Pilotchute,
No, being paid more would not have made me wanted to stay. However, as Captain Dart points out, many things that were an option years ago simply don't exist anymore. If I had the option of sticking it out in HK for a few years with a generous housing allowance, then getting a base, I could have been much more inclined to stick around.
Like I said in my original post, I'm not here to tell people they shouldn't go to cx or that they're crazy for going. I went there myself and learned some lessons the hard way, so I'm not one to talk. Just want to give potential joiners some food for thought.
People do need to understand though that their move to HK is likely to be permanent. The rest of your life. Not just a 3 year adventure. Hong Kong can be a fun city but if you want a living standard anything close to what you're used to at home, you need money. Lots of it. Cx does not provide that anymore. So all you're being provided right now is the opportunity (if you want to call it that) to fly a big jet. That's it. If there's one piece of advice I can give to cadets or anyone with low time, it's that the fun of flying a plane wears off very quickly. At the end of the day you're working to live so you have to ask yourself where you will be in 5 years when being a big time jet pilot is just another job.
BTW the responses on this thread have been very thoughful and mature. Is pprune turning a new leaf???
