Interesting. Your experiences have been completely different to ours. We've done some 14+ segments on EK in F and J to various European destinations, and 12 Australia to USA via DXB, and a few to NZ. All have been very good. Food and particularly wines in F have been good. Some variation, yes. Some not so good, yes. But some very very good. Overall better than other airlines. Worst breakfast eggs ever was QF F LHR to Australia and BA F food is very wanting. EK has caviar and DOM in F.
EK lounges in Italy, London and BNE are some of the best we've ever been to. QF lounge in BNE is very old and tired. EK lounge is excellent with good food and wines (unlike QF who basically have nothing but snacks and the occasional stew) F and J lounges in Dubai are excellent. Dubai airport with airport hotel and good lounges with direct boarding from lounges makes it one of our preferred hubs, much better IMHO than LHR or AMS for example. Direct connections mean one stop to any European or USA or Canada destination. Limo transport included, unlike BA on F where there's nothing and QF to USA also have dropped limo. We're flying to GLA in September and limo service has radius of 150 miles, enough to comfortably get us to Edinburgh.
F on EK, once you overcome the bling, we find very good. Cabin staff leave you alone to enjoy flight and don't keep thumping their way up the aisles as they do on other airlines. Eat when and how much you want up to 30 mins before landing, excellent front bathrooms on 380 make it feel like a proper F flight.
Service has always been efficient. Yes, as I said they leave you alone during flight but press the call button and the longest wait we've ever had was 21 seconds. Normally 10.
QF/EK alliance means we can fly on EK metal to many more destinations with one stop direct and earn QF SC and points.
And I write this as a QF WP, and now EK WP.
YMMV.
How many of your flights were on 777 product than A380? And none was in Y?
Also EK WP - I fly often in Y - and I understand well what people say when they experience their 777 product in Y, especially when they get a full flight - which they all are these days than they use to be - even an 80% load was more bearable than the current 95% plus - and then the crew seem to be either over tasked with the full flights or showing inexperience than they once did.
EK has always been hit and miss with crew, and more recently in Y, it is more miss than hit.
I just have come off a big mission of Flights - all booked EK Y:
QF 51 - BNE-SIN - A330
EK349 - SIN-CMB - B777
EK651 - CMB-DXB - B777
EK302 - DXB-PVG - A380 - op up to J
EK305 - PVG-DXB - B777
EK652 - DXB-MLE-CMB - B777
EK348 - CMB-SIN - B777
EK432 - SIN-BNE - B777 - op up to J
All of my flights were full with the exception of QF51 and spare seat were sparse, which made for a lot of interesting observations of unhappy PAX in packed situations. While full flights are bearable on the A380, on the EK B777 it is always a recipe for some entertainment in Y.
While I was well aware of what I was signing up for, and my flights were planned with hotel transits overnight along the way, having it take 4 days in each direction, I again understand well complaints from someone on say EK433 BNE-SIN-DXB should they encounter this flight at 100% capacity in Y.
And then their is the hard product, IFE etc. If one was doing the A380 options to DXB and beyond into Europe, it is no where as bad as the hard product on some of the not so direct routes via SIN on the B777 fleet. For most, they have come accustom to EK having USB ports to charge your phones etc in all seats in all classes - however on my latest trip, all my SIN-DXB flights other than EK348 were very old frames and had zero USB ports and that saw a few unhappy people with almost flat phones who were expecting them. The IFE on all of them were the very old 10" screens and very poor quality to watch anything on.
I still like EK and what they offer and deliver to me - I just have noticed a significant reduction in the overall experience this year than last year - or any years before that. And I put it down to higher yields on flights and the strain that puts on the staff and especially the newer staff - and that a full EK B777 is just asking for sparks to fly.
On my last segment of flights, on QF51 I was welcomed for the first time ever on any QF51 flight while EKWP and doing the code share flight, and was looked after well for the first time ever - which was a change and enjoyed, however it was not until EK302 that EK staff said boo to me, on the return didn't get any recognition on EK305 - on EK652 was first one to board, and when I got to my seat the staff member saw me and said "so you must be Mr. xx_X" which threw me off because had never had that before, and was spoiled rotten the whole flight, a hi at the end of EK348 and sorry just have been too busy on the flight, and nothing extra or any introduction on EK432.
Also the mess on 5th Freedom flights that don't disembark like EK652 & EK348 was interesting to watch. Simply people were moved seats so many times while on board because multiple people were assigned the same seat and/or families spread all over the few spare seats left, had crew running around asking to shuffle people around seats to accommodate them. EK652 was more of an eyesight for me, as we had a lot of shuffling going on in DXB where frankly their shouldn't have been any and boarding passes issued properly from the outset of the flight. It added frustration on the crew with many people taxing them - on EK652 crew dumped a UM in the empty seat next to me and he was next to me for a good 20 minutes until she came back to re-seat him (another shuffle) because of course UM's cannot sit next to men. Let the kid play games on my Ipad because ICE wasn't switched on and he was a little pissed he got taken away from the ipad and all the games on it. In total out of DXB on EK652, I had three different people seated next to me in the shuffle prior to take off, one being a UM.
But again, I can only come back to the issue is their systems, crew, and B777 cannot handle 95% plus yield flights without the service standard slipping, which has a significant impact in Y.
even though I'm not.
