I only just realised where we sit compared to back home. How many wide bodied Captain's cannot afford to buy a house where they live? No I am not talking about a 3 bed townhouse, a proper house reasonably near where they work. Unless you have 2 million AED in the bank, I don't see how it can be done. The worry is what I will have when I leave and how I will do in a high cost base country. Retirement might be a challenge.
This is the best indicator of insufficient T&Cs from a wannabe legacy airline: If an employee of a lower management level (as captains are regarded worldwide) can't afford an adequate house for his family, he will not be able to build up sufficient funds for retirement. As simple as that, because worldwide real estate is considered the prime means of assuring retirement.
Providing employees with accommodation, even an adequate one, only deepens his dependency of the company and still leaves him unable to build up fortune for retirement.
In case of EK the pay-fortune build up ratio has changed to negative around 2006/7, softening during the 2008 depression, but caught up in a typical ME-greed-way as soon as the world economy recovered. Today a normal house/apartment with 3 to 4 bedrooms in an adequate location costs AED 4 million+, a captains housing allocation will be AED 192000 pa. Now take out your calculator .......
However the line of applicants is still long enough for EK to disregard that problem.
But as eventual newbee you need to know: You
will get older and eventually retire.