.... and the bad rosters for the first 5 years at least.
Those who have flown for a Major know this isn't necessarily the case. It all depends on timing.
If you join at a time and have a lot of new joiners after you then very quickly your 'relative seniority' increases and you can bid and get what you want - weekends off, trips etc.
If however you join at the end of the pack then recruiting stops then that is the case.
And yes, bidding and getting 4 weeks off of purely XX days can and does occur in the LH system.
Otherwise you have to be pretty desperate to leave the ME to consider this, given the pay cut, time to command and the bad rosters for the first 5 years at least.
As opposed to the super fast CMDs in EK now (you join now you are looking at 8+ years in a company that doesn't want you longer than 7-10years, in a country that despite all the promotion is very much Third World) and the absolutely outstanding rostering in the Middle East?
Keep drinking the Koolaid bigdaviet