I once considered joining Emirates many years ago. It was the best decision I never made. I cannot believe how lucky I was to have dodged that bullet!
For years now I've watched the slow demise of this once prestigious airline, wondering where it all went wrong. Most of my friends there have long since resigned in despair.
Whenever I hear of one of our FO's considering EK or QR I warn them with the feedback from my friends and old colleagues not to touch them with a bargepole.
You guys have our sympathies. In fact it's become a talking point in our airline about how badly you guys are treated. What was once one of the best airlines in the world has probabally, become one of the worst. It's tragic. EK has become the benchmark in how crap an airline job can be. Sadly there are going to be long term repercussions for the industry.
If the Emirates style treatment of crew becomes the norm in the industry, fewer young people are going to enter this profession. And certainly all the ME and Far Eastern airlines are going to experience a serious shortage of crew. (As I know they already are.) Emirates et al only have themselves to blame.
And if they continue their behavior they are only going to make the situation worse for themselves in the years that follow.
They could probabally turn things around if they wanted to, but from what I read in these pages, they don't appear to have the foresight.