This is EXACTLY why the terms and conditions continue to go down the crapper.
Cathay LOVES people like you. Completely uninformed, head in the clouds, SJS to the max. Another cheap warm body to fill the relief seats.
- Fly a nice plane (SJS, check!)
- Work for a huge international company (the kind of company that continues to degrade conditions for employees and rules through intimidation and fear)
- Lin in HK which would be fantastic (fantastic to whomever you're paying rent to. Based on the significantly reduced housing allowance, you'll be committing financial suicide, you'll never be able to afford anything close to a middle class quality of life while there)
Sure, defend it with the idea, "hey i'm young, single, inexperienced, this would be a great place to start my career" -- except one day you won't be so young, likely married and perhaps a kid, and no longer inexperienced....but the terms of your SJS contract will still haunt you years after.
Sorry for the rant, you really need to gain some perspective, it'll save you heaps of grief in the future.
Good luck.
SJS? Perspective? Here's some perspective... HK is expensive, but US$87k isn't oh so bad now, is it, not to mention that it's $140k in nigh-on 3 years. Then it's over $200k as a captain, rising to $330k. Let's not even mention overtime, shall we.
18k a year to fly a regional? That's SJS. Have you seen the majors year 1 pay? That's barely better. Pretending that there isn't
hugely better alternatives outside the US - that's a lack of perspective.
I know that FAA tests aren't in too focused on mathematics, but I'm astonished that some people try to pretend that money is the issue with this scheme. It's not. It's moving your life to a vastly different part of the world. You tell me, poledriver, which regional I should go to? the one that pays 18k, or the one that pays me 21k? What will I make as a captain? Substantially lower than a year 1 SO at Cx makes?
Yes, I'll concede that the housing allowance used to be greater. As a senior captain, you'd be taking in US$500+. That's great, but market forces dictate everything. What business in their right mind pays you double what they need to? Grow up. Pick on the scheme by all means, but don't for a moment make yourself look even more stupid by pretending it's about money.
Yes, HK is expensive. Rather, rent is expensive. Everything else is cheap, if you know where to look. Vastly cheaper, in fact. Given that year 1 SO take home is over 6k after tax (and a retirement plan which blows any US carrier out of the water), that's 4 times what you'd make at a regional, based in the North East. Don't be so ignorant to pretend that COL is 4 times more. It's far less, with the exception of rent.
I know this, I've lived in HK, London, NYC, LA and Dubai, and I can assure you that rent aside, my living costs FAR less than it did in any of the other places I've lived.
Yes, yes, but what about the people that turn it down? Utter nonsense. There are literally tens of thousands of applicants. I can tell you right now that the only folks to have turned it down, bar about 3, are those who were offered a DESO position back in '08.
Make of that what you will, but please don't harp on about the financial aspect. Harp on about the cultural difference, the pollution, the language barrier, the daunting prospect of moving across the globe, the relentless hustle and bustle of the place, or whatever else doesn't float your boat. But, given that the US airline industry is the biggest disgrace in the world in terms of contract erosion, and the most poorly paid (when compared to the Far East, China, India, Australia, Europe) in the world, I'd suggest you're either misinformed, looking up the wrong tree, or plain ignorant if you're pretending that the money in the US is anything but a fraction of being at Cx.
