Actually, 5 years you receive a significant pension pay out from EK, and at 7 years, you receive the full payout if I'm not mistaken. I will have to check with some EK friends, and maybe some can comment in the meantime, what the amount is, but it is very significant.
As for pluses and minuses, I'll throw out a few (and I will be as objective as possible -subjectivity just clouds it all).
Pluses:
Great guys to fly with 99% of the time, in both seats
Excellent, respectful and fun cabin crew
Home most nights or days - except for the new CGP layover
Great westernized culture for the middle east
Good housing options within budget
Active expat and pilot community - lots of social events
Perfect shiny new airplanes with very rarely even a single MEL
Management that has potential to be good
Very solid financial stability
42 day leave
Education allowance
Lots of good schools for the kids
Great weather 7 months out of the year
Huge continued expansion potential
Minuses:
Rosters (to include vacation and bidding), enough said
A few spots some people aren't comfortable with from a safety perspective
Roughly 70% night flying
Still some walls between departments (something most places have)
Lack of any retirement
No flight pay for sick usage (you lose pay when you call in sick)
Unpaid 42 day leave
Education allowance is partial for most institutions
Mediocre health insurance at best
Only 3 children are covered for everything (same as EK)
Above mentioned health care not provided in North America
Very weak travel benefits
SUMMER
Payscales are skewed now
Management that has potential to make huge mistakes
New company relatively speaking, so still quite a few rough edges
There are some small changes that could be made at flydubai that could have a huge impact on pilot morale and lifestyle. We just changed Chief Pilots, and I know the office is aware of what those concerns are (including rosters, health insurance, payscales and retirement). I am a bit of a guarded optimist in that I am hoping to see change in these concerns over time - which to be honest I have since I've been here, mostly for the better.
Like I stated on both lists, management can make good decisions that will have a huge boost for morale, and they can conversely make small changes or even no changes that will worsen pilot morale. We all know that the probable and realistic outcome will be a balance of good and bad decisions - which will give us all something to complain about during trips! As long as the company will acknowledge the issues and work toward correcting what can be changed without negatively affecting the business, I will be happy and I think most of the pilot group will be (most of the changes - even payscales - can be accomplished without jeopardizing the business BTW).
I am sure there can be additions to both lists - feel free to add or argue.
Hope that helps!
Randy