Qatar/Doha vs Emirates/Dubai (life and work)
 

The time has come to expand horizons and look for a long haul career in a ME carrier. Tons of colleagues in my current company are doing the same. Some apply to FlyDubai, some Emirates and some Qatar. Most of them apply to all three as if the main goal was to move to the ME no matter which company. I tell them that living in Doha is not the same as living in Dubai and that living in Dubai while working for FlyDubai is an inferior experience and a lot less nice than with Emirates. I used to live in Dubai back in the 2000s and I'm the kind of person who adapted to the lifestyle of the city. I loved the expat environment. Yes, I hated the turnarounds like most people. I know Dubai has changed a lot since I left and has probably lost the small town feel that it used to have where most people knew each other. Before you recommend not going: I know what I'm doing. I've been there before. I don't have a family and I'm the kind of person who, excluding the sleeping patterns, enjoys being at work or on a layover as much as on a day off at home. I compare my current conditions with what I'd find in the ME and for me this would be a huge step up.

Having said that, what I want to know is how different it is to live and work in Doha when compared to living and working in Dubai at Emirates. Is the city as exciting as Dubai? Are people there in the same welcoming expat mentality? Is the environment at work and during the layovers equally nice in these two companies? Could it be that Doha now is similar to the Dubai I experienced in 2005? When I think of a career in the middle east I only consider Emirates as an option, but seeing how most people apply to both companies I want to know if Qatar would be a good option and if I would ever regret having chosen it over Emirates or considered it as the next best thing when maybe it isn't.

PS: Please. If you have only negative things to say about working in the Middle East, at least try to consider that, for some people, what you complain about sounds like unreasonable whining given the conditions and the lifestyle we're coming from. For some of us, the nice hotels, getting picked up for work, not having to pack food and water for a flight, getting our uniforms cleaned for us and the higher salary completely justify the intentions. Also, some consider Dubai a great place to live and work. Keep that in mind.

THANK YOU

I dont know if you are a CPT or FO, but consider this. You will spend an average of 120 - 140 h on the airplane during most months, inlcuding inflight rest and some deadheadings. Divide your expected salary including housing allowance through this number and you will see that the blockhour rate of your favorite lunchbox carrying job will start to look pretty good. The conditions are really just as **** as here, but you will be used harder. The only financial benefit of being in the middle east is that you are legally earning it tax free and getting some end of service if you manage to make it out in good terms.

Just fly to Doha or Dubai in your 4 days off after a week of earlies and see how much you enjoy it, because you will experience your new base mostly tired and fatigued.

Pilots are just running away in circles from the real problem, we need to change our terms here and then will it improve everywhere else too.

I know what you mean but my intention is to understand the differences between the experience in Doha/Qatar and the experience in Dubai/Emirates. Let's imagine that I'm obligated to choose one between the two. How much worse/better would either be? Are they completely different experiences? Is the company's attention to your private life in Qatar as bad as it sounds? Is Doha a place where you would feel more the fact that it's a Muslim country with Muslim rules (I never felt that in Dubai and it was very easy to respect rules and to stay out of trouble without having to dramatically change the way I live my life). Those are the things I want to know. Not so much how tired I will be. I already get tired in my current airline where 90h (paid flight time) means 150h (duty). So basically 60h in uniform are unpaid... and I have to pay for my own uniform, pay and arrange for my own medical and book and pay for my own hotel when I have sim or a duty out of base. I've serioulsy had enough of this and I want to have a more "airline" lifestyle, even if it means to fly around the time zones for 140h. It's not like Lufthansa is an option...

I PMd you but your inbox seems to be full. PM me

Can you try again please? I'll empty it but I cannot reply as new accounts and incredibly limited.

There are more options in the middle east than just Doha and Dubai...

Yeah but excluding FlyDubai then there's only Etihad. I know Abu Dhabi and I don't think it's the kind of city I'd like to live in. The rest of the airlines in that area probably don't have the "expat" vibe I know and enjoy. My question is whether life in Doha would be similar to life in Dubai (considering I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Dubai).

