Hi cac737,

Sounds like you have a good balanced view of EK. As to crew getting along; there is no problem with that here. You may not see most of them on layovers (many bring their own food and eat in their rooms to save their allowances) but they do treat you with respect.

As you said, TP tends to "balance" Pprune somewhat but alternately I would suggest Pprune tends to "balance" TP as well. Best to read both and develop your own impressions, thoughts, and opinions before making any potential move to Emirates. The guys posting on Pprune do have legitimate complaints and in my opinion their thoughts should not be disregarded.

I've been here 8 yours now and am neutral on both Dubai and Emirates; this is not the best job/place/airline in the world but it certainly is not the worst either. If I were to give one piece of advice to any potential new hire it would be to NOT consider this a "retirement" job; consider it more like an open ended contract. If you plan on coming here with the "job for life strategy", you will probably be disappointed. If you have a "career exit strategy" should this place not work out to your liking you will be much more comfortable coming here. Very few pilots who come here stay for more than 10 years.......what do you do then? Keep that in mind when deciding whether to come here or not.

If you haven't read the Washington post article I posted, I would suggest you do so. It is well written and also provides a balanced view of Dubai.

Best of luck should you decide to come.