Leaving CX.
 

I've decided to resign from CX. Living standards are the main reason. My wife hates Hong Kong, the kids are sick all the time and I really don't enjoy the job. Been here a while now and really have to say that I'm disappointed with this company. They promise so much and have a huge reputation as the pinnacle employer. The reality is they are no better than any other airline. In some departments they have a lot of catching up to do. The only reason to aspire to a job with CX is the money. Even that is becoming sadly inadequate in Hong Kong. B scale barely cuts it. I am going to go back to my old job, where the morale was good, the routes were great, you were in your own bed most nights, and you didn't cringe when you read your roster. OK money not so good, but at least I wont be dead by 40! Thanks CX, if there is one thing you have shown me in how not to run an airline. Start opening your eyes. You might just learn something. ................................Naaaaaah.

23, just out of interest - years in CX, rank, fleet?

FO 6 years

I'm happy for you 23, most never make the move although they feel the same. It wouldn't take much to fix the problems at CX but sadly it will never happen. The culture is to demean the aircrew and to constantly take, take take. Oh but then you get the call "can you help out". They really don't get it here at CX.

I really hope more leave. For me it's too late, only have a few years left.

For new guys, come and get your heavy time and some money for 2-3 years then head back for a job you can stand to stay at for 10-20 years.

I think the big thing for me (not wifey) was that the job is just absolutely demoralising. I just have no interest in it. I just don't like flying anymore. Which is sad because it was my passion. I dread getting in that aeroplane, and I must say part of the reason is the guy sitting in the left seat. I just don't understand a lot of the motivation here at CX. People have lost their enthusiasm and are just sitting glumly in an aluminium tube counting their cash. I don't want to get to 55 and have to say "thank god that's over". I want to enjoy what I'm doing and I want to work with people of a similar mind set. That is something I just can't get at CX. I look at the faces in the crew room, glum, tired, dejected. Drab walls, drab faces, I simply don't enjoy it. The crew room at my last employer was like a bar! Jokes, laughter, happy enthusiastic people enjoying what they do. Working here is like being a morgue technician, 30 years of working with dead people before ending up on the slab yourself!

Amen, couldn't have said it better.

Hostile23,
Please make me us a promise. After about a year of working back at your old job, please let us know how your going. Pros, cons, etc. I think it would make for an interesting point of view to hear from someone that has left and gone back to the "good old days".
Good luck with the move.
Cheers,

hostile23

Just wanted to say.... Good luck to you :ok:

The only way there will be any change is if brave guys/gals like you vote with your feet. Talked to a mate last night that is taking a base at the end of the year, in preparation to leave.

Just out of interest... are you off the 400? Seems to be where most are leaving from at the moment?

I have kept in touch with my last employer and most of the old friends I had there. Still a lot of the same old faces will be there when I get back. I have already been accepted. No sim ride or any of the rubbish. I will let you know what it's like. All I can tell you for sure is that I won't miss the midnight sign on's with Captain Moneybags who knows everything about everything. I really think this airline needs to grow up. This good old boys club they've got going is only good for the OLD boys. People here really do take themselves far too seriously. They need to realise that they put their uniform on like just about any other pilot in the world does. I don't understand why they are treated like Gods because they have a bastardised Union Jack flying behind their arse! I guess there are just some things about CX I'll never understand.

good luck hostile !! Unfortunately, your comments are spot on ...

Congrats to you Hostile23.. :)

I am very happy to hear about the decision you have taken - I am confident you will never ever regret it! You know what you came from and you seem to know what you are going back to..

I will join the club of leaving guys in a couple of years - say less than 2. I miss enjoying going to work - but fortunately I can still remember the enjoyment that flying can be in the right company. CX is definately not for everyone. If you want money (that means a hkg base and buying property!) - sure - come and live with the culture at CX.

As much as I love Hong Kong (sure it poluted and..) and the Mickey Mouse culture around here - I am really looking forward to going back to my old Airline. Sick and tired of "The cathay way.." - what a wanking way of running a "Five star Airline".

If I had family incl. kids, I would for sure consider other airlines and options..

Anyways - good on you buddy - live a happy life - knowing you did the right thing.. Im happy for you.

Y

Hi Mr H23

are you able to say what type of flying your old job is? Regional? Instructing? Aerobatics :E ?

Enjoy. Let us know how you go.

