ShyGuy

He coulda just said United

Vspeeds

Well, depends where exactly you going overseas?!SE Asia (China, Japan, Vietnam & such) or SW Asia (Middle East)?!

Fly Safe y'all!

RMWRIGHT

but you are already working , its just a matter of time for upgrade. where in asia are you going to go? most look only for captains, few f/o jobs on the a320 i.e. vietnam 5k a month, philippines 3k a month, tajikistan or afghanistan ? you are building seniority and a pension, many look at the money overseas and they forget there is no pension , social security or unemployment benefits. asia is not tough for a 2 year old child, so shouldnt be problem but it is for say, a 12 year old. school tuition can be very high in asia. also an apartment in hong kong is very expensive and small.
in the us you compete against us citizens and green card holders, overseas you are competing against the world. its cut throat. some so desperate for a "job" they pay to work as f/o on 320 737 etc the morons not thinking that the next job they apply for with their magic 500 hours no longer offers a salary for the fo and has become p2f as well !

iflysky

There is only one FO contract that I can recommend that comes close to anything descent in the expat market and is very much on par with the US majors - Air Japan/ANA. If you go through a US agent, everything is provided, pension, social security, medical, upgrades and of course ability to live in the States or wherever your heart desires. However, as mentioned before, it is extremely competitive to get in, but not impossible.

OnCenterline

Having done a move to the other side of the planet, I can say that you need to really evaluate this carefully. It's one thing for your wife to be a 3-4 hour flight in the U.S. from family or Disney, but from the other side of the planet, you are looking at a travel time of at least 24 hours, and that's assuming all goes well.

My suggestion is that if you are serious about possibly moving to another country, then go visit, and see how they live, and get an idea for what it will be like, to include the true costs (who's paying for the move, by the way?) of housing, utilities, food, phone, quality of schools, etc.

Jumping in blind can work (which is what I did), but it's much, much more stressful and far more risky, and getting out of those contracts can be challenging. I know of at least one pilot who ran into an issue with a foreign contract, and can't go back to that country for fear of arrest. Consider that if you bail and want to come back to work for a legacy flying international. Bare in mind as well that you are effectively taking yourself out of the US market for as long as your contract lasts, so ask yourself if you really want to do that.

I know plenty of pilots, however, that love the ex-pat lifestyle and will never return to domestic flying, and a few will never return to the US even after retirement. Among the ones I've known or met, it's a pretty even split as to whether they'd do it again or not.

If you're going to do one of the commuting contracts, that's one thing (and presents its own issues and challenges), but moving is not to be taken lightly. Don't get blinded by the money. After the novelty of a few paychecks, it won't matter if you and/or your family are miserable.

I personally found it liberating, and it has exceeded my expectations, but for everyone like me, there is one that will say the opposite.

Typhoonpilot

The only places I would go overseas as an F.O. are places that would upgrade. Those are few and far between and the upgrade times have extended way out from what they were even just a few years ago.

Places that upgrade expat F.O.s include:

Cathay Pacific
Emirates
Etihad
FlyDubai
Qatar
ANA
Air Arabia

There are a few others, but those would be the major players.

Going overseas as an F.O. is a real gamble. It can work out great, but it can also backfire in a huge way if you get stuck in the right seat for years on end.

Also, you should only consider it if you already have the magical numbers required by the U.S. majors for turbine PIC.

One more thing to consider is moving overseas will exclude you from working at FedEx until you move back to the States and live in the States for 5 years.


Post 9-11 I was the big advocate of going overseas to either keep your career going or jump start it with the stagnation that occurred. Now I would not recommend it.



Typhoonpilot

outaluckagain

Don't make your 2 year old go all that way. You'll start over again when the contract is up.

tom11011

What's your plan for this? I'm no accountant but I seem to recall that US citizens owe US taxes on any income earned anywhere in the world.

oicur12

I have spent the last 13 years flying in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Fiji. Before that I too flew A320's as an FO, but in oz.

There can be great opportunities but as others have cautioned, heading to a contract as an FO without a chance of upgrade can suck.

One of the better jobs I have done was Dragonair in HKG. They no longer pay the housing that I received but the salary is good and if you start now you will be upgraded VERY quickly. But its HKG, its polluted and its not for everyone. It is an easy life though and at your age you can come back to the US with plenty of time to spare.

I am flying a short contract now as a captain on wide body aircraft and if you want to swap jobs, I would be more than happy.

All the best, theres a big world out there and its what you make of it.

RockyBoy

If you have the minimums for `DAL/UAL/AMR then I would stay. Do everything you can to prepare for an interview so you can get the job when one of them calls. It sounds like you have some contacts at DAL. We just went to 85 a month and I don't think that will keep up with what we really need. By year 5 pay you will be making over 10K a month. I'm on year 8 FO pay on a narrowbody and it's not too tough to pull in 11-13K a month.