I do believe the housing allowance rumor. It was never intended for 3 young Spanish FOs to make captains pay because they live under one "accommodation" sharing a villa collecting all the excess allowance. You want the cash with no lease or mortgage? Itll be something like 100k. If you have a lease in your name or mortgage, no problem, you get the full entitlement. To be honest, I see the argument.
The hotel allowance is generally lower than most other reputed expat airlines. A friend told me his allowance on a Aussie layover was about 220 aussie per day. He works for a comparable expat airline.