Originally Posted by
Globemaster2827
I wish there were a way to double our Per Diem and you just show up with your own food. The Catering is rotten half the time. Any where out of Asia, ORD, CVG, LAX, GYD, SYD, MIA, IAH, JFK, any where in Africa... Don't bother.
You can try to live off of catering on first year but that won't be an option until you start OE. They're supposedly hiring 150 747 FOs in the next few months so that "Free Food" won't start for 4 months or more as OE will back up. Keep in mind that 747 CAPTAINS are bolting right now and they're usually the priority for OE. If you're on the 767 you won't be getting more than rotten sandwiches most legs. If you spend 8 months trying to live off of the catering you will be getting food poisoning. It's Russian Roulette..
^^^^
This is the truth. In my opinion the best catering we receive is catering out of Germany. HKG ranks right up there as the worst, along with anywhere else in China. IF you come here you’ll quickly learn (because 90% of your work life will be spent in Asia if you’re on the 747) what is good and what isn’t. For instance, crews are known for stopping at Popeyes in the terminal in HKG to buy their own food. Burgers in the catering out of ICN aren’t bad....but they aren’t great either. It’s just that they are the best thing that is catered out of ICN.
Forget the catering out of PVG, SZX, and anywhere else in China. You have to be starving to find it edible.
ANC catering isn’t bad, some complain about it but I don’t mind it personally. The problem is if you’re ANC based the company will go out of their way to keep you from touching your base until the end of your pattern because there is a good chance you will be owed heavy crew rest and be useless to them. But if they can keep you from touching base, then they can keep you moving and not having to pay you CRT while you sit useless to them in base.