The training here is long and repetitive, it is the relentless pursuit of the perfectly executed visual approach and the center hydraulic system failure, In the other hand they put you up in a nice furnished apartment in a trendy part of town, they give you a lot of time off while paying you your entire salary (not some reduced training pay like some other contracts) a lot of the guys bring their family for most of the training duration and I had a great paid vacation with my family, Japan is far better than any place in the ME or the rest of Asia, it is safe, clean and social services that are that of a first world country, making a decision to take a job or not based on the training length is as silly as making it based only on what airplane you will fly.
The reason why you are hearing us complain lately is because we are going through a rough patch right now with the integration of the cargo and passenger flying and the rostering leaves a lot to be desired lately, the economical situation has placed the USD in a position that is a detriment to the guys that live everywhere but the US. We are complaining because this job was simply awesome before the merger and now it is more like some of the other jobs that are available out there, but all in all, including the current instability in the roster, the current USD market value, the training period, I will like to know what is batter out there? Some experts have come along talking about the T&C's here, you tell me where then?
1) As ex pats we work at a first world country and Japan is simply a fantastic place, it is clean, safe and liberal, you are not going to get flogged because you are holding hands with your wife or spit on by a local while you are site seeing. Why don't you tell us about that fantastic place you are based out off.
2) Pay; The situation of the USD a side because there is no way we can control that. Name the better pay out there, or better yet, how much you made this year?
3) Respect of the contract that you signed! We have no issues on that regard, I challenge you to name a single other contract available out there where you are able to make that statement, a single one.
4) Pay on time and correct, I know that there has been some issues with mistakes with the CREW guys that since has been resolved, but no problems with the rest of the contract companies. I will be willing to bet that most people have a lot of headaches on this regard.
5) This is the best commuting contract available by far anywhere, 14 days in a row, the ability to choose your days off, business class commute to any destination you choose.
6) You hear us complaining because that is the pilots nature and we want things to be the way they were before the merger but at the end of the day we work in an organization that has been named amongst the best 10 airlines in the world consistently year after year, we fly well maintained A/C's and we deal with very little issues in terms of MEL's and fuel. And although they may come off a little rough around the edges some times, the vast majority of guys here are great to fly with, most of the time we fly with other ex pats and we have very little issues with animosity here with the locals, that is another thing that is a great problem in other places and makes life on the line very difficult for many ex pats, we have no such issues here.
Why don't you tell us about that wonderful gig of yours, I would like to know what total bliss on this business feels like; Tell us your salary, tell us about your base, about your days off, your commuting conditions, the conditions of those 767's you claim to have thousands of hours on.