Living conditions in HKG, where the average population density is 15,000 per square mile, are not ideal for your wife and kids to come and play, especially not during the frequent sulfuric air pollution blown over from the mainland's factories. HKG can be tolerated if you're single and "get out" frequently on long haul.

...............what's the company you are going back to 23?

Easyjet........I guess I,m answering the question for the guy who was enquiring about a UK LCC or CX. No competition. Easy, is just a different place to work alltogether. I was a fool to leave, and join this bunch of idiots! Big mistake that I'm hoping to put right. My advice to anyone, give CX a wide berth. Shocking company, that treat you like a monkey.

One of the greatest failings we have as human beings is our lack of contentment. We have an insatiable need to look over the fence and wonder if the grass is greener. Congratulations hostile, you now know it isn't and you will sit contentedly in easy jet for years to come. I am sure things will happen there to annoy you, but at least you will know that is better the devil you know.
Good luck and cheers
NC

Had an mate (CX SO) leave for Easyjet mid last year.... he is very happy and doesn't regret the move at all. Roster has turned out better then he thought and is already due for a command at the end of this year. With his previous experience.... there will be a training position not long after the upgrade. So the pay is starting to look very interesting. :D

I've wasted 6 years with this mob of idiots. And I can say with my hand on my heart that I am actually a worse operator now than I ever was. Thanks again Cathay for your fine training. I haven't learnt a goddam thing, excepting many demonstrations of appauling CRM! I would have easily been a BTC at easy by now. And yes the pay is not much better here at Cathay, and certainly doesn't come close to being enough to want to live in this festering stink hole. I have regretted very little so far in my career, but I have to say that joining Cathay was a huge mistake. My career has basically gone backwards yet I feel as though I've worked so hard! I have never known an airline that demands so much and delivers so little. But I guess looking back now that is the way Swire do business. Money first, morale? What's that again?.

H23.
You are right.. To put it as a bunch of ******* it prob pushing it a bit - because there are a lot of nice people around here as well - all casualties of a sick system (as cathay is! - sick!). Flying here is not fun at all - its into the books think knowing all about of the CX theory way of doing things as opposed to being an actual good operator. CRM - on the -400 - at best - !!!!. check/"training" - a best - modest. Its really a yes sir, no sir airline - with and operational point of view sticking back to the 70'-80' aviation enviroment..
Good news is - Im hearing about guys, at least once a week now, leaving for better grounds to play on.. If you are planning on a basing with CX - you will in many cases be just as well of (or better!) going an airline in/or closer to your home country. You want have to put up with the !!!! at CX - and you will actually wake up in the morning wanting to go to work (or at least feeling good about it!). The basing pay here is really nothing. The pension scheme is a joke and the medical coverage + loss of license in at best average. Again - even with at lower pay - there is more to life than pay.
I will quit in a year from now - and do like you H23 - go back to the green grass and have some fun. And yes I know its greener - and yes, I know it still is!). Another thing - that I come to think about - Im tired of dog eaters - just not fun at all.. :} :rolleyes: :O
Enjoy Easy my fellow aviator - you will earn your REAL flying wings back soon.
Y

You should have been on the 777 mate.

Maybe I was! Still a pile of left seat self indulgant types there as well. Reading some of your previous posts proves that to me without doubt!!
I just love the "that's what FO's are for" remark. What were you thinking? Thanks for the invitation to the 777 fleet 'sir', but I've had enough of being a whipping boy for a while at least.

ACMS, if the 777 is so great, then why is one of the 777 guys ( a real sharp F/O ) prepare to go back to AFRICA!! as he was happier there ??? He resigned last month...

Good on you H23, will follow you in the near future! Just 2 items to tick in the H.Kong box.....not the CX box, best to forget most they "teach"

Can I have the initials of the guy that resigned from the 777?

I recently left CX after 6 years and 100% agree with this post. It is amazing for such a big company to be like this. Good luck back at EZ hostile.

You all amaze me...................really.


I hope your new company knows what they are getting:ok:


good luck to you.


bye bye

ACMS have you ever stopped and thought about why you are so amazed by the responses here? No? Maybe you have been so indoctrinated you can't think away from the Cathay system. You cannot actually imagine why someone could possibly leave? Are you familiar with the term "institutionalised"? Enjoy being a NR whipping boy boss. Personally I've got a litttle more pride than to just sit back and take it up the @ss.

