A few months ago a few colleagues and I were rostered for a meeting with the company lawyer, very pleasant and informative and quite a clever lady. It was her that told us about the agent quotas so I can confirm that's true. Agencies do not get more seats because they are a 'big' agency. Am saying this here as I've heard that some pilots are being put on waiting lists, it thats the case you have the option to change agent and speed things up. And again as previously stated, do your homework.
Many rants on pprune about agents, essentially your agent is there to sort out your paper work (no small task in China believe me) and bring you through the application process. After that of course they are technically there to sort out your contractual issues but be warned, and this was out of the mouth of the company lawyer, 'in China, relationship more important than contract'. So DO NOT come here unless you are comfortable with that. That's China guys. This place is wonderful and terrible, crazy as it is big and funny as it can be depressing. If you do come here you will earn huge money, make some great friends and experience a new culture. Things will go wrong sometimes sure but you can kiss fatigue goodbye and say hello to 20gs a month.
Some guys seem to fit in here and some don't, I do have my theories as to why but I don't want to stray into opinions and hearsay, I want to try and inform those interested so that those who do come out here do so with their eyes wide open and not hoping for something that doesn't exist. I left my last company because i wanted A: double the money B: a big new airplane type C: a new adventure D: I was going to throttle someone as I'd been there too long and their general antics were driving me crazy E: I was sick of getting up at 4am. China southern have fulfilled all of the above and even though there have been some major upsets and set backs such as the Vancouver and Auckland rsps, our bosses have shown a willingness to negotiate everything and have upped the pay by 70gs over the four year contract span since I joined. My previous European employer, (I'll give you one guess) whom I have no ill will toward, spent the years I was there reducing my pay, making me work harder, bullying my colleagues and I, negotiation on anything was just a charade. A manager asked me once why I don't go to the 'roadshows' that they occasionally organised to spread the good news. I said that there was no point showing up, anything that they wanted to change they would change anyway and put on our internet portal, whatever they decided to pay me I would get paid and as regards leave I used to email them and say November, January, February or March, surprise me. The manager in question laughed and agreed with me. Here in China, they will listen, they will try their best just don't expect it all to go your way.
Right I'm off for a few Christmas drinks with my fellow crazy foreign captains. I hope this post wasn't too wandery and you guys can get something from it.