Pros
Very professional flying outfit. Training is excellent. Lifestyle on 777 fleet is pretty good, with a decent prospect of overtime.
Cons
Hong Kong cost of living - particularly with a family. Industrial action (including a Training Recruitment ban) which has been ongoing for years now. Extremely poor lifestyle on A330 or 747 fleets. Max hours, short to medium haul, and a lot of two crew 'through the night' trips. Company treats staff as numbers, and routinely refuse to make concessions for even the most senior pilots. This is a reason why, as a new pilot, you will be given a 'Pilot's allowance' which hasn't seen an inflationary raise since 2008. Morale is incredibly low throughout the company and many people have already left. New contract for pilots is rumoured to be imminent with a 'take it or be fired' ultimatum. Traditional '13th month' salary under threat because of extreme mismanagement over fuel hedging. No responsibility has been taken over this from management. Rostering practices agreement was ripped up and replaced by management years ago and we have seen no adequate replacement. Now they do what they want with us. Consistent, almost monthly, cuts to staff travel and medical benefits. A good example was when they placed Dragonair employees on equal footing with us for staff travel. This even though they're a different company. From the DFO, "If you're here for the benefits, you're at the wrong company".