Where would you suggest rudestuff? Anyone else recruiting around that part of the world?

So by saying expat lifestyle what you are saying is you wish to be able to partake in copious amounts of alcohol and partying and boat parties? Why not just go to Hong Kong on POS18, live on peel street so after your 14hr duty and test and hold you can go meet gollum. Maybe grab a Swire house or a junk sometimes when you get bored of the standard street life. Otherwise take a trip to Riyadh. The private compound parties are rather large and always contain copious amounts of snow and other fuel.

Maybe that's your idea of expat life. I already did all that and got it out of my system when I was a 25 year old energy machine in Dubai. I'm finding it incredibly frustrating to get an answer for "how different is it to live and work in Doha when compared to the Dubai I know". I've been an expat for the past 5 years trying to win a transfer to the base of my choice. Command is around the corner so I will go back to the bottom of the list for the base I'm requesting. If I'm going to continue being an expat in a place I don't enjoy (eastern Europe), I might as well try to be an expat in a city where most of the people are expats, money will be good and where I will experience work as an airline pilot, rather than an airplane driver. Emirates appears to be slowing down Boeing assessment so I'm considering other companies in the area. Would Doha be a good option? Is my question really that hard to understand?

I believe that you haven't tried LH flying with an airline like QR that schedules you like short haul with non EASA ftl. All guys coming from Ryanair say they never been so fatigued in Ryr as in QR.

Never the less most people all know better and still join.

Try to sum up advantages up both here (airline and city)

Emirates
- Slightly better working culture with less threatening than QR
- Way more western expats in Dubai and EK, Qatar and QR is very east, se Asian.
- Can meet Cabin Crew as they aren't locked up and discouraged to meet pilots as QR
- Pick up from accommodation (Qr does not offer this)
- Better accommodation although some still poor but the ones in QR are definitely worse.
-Dubai offers the opportunity to eat a sandwich in a mall during Ramadan by day, Qatar is strict and everything is closed for a whole month during daytime.
- Dubai offers multiple options to buy alcohol and pork. Qatar only 1 store in the whole country.
​​​​​- Buying properties is easier in Dubai than Qatar and likely to be more valuable than a sinking building at the Pearl which can't be sold easily. If you plan to stay longtime that might be an important issue.
​​​- lots of stuff to do with nightlife available in Dubai
​​​​​​- Lots of entertainment in Dubai
- Public beaches don't need Muslim style swim wear, In Qatar swimming in Bikini is for hotels only.
- Entering a mall for Women wearing few clothes would be acceptable in Dubai not Qatar.
- Qatar has still Familiy only malls where males alone aren't welcome at weekends.
- Qatar spies a lot on Social media, firing staff for whatsapp texts, Facebook pictures or an Instagram post.
-Qatar asks staff to pay for part of the uniform such as suitcases (not sure EK does this)
-Qatar Airways crew meals from Qatar are inedible, few pilots ate them thus the company is now removing them replacing them with a granola bar.
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QR
- Save more money as there is few to do in Qatar.
-Families with young children generally enjoy Qatar with a safe environment and little traffic compared to Dubai. Life is just more quiet than down South
- Hamad Airport is very convenient with usually little queus as few people enter / leave Doha. Might be one of the easiest airports in the world.
-Smallness of Doha can be convenient with less bigger malls and city it is easier to get around.
-Kids education allowance better than EK
-Training in Qr seems better than EK.


I'm not sure what expat life you're looking for, in Qatar you'll never be at home thus don't see what life you look for there you'll be in the plane all the time. You'll be sleeping on the little time you have off in Doha or trying to go home. Doha is pretty similar to Abu Dhabi. Many friends not working in the airline but working in other gulf countries like Kuwait, Bahrain and UAE say they find Qatar the least welcoming of all.

