I am not an American but I would say the Canadians have a similar reputation as being 'militant' I myself would generalise it and say 'The Pilots'
I will give you my version but I am sure I will get shot down for saying something positive about CX
YES the staff travel is crap YES there are Pilot/Management problems YES there is no social interaction between us and the Cabin Crew YES there is lots of Reserve and YES the benefits are on the decline. HOWEVER show me an airline where this is not the case? I was considering leaving CX not so long ago but to be honest in the general scheme of things I would rather be here than anywhere else. The sh*t seems to be hitting the fan in most airlines so I would suggest you sit and down and draw a list up of Pro's and Con's
If you join the Pax fleet you will join as a Second Officer and will realistically get your upgrade in about 2 - 3 years. Somewhere in the middle seems to be the norm right now. You will not be upgraded onto the 400. In some circumstances very highly experienced SO's have but that has been like maybe 9 or 10 people. You will be upgraded to Junior First Officer on the Airbus A330 then CCQ onto the A340 after 12 - 18months or you will be put on the 777. After approx 6 - 9 months you are given a line check called a QL which if you pass the Line check and then the Committee check you will be upgraded to F/O with a nice pay raise
after 18 months on type the 777 guys can normally bid to go across to the 400. In some cases you will have no choice and be drafted. Some Airbus guys go to but it seems to be that the 777 guys are normally drafted, this is for Relief Command (now termed Pilot in Charge.) Once you’re established as Relief you can then apply to go on a permanent basing back home which a lot of guys do although it is a different payscale.
When you are an SO you can also bid to transfer across to the Freighter as an FO. A few Canadian/American guys have done this. However once you join the freighter on a lesser pay you will have to stay on it for a minimum of 3 years before you can then bid to come back onto the Pax fleet. I cannot give accuracies on time scales on this as I have no experience of it but the general rumour for the precise time in reality is between 3-4 years at present. Some say this may rise considerably.
Are you nuts chasing CX? Who knows I would say NO because it does offer a decent pay scale (compared to other carriers) You get a chance to go home on a basing and if you don’t want to take a permanent one you can always take a temp basing which lasts for 4 months. I know a lot of Canadians take temp Vancouver basings to go skiing in Whistler for the winter! Seems like a good lifestyle to me
Present time to Command is reducing and I would take a guess that right now it’s about 9-11 years. It may even come down to 7/8. However if Cathy increase retirement to 60 then this will obviously rise again. There is a strict Command assessment code which some say is more politically based, in some cases maybe but in general the system works well for Cathay.
36 is not too old in my opinion for a new hire although this is something you need to find out from CX recruitment. Don’t forget that time from first interview to joining the line as an SO could be as long as 9 - 12 months.
In conclusion Cathay does have issues the biggest one obviously being the 49'ers but I don’t want to get into the Politics just give you the facts.
I think for every bad point there is a good point and vice versa. For example last Christmas we got an extra months salary and then got another bonus a couple of months later. If CX have a good year and your on a standard FO pay and you get your Christmas 13th month and then your bonus in April you could net as much as $15,000 USD on top of your salary!
Whatever way you look at it, it’s up to you to make your own decision about joining and some will say it’s like hell to work for and some will say its like heaven
I have friends in many other airlines and they all have big problems too!