S-Y-B, seems to be bad luck that you're in the 777 side of the airline habib.. When you mention the poor crew rest facilities you're right, it's shockingly bad on your fleet. By comparison the 345 CRC is 'fairly' good, and as for the ULR slingshots to IAH, GRU - well, have to wait 'til the 380's sent there I guess!!
Never had more than 14 days XX in a month, don't commute so aren't affected by the 'roster changes'. And you know what - I couldn't care less, and I hear some of you clamouring 'thanks for the support WK', but remember that in such a diverse selection of flight crew that we all want different things, so generally there is no 'united we stand, divided....'

Obviously there is very little consultation with management, welcome to the sand-pit:E

Sorry to say, but NO - anymore is the harsh truth!

as others have stated already:
"I've enjoyed my time with EK, but I'm afraid I'm very much on the countdown - i'm actively planning my exit strategy now" like so many others - for all the reasons stated as well:

too low payment, way to high accomodation costs , high costs, DXB become a crappy construction site whereever You go, company travel policy dreadful -
and now, they start messin' around with your rosters/ OFF-days - even when in top bid groups - enough is enough !!!

ten - nine -eight ....:}

I haven't been here long, but I can see what's beyond the honeymoon........

Get the training bond down, get the hours on type, GET OUT!

Some of you need to get out and enjoy the nice weather instead of wasting your time on pPrune. Summer's around the corner.

Just had a chat with a EK 777 Capt going back to UK charter 75/76, everyone has there own reason for coming ,staying or leaving. best thing anyone can do is lots of good homework. Gulf news = goodnews, and for the most part PPrune= bad news. Dubai is fast becoming a zoo and not a good place for kids or should I say not kid freindly.yes there are lots of things for kids but at a cost in $ and risk to life and limb on the roads. If you are like me I worry every time my family is out on the roads and not just the highways. Kids on school buses going down SZR no f..king way would I ever subject my kids to the idiots who drive those buses, if you do give your head a shake. Also just heard from a freind that outside some of the school locals claiming to be CID to lure kids into their cars, great , whats next.

What portion of the year do you have to be employeed to receive the bonus? My date to arrive in Dubai is looking like 1 July. Will I qualify for all or just a portion of next years bonus?

Thanks,

Guns

Bonus
 

Yes you will be elegible for the 8/12 of the pot. Cutoff date for 0/0 is end of September. If you have a wicked sense of humour and your friends call you cynical, Dubai is the place for you. It is for me.

I'm in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a kid I was part of one of those "double blind" tests. They put me in a room with a big pile of sh1t. I turned to the administrator and asked for a shovel.

"Why would you want a shovel?" the Dr. says to me.

"YOUR the Dr, lady.........you can't see it! With all that sh1t, there has got to be a pony in there somewhere!

Yea, a glutton for pain, and the ultimate optomist!

Guns

Just a quick reality check. If you join now you're expected to stay in temporary accommodation, some one bedroom apartment in a undesirable part of town for up to 6 months. The excuse is that there is no accommodation, crap, there is they just don't want to pay for it.

How does one join this company with a family, Ek have asked the new joiners not to bring their families across for the 6 month period, what a great start.... how the #%*# does one get the kids in a school.

AHHHH kingpost!

No one really gives a F^&K here. That is an issue you and your families will have to sort out when you get here. Not EKs problem!!:mad: Sign the dotted line and be happy!

Sarcasm on:
If after serious consideration of ALL the factors you still decide to join the sandpit (as of today, with today's T&Cs), you must be pretty desperate. To the point of scaring us stuck in there as to your ability of judgement, not to say your ability stand alone .....
This was sarcasm! (Not intended to insult any one of you, as myself I have once joined.):}

Can anyone confirm that the villas being built in Mirdiff (v.short final RWY30L) are for EK? If that is the case good luck resting at any time of the day as there is no downtime in DXB anymore. I would judge that you pass overhead at about 1,000ft, fully configured with approach thrust set.
Also what happens when you have one of those Russian freighters take off from 12R and then fly level for 5 miles?

Scaglietti:confused:

I'm surprised to find how many very senior EK pilots are in the same situation. Every second pilot I've spoken to over the last week or two (ok, a slight exaggeration:O) seems to be living alone in his villa with the family gone home. In my compound, the bachelors outnumber the families.

Well 7x7 - i'm sorry to admit, but it's me too - as my wife left me with kids behind and was headin' back to scandinavia after 3 years down here at the sandy &crappy place - well, luckily not totally, but she prefers livin´at a civilized place w/o outreageous racism & reckless drivers - fearin' for the worst!
:ok:
naf furthermore - "Can anyone confirm that the villas being built in Mirdiff (v.short final RWY30L) are for EK?"

yes - unfortuneately i can confirm this - EK is going down the cheap road - cheap - cheaper - Emirates - which stands for:
English Management Indian Run - and the Employees Suffer - how true !:ugh:

White Knight is still happy at EK after 5 years, or so he says despite saying he needs a 30% pay rise so why can you not all be like him??

