They WILL renege on any and all commitments they make to you. That is a given. Chances are you will be shunted into a ghetto like accommodation with no recourse. The admin department decides your standard of living with no input from flight ops. Let me reiterate that they do not know what a bare minimum western standard is. The company is on a SERIOUS cost cutting mode and the 'pampered' pilots are bearing the brunt of this drive. You will have to compromise on this when you come here. The a/c are once again delayed and there seems to be no end in sight for this uncertainty. They have started posting local guys to the bases but as usual the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing.
All your issues are channeled through flight ops management and they really have no say in the current corporate set up. So be prepared to have all your issues fall on deaf ears. Admin and HR, the ones who really call the shots, don't really care where and how you rot. Just drive the damn plane. The current lot of expats are frustrated and just biding their time till they hit 65. I have seen the Q400 expat contract and there are enough loop holes in it to ensure you get nothing but the basic, which is a fraction of your total pay. They will give you a smorgasbord of excuses as to why you won't get any particular portion of your pay.The company is supposed to handle the costs and logistics of your paperwork (and believe me there is a lot here). But they have transferred the cost and burden onto you and you will get cursory support from the company which is definitely inadequate as an expat.
You can view all of this with scepticism, but the fact is I have seen and borne the brunt of their arbitrariness first hand for over five years and what you are getting here are cold hard facts. While I agree my posts are vitriolic, this a culmination of five long years spent here fighting/negotiating/dodging the system. The pay is good...... Not great...... Definitely inadequate considering the bs you have to put up with. The flt ops team is good and well intentioned; it is the rest of the company which maligns this department at every juncture. And while we would like to envision a job where you put your head down, do a good job and get on with my life, the policies are put in place to inconvenience, harrass and just plain make your life miserable here. And remember coming here as an expat, you are in a foreign land with a lot of quirky nuances which are difficult to negotiate on your own without local support. I know a lot of expats here outside aviation and the support and guidance they get from their respective companies greatly surpasses what this airline has to offer. How a department which is the core of the company can be mishandled to this extent just boggles the sane mind. If you are desperate, give it a shot. Otherwise leaving your home shores for this gig is definitely not worth it. Good luck.
Last edited by av8r76; 24th Aug 2011 at 08:26.