What it's like to work as an Emirates Boeing 777 pilot, from free flights to tax-free pay starting at $7,000 a month

• Emirates wants to hire airline pilots from the US to fly its widebody jets from Dubai.
• The pay and benefits are good, but Emirates pilots must be ready for mostly long-haul flying.
• Emirates pilots can get unique perks like company-provided housing and chauffeur transfers to work.

It can be difficult for US airline pilots to jump into a foreign flight deck, but Emirates has programs to entice potential hires to make the leap.

Flying for the UAE-based carrier has significant differences compared to US counterparts, including a unique scheduling system and other benefits.

But the work-life balance, pay, and benefits are nothing to balk at.

In an interview, six-year Emirates Boeing 777 pilot Richard Vellinga explained how pay, benefits, visas, and training at the state-owned carrier.

High pay and company-provided housing

Vellinga said new first officers can make between $7,000 and $9,000 per month, tax-free, based on experience.

Captains make between $11,000 and $13,000 a month. On the lower end, those paychecks equal a minimum of $84,000 for first officers and $132,000 for captains annually.

First officers and captains can earn more money as they gain more years of flight experience. Pay is the same regardless of aircraft type.

For every "block" hour above their monthly minimum flying target, they earn about $145 and $200, respectively. A block hour is the time between when an aircraft leaves the departure gate and arrives at the destination gate.

For example, if an Emirates captain hits their minimum and picks up an eight-hour block trip, that will equal around $1,600 in extra pay.

Emirates also offers other allowances to complement pilot basic salaries, including profit-sharing, company-provided housing allowance, flight benefits, education allowance for dependents, and medical coverage.

"We also enjoy chauffeur-driven transport to and from work, and laundry services," Vellinga said.

Pilot salaries are calculated differently than at US airlines

In the US, pilot pay is dependent on aircraft type.

The lowest-paid first officers of narrow-body planes at Delta, United, and American make about $111,000 a year, while the highest-paid widebody captains make more than $400,000 a year.

Similar to Emirates, US pilots can make more from additional monthly flying and any potential profit-sharing — with many making over half a million annually.

US pilots typically don't receive housing benefits or car service from their homes to work.

Emirates mostly flies long-haul

Vellinga said Emirates pilot schedules differ from the US. He is on a "reserve" period every 10 months — meaning he doesn't know his trips ahead of time.

Otherwise, he holds a "line", meaning he has preplanned flights. He said the schedule is based on rotating seniority, so lower-year pilots can get their preferred schedule during certain months.

In the US, new pilots have to work their way up the ladder to earn enough seniority to get the trips and time off they want. Some are on reserve for years before they hold a line.

Vellinga said the long-haul flying at Emirates, which can range from one to five days of consecutive flying, can be difficult given the time changes.

"Work-life balance can be atypical given frequent time-zone changes and being away from family," Vellinga said, adding Emirates pilots need to be flexible and adaptable, but he prefers ultra-long-haul flying.

He said the company offers 42 days of leave a year, with at least eight days off a month. The latter is not uncommon in the US. Vellinga said he spends his time off with family and enjoys the expat community and sporting events in Dubai.

Vellinga said he also uses his flight benefits, which include access to free or discounted flight tickets for pilots and their friends and family. When available, their family can access business or first class.

"Our most recent vacation with benefits was to Tenerife in the Canary Islands," he said. "We spent a week exploring the islands and had a wonderful time."

Training and qualifications

Emirates training will be similarly long and vigorous to what US airline pilots experience, but Emirates pilots are trained according to the standards of the UAE's aviation authority rather than the Federal Aviation Administration.

Vellinga said new-hire training takes between three and four months, including ground and simulator work. Line training, meaning operating actual flights, takes another six weeks.

"I started training in the first week of August [2018] and had my first flight by mid-November," he said, adding Emirates took care of his visas and licenses to fly in the UAE.

First officers and captains must have specific minimum flight hours to be hired, and making it into an Emirates cockpit is dependent on passing training checks.

Direct-entry captains — or those who are already captains in the US and want to captain an Emirates plane — need at least 7,000 multi-crew flying hours, with nearly half of that on widebody planes like the Airbus A330 or Airbus A350.

Reaching 7,000 hours for a US airline pilot can take a decade or more.

Pilots without captain experience or enough hours of experience can be hired at Emirates as long as they meet minimum hourly flight requirements and have operated heavy enough aircraft.

Vellinga said captains flying narrow-body planes like the Airbus A320 or the Boeing 737 with 6,000 total hours and 2,000 in command can be hired as first officers at Emirates. They can become a captain after about a year and a half.

Otherwise, pilots upgrading from a first officer to a captain takes between two and four years, depending on how quickly a pilot earns enough qualifying hours.