Congratulations Buford on your new job! You'll love Delta. The difference between EK and Delta is night and day. You won't believe it there is that much of a disconnect.
We have a 9 month captain based in NY and a 17 month captain in ATL. You'll upgrade in no time and the bottom captain pay is $240,000 a year without even trying so your paycut you alluded to won't be for long. Besides you can't compare a B-777 International widebody captain to a B-717 domestic FO.
You are in the midst of perfect timing. Emirates is sinking fast and with Trump in office hopefully he'll put a stop to the Middle East Airlines unchecked expansion into the US. Delta is on the rise. I will probably get a $60,000 check for our retro and profit share this month and with retirements and the fleet renewal the upside is boundless.
You will be about the 7th Emirates pilot to join in the last 6 months. Hopefully there will be more because your only regret about leaving EK is that you didn't do it earlier. You will feel so much better only working 75-80 hours a month and the latest I landed last year was 12:30am. Bring your sunglasses because we do a lot of daylight flying. That might be hard to get use to and what will not be hard to get used to is no one looking over your shoulder and no one questioning you or putting you down.
Welcome to the Family. You'll love it not just because it's Delta but it's not Emirates.