In essence EK is better at all points nearly unless you have a family and a wife who doesn't mind not seeing you a lot of the time. Life for families with small kids in Doha is relatively nice.
There is a lot more to consider but whether people warn or not most know better and join anyway thus not worth mentioning
If you're single I Definitely would go EK. Also bear in mind if you're a f/o, commands are long and difficult process in both airlines where a single mistake can set you back years in the queue. Flying 140 block hours a month with up to 12h jetlag and mostly by night takes a toll on your health.

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Well SB, going to Doha is going to a junior positon compared to the rest of the ME. You will start with 2 bars and be like that for years, command is non existent with QR. Anywhere else and you will actually see something on the horizon with substantially better pay at potato and EK. Out of interest what makes you prefer Dubai over Abu though if it is not for the hustle and bustle of the night life? There are limited perks in Dubai anymore. Also I wouldn't really call Eastern Europe an expat lifestyle. It's still Europe...

As a passenger I cannot comment about QA, but as a long term resident of Doha who left at the start of the COVID pandemic, I can make a few comments.

On a day to day basis Doha is a easy place to live - plenty of decent shops, restaurants and traffic managements has improved dramatically. Drink & Pork products are available from QDC - accommodation is expensive but plenty of choice & cleaners are usually easy to arrange. The usual ME caveats apply - don't take out loans, & live with the frequent irritating random rule changes. In the medium term they want more Qataris working in "private" companies so there may be less opportunities for promotion.

Recreation wise, the opportunities to get out into the desert are quite limited these day - partly development and partly to many people trying to do the same. Plenty of opportunities for sport and some decent facilities as well. A good selection of schools for expats, but they are being relocated away from the older city areas so if you have children they may need to travel a considerable distance every day.

Would I choose to go back to live & work there if I wasn't almost 70 - yes!

Why would you give away your command? You get a command you need to move but you're a captain and have a chance at your base later on again. If you move to the middle east, you won't be captain for probably 10 years if you didn't do anything wrong . By 10 years you'll likely have left back to Europe to start as an FO all over again. Join the middle East as a captain in a few years if you want to try but don't go as a FO as your career progression is stalled. All my friends who were FO who left to join QR over 6 years ago are still FO and many of them already left again back home since they can't bear the rosters basically wasted years of career progression for some extra cash and to start as an FO at a base they didn't like on minimum salary all over again!

I think very few here are actually qualified to comment, myself included, as we have not lived in both places.

I am going to provide my unqualified comment anyway cos that how I roll....I reckon Dubai and Doha are much the same., however, I am lead to believe that it is far less desirable to work for QTR than for EK. Stories of 6 ULR flights in a month - that is just astounding. I would not go work there. I think you should keep chasing EK......

Very appreciated. This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for. Learned new things about QR and confirmed my perception that I would enjoy life in EK a lot more. By expat life I mean the things you do with other people in your same expat situation. It's completely different to be an expat in a city where most people are expats than to be one in a country where almost nobody else is. I'm still in close contact with the colleagues and friends who stayed in Dubai and I would enjoy going back to the Dubai expat life there. You can call me weird but back when I was there I'd enjoy a day off as much as a day on a nice layover destination with a friendly crew.

Maybe actual fatigue is not an issue here. We have stable 5/4 rosters and every block is only earlies or only lates. Pretty sure you know how it works. The problem are the things surrounding work. For example next month I'm rostered for 2 days at a base that isn't my homebase. No arrangements are made by the company. It's all just a normal roster app icon. I will have to drive 2 hours to this other airport and find and pay for a hotel to spend the night. The out of base allowance will barely cover the cost of the fuel, the parking and the hotel. The day before this I'm rostered to fly at my base, landing pretty late. This means coming back from work I'll have to go bed straight away, wake up, fix a lunchbox and start driving. After 2 hours driving I'll do a short flight. After the flight I'll check in the airport hotel. Next day I've another flight out of base landing well past midnight. After this last double turnaround (4 legs) out of base, I'll drive another 2 hours back home where I need to go to sleep immediately because the next day I have a flight from my home base. Yes it's all legal but I'll be doing all this for about 10h of paid work. This type of roster is common and we call it "summer season". Winter season are those months where we'll fly 30h... on a contract without any basic salary. Airplanes are fuller than ever and bases are understaffed yet we're still on COVID hourly rate. Things would have to be awful over there for one of us to not consider it a huge step up.

