That's the 'dirty little secret' regarding pilot jobs in HK: they make you think the salary is "big", but they carefully obscure all the other living costs that effectively impoverish anyone who isn't 21 yrs old and single with no debt. Most that come here find living very difficult, and in many cases leads to divorce and serious problems with their children. Be warned.

Quick question for the guys who are there. Would it be an option for older guys with no kids. How long for upgrade if hours are not a problem.

Bad idea. Long upgrade and hours wont help you. Youll find it harder to adapt to living off ramen and korean cup noodles every day. Its a culture shock and youll pay alot if you dont live like a local and eat the cancer ridden food

It all depends what your expectations are. If you plan on living in a house with a white picket fence or a large city apartment then you will be disappointed. The "special allowance" you receive for housing will get you something small (500 sq/ft) in a desirable area or a little larger in a less desirable area. No kids will definitely make things easier and a little more affordable.initially it will probably be in one of those soul less tower blocks with no car parking or much in the way of facilities.

Regarding upgrades. At the moment they are quick if you can get through the command course. 2 years. However as I've stated before. KA is wholly owned by Cathay and therefore KA's expansion is entirely at the whim of CX management. For 8 years they ignored KA. ( during those 8 years HKA has grown to exceed KA in size, ball well and truely dropped). It has only been recently ,where they have seen KA as a solution to their crewing problems, that any meaningful expansion has been planned. Who knows what CX has planned for KA? They could change their mind and any upgrades would grind to a halt.

If you are planning to come, do you homework on the costs and plan to live on an FOs wage. If the command comes off treat it as a bonus.

Also on education, do your homework on the debentures for each school, and these are paid up front, and in some cases non refundable. You will probably need about $25,000.00 USD in cash ready to go to get your child into a school. (PER CHILD).

ALSO make sure you ask every school how long the wait list is, and ask how many are on the "premium debenture wait list." Yes, as with most things in HK, pay more to jump to the top of the list. Its called bribery and corruption in other countries, we call it 'non refundable debentures'. You will see that term a lot here.

He said he doesn't have kids!!

Freo wrote: "Does the Education Allowance for children kick in after a certain age and is it enough to cover the fees at an ESF school?"

As pointed out above- the hiring at ka is simply a whipsaw against the cx pilot group, the music might stop at anytime or keep playing, who knows

Even if he doesn't have kids, unless he has had a vasectomy or an unfortunate accident, peoples circumstances change throughout their career. Dragon know this and will not even interview married guys with kids. At the moment they are filtered out at the HR stage. having said that, they are getting increasingly desperate as the arrival of 5 330s nears. JY, things change.

Sorry, my bad,
I thought I was responding to the older guy without kids...
Agree it would be hard to make ends meet when there are kids involved.

HaHah - Thanks - Now I am "The Older guy" - made my day !!!!

I'll try and keep this simple.

It's perspective you have to look at here. You have to look at where you are coming from and what your expectations are.

I have heard several times that "Dragonair is the best **** job in aviation in the world."

I'm not going to go through the pros and cons again. That's been done to death. You have to make up your own mind.

If you're in a **** job in a **** place it's a no brainer. A **** job in a good place or a good job in a **** place then it needs some thought. Re read all the posts above, do your research, then come and spend a week in Hong Kong. HK can be a fantastic place, but not for everyone. Good luck

Got invitation to DEFO initial interview in November.
This will be personally or have some test to do ?

Thanks

Dear Izu

You can expect to be tested on multiple different areas:

• Psychological fitness,
• Standard of English,
• General Aviation knowledge,
• Cathay Pacific specific knowledge,
• Medical fitness,
• Ability to fly,
• Clarity of thought and communication, and
• Ability to Problem Solve.

If during the interview process, you trip over on a piece of carpet and a pilots license falls out of your pocket .......... then you are IN!

There are a lot of very wealthy and experienced pilots answering wannabe questions on this thread which may not be helpful.

KA is pretty much CX now. Critical areas that made a cultural difference such as the Safety Dept are gone and the day to day management and policing of pilots has a distant, big company feel to it for those not disengaged.

I can only add that if you want to upgrade quickly, the first year will be grueling even if above average in ability and pre-KA experience. The upgrade process is 10% ability, 90% in your head, so you best come with a take the bull by the horns attitude. I'm not trying to alarm those interested, just be forewarned and in my observation, some pretty modest guys have gotten through the process with a pragmatic mental conditioning.

Other questions best answered by local contract DEFO's who are pretty quiet on here- perhaps doing their command or drowned in a KA/CX paranoia of not posting on prune. :8