Ten EK pilots in my compound. Three, soon to be two of the ten have their wives with them. The rest are either divorced or the wives and kids live back home and the husbands (attempt to) commute.

Best job I ever had.
 

People forget where they come from.

8 years in EK and still happy. Okay - some things that were great 8 years ago are just acceptable now.
But a couple of days reality check at my origins (about 50N 10E +/- 5 degrees) make me feel homesick for DXB.
Sheikh Mo & Co are trying to write a book down here that nobody else has ever tried writing. I ll be damned to bug out before I see the end of the story - whichever way it goes. My grandchildren will appreciate grandpa's war stories one day.

If you live long enough that is...

You'll have a war story either way.

Things 'roun here 'er at an all time low. Never seen it worse. :cool:

747-8 crewing
 

If Atlas ends up crewing B747-8s they are going to be required to go through Emirates "Advanced Intelligence Required" training program as the aircraft are going to have UAE registry thus requiring UAE licensing. Don't think there too many Atlas pilots that are going to put with the "teach yourself" training program at Emirates.

Yup, good and bad points about living here. I won't repeat what most have already listed but as a Canadian who's been here for 4+ years now, I sure wish I had a decent option to go home to. Job is not too bad (no flying job is perfect right?) but Dubai sucks the life out of you. I have nothing good to say about this city except for the fact that there's no snow here.
I find it odd that people are still leaving stable jobs in Europe to come here. Flying shiny new widebodies around the world ain't all it's cracked up to be. I promise you, if I could go back to Canada to a decent paying and STABLE job, I would be out of here like greased lightning. Due to the pathetic state of affairs in Canadian aviation I doubt that's going to happen in my lifetime.
Bottom line is: if you are living at home and already have a decent paying, stable job, stay put. The grass is NOT greener on the other side. You will regret leaving home eventually, I promise you.
'Nuff said.

Come on. If you come from a country where drugs, K&R are the major industries, then of course EK will seem like a good job. Hardly the gold standard though, is it?

Is this what we're reduced to? "As shi$$y as it is, it could always be worse?!"

The new recruiting motto! :ok:

I used to....things have changed....I mean deteriorated....

Everybody will leave this place one day, some sooner, some later.

I find happiness with my family, friends...Not in the job or the city...

EK/Dubai, for most people I talk to, becomes the negative of your life....Give it time.

Sooner or later...

Cyberbird, there's racism against foreigns in UAE?

Moreover, pilots don't like the country, the company, or.... both???

We were told at the interview that 747-800 freighters were going to be crewed by Emirates pilots. And also that the 777 freighters maybe combined into to the 777 pax rosters.

I had a chat with an acquaintance today who has been here for 12 years. I was commenting that I was thinking about leaving sometime in the future and he summed up things in one sentence. He said he would leave in a heartbeat except he did not want to go through the whole process and BS of joining a new company.

I thought about that for some time and came to the conclusion that in spite of my enjoyment of SOME of the attributes of Dubai and my annoyment with MOST of the attributes of Dubai......... and foremost being the continual decline of our T&C's , I too have that same obstacle deterring me from leaving. I just don't want to go through another change in my life.

This is dissapointing for me especially considering I have been a big supporter of EK in the past. If the company treated us well as professional pilots, I truly believe we could all overlook some of the huge negatives about Dubai. But in the past 3-5 years, it has been a two-pronged approach against us.

>>>>>>>>>>The city is clearly less desirable in which to live and the company is clearly less desirable for which to work>>>>>>>>

I am leaning towards a job with less money, hopefully better schedules but definitely in a better location. Avoiding the BS of Dubai by kite-surfing, golfing, scuba diving, dining out or whatever....... works for a while, but this place is sucking the life out of me.

I have no pride in my company. I only have pride in how well I can do my job. I save as much money as I can for this greedy company, I rarely call in sick, I do my best in other words ! And now I am questioning why.

Man, I hate feeling this way. There must be something better out there. Perhaps not, but if that is the case, then obviously this profession is a mess.

Ooops, time for the local brainwashing rant. Time to get off line and blast some AC/DC ! Glad my speakers are more powerful and my neighbours get a chuckle when they hear my music instead of the local rants.

yeah... the others just complain in the cokpit....

Absolutely spot on mensa boy....best and most accurate post i've read

"Dubai sucks the life out of you"

How many times I've heard this. And so true. I've seen once cheerful people reduced to physical violence by the environment. Relationships flounder, kids go astray, values are lost, financial objectives crumble in this dog eat dog environment.

