Laker
Again as with junior man I don't know what airline you worked for in the states but let me address your items;
Hotels
They were about the same quality but in far better locations with my old airline. We stayed downtown in Europe, on the Med in Tel Aviv, on the Nile in Cario and great places in the US. With Emirates the hotels might be 4 or 5 stars but we stay at the airports in many European locations or in lousy places of various cities.
Destinations.
Yes Emirates goes to more countries but too many of those destinations are of the 3rd world variety which doesn't really get me excited or feel safe at times.
Cabin crew
Depends on how you define them or what your desires are. If you want a steady stream of unlimited pu&@y yes EK is the place for you. If you want compentancy and people with common sense Emirates is not the place where you want to be. Especially when a lot of the Aussies, NZ, UK and Irish crew have left or haven't joined in numbers near what they the 3rd world people have.
Time to Command
This is about the same now believe it or not. If you join Emirates now you are looking at 10 years to command. As I said earlier with all the retirements at my old airline you are looking at the same time maybe even less and I know the Big 4 have the same time frames. Maybe SW might be the exception but the other 3, join now and you will be a captain in a decade.
On board service
I don't know how this effects pilots or their lifestyles but yes Emirates does have a much better on board service. When we talk about International the US airlines are not that far behind Emirates but again EK does have a better on board service.
My old airline has over 200 Emirates pilots that have applied back home. Not all of them will get hired or even leave but that is a significance number of unhappy pilots. So far only 9 Emirates pilots have joined the largest airline in the world but they just started hiring again in Feb.
Also remember a lot of US pilots at EK can't get hired back home. One pilot beat his wife and has an assault charge, another one I know of isn't paying child support and can never go back to the US and many pilots don't have university degrees which all of the good airlines require.
When you consider unions, ATC, FAA and various other protections a pilot is far better off in the US or even Europe.
Last edited by gl69; 28th Jul 2014 at 10:50.
Reason: Content added