The presentation seems to be halfway fair. Be careful though with inflation. Just as the oh so loathed economy minister of the UAE (Sh. L.) always states: The 10% inflation is excluding housing, because you apparently cannot include housing into local inflation (her original text). When confronted with the pegging of their currency to the falling dollar though, she is just as quick to say that unpegging would not help curb inflation much, as it was mainly driven by local factors, such as housing and rents.
Now go figure.
Fact is today, that even if you include the exchange rate protection (which by the way is capped and thus insufficient) the REAL, NET inflation outpaces any adjustement of your package by EK, even if you are in company accomodation. This means you will have LESS MONEY IN YOUR POCKET every year even considering annual increases and salary adjustements. If the yearly bonus is given (never guaranteed, withheld if you do not behave well....) this just might cover the rising costs, if it surpasses 5 weeks of salary.
To be honest this might not drive you away once you are settled here, or if your situation is bad enough back home. Life is still quite nice around here. It's the trend that is disturbing and the fact that the locals don't care about that trend. If you're looking at a short term career at EK, by all means join. For a mid term career you need to cater well for your family, meaning do not accept mediocre housing etc. For the long term, forget it, that's just my five cents, you'll lose money.
With all that we haven't talked traffic...... Todays paper gave a nice statistic: For 780'000 cars, there are 740 accidents daily!!!! and not the gentle kind. This DEFINITELY what scares me away, it's simply UNCIVILISED.