We work "month on, month off," which really means about 35 days on, 25 off. TDX doesn't seem to know what reserve crews are, and the alleged "crew planning" is, well... They travel us to get into position before the end of the month, have a bit of rest time, and then start flying for the month. Meanwhile, the crews who are rotating home leave from TPE typically on the 2nd of the month.
Tradewinds gets us a ticket (in COACH, usually on China Air) from LAX. You have to get yourself to LAX before the flight. They have started getting us tickets from other west coast places if the cost is similar to the LAX ticket.
We get a whole $50 deadhead pay for the flight to TPE. Until Tradewinds started buying the tickets (previously they were paid for by the company we are flying for in Asia) we got NOTHING for deadhead pay to Asia.
International per diem is $3 an hour.
The schedules in Asia can be fairly predictable or unbelievably screwed up, depending on whether you are based in TPE or MFM. If you are based in TPE you generally fly three nights a week, albeit with some occasional LONG days (my record is about 22 hours on duty). If you are based in MFM you often fly 6 days a week, but with shorter schedules. They are trying to "balance" flight time so that no one ever goes over their 100 hour guarantee for the month and makes overtime, so you may find yourself flying 50 hours one week, and then sitting around for days while they have other people fly your trips.
It is what it is, and it ain't Fedex or UPS, that's for sure. Hope this is helpful.
Feel free to PM for a little more specific info about pay.
