bah bid
It obvious they wont pay the increase until the end of January, because just in case they lose the bid and have to give 3 months notice, they dont want to be paying the money when there was no need.
One would therefore expect they are expecting a bid announcement by the end of October. One could also summise that they have been given insider info that their bid will be the one, thus the early heads up on the rise...guess we will have to wait and see.
as for the pay, seems to me if you are married with school age kids one would be better off on the BAH contract but if single probably better on the UAE one.