Balthazar - SQ use Terminal 1 at AUH which is indeed pretty $hitty. EY primarily use Terminal 3 which is brand new & absolutely fine - probably still not quite as good as Changi though
T-Vasis - QF have the right to fly through the UAE to where ever they want, with the restriction being the bilateral agreement between Australia and the ultimate destination (2nd freedom of the Air). As of today, up to 105 services a week (15 per day - see IASC) could carry traffic between Australia and the UAE. There MAY be restrictions in carrying traffic between the UAE and the European destination, but I do not think it would be from the UAE (although I could be wrong - they claim open skies and frankly need all the visitors they can get!), but there might be an objection from the other country (e.g. France or Greece may have a problem with QF carrying DXB-CDG or DXB-ATH pax). That would depend on each bilateral agreement. As 90+% of Australia-UAE traffic is in transit, QF could hub through Dubai or Abu Dhabi IF THEY CHOSE TO. The limited number actually getting off in the UAE should not materially affect the economics of continuing through to Europe and could be considered cream. They just choose to serve their markets through different hubs and then moan about it
jj232 - I am no fan of EK, but if SQ offer more and better connections to Europe than EK I would be very surprised! A service comparison - now thats a different story