6+3 is what you get. This does not rule out the odd blank day.
You can bid for trips. For the few nice ones you need seniority or luck.
Travelling with wife and two kids means looking for trouble. There are not many destinations left where you can go easily.
F/Os do work in the training department in different positions. The reward is minimal and does not compensate for the lost extras on the line. Most likely they even lose money but gain more time at the homebase.
Please bear in mind that our profession is going down the drain. Selfinduced I would say: self sponsored type ratings, P2F, etc..
Our management too is following this path and is in these days trying to bring our T&Cs down as well as outsourcing our jobs to Cargolux Italia, where pilots think it is a good idea to fly a B744 for roughly 3000€ a month.
Lifestylewise it also makes a huge difference if a cargoairline operates 2, 5, 10 or 20 aircraft. The nice historic one week layovers are gone now.
Last edited by final06; 29th Dec 2014 at 20:31.