Re Saudia interview on short Notice
 

I too had a similar experience on Wednesday received an email for interview on Sunday.. Which meant i had to travel on Thursday tried to email a "thankyou but sorry too short notice" but emails got return undelivered so i called and spoke to them .. and explained my predicament.. And to my surprise.. He told me to by a ticket and come to Cairo, i explained that the only ticket for travel the next day was $6000.00 but he continued to be very condescending in his tone..."You're a pilot you can afford it!" At that point i had to come up with a quick "get out a jail excuse which he bought. I continued to fill out the App and send all the copious amount of documentation he he requested because really wanted to work for SV but after my interaction with BK and how he spoke, I have started to re evaluate my options..
Mutt thanks for your help!!!
WP4 Good advise is..Right on!
Be careful ...You get what you negotiate!
best of luck to all!
GH.:ugh:

Well I did not hear back from Bilal.
I am not sure who can come up with $6000 in 12 hours notice but it is not me.
Hope you guys interviewing later have better luck because now I can't make it there in time.

Mutt or any one, can someone say who is this Belal character everyone is talking about, and are you guys talking about interviews for SFS or SAUDIA in regards this "pay ticket now, get reimbursed later" thingy, I just want to help if able.

Belal is the the HR Rep for Saudia.

Some years ago a friend went to cairo paid his ticket ,got the job and Im 90 percent certain he never was reimbursed or it took a very long time to get the cash.

So plan for it, ask Mutt he will tell you all about the length of time it takes to get things done in Saudia. Aside from the lenghty red tape at the airline ,my buddy overall enjoys working there.

jones:ok:

ticket reimbursement
 

Alldaysushi,
I am currently waiting for my visa to go do the Sim and Medical checks.
After that, who knows how long it will be before I go to Jeddah. Although, I was told that the guys who interviewed just one day before me (last May) are flying out this weekend.
When I got called to Cairo, I had to pay for my own ticket. But it was only slightly over US$500. So it was not a big deal. I flew from a city that was not on the SV network. So there was no time for them to arrange company travel. I have not gotten paid back yet. But I was assured by three different SV staff that I would in Jeddah. My gut feeling is that I will see the money only if I get hired. The way I see it, I got to spend 3 days in Cairo in a luxury hotel and visit a city that I had never been to before. All that for US$500.
For those who will be able to make it to Cairo, you will probably pass the first stage easily. Last May, they were very eager to hire us. Everybody being interviewed agreed on that.
Cheers
kp21

What a farce........:mad::mad::mad::mad:

Mutt

It was the same way when I interviewed at the end of 2005. Back then, the HR office in Houston was still operating. I was called by the Jeddah office at the last minute to go to Cairo. The Houston office had my tickets Fedex'd over to me within a day. They also took care of all the visa issues with the Saudi Embassy when the time came to go to KSA. Sadly, that HR office was closed a year or so ago.

It sounds to me like Bilal might have too much on his plate. I know him and he is an extremely nice man. I don't know how much support he gets in making all of the arrangements.

Interesting theme running on Flightglobal -

They bought a 340 last year for special flight.

Must be a slow news day :):)


Mutt

Mutt, I haven't heard how much of a storm has been kicked up over the changes to the schedules. What is your take? Do you think the blended reserve will last past July?

Its not the 1st July yet.... so lets wait and see what happens, unfortunately i think that they are doing it too soon, they should have waited until Sabre is rolled out, now all they are going to achieve is chaos!

Mutt

Travel to Cairo
 

Looks like I was not alone with the last minute travel shuffle to Cairo. I also was told to buy ticket which would have cost $5000 at last minute after a failed jump-seat attempt the night before. Sad because I had heard a lot of good things about SV and I think I would have liked it there.:ugh:

Mutt, Metro301,

Since you are currently working for Saudia, this question is for you:
Is it possible to commute to Nice or Paris when a B747 FO?
Is there a direct flight from Jeddah to Nice?
Thanks,

kp21

Last Minute Nonsense
 

Hi all,

Still in a state of disbelief with regard to the 742 F/O interview invite, and lack of "arrangements" thereof.

I could of carried this out, but would of traveled 30 hrs. to test and interview with 3hrs. rest. The hotel in Cairo had no knowledge of the Saudia account.

All in all this could have been a > 5000.00 mistake. I would like to interview, and pay my own passage with a little more than 3hr. advance notice.

While the HR dept. (Mr. Karim ), was very communicative via e-mail and seemed helpful, perhaps a little too much for one HR rep. to handle.

Does anyone think there will be a July screening?, any feedback appreciated.

Thanks...Sushi

One thing you must learn about the ME is that promises are made to be broken. If you are not hired, kiss what ever money you paid for the travel, goodby. If you are hired kiss it goodby too!

Called for Interview in Dubai in August
 

Hi,

I got called for interview in August(12-18) dates to be decided, anybody else get the same, ant ideas what is involved, I was told to allow 2-5 days...

They also called many persone for the end of june but later on after many of these pilot gave confirmation saudia recruitment disappeared
Is there anybody who underwent the screening at the end of june?

Saudia Flt Ops
 

Today 8th July, Flt Ops Jeddah, total chaos. I tried to get an answer to the "pay ticket now, get reimbursed later", no body here seems to know anything

Anyone knows about the Hawker 400 job on Saudia? Any minimum requirements? Thank you

SV Ongoing curiosity
 

Greetings,

Just wondering any more new hires on the SV B742 that perhaps can share their new hire experiences, and whether several more crews may be needed.

Safe Journies,

Sushi

Uploading flight time
 

Hi. I have been trying to upload my flight times into their recruitment site but been unsuccessful for the last couple of weeks. My computer keeps on rejecting the upload, telling me there is something wrong about their webpage. Has anyone else had this problem?