That's exactly what I mean. I'm from a country with very sought after bases. Everyone in my company wants to be based where I grew up and the transfer list does not take into account where you're from. So I'm an expat in Eastern Europe in a country where 99% of the people are locals living life with the people they've been in contact with for decades. Expat communities here are small and the people who travel here don't always have much in common with each other. It's not like in Dubai or any other city where the majority of the people are expats living expat life. My point is that I prefer to be an expat in Dubai and enjoy life and work there than to be an expat in a country that I don't really enjoy, where my working conditions aren't that bad but still far from what anyone would consider "airline pilot life".

I appreciate that insight and I know I'd be taking a risk by doing that but I right now I think I would value more a job at a company I feel better about than command at a company where I'm not really happy at.

The problem is that command should come by the end of this year or beginning of 2023. Seeing how I'm climbing the transfer queue for the base that I've requested, my base transfer wouldn't be offered before command. So when I become a captain I would go to the bottom of the captain transfer queue for the base I'm requesting. It could take another 5 to 6 years before I end up based where I want. That's another 6 years based who knows where (Bulgaria, Lithuania...). If I end up in a base in a place hard to call "home", I would spend my days off jumpseating home and living in a cheap room during work blocks. For every colleague who got upgraded recently it was "Time for that fourth stripe! Now start looking for an apartment in Riga...". Honestly, if it turns out I'm happy with the job and the city, a longer wait until command wouldn't be that bad.

Get your command, enjoy Riga for 3 years and pack your bags for a nice DEC job in SE Asia.

This time and the next year it's still crap. For the rest go check Airbus Global Market Forecast 22-40, published recently. DaNang beaches await, and the old Chinese contract of 50:50 partime was the best a homesick pilot and a family man could get.

The ULH f/o experience in ME is nothing but an obstacle.

Or a different viewpoint shared on a similar thread near you: For the next downturn 7 years from now, would you prefer to be ME SFO or EE/SA Capt? But that is not the end: What about 9 years from now, when that downturn is over but you need to change companies to start over: F/O with 7 years ME experience or ex-captain with 5000 PIC?

Tread carefully. When you signed your licence is the day you lost access to your own country, many did. Sorry that you find the present place dull and overwhelming, wish you the honest best and much success.

captain Obvious out.

Professionally? Take the upgrade.

But, at a personal level? I wish I had the clarity of mind you are displaying in this paragraph, back in the day when I had to choose how to drive my career. Felicitazioni, you are one of the few pilots I know that are wise enough to put his/her mental wellbeing ahead of a logbook.

My experience of QR and EK goes back more than a decade so take it with a pinch of salt, but if I had to define Dubai it would be the only place in ME where you can still grab a piece of the West. And if I had to define Doha... well, in my time there we used to call it Dohell, and all the stories you can read here in pprune about how QR is run are true, all of them. I can't see any reason for a single young lad to go to Doha over Dubai.

When the time comes to leave EK you'll just need to plan it well ahead of time and make some adjustments. The main issue I see with pilots leaving EK and going somewhere else is that they expect to be valued ahead of the rest just because they have been using a "super" call sign (strapping a helmet as I type, waiting for the lynching that will come), but as long as you keep your 320/737 EASA ratings current, choose the right moment to step out, and keep your head on the ground, you will be absolutely fine, and happier than the rest!

I have spent most of my flying career in these areas you mention, and found out that most of the pilots here still are miserable, leave for greener pastures (oh boy, when they realize what they have done!!), and are unable to stop seeing the glass half empty. As Tom hast just said, "it is not the airplane, it is the pilot".

The OP is on another league, he knows where his happiness is, and that is something that most of us should learn from. Let him be!

I'm appreciating all the comments really.

