Survey: Are you accepting their offer?

[islandguy]

If you were successful in the last DESO interviews back in 2008 but were placed in a hold pool, will you be accepting CX's latest "final offer" to join as an S/O?

Let's keep it simple, YES or NO?

Me: NO

If you really are interested in working for CX, trust the advice of the guys already working there and don't give in to the "final offer" scare tactics. The package is still way less than what we all interviewed for, and will only continue to get better if everyone continues to decline.

[goat meat]

Me, like a lot of the other DESO candidates I interviewed with were experienced multi-engine jet pilots.. TWO AND A HALF YEARS ago! Without even getting into the grossly degraded terms & conditions, three months "learning" to fly a multi-engine piston in Adelaide as a "Cadet" is an insult.

If I still have the itch to go overseas to fly widebodys internationally, I'll go to Emirates as an FO (I challenge any of you considering this offer to compare the packages). Or I'll wait it out here stateside for another year or two for hiring to pick up at the Majors, while the rest of you who accepted are handcuffed to your 300 sq/ft shack in Tuen Mun, living in squalor, counting the days to the expiration of your "forgivable loan". Good Luck.

The short answer: NO

[Rhodes13]

Like many above NO.

Others have stated it but this offer is an insult to both potential DESO employees and the guys currently employed with CX.

I've moved on and now work for another wide body carrier.

[bunghole]

NO

If we keep going down this track they may just revert to the original offer.

[flynhigh]

Does anybody know how many were in the Hold Pool...I thought someone said there were around 50...so far only 2% is NO...let just wait and see how many more will say NO....

[ChinaBeached]

NO

Worked too hard to be treated like this.

If you don't stand for something you stand for nothing.

[catpac]

Rumour within CX has it, that of 60 DESO 's in the hold pool, only one has accepted the offer on a fast track cadetship terms.

For an airline to attract maturity and experience from overseas they will simply have to pay for it. You guys have made that clear!!

We are getting 100 odd new airframes over the next 9 years. Let's say there will be 50 airframes going into retirement, which makes a net gain of 50 new aircraft over 9 years. That translates into a new airframe every 2 months for the next 9 years. We currently have 2500 pilots and operate 115 aircraft which means we need minimum 22 pilots per airframe to keep them flying. In other words we need approx 22 new pilots every 2 months for the next 9 years and we are understaffed as it is today. On top of that in a few years guys will start hitting their 60's and retirements will pick up as well.

Will all these new joiners be Cadets? Time will tell...

Good luck gents!!
catpac

[WhatThe?]

No.

I didn't lose any sleep over my decision.

[edawg]

on the fence... young, single, enjoy HKG immensely; CX is profitable and growing, and they have never furloughed a pilot unlike every single American carrier, where the concept of "career" is a total crapshoot. However the housing allowance is severely degraded and I do believe I am worth more, given my experience. However you don't know what it's like to be treated less than you're worth until you've worked at a US regional carrier...

[sioux115]

Even for not giving your name at a management meeting when you ask a pointed question? Like WTF are you doing to this airline? All right...I'll feel right at home!

[Chewie-gentle giant]

Emirates

I heard that a senior FO at cathay earns more money than a emirates captain if that is true maybe you should consider that before joining emirates and you are living in the sand pit as well

[airplaneridesrfun]

At Emirates, you actually get to fly the airplane! whereas, if you join as an SO at CX, you will be lucky if you get to fly a plane in your first 5 years. Isn't that why we get into this profession; because we love to fly? Good luck getting back to your home country at either; unless you have PIC time in a 777 or bus... which you get at Emirates.


Don't listen to CX's promises; they never come true - even the ones in writing. Sandpit has a nice waterpark I hear, and you can breathe the air.

[Captain Dart]

...and they need LOTS of A380 captains!

[711]

Chewie,

since the new offer for S/O's includes almost no housing, Emirates is financially the better package ( plus time to command is probably significantly shorter).

[BigglesNBella]

What do you guys think about the package for a person who is single and without kids, in their 20's, with 200 hours or less experience? Just curious!

[T-Mass]

as someone who flight instructed for 5 years before a regional airline gig, I'd say at 200 hrs you are not supposed to be thinking about "packages" but rather building flight time however you can. but, if you are offered a package such as CX's, I say go for it. just don't expect to get any sympathy if you find something to complain about.

[flynhigh]

Great post Dan
But I don't think they really understand what your trying to say.

[Voiceofreason]

Do you really want to still be on a sub-standard contract then?

I've had a similar debate on the main forum, but please tell me (I'm genuinely curious) who has a better package out there right now? Factoring everything in, I am staying in Hong Kong because the finances just don't make sense anywhere else.

[ChinaBeached]

You're right. These kids just don't get it. They ask questions like "Should I take it?" not wanting to hear the answer anyway. Those of you asking these questions, please go back and read posts from those at CX now. You'll find an overwhelming percentage telling you EXACTLY what the correct decision is to make. You just don't want to hear it because you're so blinded.

They would be FAR better off building real hours in anything as opposed to limiting the soul that they've sold to CX for around 10 years, saving next to nothing and then if moving on having to start again. You'll be 5-10 years BEHIND anyone else your age by way of hours least of all a little thing called "experience". Stay with CX forever you say? Wow! You've really considered the big picture of wife, family, kids, retirement, sickness/loss fo license, HK isn't for you, or your wife, kids..... Strutting with 1 bar in HK sounds like an ego better stroked than PIC of a light single or twin or turbine. And that's all that matters, eh?

Just look at the questions they are asking..... "What is CAT?........Which ILS will I have to fly?" (Only relevant if challenging missed approach or that they may have to factor cold wx ops then again perhaps these two things are pushing the envelop of knowledge it seems. Get them to go-around below the MDA or DH from any NPA or ILS and see the decision they make. PS: "ILS" is short for I'm Like Superman, in case it's asked in the interview.)

It's nothing but a damn insult that children ask questions like these and will take the jobs a lot of us passed a far higher standard for & refuse to be screwed over by substandard terms and conditions.

The more people able to say no to the offer then the better the package will be for EVERYONE. Please don't encourage people of any age or any experience level to accept it knowing what the result will be to their own position and to the detriment of the terms and conditions in the long run.

Like I said before, pay bananas you get monkeys.

[T-Mass]

Substandard T&C's is relative. I work for a regional airline - happens to be one of the largest in the world. Our competitive minimums have ranged over the years from 3000-4000hrs, with considerable turbine time, to recent years of 300-500 hours, with some light twin time. Did the guy who got on with 4k hrs get the shaft or did the one with 192 hrs of total time (yes, 192 hrs has been to lowest) get in unfairly?

I said NO to offer 2.0. I think it is substandard considering what was offered before, and considering what I believe to be "worthy". But what about the guy who few years back waited 5 years at a LCC and came in as DESO with a 737 type - was he "overqualified" or would've I gotten in without paying my dues? Maybe I would've been the one B-scalers look down upon and think how I'm bringing down their profession (besides my subpar aviating skillz and a total d!ck personality ).