I agree. I started flying EK about 5 years ago, and then it was smiling flight attendents, they gave you an amentity kit in Y (socks/toothpaste/eyemask) on flights 6-8hrs and the did two drink runs for a meal service. I felt welcomed and almost got to EK gold in the subsequent years.
The last two years have been markedly different. I've just done 3 flights with EK just this month and gone are the kits and the smiles to be replaced with sullen looks, dirty seats (my seat on the most recent flight had new coffee spills all on the back of the table tray), faulty ent equipment, only one drink run for a meal and other noticeable differences such as the hot towels not being cleared away - not just once, but the did another towel run later and didn't clear that so everyone was left with two cold soggy towels upon touchdown. Not just in Y is the service haphazard, on two flight in J last year they twice in the one meal service gave me the wrong order to swap it with what I did order without an apology, served after dinner chocolates to only one half of the cabin and gave me a lukeward coffee-like substance when I asked for a capuccino. The last few flights I certainly didn't feel too welcome.
I will be boarding an EK flight in about 1 hour and this will hopefully be my last.
). There was also a lot of leaking water around the adjacent galley - which the crew put down a few towels for - and from the otherside of the bulkhead which soaked some of the carpet infront of seat 52C so the lady had to put her shoes back on otherwise her socks would get wet. When we revved up to take off, an unsecured trolley went shooting to the back of the galley followed by more water gushing from the overhead compartments onto the galley floor. As I was in the bulkhead I didn't have my bag and phone with me during takeoff otherwise I would have taken a photo of that galley with the travelling trolley and water everywhere with our wet carpet. Once we levelled the crew mopped up the water and secured the trolley but it still left a musty smell for the rest of the flight and as the AC unit stopped blowing sleet on us (at least till we started descending which it then started to give us an ice shower again) I stayed in my seat but the guy in 52B moved to another seat. Little smiles and lots of uncoordination - the staff didn't know some of each other's names and they weren't too sure who would take what trolley down where in what order and kept backtracking into the galley. The lady in 52C remarked "they call themselves a premium airline?!". Indeed.
