SloppyJoe,
Your assumption that an icadet will jump ship at any opportunity they get seems to be a valid one as long as they do not like their current environment or they can find a suitable position back home. This not only applies to icadets but to any of the direct entries you are mentioning who has the housing allowance. It has been found that an expat is likely to go back to their home country if they cannot get accustomed to the one they are in, even if very well paid. I would think Cathay has lost DEs with A scale benefits solely because the expat could not become accustomed to life in HKG.
What is really more apparent in this argument is that airlines have no problems finding qualified pilots/candidates period. CX like many other large carriers get some of the most qualified applications from around the world. I can say they will have no problems filling their cadet programs with competent pilots who they can mold for the eventual left seat with reduced pay or benefits. Recently I talked to another high up in a regional here in US. I was told they received thousands of applications for flying regional props . A wide variety of applicants from majors on furlough, pilots with well over 10K hours, military down to fresh graduates from flight schools. This is not uncommon as there are always an abundance of qualified (and competent) pilots who are unemployed. By the by, the prop job is a regional F/O making a whopping $21/hr. I can tell you this, CX will not have a mass exodus of pilots if they got rid of the housing allowance all together today. However, few things will happen, there will be pilots who find something elsewhere and leave CX but this number is not as many as you think due to the current employment trends and morale will hit an all time low. With these consideration, it is why CX will have to slowly take away things and not do it all at the same time. If you think the environment is so great for pilots right now, you don’t have to look so far to see how bad things are getting. SQ as you may know, had asked their pilots for volunteer leave as well just recently, there are multitudes of airlines who are not looking to hire anytime soon due to the uncertainties from the global economic turmoil and the volatile shifts in the price of jet fuel. In writing this, it has dawned on me there are some low cost carriers and other airlines of the likes of Lion Air, Air Asia et al who are actively or will be recruiting, but good luck to get them to pay you even a decent salary.
Last edited by Mad-Dog; 7th Jun 2012 at 18:06.