Family life
 

I really want to address this now. since i'll might be joining cathay as a cadet, this would be the most appropriate place to ask.

On one hand this is obviously my dream, but on the other I have to be responsible and make the right decision.


how do you folks start a family when you are always away from home? As an SO you are alway 1/2 the months. As an FO or captain you are away even more!
We are mid to late 20s now, but plan to get married soon. and we plan to add to our family in about 5 years, which if all goes well about the time I'll attempt for an upgrade to JFO.

In addition, what are the pros and cons of your lifestyle as a cathay pilot?
These are sincere questions, and I hope to receive and would really appreciate genuine answers that can help me decide. Please try to be as unbiased as possible, if you know what i mean.

cheers
Energie

Mate,

It's not a problem. In fact, I see my kids more than any office worker. As a SO you will only be away from your family between 9 and 12 days a month(flights normally leave late at night and arrive early morning). Plus, you get to catch up on your sleep when you are away...Bonus....

I would not even be worried about it at all.:ok:

Ask your mates to help out.:E

Or move to DB....

ooooo, you lot really are not very nice.............................

Remember you don't get a Housing allowance, or Schooling for your kids if you go via the Cadet programme, but others have done it.

energie-

Remember, just be strict about your house rules... you gotta let her know who's the boss! :P

Lok

funny man lok (inside joke)

but seriously, any real help here? ;)

Make it happen everytime you are home but make a note of the dates. I am sure it will work out ok for you but nice to be able to have the evience to hand just in case!

LadyPilot
 

Plan for Family holidays frequently.Its Important to have an understanding partner too.
regds
MEL

this thread has given me some good ideas as well
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=231791
but the more the merrier.
any canadian or US based folks?

family life is great in HK, i was brought up in HK, dad is a pilot and everything is great, and time and leave was good but not without some crappy months of rostering. However, one point i pick up on is that of no housing or schooling, i knew this is what cadets start (the 'local' package) on but as the years go by is there not an upgrade in package with a proportinal increase in scales? i.e after X years schooling and housing is included?

any answers much appreciated,

Cheers, Bjbb

Schooling - no. If you are a cadet, you are assumed to be local, and so OK with local schools (even though many cadets were themselves educated abroad)

Housing, yes, to an extent. When you get command, you get the same housing allowance as other "level D" local managers, but this is much less (50% or so) than an expat captain.

It seems to me that would fall foul of the racial discrimination legislation as currently drafted. In most jobs it's easy to make the case that senior managers have individual skills that justify an individual package, but I can't see how that could be applied to pilots.

It's possible to argue the expat benefit package as racial discrimination under the draft law. However, it can be equally argued that HK produce very little local pilots and therefore CX need to use expat package to lure pilots to HK. It depends on how the government defines salaries and benefits. While most western countries consider base salaries and benefits as aggregate, HK government may view them as separate and only cares if the base salaries are equal across all race.