I know that the happiest career would always be at a money losing, government pampered legacy with a rock solid contract, protected by an agreement set in stone, back home and 30 years ago. Like a few here have understood, I'm trying to find the sweet spot between the experiences/happiness and the money/stripes. I used to fly a bigger cargo jet. It was alright but it was too far into the opposite end. I was flying barely 30-40h and the salary wasn't great but it was enough. It was a small operator it felt like a family. But there was no "magic" to it. Most of the people working where already back from the adventures. They were working there just as a career closing episode, basically waiting to retire. Same night flights and back home every day as if I hadn't been anywhere.

There are those for whom this would be a perfect package. There are people who, as long as their work doesn't bother them too much and pays good enough, they'll be happy. It's a valid position. For them, work is that thing they do purely for money to enjoy while off work. The more money they make and the quicker, the better. So they go to the ME, they hold their breath while they save money and when they can't take it anymore, they'll run away hopefully with full pockets, ready to take that 30h captain job in an old learjet or a rusty cargo converted -400. Call me naive but many years after I started flying I'm still looking for that magic as I was growing up wanting to be a pilot (And I'm not 30 anymore...). I don't think that's gonna change in the near future and I don't think I'm gonna find it at any low cost short haul European.

For me it's really not like that. Work is a huge contributor to my happiness. I need to look forward to go to work. If I have a 2 hour flight and back to some European city where the only "magical moment" will be to say hello to the dispatcher in the local language and it'll just be like driving a bus there and back. Work feels just like a remunerated disturbance of my time off. Nothing to look forward to. On the other hand, if I'm at home on sby and they call me for a 9 day BKK SYD AKL, I'd be excited. I know it will be an immensely fatiguing week, for sure, but I will look forward to the experiences. I'll meet people, I'll eat out, I'll take walks and eat my breakfast at Whalebridge and in Auckland I'll spend the day on a bicycle with some of the crew like we used to do every time. I know Qatar would also offer me that experience during layovers but I'm starting to understand that my days off in Doha would not be as enjoyable as in Dubai and I would again be invaded by the need to commute back home on every chance like I do now. So my concern has shifted. Is delaying command worth it only to go to a city/work where I'd be looking forward to go to work and enjoying it in a way that being tired would not make me feel miserable? Would the fourth stripe immediately make me feel less miserable and to start loving my job again? I'm good at FO'ing. I'm easy to fly with and I've never had a bad flight even with the captains that nobody enjoys flying with so command for me only means more money, not a change of experiences. Is it better to be a miserable captain feeling like a bus driver or a happy first officer feeling like a true airline pilot... I guess nobody can answer that.

As you describe, later in the career it boils down to a simple equation

(cash-brought-home X family-days) / days on duty.

The formula may miss some square roots, logarithms or exponents, but well noted it does NOT include what the job is like or any soft effects. And is pretty valid for comparing different paths one against another - later in the career.

You are not there yet, nor were others at your (st)age.

Iggy pressed the big red button with 'could not stop themselves from seening the glass half-empty'. That reveals the big truth, cheesy as it sounds, that happiness comes from within.

Imagine a pilot who has 160 days of pure family time with annual net 250k and is still consumed irritated? What other job or lifestyle could fix that? (*)

I've met the happy ones with a decade under their belt but truly enough I did not speak to those who ran away after 3 years or even ejected from their contract. And the ratio is about 1:4!

(*) Actually, any job or no job at all did it for the escapees, who desperately sought relief from mental and emotional purgatory.

I won't praise you for your zen-like clarity of mind, having sensed (trough double translation probably) trace amounts of shiny longhaul metal syndrome. Not really diluted by the last post.

But does it matter? Absolutely not. If you need bigass metal for stop hating being stuck on a crossroad between two nowheres, you owe to yourself, parents, future spouse and the creator himself to go and do it!

Everybody plays their cards differently but you know the game well enough. All-in, have a blast and feel good about what you decided to do if that is your heart's calling. Following your heart is the easy part, understanding it is what gets complex.

That will define your mental health.

My previous post is not contradictory, only filling some perceived holes in the narrative. But then again, taking an informed choice to get what you want is not the problem, understanding the need itself is.

