Fr8,
Not at EK but one of the 100-130 poolies currently treading water. I've been told unofficially/officially that all the poolies are to be offered class dates when the training schedule for next year is finalized. It wasn't possible to do that until the Boeing strike was resolved and they'd sorted out the delivery schedule.
The last email we received from HR indicated that poolies would start to be offered courses at the beginning of the year. Unofficially I've been told that due to the A310 guys going through 777 courses in Jan, the first available courses would be in Feb and that it would be around 3-4 months to get all the poolies through courses.
EK was never somewhere I really wanted to go but I figured I had nothing to lose by going to DXB and checking it out, at very least. All I can say is that they looked after me and the rest of my interview group extremely well. Paid for all my flights, hotel, transportation and some meals. No one else does that, not these days anyway.
As far as the interview is concerned, there's a lot to it; Computer testing (arithmetic, spatial awareness, memory and hand-eye coordination) but I'm not sure how much it goes to deciding a yes or no. The 2 things I think are waited the most are the sim and the group exercise. Other than that there's the Psych testing, medical (insane) and the HR interview if you get through to day 3. Really simple, TMAT format.
The biggest question, especially for the married guys is the accommodation. When I asked about it in the HR interview, both the interviewers were more than aware that it was a problem but did say that upper management were not happy about it and were all over the problem.
If you want anymore info, PM me and I'll help as much as I can.