Clue me in
 

Call me the dummy. Would someone please clue me in on a few things:

What or where is Knoteetingham?

Can someone give me an idea of the best/worst Middle East carriers to work for, pay/benefits/working conditions etc.

Thanks in advance.

Not-eating-ham....hmmm! I wonder???:confused:

Probably among camels and dunes.;)

It is a play on words being a reference to the city of Nottingham in the UK.

You may to read the Caravan scroll which is one of the stickies at the top of this forum. One of the posts there has a useful 'dictionary' of terms used which may explain things for you.

As for the rest of your questions, I think the search function is probably best for you.

Do you want long/short haul. Are you here for the long/short term. Wife, kids? Everyone's situation is different.

Best/Worst
 

Now that we've answered one of the questions, I'll take a stab at answering the other:

I think that you can obtain a good idea of the worst by perusing the pages of PPRuNe and reading the threads - especially those which have been going on for some time and have enough responses to be meaningful (a thread with two or three responses criticising a company is probably not as indicative as one with hundreds joining in and adding to the conflagration.)

Based upon this, by virtue of number of responses in relation to size of the company and the virulence of the debate, I nominate Prestige Jet as a candidate for Worst Company. EK, EY, QR and others have their issues and detractors, but nothing comes close to Prestige Jet in respect of the nature of this issues - that thread has everything from non-payment of salaries and expenses, seizure and repossession of jets on trips, passengers being asked for money to pay for fuel, pilots who ask for their pay being framed and accused of crimes, money laundering, ripping off a customer for $5 million, shady characters visiting captains with envelopes of cash on the streets of Riyadh and Amman, bribery of GCAA officials with cash, trips and women, unsafe operations, having prostitutes on board for the amusement of the CEO, CEO and Managing Director brother in hiding in Jordan, and a Chairman - Sheikh Hamed Bin Hamed - who is a member of the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi yet does not pay his employees and ignores judgments and orders of the Courts of Abu Dhabi to pay his employees and former employees who have won judgments against the company.

And, if that's not entertaining enough, the CEO and surrogates consistently coming onto PPRuNe in order to spew a stream of invectives at their own employess - and indicting themselves for mismanagement, incompetence and corruption, in the process.

It's a made-for-TV-movie in the making. Compared to that, the complaints about the major carriers seem mundane.

A Succinct Summary
 

Well-stated, Waste Management. This is the best concise summary of Prestige Jet that I've seen.

Good on ya, mate!

EY is one happy family, especially after the last time the malcontents were subpoenaed for defaming this wonderful company.

Prestige Jet Is Worst
 

I agree with Waste Management what he say about Prestige Jet is all true. It is really The Worst.

The Best
 

WM,
I concur with KF..your summary says it all. That's what we need in this forum..clear, concise and informative summaries.:ok:
Ex

Found It
 

A Sheikh who does not eat ham, yet he has a ham sandwich on his head is called: Sheikh Hamed! He is the owner of PJ, isn't he? So it must be PJ.:)

Now Who Is Being a Ham?
 

Cute, bherald.

Cheers
 

Cheers for the accolades about my posting, above, and glad that some of you agree with my nomination of Prestige Jet as the worst company to work for. Sadly, it did not require much imagination or creative skills to write that posting, because it is only a factual recitation of the list of issues which have been aired in the various Prestige Jet threads.

Trying to pick the best carrier in the Middle East is a bit like choosing the leper with the most fingers.

Quite enjoyed your summation of the "worst", but it isn't a long distance from the "best", whomever that may be...

Quite an Indictment
 

Wow, NLH, that's quite an indictment. Of course, every organisation has its problems and these tend to be comparable in the region, due to the similarity of the history and culture of the nations and organisations within them. While we see lots of issue here on PPRuNe, they tend to be focused on issues of work rules, remuneration, problems upgrading equipment, etc.

I hope that nobody is anywhere close to the colossal :mad: that is Prestige Jet. For starters, how many companies have CEO in hiding, family member/executives arrested and/or persona non-grata in the country, and all of the other things listed above, such as ignoring valid court orders - and such people still running the company?

I hope that the better companies are far better than Prestige Jet, not just incrementally better.

Indeed, this is a remark to pose. This goes to show how dangerous the situation is in the ME and at PJ in particular.
Ex

Midex
 

It sounds like Midex is deserving of a mention in the Worst Carrier to work for category. However, its problems as discussed so far on PPRuNe are but a minority subset of Prestige Jet's issues - namely failure to pay crews and unilateral changes in working conditions.

Faris at It Again
 

Prestige CEO shooting off his mouth and shooting himself in the foot, again, over at the Prestige Jet thread. Hurling invectives at his own employees, then volunteering this brilliant response to the complaints that the company hasn't paid its employees in four months:


"Khalas, you stupid expats is always complain about Prestige Jet. You must have to stop and not say anything about Prestige Jet. Prestige Jet is no bankrup. They still have many millions in the bank and can hold for more years.

This is rubbish, Prestige Jet is no bankrupt. They have many millions in the bank and still be operating. PJ is #1 operator in Middle East."


Of course, he could prove that he has so much money by actually paying his employees, many of whom are still owed pay from April. Only the pilots who threatened to block a flight are current; everybody else is anywhere from one to four months behind on pay.

Then there are the ones who are over a year behind, have valid court orders and Prestige Jet still doesn't pay. That would be the best way to quiet the criticism. But noooooo....

And most of us are not American; apparently this CEO has no idea who is on his own payroll, since he doesn't consider payroll to be a business, legal or moral necessity...

Faris Always At It
 

It is now reported that Faris is wanted in Jordan and cannot go back there and his brother Ihsan is wanted in both Jordan and UAE and is now in Bahrain. The third brother, Tareq, was once arrested in UAE for smuggling aboard Prestige Jet flights but got off - while the crew and other lesser personalities took the blame and punishment. (These anecdotes, and far more, may be found in the Prestige Jet thread, http://www.pprune.org/middle-east/45...hreads-20.html) in exquisite detail, if you are interested.) Yet these three con artists remain in control of the company - even in absentia, at times. Can any operator top that record of top management malfeasance?

One wonders when Sheikh Hamed Bin Hamed will grow some balls and deal with this problem, which is an embarrassment and disgrace to the Abu Dhabi Royal Family. We know they tolerate abuse of workers but ignoring lawful orders of the Royal Family's own Court of Abu Dhabi and publicly making a fool of the Royal Family on nearly a daily basis is going to come to a crescendo, one of these days.

Another Metric for "Worst"
 

The Prestige Jet thread has over 400 responses which have been viewed by over 50,000 PPRuNe participants. :D

To put that into perspective, can you name any company which has a live thread going with responses totaling more than 10 times the number of active employees - or anywhere near such a ratio? This, along with the number of readers of the thread as compared to size of company, far outpaces any company on PPRuNe.

In order for EK to match this metric, it would have to have a thread with a million responses and 125,000,000 views of that thread. Can you imagine such a thing?

This is yet another measure of the unparalleled futility and :mad: that is Prestige Jet. :ugh:

Wow!
 

Wow, thanks for that metric, WM - that sure puts it into perspective.

Emirates would require a thread that racks up 1,000,000 responses and 125,000,000 views in order to equal Prestige Jet, if the EK thread were to be the same ratio of responses & views versus total number of employees as is the ratio over at the Prestige Jet thread - amazing; absolutely amazing.

As stated over at the other thread, Prestige Jet really is in a class of its own - not even a competitor on this thread seeking The Worst employer in the Middle East....