Training Bonds: Singapore Airlines/singapore Airlines Cargo

[portquartercv67]

Fellow wannabees,

I failed to heed the warnings posted on this forum regards entering into a training bond agreement with one’s employer, especially SQ. I am now an indentured servant. I, like many out there, was lured and seduced by the seductive lines of the “queen of the sky”, the fantasy of living in an exotic land and the promises made, but not kept. It was like meeting a beautiful woman and after two days, deciding to enter into a contract of marriage, though not irrevocable, is expensive when one exists early. The honeymoon was over all too soon, the reality of one’s lot, subtly gnawing.

You don’t realize how precious freedom is, until it is taken away. Exorbitant training bonds, like the one Singapore Airlines imposes, are a pact with the devil.

So, for those that would come after, here again is the warning that I ignored:

NEVER, EVER, NEVER sign a training bond.

PQ

[Ndicho Moja]

Woow, PQ, what happened?

[portquartercv67]

Ndicho Moja

Nothing has “just happened”. If you research all the threads on SQ Cargo, you will see that there has been a significant deterioration over time in working conditions, a complete lack of respect by the company for our personal quality of life and a huge increase in housing costs in Singapore. Compensation for me has never matched what was advertised, both written and verbal. Large profit share is transitory and could go away as quickly as it came. Most pilots are finding that when their lease expires, they cannot afford the greedy increase imposed by the landlord and have to look elsewhere, only to find that what they can afford is a significant reduction in the standard of housing they were accustomed to and what they expected to experience over the duration of the contract. May not mean much to the pilot that is only home 12 days a month, but what about his family? The net bottom line that you calculated and based your decision on to come here has either never been met or is being systematically whittled away.

I am not advocating not coming to Singapore. I am merely pointing out that when your expectations and assumptions do not meet with your reality, the $142,000 bond looms ever so large and does for most, influence your ultimate freedom to just leave. Even if you are fortunate enough to be able to pay them off, it will at the very least leave a very bad taste in your mouth.

I mean why do you really think that the bond is so high? It bears no relation to actual training cost.

And that is why I implore all who will have to sign a training bond to secure employment with SQ or SQ Cargo, to not do so lightly. If I had to do it over, I would NEVER sign such a bond.

PQ

[Ndicho Moja]

PQ, thank you for a very comprehensive and well though out reply.

I knew a fellow who ran into the very same problem you describe. What was once reasonable assistance for housing and education is no longer the case.