBeached
If you had the intelligence to read you'd see I a wrote those like you who ENDORSE it!
Sorry, what?
If you had the intelligence to write coherently, that would aid me no end in reading your drivel.
Do I feel the new scheme will put my current conditions under threat eventually? Hell yes.
Is it a surprise? No. Absolutely not. When I joined, I did so with a plan to make the most of it. CX has a basic payscale that rivals British Airways and the other leading employers (that don't require a specific passport) with a very kind housing benefit on top.
A simple supply & demand peep shows that there was/is absolutely no way whatsoever that those conditions would last.
I've done everything in my power to make the best of it. Piled up equity for free, saved, lived sensibly etc. in order to prepare for the inevitable. Why? To prepare myself for the inevitable incoming reality of supply and demand.
Will it be a hard pill to swallow, if my T's and C's are eroded? Somewhat yes. But, despite your typical bitching pilot workforce, and their narrow view, there is a great big world of economics out there.
So, do I endorse it the cadet programme? Selfishly, no. Realistically, yes, I have little option.
Will it be tough financially as an SO? Yes, if you want to live in the thick of it. That is a privilege, not a right of passage. So, you pay for it. For everything else, you learn where to shop, and what to spend your money on. Rent aside, I live more cheaply and save more money than I have in any big city I've lived in (NYC, London, Dubai). I don't need 2 cars and 2 insurance policies for a start. There are countless other examples in my financial life where a saving has offset an increase for a product or service. Here, you can get by on as much or as little as you like. That is the absolute honest truth.
So, back to accepting why there are 30,000+applications for the programme:
It is a stable career, on wonderful aircraft, with wonderful people, and dollar for dollar, it pays like a legacy carrier. Not a legacy carrier plus big housing allowance. Just a legacy carrier. You're based in an incredible city (my opininon).
It is difficult to beat as a young wannabe. Let's take the US as an example. 2 years instructing, 15k PA. 5 years regional FO, 20-35k, 3+years regional commander, 50-75k. Back to the bottom of the seniority list; year one at a US legacy, 40k.
Then the package starts coming close to what a
year one cadet SO makes, though only in basic pay. Retirement contributions and medical still don't come close.
That is a very real timeline. Some have taken less time, some more. Some never made it to the big carriers. This does not factor in the huge likelihood of redundancy along the way. Anybody want to place bets on the aftermath of the debt ceiling crisis (be it delaying the inevitable or allowing the walls to crumble now)?
By this stage, the guy who joined CX on local terms is 12 years in. A senior FO, with a net take-home of around 3 times his US counterpart.
Sure, this gap will start to decrease, but it doesn't take a politician to spin the figures in favour of the CX career.
Financially, a career at CX for a cadet is still among the worlds best. Fact.
That is why I and my colleagues have to get to grips with it. That's why the applicants are there.
Incidentally, due to the ferocious competition, the standard of cadet product is still very high. Only the likes of idiots like CB will try to hold CX responsible for illiterate clowns who post on an open internet forum. They sadly exist on forums for wannabe doctors, lawyers and investment bankers.
Caveat: as I have mentioned - the far bigger issue is whether you are made for Hong Kong. Not whether you can balance your bottom line.