Hey dune, thanks for tip, but rest assured that I do not base my decisions solely or mostly for the crew experience, and nor as a married man do i have any interest in 'playing around'. the crew comraderie questions was me basically wondering how do all the nationalities get along especially when there is alot of help 'farmed in' from the outside, and if the expats are viewed as outsiders etc etc etc.... sure there are slamclickers and others at every place, so i just wanted to get an idea of what Ek entailed with it's unique circumstances as compared to us airlines back in the states.

As far as Pprune, well lets say that the first time i went on there and read the EK topics, i was so depressed that i thought about quiting being a pilot! lol.....i mean, damn! those posts reek of all sorts of negativity!!!
now i just read alot more to give it a fair shake and when you sift through all the BS and sarcasm there you actually get some really good advice as well! all of it is not positive, but yes, very helpful as pointers to think about!!!

TP is the counter to all of the pprune negativity, seems like it to me that for the scores of burned or scorned pilots on pprune, he is the lone or one of the few who is 'optimistic'. everyone on pprune who has been screwed, has every right to ***** and moan, just as TP has every right to be positive.

I have never had the fortune of being at a major airline. Im still scratching and clawing my way up and have 5 uniforms in my closet as a tribute to my lack of luck...lol.....but i am one of those that still loves to fly, and as such, remain overly optimistic about flying. the us airline situation is in the ****ter.

gripes about lack of union protection is valid to a point, but remember that here in the us it's everyone for themselves. I would invite a side by side comparison of a us major with EK and i think that you would see alot of very interesting comparisons.

the people that do have something useful to contribute at pprune are right when they say that "you better be coming to EK with the right reasons and not for $$$" are damn right! Everyone's situation is different and so are their motivations and expectations, and that ultimately leads to their happiness or lack of it.

A die hard UAL guy will hate the SWA mentality and have his gripes with it, even though the SWA guy makes more than he does. The SWA may hate the 777 flying and being away from home for 8-9 days in other countries and prefer the 6-7 legs a day while the UAL guys couldnt be bothered with such 'regional airline type flying'.
It all depends on everyone's flavor, but i really do thank you for pointing me back towards pprune to get more perspectives, it just gets a bit tiresome sometimes sifting through crap to get honest well intentioned opinions.