Baker wrote:
and a lot of our friends are checking out the expat lifestyle!!!
Speaking of ex-pats, here's the deal for you.* Forget this Continental/United outfit and go fly for Emirates Airline in Dubai.* They are arguably the best airline on the planet, and they recently became the largest international airline in the world.* ALL their flight and cabin crews are based in Dubai.* Every one of their almost-300 daily flights, be it a short hop to Saudi or a 17 hour flight to Houston, begins or ends in Dubai.* Every flight they have is point-to-point with one of the points always*being Dubai.
Unions are illegal in the UAE but Emirates pays their people comparably to the other premium international airlines.* There are no income taxes in the UAE and the airline provides very nice housing for their cabin and flight crews if they want it.* Or you can provide your own housing.* So you can bank almost everything you earn if you want to.*
Their training facility has to be seen to be believed--- it is the best in the world--- and their maintenance facilities are spectactular, for want of a better term.* They have the largest fleet of 777s in the world--- 85 at last count with some still to be delivered and a new order of 30 recently placed.* Their 777 crews fly both the passenger and cargo 777s.* They also have a growing fleet of A380s.* Their A330 and A340 fleets are probably on the way out.
All the pilots we met were either British or American.** They actively recruit*cabin crew from all over the world and they are one of the most employee-oriented airlines I've ever worked with.* In one of the first cabin announcements made on a flight they list the languages spoken by the cabin crew and there are rarely less than ten or twelve.
Fantastic outfit if you can deal with living in Dubai, which is now on the road to recovery after their financial crisis.* The airline's business is up by a huge percent this year.* Your photos are nice, but compared to Dubai, it looks like you were at a Sunday school picnic