As always with EK there is no middle ground.
It should be easy to send a request to fleet to have a particular set of days off in the following month but such requests are denied if they are even responded to.
I have two examples where our colleagues requested time off but were told to go fly or call in sick.
Example 1:
Daughter scheduled for surgery in Dubai on following month.
Father asks for thee day block so he can be there to check her into the hospital on the first day, be there for the surgery on the second and be there when she opens her eyes on day 3.
Instead he was forced to call sick for the three days and was called into the office on the following month to explain himself.
Example 2:
Another Pilot requested three days off to attend his brothers wedding in Europe....denied the time off.
In both cases fleet said they have no control over the schedule and in both cases we had very stressed employees going to work.
Harry, all the counselling in the world does not fix the real world situation we as expats and human being s have to deal with.
Our kids can be seriously ill and require hospital time, Family members have weddings and unfortunately family members can be becoming very ill and die.
Keep in mind the emergency leave does not cover the above situations in all cases and is normally deducted from your 42 day leave bank.
Mgt need to be more flexible with our reasonable requests.