Loop back to the original question. Despite that being a relayed experience, not personal, there seem to be 3 patterns with lads happier in QR than EK
- genuinely liking the place better to Dubai
- got their deep wish fulfilled by ejecting from EK
- smiling at the money bucket filling the fastest no matter what.

For the moment, you seem to describe yourself being the opposite on all three accounts.

Sure, event the most beneficial solution will have its cost to pay and never be returned.

Yeah... I'm almost 40. Should I be worried that I'm still looking for happiness from work rather than looking at work as a means to reach happiness outside of work? Maybe there's something wrong with me and I'm looking an idealized airline life that doesn't exist anywhere anymore. The rest of what you wrote, very appreciated. Interesting comments about the shiny longhaul metal syndrome I obviously do have and can't hide. For sure this'll make me think. For now I will keep both applications (QR and EK) but I wouldn't drop everything and leave to QR until I'm sure EK are done calling Boeing people for the time being as it seems.

Don't f**Ing put your self down! Sorry for being more directly personal than expected here. :} It is necessary.

OK, not perfectly what I said. Career fulfillment is important, it's captains only to whom the on-the-job aspiration gets truly dissolved. Despite the age and personal maturity, the career midpoint lies still ahead.

My key point, also to equalise the cold technical first post, was typed below the part you quoted.

If your hunger is leaving gloomy EE and finally getting a stable, high-value proper job, there is not other good choice but to do it.

​​​​​The people who look for happiness outside work are those who reached theirs on the job already, and are now moving beyond.

They are no different in their thinking, feeling or motivation than you. Only now aim for a different goal, as their life's fulfillment target has shifted and they came to understand that. (Which can be a very ugly experience also known as mid-life crisis BTW :E​​​​​​) They are just looking for satisfaction, same as anyone primally, your present situation included.

Different nutrition for different patients.

​​​​​Know your diagnosis and heal your own ache, grow a smile on your face and share that inner love to others. Your glass will remain forever half full.


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:ok::ok::ok:
Thanks

[QUOTE=Spongeboeing;11244399] syndrome I obviously do have and can't hide. For sure this'll make me think. [/QUOTE] The top class neurosurgeons, who operate brains on open skull, sure do their job because they wanted to do exactly that. Achieving big is not a shame.

Do ask, however, how many nights in own bed are attached to the ULR duty life.

Sponge, you are approaching 40 and already worked in DXB from 2005-08. Something about you doesn't add up eh.

Not sure he said to have worked as a (LH) pilot in UAE before.

Ah ! Been there, done that. 7 years ago, at 33 I was at your shoes. I left my narrow body command ( did not 1000hrs pic) for a widebody middle east right seat job. Made twice or at times thrice the money than that narrow body job back home. Travelled the world, fulfilled my dreams. It was 5 awesome years until the coivd hit us hard. I do not regret my decision, because the company I left, treated me/us like sh)t. I did want to give them back. And I am glad I could do it. Not everyone eats s&it to get command, only some do. Looking back, Yes logging that one or two thousand pic hrs would have been nice but hell ya, even capts with 1000s of widebody jet PIC are right now sitting at home with no jobs. And I wouldn't bought German sports car that ran on cheap fuel, and wouldn't have did all that international travel when my kids didn't go to school and when my wife wasn't working. I cant do it now, as they all are busy. So no regrets. Everything in life happens for a reason.

Now looking at your case, at 40 say if you join Qatar, and they fire you after 5 years as FO, you'll be ineligible for most of the FO jobs. Like all the wisemen's advice here, its always better to get left seat and shift from left seat at career perspective. 3 years from now you will be eligible for Qatar DEC job, or EK DEC (as they are getting 787s too) if middle east is the only place you want. There is going to be heavy shortage of captains in this region in the coming years.

Or If you are adamant on going now, log your 1000PIC, pay your bond and join Emirates, that if you clear the assessment. Emirates and Dubai are way better than QR with a little compromise.
Else take that huge risk of joining QR, many are happy in Qatar too. You can always leave during probation or in 3 years if you don't like. But leave your current LOCO on good terms.

