Upgrades
My mate started this post in the fall of 2006. betwix the two of us, we have only seen or heard of one expat upgrade that worked out. That was many years ago. There was such an uproar that Astana vowed to never do it again. They did train a little expat weasle from the F50 to the Bus and the Boeing because he was in training dept, but his incompetence ran him out of town real quick.
There were a series of Dutch pilots that were upgraded from NG capt to 67 capt until the Atyrau incident. But they were temp guys anyway.
Then there was a scandle with a few yanks that were being sent to the States for Instructor training on the Bus. Mid way through, the Kaz got wind that the lads were not going to come back. They had planned on taking there new TRI's and going elsewhere with them. One is now hidden in the FAA dungeons, and the other is have a go at Being an Airbus rep in Miami, though not to successful.
So the the KAZ have been raped a few times and are not likely to go for it again. If your'e counting on an upgrade, best get it upfront, cause the KAZ have seen it all before.
Also heard talk that Capt Tom would give the Bus training a go. But don't think he did. Shame he didn't ....great chap to work with. Yanks pretty much did him in.