Are you using Windows Explorer or Mozilla Firefox or something else as your browser?

Gumby

Thanks
 

Gumby

Thanks for replying mate. Been using Explorer (the newest version) and even tried Google Chrome, against all odds. Somehow, everytime I tried to send my data, the computer rejects the upload based on some issue with the pull down (i.e. "Civilian or Military, Jet or Turboprop, etc.) choices. It just won't accept it.

I'm beginning to think it may be an incompatibility with Windows Vista or the new Internet Explorer or something. Has anyone else had this problem?

Silence
 

Hi,

I was invited for selection in August to take place in Dubai, I replied and asked to confirm dates and have received no response despite repeated E-Mails, the HR guys E-Mail is now sending an "Delivery to the following recipients failed" message, anybody know what is going on...:ugh:

Any hiring going on for the E170? Does Saudia plan to buy any more 170/175190/195's? Hi Mutt! S Sam

They stopped hiring for the E70/MD90, no talks about any more of them :) But they might get something smaller :):)

Mutt

Smaller?? I haven't had a load less than 85% in weeks.

Metro301, that because the routes are chosen to have the load factor, now thay are looking at the ones that have crap load factors! :):)

SVA have suspended all line pilot recruitment UFN. Those in the pipeline will continue with the process, however there wont be anymore interviews.

This doesnt apply to the corporate fleet which are still actively recruiting.....

Sign of the times :(:(

Mutt

Hey mutt,
When you say that people in the pipeline what do you mean?
I successfully interviewed at the end of June and was told to expect an email to come to Jeddah for the simulator. Does that put me in the pipeline or not? Also on their website they are still recruiting.
Any info is highly appreciated. Thanx.:confused:

Saudi Arabia Restrictions:
 

Earl
This is an email that was submitted to other airlines that may operate into KSA.


All Electronic devices will be submitted for check up before immigration section.



Devices includes Cellular phones with camera and memory card, flash disks, external hard drive, Laptops / notebooks / pc, iPods, itouch, mp3 players with memory cards.



A special USB device will be inserted to the electronic devices that you are carrying. This special device can scan all videos and pictures, jpg, bmp, avi, etc, contents of your laptop / cell phones, and will be recorded to their main computer.



All devices with nude pictures in it will be confiscated immediately. There will be no fines, and refusal will send you to jail and deportation.



Laptops with pirated software’s will also be confiscated.



This rule has been applied already and is being practice in Riyadh, Damman and Jeddah Airports. This is excluding Bahrain airport.





Kindly include this in your orientation and tell them not to bring any pirated software’s, movies, or nude pictures. Even data’s that are hidden can be found by this device, so tell them not to bring any at all. The laptop of a colleague, a Sony Viao, which cost around 8.000 SR, was confiscated a few days ago, because of 1 semi nude picture that he forgot to erase.

Earl:
Maybe a good warning, but most porn or pictures come from the Hotbird satellite.
Maybe they should shut down the sale of pirated movies and software in the souks, but I am sure someone is getting kick backs on this one.
Scare tactic, the Saudis are not that good, any computer literate person would know that it would be impossible to determine a nude pic from a normal one, without actually viewing the file, just another game like the cell phones with cameras a few years ago.
So they will have access to any file you have saved on your laptop, banking etc, they are not that trustworthy!
Pirated software Microsoft cannot even figure this out with some of the office software, many mistakes made by them, yet the Saudis have the magic answer?

Mutt, what does this mean?? With all of the scheduled deliveries, how will they crew the new airplanes? Will they slow or stop deliveries?

New man in the office, he wants to see maximized productivity of the present crews prior to hiring more. If they can show that crews are utilized correctly then hiring will recommence.

Nope, see above.

As to those asking about how their own applications will be treated, sorry to say but nobody knows, not even BK.

SVA had the largest EVER management change about 10 days ago, couple of interesting firings, including chief pilot. So things are in a state of flux until people settle into their new seats.

Please note that the above only applies to the airline side, nor the corporate side who are still recruiting as planned.

Earl - total utter garbage, having flown through all 3 airports in the last month, there is no infrastructure to support the process that you are talking about, plus last time i check the airport of Bahrain wasnt in Saudi Arabia! Apart from that, I hope that you are well :):)

Mutt

Mutt, that actually sounds like an airline being logical and rational......:eek:

Thanks Mutt,
Sounded a little off the wall from the beginning.
Will pass the word.
For the new hires Saudia is a good and honest company that pays according to contract no exceptions.
Training is tough but once accomplished best job you will ever have, with days off and money in the bank on time every time, no exceptions!!!!!
They did lag a bit on the per diem a while back but it is caught up within 1 month never try and cheat you out of contract entitlements.
Worked for them twice over the years.
KSA takes getting used to, maybe for some not ever, but Saudia is a good company that pays on time, follows the MEL and Flight Duty Limitations, you wont get shXt canned there for following the regulations.
But would be terminated for not following them.
Pay is a slightly below industry standards , but job security is there, never heard of them ever laying any crews off.
Back in the late 90;s with the grounding of the Tristars, Saudia had 60 plus too many F/E's, every one of them that wanted to stay is still employed today.
Wont find that in too many other companies.

There was an arabic note circulating around some companies in Saudi explaining the importance of intellectual property rights and that saudi customs will "continue" to enforce existing rules at entry points. Haven't seen any actual enforcing yet.

Electronic Things
 

Not seen laptops or phone being checked, but have seen external hard discs being taken away for examination.

Actually happened to my FO, but they couldn't have looked into in too much, as while we were waiting he told me he did have a couple of 'romantic movies' on there.

Myabe they didn't check or maybe they were well hidden.

or...
 

...Or maybe they liked what they found and made themselves a few copies :}

Hustle On:ok: