Emirates is conducting several US road shows soon. Just a heads up to those considering joining. I would avoid it unless you are nearing retirement and want to save some tax free money prior to hanging up your career. Quality of life has gone down the toilet during the last year and those without an escape route back home are seriously unhappy.
The contract you sign is not what you will be faced with upon joining. Since Emirates is basically Dubai you have no recourse. No way to arbitrate any disagreements or sue if you feel you have been short changed. If you don't like it there's the door is a common HR reply. Of course when you attend the interview it's all roses and shiny new 777/380's.
Vacation or lack thereof is my biggest gripe. You get zero credit for a vacation day at EK. This is a recent change. The airline is critically staffed due to so many resignations so you absolutely will not get your 42 days of contractually mandated leave. Instead the company will give you 30 days (mandated by UAE law for all workers) and the rest will go into a leave bank. But to add insult to injury they generally give you blocks of 7 days of leave. Since you get no credit for leave you will have 7 days of leave, 13-15 total days off (including your leave), and about 85-92 hours of flying. So your "leave" month will be exactly the same as a non leave month. It's BS with a capital BS. Every month you will have between 8-15 days off and a minimum of 80 hours of flying unless you are somehow able to get 21 days of leave in a row.
Another problem is that they require you to be "acclimatised" prior to a ULR duty. This requires 3 local nights in Dubai. After your 7 day vacation they will generally stick a ULR flight. In order to comply with the company policy you have to fly back to Dubai after day 3 of vacation in order to be acclimatised for your next duty. You can ignore this rule but you run the risk of getting a warning letter which delays that quick upgrade you came for. Also they don't give credit for sim or ground duties of any kind. So you can get a month with 90 hours of flying, 3 days of sim, and 2 days of ground school.
The list goes on and on. But if you choose to come to EK know that you are committing yourself to living in the ME and you will only see the loved ones back home a couple times a year if that. I've had a good run here but I would never join today considering the downward spiral and lengthening upgrade times. Just two years ago it was common to get 15-18 days off in a non leave month. Now I can't even get that with vacation added in.
The contract you sign is not what you will be faced with upon joining. Since Emirates is basically Dubai you have no recourse. No way to arbitrate any disagreements or sue if you feel you have been short changed. If you don't like it there's the door is a common HR reply. Of course when you attend the interview it's all roses and shiny new 777/380's.
Vacation or lack thereof is my biggest gripe. You get zero credit for a vacation day at EK. This is a recent change. The airline is critically staffed due to so many resignations so you absolutely will not get your 42 days of contractually mandated leave. Instead the company will give you 30 days (mandated by UAE law for all workers) and the rest will go into a leave bank. But to add insult to injury they generally give you blocks of 7 days of leave. Since you get no credit for leave you will have 7 days of leave, 13-15 total days off (including your leave), and about 85-92 hours of flying. So your "leave" month will be exactly the same as a non leave month. It's BS with a capital BS. Every month you will have between 8-15 days off and a minimum of 80 hours of flying unless you are somehow able to get 21 days of leave in a row.
Another problem is that they require you to be "acclimatised" prior to a ULR duty. This requires 3 local nights in Dubai. After your 7 day vacation they will generally stick a ULR flight. In order to comply with the company policy you have to fly back to Dubai after day 3 of vacation in order to be acclimatised for your next duty. You can ignore this rule but you run the risk of getting a warning letter which delays that quick upgrade you came for. Also they don't give credit for sim or ground duties of any kind. So you can get a month with 90 hours of flying, 3 days of sim, and 2 days of ground school.
The list goes on and on. But if you choose to come to EK know that you are committing yourself to living in the ME and you will only see the loved ones back home a couple times a year if that. I've had a good run here but I would never join today considering the downward spiral and lengthening upgrade times. Just two years ago it was common to get 15-18 days off in a non leave month. Now I can't even get that with vacation added in.