I know why people leave cx. The management suck and I guess the training isn't all that fantastic to some people on some fleets.
There are Horses for courses, but if you think the next paddock is greener then you are only fooling yourself, It aint always so.

One hell of a lot of guys and girls manage to fit in here somehow. Just accept you didn't and move on.

Oh and stop having snipes at the LHS guys all the time, we are no worse or no better than other legacy carriers. CRM does exist in CX, just not in all cockpits.
If you fly with me you'll get to do what you want when you want and how you want, as long as it's within SOP's.

ok?

Hostile.

You have had your extended bleat.

Now can you please move along and try and maintain some semblance of dignity?

Think your new lords and masters have already got you spotted with all the clues you have left lying around.:rolleyes:

Nullaman, I hear you... However...

A man does need a place to vent.

And I appreciate his view.

I can assure you, this is part of the reason why there is a pilot shortage. Skygods, old ideas, no money.. etc...

BTW 23, I'm just in the process of converting my Aussie licence to the JAA... What's my chances with Easy :ok:

"One hell of a lot of guys and girls manage to fit in here somehow. Just accept you didn't and move on."

If this is true, why do I have to listen to B1tch'n and moan'in from 90% of these guys and girls about eroding C.o.S, training etc. for the last 8 years??
Why have so many of my mates failed command/ Relief or some check in this "career airline" ?

The grass might not be that much greener on the other side but they don't fire 49 guys for no apparent reason :=

TBH I'm very surprised pilots are leaving CX for easy. They're hardly a happy ship. Pilots are leaving there in droves. I know loads of Easyjet pilots and most want out. Many are even taking demotions to go to other airlines.

I suppose it's a grass is greener thing.

I've sat on enough jumpseats to know that pilots complain EVERYWHERE. Even SWA, FedEx and UPS, one can always find someone who is pissed off. Cathay IS the greener grass to a US regional pilot. Maybe I'll find out it isn't but for now I am ready for a change and am looking forward to it.

Fly with ACMS and I'll get to do "what I want when I want how I want", sorry mate but that just ain't the Cathay way. It's more like "i am priveledged to do what you want when you want and how you want as long as I ask for permission to speak first". I stand by my comments. I can also feel the pro Cathay zombies circling so that's it for me. Enjoy the caning boys while you choke to death. You're all very strange.:confused:

Everybody has the right to vent their opinion and the grass can be greener sometimes, it certainly was for me. Not all the management and training "sucks" at CX, there are some good ones especially sim trainers!!!
Good luck to anyone who moves on in the world and attempts to improve their career.

pfd99

I am a critic of the training, and had a couple of run in; hick up’s myself with the “system”.

I just complete a four sector Safety Pilot flight. The trainer was fantastic. Give the F/O (freighter guy with some experience) really good inputs. Made the student feel relaxed. Very fair in his comments. There are a lot of trainers like this in C.X.

The problem is the culture is created on the 3rd floor, supported by a few on the line. These are the same guys that is very dodgy when you fly with them, or do a sim with them. But they always come back with the “so busy in the office, should fly the line a bit more” that make them feel better.

First question you are asked when you mention you have a check coming is “who with”.
90% of the time your mate would say “Fair guy” But beware you get the wrong guy on the wrong day, which can cost you for a loooong time in C.X.

For the 90% of good trainers in C.X. , you know who you are, and thank you, but can you not change the culture from the bottom up??

Let’s start by getting rid of the Star Chamber, that was so sugar coated in a recent publication, and trust our checker’s with a Pass or Fail.

What is with this Cat A,B,C,D sh1t. I want to be Proficient every flight. You have a P.C. twice a year, and a line check once a year to HELP me stay proficient, and on track for my command.

Sorry, the thread is “leaving C.X.” So back to the topic. It is not only the crew leaving. People in some senior positions in other departments are bailing as well. Working for the BRAND NAME is just not enough.

Had a chat with F.M (yup, the eye candy) Manageress from Cabin Crew Services. She is out of C.X. (to their surprise) to go and work for Disneyland. Could not help but laugh, to think even Mickey Mouse offer a better deal.

6 months left on my lease. CV's going out as we speak. Can't wait to get my life and soul back. All the best hostile.

It's going to be an interesting year with the arrival of the new 777's coupled with what seems, a lot of guys leaving!:confused:

Actually Whatsthisbuttondo you may a touch out of date with things at easy.

Very interesting thread, can it really be this bad at CX

No one has really disagreed with what I've had to say have they?