Here's confirmation that people are leaving to no job. I recently did. With leave being rejected and rosters being manually destroyed month after month I couldn't even arrange for an interview for months. This is for a one day interview in Europe with a most accomodating and understanding HR manager. In the end I took the risk and left just to be able to apply for that job opportunity.
So to be very clear to anyone considering joining EK. You don't sign a work agreement in the Western sense of a contract. They believe that they own you after you sign. No matter what they tell you or give you in writing it is completely worthless.
When I did my interview we were proudly presented all the beautiful options of the rostering system and the fairness of a rotating bid etc. I listened very carefully when we were being told that you could bid for a string of 7 days off and had a good chance of getting that in your higher bid months. You might even swap for days off on either side.
By the time I joined 4 months later those 7 days were reduced to 5. Another few months down the road it became impossible to attach off days to any block of days off or vacation. In fact they made it a point to give you a meaningless duty inbetween so you couldn't leave Dubai. In 2014 I never managed to get 5 days off in a row on a date that I wanted. They always put some duty in the middle of it. In the end I felt like a slave trapped in a hostile land. Long gone were the memories of the joyful roadshow and hiring process in Dubai. Unfortunately the very professional and friendly members of the recruitment team are not part of the pilot management. They understand that you are a foreigner taking a big step to work in a strange land. Your masters will not. They don't care about your personal ties to your home land. Which is surprising when you look at the high value of family in the Arabic culture. But maybe it is not surprising if you stop for a moment and look at the builders, cleaners and other labourers that run Dubai. Don't look down on them. They share the same fate of complete lack of empathy only without the shiny uniform.
The important point is that EK can and will change things. Over night a new rule becomes law which could be a complete game changer for you. But you can't disobey nor disagree because now it is the law. In terms of being able to leave Dubai I found that it became next to impossible. Either your leave is being rejected or you are on reserve. Then there is a Sim, a manual handling sim, ground school or CRM manually inserted into your off days. The list is endless. All of a sudden you find yourself locked in Dubai for 4 months or more without a single day away outside of duty.
So in case you don't like it in the dusty city you will now have to use your annual leave to attend a hiring process somewhere else. Good luck knowing in October 2015 when you might get an interview in February 2017.
And that's why people leave without having a new job.