Originally Posted by Sliceback

We had a couple guys quit or take early retirement and go the ME. Mostly Emirates 777 Captains. Fun for awhile...most quit EK and came back to the U.S. even to be a bottom newhire at a Big 4 (AA/DL/UA + SW). In general U.S. w/b flying is better than the EK w/b flying, from what they talked about, due to the different hours and locations of the hubs vs destinations. U.S. to Europe is typically a 4-8 PM departure and land about 0500-0600 body time. Three hour nap, wake up groggy as can be, play tourist and walk around, have dinner, a couple of beers, and back to sleep for 8-10 hrs. Next morning is not too bad for Europe time....0600-0800 wakeup. Oops, body time is 0100-0300. Yup, wake up groggy again. Home for dinner, go to sleep about an hour earlier, wake up an hour later than normal, 'international hangover' (jet lag/sleep cycle switching) until noon, normal after that. But we get a 3rd guy at 8 hrs and a 4th guy at 12 hrs. More time off. Less than 8 hrs to Europe but more than 8 hrs coming back? You get the 3rd pilot BOTH ways. Same with the 12 hr flights - 11 hrs one way and 12:01 coming back? You get the 4th guy both ways. Deep South (U.S. to S. America) is late departures both ways. Typically the most junior flying. The expats who left U.S. flying, or U.S. w/b flying, said the EK flying was a grind in comparison to most of the U.S. w/b flying.

Going to a Big 3 gives you the option of doing w/b if and when you'd like to. Unlike overseas you can bid ANYTHING you can hold every 2 years. You can switch bases every month or at least 3-4x a year. Your plane gets retired? Or removed from your base? You bid for whatever you want and can force yourself into a bid status that has no openings. They'll put you into the bid status and remove the junior pilot. He will have first recall rights to regain his old job before an new guys can bid into his old job. It's a VASTLY different system than overseas. You can fly n/b FO for 1-4 years, bid w/b FO, and after a year or two years bid off to became a n/b CA. Two years later bid to a different n/b CA, or even n/b FO seat, or w/b FO seat. Rinse and repeat every 2 years if you want. Or bid one airplane and stay on it, by choice, for the next 30 years. It's a VASTLY different system. You need to sit down with a U.S. friend at a Big 3 airline and find out how they run their work life.