Dropp, having spent 18 years flying with the KLM group prior to EK, I can assure you the rostering system there is far superior to anything EK has. The union work rules guarantee that. How does a 7 day layover in São Paulo grab you?
You can swap, you can get more than one requested flight per year, the system just works differently. Without going into long details, a lot of it works on the fact that crewing and pilots work as a team, not as one way street from the company.