Have not posted here for a long time. But I will put this in. My last airline before EK, crewing was ' open ' to talk to. They were in the same room as the room where you signed on and off. You could talk to them face to face, and we all made 'deals', you help me, I will help you. I got a big shock when I went to EK, and you could not really talk to crewing. They only want to talk to you, when they want your help, not the other way around. Also, our medicals and self study days were rostered days off. And when you took leave, your normal days off were included in the roster of leave. By that I mean, we had 3 days off a week guaranteed. So a annual leave week would be 4 days leave plus 3 days off. And we got more than 42 days a year.