Friday, August 1, 2014

Life as a Cathay Pacific Cabin Crew - Singapore base ( Including full salary details)‏

After passing your interviews you will be asked to go for their medical which is very very strict. 

There will be urine test, blood test and even a drug test. Once you pass the medical they will fly you and your whole batch to Hong Kong for training. Training lasts for 7 weeks, 6 days a week. You are paid SGD$1600 (before CPF) during your training. 

It is enough to cover food and other daily expenses if you lead a normal life in Hong Kong (eg. no shopping, simple meals etc). You will share the hotel room with another batchmate and the hotel is right next to Cathay City (which is where the training is taken place). 

It only takes literally 1min for you to walk to Cathay City from the hotel as they are connected. Good for rainy and typhoon days. Although it is good for you to understand and speak cantonese, it is not necessary as all classes are taught in English.

Once you start flying your basic pay is SGD$1350 + SGD$22/hour for flying hours. You ONLY fly to Hong Kong. Some flights are direct while some are via Bangkok (but we stay in the aircraft and don't get to go out during transit). All flights are overnight flights which means you will always get one night in HK, no turnarounds. 

Allowance is collected in cash once you arrive at the hotel in HK dollar (the same hotel as your training). This time you get one room to yourself. On average you get about 75hr to 85hr flying hours per month and your allowance is around SGD700 to SGD900 depending on flights. You are entitled to 5 swaps a month to give away flights or to take in more flights. 

So how much you earn depends on how hardworking you are. If your flying hour is around 75hr you get about 13 days off a month in Singapore. So 75hr x SGD$22 + SGD$1350 = SGD$3000 (before CPF). If you include all the allowance you collected and convert it back to SGD you get close to 4K a month (before CPF), but your allowance is not subjected to CPF of course.

Now let's talk about the culture in Cathay. When you fly it is usually 4 to 5 sin base crews and the rest are all hkg base crews on one flight. It is generally a friendly environment to work in. Most of the people are nice and friendly but of course there are still a few nasty ones around. 

If you can speak and understand cantonese it is very easy for you to make friends and work with the hkg base crew. 

If you don't it might be a bit hard to communicate as some hkg base crews are so used to speaking in cantonese sometimes they forget that you don't understand. Seniority plays a big part but it is no longer like the older days. You just have to be sensitive and have high EQ which I think is quite standard across all airlines.

You have 2 FOC tix per year and the rest you can purchase at 90% off normal tix prices (even for biz class you only need to pay 10% of the original tix price). This benefit extends to 2 of your family members and your husband (if you are not married you can nominate 1 travel companion to enjoy the discount).

It is a very routine work as you are never away for more than 2 days, and it pays fairly well compared to some other airlines. The downside is you literally get paid to serve. You don't get to see world while you work. 

 If you want to be home often and you prefer routine work I'd say it is quite a perfect job for you. You can still travel and see the world during your leave or off days with your loved ones.

To read more of Life as a cabin crew, please click here

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