The financial benefits are highly debateable but the emotional degradation is guaranteed!

As a current an RJ captain in the states making about 70,000 USD per year, do you gentlemen think I would be misguided to consider employment at Emirates? I am generally happy with my job here (based in my hometown) but am gravely concerned about the future.

I am nervous because my regional airline is being threatened by its mainline partner with being "phased out" in favor of cheaper operators. Mergers and buyouts are on the horizon, and the economic of RJ's are looking less and less appealing with the current cost of fuel. My company has already put out a bid for voluntary leaves of abscences, no aircraft orders on horizon, and things are generally looking very bleak.

There are very few job opportunites for pilots in the states right now, and if my airline does close its doors, I will likely be hard pressed to find work. I have about 3700 total flight hours and 950 jet command time. Would EK even consider me with such little experience? I have filled out the online application and am on the verge of hitting 'submit'.

I am 25, single, and even if it turns out after 5 years or so that EK is not for me at the least the widebody experience will look good on the resume. The compensation as an EK FO would be about the same as my RJ Captain pay in the states maybe a slight increase when you consider the lack of taxes in dubai. Thoughts?

I am happy..
 

As mentioned before in many post, this is where the whinners go. If they aren't happy here they probably want be happy anywhere. Instead of coming on here and complaining, go work on your CV and leave, it would make everyone else here happy. There are alot of happy people here, so the best advice I have is to come see for yourself. Good luck on the interview.:ok:

What a load of dog's balls to say that here is where the "whinners" (whiners? whingers? winners?) post. Believe it or not, most people would just like those considering joining to have access to something they did not when they joined....the truth.

"A lot of happy people" in Dubai and Emirates? In my experience, totally untrue. There are many, many people who have accepted their lot for the short-term - the shortest they can manage - but that's hardly "happiness". What you call happy is usually people rationalizing their decision to themselves and those around them. We all do what we have to survive, and telling ourselves and those around us that things are great, the emperor really has clothes, Dubai is actually a real city, and on and on...it may help with coping, but it doesn't make it true.

But then what about Dubai and Emirates bears any resemblance to the truth? It's like a movie set, a cardboard cutout false-front name-brand paradise. Glitzy PR machine, no substance.

Two colleagues of mine are leaving soon. One of them, I always took to be quite happy here, always positive on the surface and cheerful. But he confided in me privately that in truth, he has hated being here for quite some time and desperate to leave. Being a normally positive person and for the sake of his family, he suppressed his true opinions. Thankfully for him, he made a plan for his exit strategy and executed it. Makes me wonder how many others are in a similar state, that "quiet desperation"? Perhaps sometimes we don't even know how much our current situation is affecting us until leaving is a real plan, not just an abstract concept.

Interesting times!

I love it here!!! Emirates and Dubai

It all depends on what you are used to. It is getting very expensive here, but we can still do everything we want. In my opinion the schedules are not bad, I used to work much harder. If your family is happy here you will be happy that is the most important thing. I once flew with a captain, he did not complain at all. I thought he was happy at EK so I asked him. He said “I hate Emirates, but my family loves Dubai and that makes me happy at work.”

So if you are married, make sure she is the one to make the move, and you can deal with any crap the company sends you.

Would my age be hed against me if I had the opportunity to upgrade at EK before I turned 30? Since it's done out of seniority order with an "interview" type of procedure, Is it possible that I would be held in the right seat indefinitely due to an arbitrary thing like "not being old enough".

I don't mean to get ahead of myself, I don't even have an interview much less an offer of employment, but I've heard the good about EK now I'm trying to educate myself on the bad.

Alchemy,

No your age wouldn't be a problem whatsoever. Given where you are professionally, EK represents a significant step up and a great opportunity to get some good international exposure. Given your age, you really have very little to lose by coming over for a few years and getting to the left seat of a 330 or 777. That's pretty much impossible in the US given the state of the industry there now. Once you do that it should be pretty easy to move on if you decide that EK isn't for you.

Hello Coldwing, in Dubai, there is no racism in the sense of the regular definition of the word (you know, whites hating blacks or browns and vice-versa).

There is, in my view, some discrimination based on country of origin, religion, and social status. Usually, but not always, Arabs in general have a better treatment in everything. Obviously, the government tries to show otherwise. Also, generally, Brits and rich Indians have a bigger size of the pie as well.
Again, this the view I have formed after being here for seventeen years.

Most of the pilots coming from more "civilized" parts of the world, dislike the city, the driving standards, the culture, and the unbearable heat.
Most dislike the company as a whole. The harsh flight scheduling, the lack of representation from the pilot's group before the management, and of course, the dictatorial management style.

If you need the job, you have to find psychological means to tolerate the whole crap :ugh: