I read that effective 28 april 2016 the Haneda Honolulu service will be done by the B787-8

the HND - HNL operation on the B767 is now done by mainline ANA crew. AJX only operate the 2 HNL flights out of NRT.

Apparently there are plans to convert more 767 pax a/c to BCF, so it would appear the 767 operation for AJX may be around for a looong time yet. Not sure we'll be seeing any shiny new jets soon. But, who knows?

Hi Dogitred,

Yes ANA have just announced that they will operate the 787 on the HND-HNL from April next year. I have been told it may be a mix of -8 and -9 when more planes arrive.

It makes no real difference for AJX operations as ANA mainline guys have been doing that flight for the last few months with a mixture of 767 and 777 anyway.

As more 787 arrive every month, more and more flights will be taken over by the 787......everything now depends on timing.

What flights stay with the 767 and what flights go to the 787 are anyones guess....it is going to be a very interesting year or 2 for AJX operations......as the 767 international PAX flying slowly reduces. Trust me many people have opinions and ideas....but no one really knows.

Interesting as in we are going to go to some cities in China that half of the Chinese people haven't even heard of before? Then yes...., it will be an interesting couple of years!:ok:

Happy 2016 people....

Germany
 

Hi guys,

Anyone currently in AJ on this contract who reside in Germany? Would really appreciate any info regarding tax etc.

Thanks for any info, great thread guys!

22.

some random post from a melbourne based german asking about tax??? good luck with that

..22k, take some time to read the international tax agreement between your country, and the country where you want to work at..should give you more info about where you will pay your taxes, if any..

Australian with a German wife to be to be precise. Looking for a way to get the mrs back to the fatherland (with myself in tow of course).

It (the tax) gets a bit confusing given my nationality and the planned domicile but in the end I think it just depends on where one lives, hence why I was wondering about any Germans in particular that may be there.

Seeing a tax guy in Germany soon to answer the German q's but I'd be grateful to hear any specifics if there's any Germans or similar around.

22k

PS 757,

Cheers mate, wilco.

22k

@22K

You came to the wrong place for tax advice...., mostly because some pilots have the delusional believe that they are smarter than most people, specially people that work at a tax office...., so you get folks getting hit with close to half a million Aussie dollars bill between tax and penalties.

The funny thing is that others that see this situation, still think the tax people are stupid and what happened to the other guy will not happen to them..., because of course, I'm smarter than that other fool and some idiot working at a cubicle.

Go find one of those "work at a cubicle" types to answer your questions about taxes, as it turns out, they are actually pretty smart about that sort of thing.

Who knew?

22K

In no way being smartarse but your position is somewhat convoluted in a number of ways, only suggestion is it's well worth to go to two international accountant businesses and pay their fees out of your own pocket - then compare their advice...and proceed as you see fit.

Make sure you have thought about problems you perceive and ask questions - get your $500 plus worth out of your first consultation from each.

Dom's 100% correct IMHO, some believe they don't have to pay tax anywhere in the world, has been disproved over last few years as at least a couple of OZ have been caught up for, at least, discussions with tax authorities.

Also bear in mind that the AirJapan deal is the ONLY contract in Japan that doesn't pay tax, never has, probably never will: to be corrected but I believe all other potentials (Vanilla, Peach, Jetstar Japan, skymark? etc) pay japanese tax after the event - Japan is a dual tax country for a hell of a lot of countries so paid in japan generally covers most other countries...other than the USA so I hear...but WTF would I know??

Best of luck with your endeavour's. :ok:

Yes gents all valid points and by no means was I after any kind of detailed tax advice, after all, we are pilots and not tax specialists as The Dom points out.

I am however, welcoming any advice, experience or even tales from any euro based crew doing their thing there (such as references to relevant tax documents, any accounts familiar with this contract and the like). Just trying to gather as much info as I can gents (as I previously wrote, I'm seeing a tax accountant here in Germany who's familiar with such affairs), this doesn't mean I'll be stuffing all of my cash in a mattress because someone on a forum said its cool, I'm just doing what we all do (hopefully very well too), gather, assess, then decide :ok:

Dom, Fr8mate and the like, cheers to you guys, maybe, just maybe if I can get through the process without screwing up, I'd like to get in what is probably a long line to shout you a beer

Cheers guys....

..Dom, I beg to differ Sir..


I think this site has been very good for sharing information..Most pilots know exactly, what their tax situation and responsibilities are..They indeed have hired professional help, done things right in order to avoid any trouble with the Tax Man..On the other hand, there are some, just like you said, that are trying to circumnavigate the system, and not paying there taxes right..The bottom line is, that for work performed overseas, some countries will tax you, some will not..It all depends on the local tax rules..


..Fly safe..

That is the funniest thing I have read in this site in a long time.

Japanese airline industry: ANA to buy Airbus A380 jumbo jets, boost Hawaii service- Nikkei Asian Review

Now that will really be a long wait in PHNL immigration!

For whoever ends up flying there...., not for us:D

Accommodation Allowance
 

Hi

I have a question regarding the accommodation arrangements once training has been completed. An amount of $550 is provided by one of the agencies to cover accommodation at the operations base.

What kind of accommodation do commuting pilots usually take out, and is the allowance generally sufficient for it?

I do apologize if the topic has been covered in the preceding 117 pages, but if anyone can provided me with some current information, I would be appreciative.

Sincerely...

I don't know the numbers but there are many that have apartments in NRT and many that stay at the hotel. The allowance used to be sufficient but that is not going to be the case any more come April 1. The price for the hotel will be going up at that point with no increase in the allowance. Apparently they feel that because the dollar/yen exchange rate is so good right now that we don't need an increase. := The current hotel price is 5,940 yen and will be increasing to 7,000 yen. I have been averaging just over 9 nights/month in NRT. At the current price the allowance is sufficient. At the new price it will not.

Hi

Sorry if this has been asked before but I could not find it going over the previous pages. Would appreciate it if someone could help me with this as Im seriously considering to change jobs.

I have seen 5 sample rosters from Parc and to be honest they looked Not bad compared to what I have Now. Im currently flying the 757/767 for a big freight/logistics company so that is why probably. Im not sure if the rosters are current ones and that in reality they're different.

I would take a paycut for this job and get less days off. Not an awful lot but still. I just feel like it is time for something new in my career and have a bit enough of flying 90% at night around Europe. 60-70% would already be an improvement for me. One of my main concerns would be the rosters and lifestyle.

- The rosters did not show many min rest stops. Is this correct?
- How stable is the roster once it is published? Will you have lots of roster changes so making it hard to plan your rest and sleep?
- is the quality in the hotels in general quite good to have a proper sleep?
- Intially The plan is that I would commute back to AMS. Anyone doing this commute at the moment? With zed/id tickets would you keep some money in your pocket from the $2k allowance?
- Any guys commuting on their block of days off in Asia? Like Thailand for instance? Should make the job more easy I guess regarding Jetlag?
- Is it possible to get a good impression from Japan and the company just during those screening days in Tokyo or is it better to go there for a weeks leave maybe? Im an easy person and lived in the Middle East for some years before and look forward to experiencing a new culture. Just that I hear some mixed experiences about Japan.
- Parc mentioned that guys are upgrading at the moment around year 3 of their contract. Bit too positive?
- Is the command process fair or a grilling? Can you compare it to European carriers?

Thanks very much. I would really appreciate it if someone could help me with this. Any private messages are welcome as well.
Best regards

- The rosters did not show many min rest stops. Is this correct? We have two destinations (HKG & TPE) where the passenger flights have, what they call, 'hotel rest'. This means you get about 10 hours and then fly back to NRT. All of our other destinations have 24 hours or more. Sometimes you will have a 'blank day' downroute (normally on a Monday when you're on a cargo trip) and this means you'll be in a particular place for 48 hours+. Great if it's BKK but sucks if it's in China :)
- How stable is the roster once it is published? Will you have lots of roster changes so making it hard to plan your rest and sleep? The rosters are really quite stable. Of course, as in any airline, if people go sick etc then sometimes they have to swap rosters around but they normally give you a fair bit of notice. I haven't had any schedule changes for the last three months. I did have one for the end of January but they let me know about that at the end of December, so I think I can probably sort out my rest with that notice period :ok:So, no, you will not have lots of roster changes.
- is the quality in the hotels in general quite good to have a proper sleep? We've had a few lacklustre hotels in China (PVG in particular) but, as I type, the hotels we have are all pretty good, with some better than others. The Japanese hotels tend to be the small, 'business'-type rooms but if you don't plan on practicing your ribbon dancing then you should be okay
- Intially The plan is that I would commute back to AMS. Anyone doing this commute at the moment? With zed/id tickets would you keep some money in your pocket from the $2k allowance? Plenty of European commuters but none, that I can think of, that commute to AMS. ANA don't fly to AMS, so if you were to use them for ZED travel then you'd obviously have to get another flight from LON/FRA/MUC/DUS/CDG but we do have a ZED agreement with KLM. Yes, you would save money if you took the allowance.
- Any guys commuting on their block of days off in Asia? Like Thailand for instance? Should make the job more easy I guess regarding Jetlag? Yes. Some guys live there and other guys visit. I don't think jet lag is a problem for BKK/SGN :}
- Is it possible to get a good impression from Japan and the company just during those screening days in Tokyo or is it better to go there for a weeks leave maybe? Im an easy person and lived in the Middle East for some years before and look forward to experiencing a new culture. Just that I hear some mixed experiences about Japan.There's normally no rush to get to and from Japan for the screening because it doesn't cost the agency any more if you choose to stay for a few days and pay for your own hotel. You won't get a chance to look at any of Japan if you just stay for the screening and your impression of the area in which you stay will not be the best that is on offer. If you really want to have a look around then arrange with the agency to fly out early or back later and stay around for a few days. Come up to NRT, stay in the Excel hotel and ask all the questions you know won't be answered by the agency.
- Parc mentioned that guys are upgrading at the moment around year 3 of their contract. Bit too positive? They are still assessing people around that timeframe and upgrading around half. Who knows what will happen next week but Parc are telling the truth at the moment.
- Is the command process fair or a grilling? Can you compare it to European carriers? It's mostly about theoretical and 'book' knowledge, so you just have to immerse yourself in the manuals and learn the absolutely useless trivia that you will never use in line operations but the Japanese consider so important to being a 'strong' pilot. They have no imagination nor the initiative to be able to 'wing it' when required, so they rely on learning everything, parrot fashion, from the books and you'll be expected to do the same. Do that, keep your head down until that point and you'll be okay. Cause the Company any grief with passports, getting into fights, upsetting the office girls etc, then expect to find a 'not suitable' on your first assessment (at least). Don't know how it compares to European upgrades but it is more a matter of learning the trivia, rather than just knowing which books to look in to find it.....which is the norm in most other places.