Hi everyone, thanks for the replies. As I said, just research at this time. Plenty of hoops need to be jumped through before anything happens. I should have mentioned in my initial post that my intention is to live in the USA, or Guam, as required. it would be nice to occasionally travel home for a break outside of annual leave periods.
Other posters have mentioned in other threads (talking about the Guam 737 operations & the like) that it would be possible to do the credit hours required then take the rest of the month off which seemed highly odd.

APC225: Yes, the captain I knew would be fairly senior. He stated that he joined UAL in 1993. If anyone working for UAL knows of any Captains who are or were on the 747-400 commute from Sydney Australia, can you let me know. I'd like to pass on a message to him. He mentioned that before aviation he was studying to be a dentist in Minnesota. Can't be 100% certain on that.

SHYGUY: In theory, with enough seniority, you could live in LA, commute to SYD then operate a QF 747 or A380 provided you had residency in Australia which is not an easy task.

PCLCREW: Yes, Virgin, Jetstar would make me much happier. Tiger is an absolute basket case & QF haven't recruited in the last 6 years. I don't meet the educational requirements for QF anyway. The wanted top subjects which I didn't do.

BUFORD: Yes there are many expat gigs around. Emirates, Etihad require heavy jet time which I don't have, I have no jet time. Cathay are only recruiting Hong Kong nationals & the Asian contracts require time on type which you guessed it, I don't have.

In Australia, college degrees aren't required for aviation jobs. Nobody seems to care about them. All they are interested in are whether you have the hours they want, the licence they want & the right sort of hours they're after (multi turbine RPT etc)