Questions about Emirates

[GoForIt]

I'm a B757 Captain for a failing US Airline, with 13,000+ hours, lots of command time, and 46 years old. I'm thinking about applying at Emirates. Here are a couple questions for you guys in the know:

1. Is there a minimum contract time? I mean, if they hire me and give me a 777 type rating, I'm assuming they are not going to let me run to something better in 6 months. But I haven't found anything on their web site about contract length.

2. What is the average time between application completion and starting date for captain applicants? I'm just trying to plan ahead and time things correctly with other commitments here.

3. How many actual days off do you get in a month?

4. Can you get a block of 7 to 10 days off in a row without taking vacation?

I will appreciate any info you have.

Thanks,
Tim

[Cerberus]

1. You get bonded 36k over 3 years. Rolling contract, 90 days.

2. Don't know, depends on you experience and availability. Your
lack of EK type rating might delay the interview, depending on the
competition, but not the progress through it.

3. Varies between 8 and maybe 16.

4. You can book a string of days off. 5 month rotating bid
groups. We do have commuters, best to ask them how well
they do. As a DEC at the bottom of the seniority pile, you'll do
ok in your top 2 bids, problem is we are short of crew so the
dreaded manual insertion can always rule its ugly head.

Cerberus

[Not Quite Right]

I was curious about the commuting for EK. I thought I read elsewhere on pprune that you had to get permission to leave town if you had multiple days off? How does that work? I know you said ask the commuters, but I don't know any of them. I am considering applying to EK, depending on what happens with my company over the next few months.

[White Knight]

Interesting- two new posters, one post each, asking same things about EK:confused:

Is TCAS in the house:E :E

[BYMONEK]

Not Quite Right

Yes,you are required to fill in a form for 'away from base' but in only about 10% of occasions has this not been granted.They must give you a valid reason if denied.This is never really an issue otherwise a lot of people would leave EK.

[Not Quite Right]

Bymonek,
Thank you for your answer. I have been considering Emirates for about 6 months now. I have not heard anyone mention commuting specifically before even though I have been lurking here for a long time. The ability to commute would be a great thing, as my wife is in an employment contract that we cannot afford to break and is not up for about another 2 years.


I don't know this TCAS person, but I assure you I am not he.

[LVL CHG]

Goforit and Not quite right,

Check out Flightinfo.com and search for a guy named Typhoonpilot. He is a furloughed USAirways pilot who went to Emirates and now flies as a 777 Captain. I would PM him with your questions - he did not have a 777 type but was hired into that airplane.

Good luck.

[fullforward]

Check this out:http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141554

[typhoonpilot]

Check out Flightinfo.com and search for a guy named Typhoonpilot. He is a furloughed USAirways pilot who went to Emirates and now flies as a 777 Captain.

Did somebody mention my name ? You have me at a disadvantage LVL CHG.

I'd be happy to answer any questions, preferably via PM.

One thing I would say publicly is that I would never in a million years think about commuting between the States and Dubai. That would be insane.

TP

Living in anonymity :ugh:

[330 Man]

I would have to agree with Typhoonpilot. It would be impossible to commute from the states. I was able to bid for the last 10 days off in June and returned home for a week. June was my top bid month, which comes around every 5 months. Plus, other than your annual leave ticket, you will have to pay staff travel fees for your ticket. I used positive space (we call it CAT 99) fare and it was almost 500 dollars to ride in economy. Economy for 13 hours to JFK is not very much fun.

I can usually get a block of 4-5 days off in a row each month in the non top bid months but that is not enough time to return to the states. One of the things that made Emirates attractive to me was the fact that I would no longer be commuting. After many years of commuting in the states, that was a real plus, and the commute there was less than 2 hours.

Cerberus hit the nail on the head regarding scheduling inserting trips. It happens all of the time. I sometimes wonder why we even bother to bid, as the schedules are always "tweaked for efficiency."

To GoForIt and Not quite right, I also would be happy to answer your questions. Just send me a PM and I will respond as soon as I can.

I also heard yesterday from a pretty good source, the the DEC program is about to stop for various reasons, that the contracts that have been signed will be honored, but that assessments for DEC's is rapidly winding down. Evidently the new VP flight ops is not too keen on the idea. Has any body else heard this?

Regards,

330 Man

[Nano 763]

With the airplane order that Emirates have, the only reason that the "No more DEC" rumour is flying around, is to keep those promotion hungry F/Os at bay.

[Flying_Tuur]

Heard from various sources in training department that the DEC program will be stopped. There seem to be enough 'F/O's ready for command' again...
The DEC assessments still going on in recruitment are for the 'new' freighter operation on A310. Apparently EK needs about 20 DEC's for that fleet, and then the DEC story will be history. This is also confirmed to me by a DEC comming in for interview a few weeks ago: they asked him specifically about his interest in the A310 freight operation for EK.