Adios !

I was cabin crew. Came back to Europe to finish up my pilot training and started working as a pilot. I started late and I know command should be my priority given my relatively low hours/age ratio but I'm just not feeling it. I would love to be a captain don't get me wrong, but I feel I would be happier as an FO for a few more years at a company that gives me some level of professional fulfilment and more memorable experiences at work than what European low cost short hauler can offer. I'm not alone in this as basically 50% of my colleagues are also considering a move to the ME (and many already got the job). The truth is that most of them are in their early 30s or younger and their motivations are completely different than mine. I'm sure many of them, on arrival to Dubai, the first thing to do will be to get a Maserati loan or something stupid like that. That's not what I'm looking for which makes me feel that my expectations are more realistic and "mature".

What is wrong with a long term career at NetJets? Genuine question... Personal profile sounds like a nice fit.

You do understand the lifestyle available upon arrival will be starkly different from that seen 15 years ago, maybe even comparing the CC then to a present day FO. (at the absence of schoolgoing offsprings on both sides)

Again it’s subjective.I am not aware of your region specific market info. In my case, from where I come, that 1000 pic makes a big difference. May be not in your or sponge’s-case. Some guys in ME never make it command and retire as FO. In that case having flown 1000 pic will give a sense of satisfaction at the time of retirement.

Exactly what I have seen from the industry. Ok you get command 1000PIC most jobs DEC are usually pretty crap. I know a couple of guys went EK 2014/2015 with around 4K hrs 737. Both are now LHS. Ok get command get 1-2k HRS LHS. No guarantee EK will take you LHS in the future and you still have to pass EK LHS assessment which is meant to be ninja style. They usually like people with way more P1 time
anyway so what you get more P1 when you could have just gone to EK earlier anyway.
From what I heard QR is same as well. I don’t know anyone that’s gone to QR LHS with less than 2k P1. Soooooo same as EK why not just go there anyway?

Yes people will say I know FOs who been at EK/QR for like 10 years still waiting for command blah blah but I would say usually there is a reason for this.

Yes it is a hard decision. You could go EK/QR and never make command for multiple reasons.

Can’t predict the future.

I’m not far off 40 either, last few years with all this COVID etc has made me look at life differently. Yeah command would be great at some point but ideally I want to be at an airline that doesn’t have multiple bases they can send you to at a moments notice with the promise of, “we will get you to your base in 6 months” (yeah ok) or is about to go bankrupt in 5 mins.

Choosing EK/QR right seat at 20s or even early 30s is prudent. But at 40 one has to tread carefully. It’s a lot of risk, as you are at their mercy for career progression. And downturn in aviation happens every 5 to 7 years. If all goes well, no sweat but we are only talking about the next economic recession or world war or a pandemic etc. They won’t think twice to fire. Why do you think they are always hiring in spite of not having a phenomenal growth in fleet size. With 2k command time you’ll be eligible for most of the WB command jobs anyways.

If Emirates fires you because of economic conditions, your 2k command time is worthless anyway. Nobody will be hiring....

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b71d71875e.png
Hope this explains it all…
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d766a9459f.png

I bet those results are not from last year.....

Those are all brokers. Not ideal.

Proves my point exactly. A320 P1 great but you end up going through recruiters ending up at some really crappy places. I heard first hand of some really horror stories. The pay is advertised as high for a reason. I also bet many of those jobs will be doubled up. When I first got made redundant I have 3 recruiters call me for the same job.

Searching B777 specifically is a bit vague. I have a mate who’s FO 737, 777/787 rated. (Never flew 787). He was out of work for only 6 months and had interviews for 737/757/777 and 747 all Europe based. Offered jobs on all of them. Take your pick.
A320 Command unlikely to go straight to A330/340/350 as you have no LH experience.
Op would have SH and LH experience.
COVID proved this with cargo going crazy. Hence my mate being offered jobs left right and centre. SH and LH experience.