If you are one of the few guys both capable of actually doing this job and genuinely considering doing so then please read this post carefully. I have no agenda to push other than expressing my own thoughts and feelings having been here just about long enough to see how it really is.
Near enough all of what is said on this thread is true. Working for CX, as a westerner, and especially on the Airbus (from what friends tell me), is absolutely crap.
Once the novelty wears off, which won't take long, you will utterly resent it. I promise you. You will resent the fact colleagues outright own (multiple) apartments that are 3 times the size of what you pay half of your salary to rent. You will resent the complete lack of responsibility or respect for your abilities you get from your colleagues. You will resent how your sh1t CoS affects your sense of self worth every day. And you will resent HK; The noise, pollution, food, culture etc etc. How do I know this? Because 95% of the westerners I know feel exactly like this. If you like cramped living, spending everything and having nothing to show for it at the end of the month and endless sh1t night flights to Riyadh and various other dumps through the Middle East then by all means apply.
The only thing that I would disagree with is that after 6 years you will have c.3000hrs and probably 1500 relevant, useable hours on a heavy jet. It might not get you into Emirates but it probably will get you into some place you may actually want to work.
However, whatever your goal, chances are you will reach them a lot quicker if you go somewhere else and you will become a hell of a lot better as a pilot and a happier person than doing it via CX.
I came here because I had zero options and mouths that needed feeding. I would have loved to have told them where to go but unfortunately morals don't pay the bills (and CX barely pays those). If you do have options then please tell them where to go. And if you want to come here because its "your dream" and you will "do it for free" and "happily live in a shoebox", then please f_ck off because it's hard enough getting by as it is and we don't want you giving them even more ideas (que pot/kettle/black etc etc..)
Last edited by AndontcallmeShirley; 7th Mar 2013 at 21:25.