To the lurkers giving some thought to Emirates, the email that Skyone refers to is an announcement by our management that they will now limit the number of days off for pilots in the top bid groups to 14 "for safety". This represents a huge unilateral change in our terms and conditions that has left the pilot group as ****ed off as I have ever seen them. What they seem to be trying to do is to limit the desirability of ULR trips (lots of work but lots of days off) in order to spread them around a bit more and to also limit pilots ability to go home on their days off. This is in addition to us recently being informed that we are only entitled to 30 days of leave a year despite the fact that our contract says 42 days.

What this means to you (and more importantly your family) is that you better really like Dubai because you won't be getting home more than twice a year (if you're lucky). But it is a BIG SHINY JET after all.