The current President of Emirates Airlines, Tim Clark, has gone on record as saying there will never be basings at Emirates as long as he is with the company. And since he has been with the company since it's beginnings, I would not bet on any form of either basings nor commuting rosters any time soon (you can read that as ....never). And don't even think about the "market forces" arguement.........it is not going to happen here as there continues to be a flood of applicants from "less than 1st world" countries (India, Malaysia, South America, etc) that Emirates is more than happy to employ and keep the status quo.
Skyone:
I couldn't disagree with you more over your disagreement. I have never "averaged over 15 days off a month" and I have been here many, many more years than you have (and I am very competent with the bid system). It is obvious you and I work for a "different airline" due to the fact you are employed on the Boeing as opposed to the Airbus (the Boeing has many more opportunities to bid for long haul flights whereas the Airbus mixed fleet type of rostering has a combination of lessor long range flights combined with tons of short haul back of the clock flights). As such, you telling those outside the company that your roster is indicative of what to expect when employed by Emirates is misleading in my opinion.
As a result of my original post, I had a flurry of p.m.'s from guys who are considering making the move (mostly as D.E. Captains) to Emirates. Interestingly, most of those were looking at trying to commute from the U.S. to Dubai. I cannot stress firmly enough how this is a VERY BAD IDEA.
As mentioned by bus canuck, this company has no desire in any respect to cater to the needs (or desires) of it's pilots in order to allow them to commute. In fact, they go out of their way to try to make it as difficult as possible to commute. The February roster is evidence as to the lengths they will go to to keep things "local".
In short, I know of no one who received more than 6 days off in a row in his or her Feb roster. This includes a f/o who I flew with recently who is a UAE national, as well as the top first officer in his bid group, as well as being in the top bid group for Feb (therefore he should have received exactly the bid he submitted as there is not another more senior f/o in the company in that month........if he didn't get what he wanted there is something seriously wrong going on below the surface). So it is obvious what has happened is the company has decided to circumvent the computerized bid system for a reason that has not been divulged.
The bottom line is anyone considering coming here has to have rocks in his head if he thinks he is going to commute. If that is your plan, I cannot stress firmly enough how you should look elsewhere. Unless you plan to bring your kids up in Dubai
..........don't even look to this place.