Emirates - the real story
11-06-2011, 06:19 PM
#31
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Aug 2008
Posts: 110
What is the deal on opting out of the company housing. Is it frowned on by the company or do they really care? Also, is there a maximum distance from the airport you can live if you do opt out. Does the drive still come to pick you up for all flights and take you home? What are anyone's thoughts on which way is the better way to go financially.
11-07-2011, 12:24 AM
#32
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Aug 2005
Position: tri current
Posts: 1,485
Originally Posted by Lucky Pierre007
I've been around the world and never been anywhere as hot and humid as Dubai, it's absolutely miserable for 9 1/2 months of the year. There are other good points, climate just isn't one of them.
It is nice for 2 1/2 months in he winter though.
It is nice for 2 1/2 months in he winter though.
Guess it depends where you are from. If you like arctic cold of Alaska or Northern Europe then maybe you don't like daytime highs of 31-33C followed by night time lows of 22-24. That is what it is this month. December, January, and February the highs are in the 20s with lows sometimes below 10C. March starts warming up again and is much like November. So that makes 5 months of really nice weather.
Typhoonpilot
11-12-2011, 08:27 AM
#34
Line Holder
Joined APC: Jul 2011
Position: CRJ-700/900 Right Seat
Posts: 52
^^^ I've been told to use Sling Box to get US channels. You can hook up to a friends or families cable or satellite. The only thing is that you would have to record everything. I haven't really checked but Im sure there is also a way to make Netflix work when outside the US.
11-12-2011, 09:19 AM
#35
Line Holder
Joined APC: Jun 2006
Position: B777 Cpt.
Posts: 95
Originally Posted by CarolinaJet
Can anyone tell me about TV in DXB. Can you get Direct TV or is TV Sensored by the Govnt. like the WEB. What do most people use.
Thx
Thx
When it comes to Pay TV there are many options: The first is OSN Showtime, quite expensive but lots of HD Movie Channels and nature stuff (NGTV, Discovery etc.) with all english audio.
Next thing is european Pay TV (Sky Italia, Sky Germany, CyFrowy [Poland] etc.). It's a bit more difficult to sign up, but doable. Might have to recruit a german or italian friend to use his home address to sign up. They also have lots of american HD movie channels, documentaries and lots of sports with english audio. These typically include MLB, NBA, and college sports. We enjoy MLB, NFL and NCAA football and pretty much tape all of the weekends top games.
Last resort is a Slingbox. Of course for that you need an active subscription back in the US and a high speed data connection there for upload as well as in Dubai for download.
Of course there's always iTunes (legal) and bit torrent (dodgy) for TV Shows and movies. We use both (iTunes when offered and BT when not [stupid TV networks for not offering it; we'd love to pay but when they don't offer it...]) and the quality is quite good most of the time.
One more thing is AppleTV: We used it for MLB.TV this year to watch the regular seasons as well as post season and it was ok most of the time. Of course since the local ISP's have more customers than bandwidth they get quite slow on the weekend and when the game five of the playoffs turns into a slideshow and everyone gets mad you revert to MLB on ESPN America (see above mentioned PayTV...)
Hope this helps?
Let me know if you have more questions.
PS: Oh and since you asked, no Satellite TV is censored here (It's technically impossible, ask Ghaddafy...
)
Last edited by sunnfun; 11-12-2011 at 09:21 AM. Reason: PS added
11-12-2011, 03:33 PM
#36
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2010
Position: EMB145 FO
Posts: 273
Originally Posted by WileyTwo
I know they won't say it but they do not hire over thirty or married. I know of six pilots that I worked with flying the 200 and 700 that are at Emirates now. I know of three others that tried and did not make it. So yes you need to divorce your wife and family. Then if you are under thirty you can bring them to Dubai later. They do hire pretty girl too.
11-13-2011, 07:03 PM
#37
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Aug 2008
Posts: 110
Can anyone give the real deal on Skype in Dubai? Does it work there or is it blocked. If it is blocked, do folks use VPN's to go around the block? The ability to communicate with folks back home is weighing heavily in my decision to go or not (provided I get offered the job - which I know is a bit forward thinking).
11-16-2011, 10:02 AM
#38
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Position: 777, sofa
Posts: 1,183
Originally Posted by AirbornPegasus
Can anyone give the real deal on Skype in Dubai? Does it work there or is it blocked. If it is blocked, do folks use VPN's to go around the block? The ability to communicate with folks back home is weighing heavily in my decision to go or not (provided I get offered the job - which I know is a bit forward thinking).
Tried calling home last week on Skype... blocked.
Google Voice worked just fine.
11-18-2011, 09:59 PM
#39
Da Hudge
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Position: Poodle Whisperer
Posts: 17,473
Originally Posted by WileyTwo
I know they won't say it but they do not hire over thirty or married. I know of six pilots that I worked with flying the 200 and 700 that are at Emirates now. I know of three others that tried and did not make it. So yes you need to divorce your wife and family. Then if you are under thirty you can bring them to Dubai later. They do hire pretty girl too.
11-19-2011, 07:34 AM
#40
Line Holder
Joined APC: Mar 2008
Posts: 58
I'm trying to convince my wife that a move to Dubai to fly for Emirates would be a good idea financially. I am currently an extremely frustrated 5th year regional captain here in the US. I make about 80,000 a year and am unable to save much. I have two young kids below the age of 3 and my wife does not work. Realistically, how much does a first, second and third year FO make there? And, more importantly, how much on average is an FO able to save? Maybe one in a similar situation to myself - two very young kids and a wife who does not work. Thanks for any info!
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
