Expat jobs

[pilotguy2017]

It's a miserable place. Cathay loves young guys with little worldly experience to exploit at garbage pay. I'd stay away.

[marbles1]

I love Hong Kong but it's not for everyone. The city is polluted, crowded and can be very expensive. To rent a flat you will need to come up with 2 months rent for a deposit as well as first months rent. If you have kids, schooling can be expensive and it is difficult to find space in the lower grades. If you want to eat like you do at home groceries can be expensive ie. milk is about 4 cad/l.

From the Cathay side the biggest issue is no housing allowance, all you get is a cash allowance of 10k HKD/month. That is very difficult to find anything decent to rent. Google Hong Kong flats to rent to get an idea what's out there. They are just starting to hire direct entry F/O's into Hong Kong, this will delay upgrades for the S/O's most likely to about 4 years. Captain upgrades are sitting close to 10yrs right now but that can change very quickly

Another thing to consider is contract compliance which has been going on for 2 years and will most likely continue for the foreseeable future. There has been a constant battle between the pilots and management for years and there is no sign this will change anytime soon. Add to this the company lost money last year because of a billion dollar FU in fuel hedging and nobody is safe.

My 2 cents, if you are young and single worth a punt as you can always go elsewhere if you don't t like the place. Older and married with kids, stay away. You will regret it and the place will come close to ruining you financially.

[hithere]

Ya gotta love aviation. Can you imagine a doctor or lawyer starting out and being advised to stay away from a hospital or firm because it "will ruin you financially"? Of course not, because you either 1: wouldn't go there in the first place because there are so many other places that would treat you well or2: within a week of starting at the$hithole company you would tell them to shove the POS job up theirs; all the while not being on the hook for some illegal training bond. How we ever let this @profession sink to the ranks of prostitution; I will never know

[Eric Janson]

I can assure you that there are a lot of Canadian pilots occupying desirable positions and living in cities such as Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam ,Singapore,even the French riviera, etc. Most of them made feel welcome in their host countries.

What airlines for Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, French Riviera? Air China?

My company requires all Pilots to be EU based. We designate an airport as Base and all rosters start and end at this Base.

I have colleagues living in all the places mentioned.

[hithere]

And which airline is this?

[Eric Janson]

And which airline is this?

HiFly