I suspect that with many hundreds of American pilots applying weekly, the people who make such decisions don't give a monkey's toss, but a basing would keep me in the Sheikh's willing employ for a few more years than the current situation is going to. And free up another villa for one of the 100(!) new pilots in temporary accommodation.
I hear another four or five 777 captains have tendered (or are about to tender) the big 'R' for the brave move to VA? That people with families are willing to leave the Sandpit for so much less money and such a woeful contract as the one I believe VA are offering and in these current uncertain times speaks volumes for the dissatisfaction some are feeling about life in said Sandpit.
In CBC a couple of days ago, I heard one very pissed off 777 pilot telling how he got back from a 9 day Auckland a week or two ago to find the police had towed his car away. (Ony in Dubai, when your (old) car takes a walk by itself, do you first suspect the cops rather than a car thief!!!) Apparently, the public street outside a local's house is "his" and no one but [i]the local[/] can park there(!)
Unbelievable? Not in the Sandpit - and he (the pilot, not the local who called to have it towed away) had to pay 310 Dirhams "discovery fee" to recover it - after a two hour wait from midnight to 2:00am, because the day shift cops didn't care to explain to him how it is that the policeman who did tow it away can do so when it's parked in a public, no limit suburban street with no signage limiting parking or reserving the spot for the local, so they told him to come back in the middle of the night to talk to the guy who could.
Who couldn't.
Keep discovering.