Emirates

Hong Kong to Glasgow via Dubai with Emirates. The bar was a highlight of the first leg of my flight. The food on Emirates lacks a certain something. Not sure what it is but the menu just doesn't seem inspiring. Beverages on the other hand are plentiful, varied and excellent. My seat on the A380 was comfortable but I feel boxed in on those seats. The one on the 777 was a pain in the butt. I wanted to do some work on the plane but my lights shone into the face of the person seated beside me on the 777. My personal reading light did not work at all. Further to this, the lounge in Dubai is not a pleasant relaxing environment. There are just too many people running around. Not great at 3am when all you want is a good rest. I ended up going down to my gate where everyone was a lot less manic and chilled out on the comfortable long loungers. The chauffeur service was excellent, my driver going above and beyond the call of duty to deliver a great service in Glasgow. My return flight was the contentious one. I'd chosen my seat when booking, an aisle seat because I'm very tall - when I went online to check in, I find my seat has been re-allocated without even being informed. Not an obligation on their part of course but it would be nice to know. Ended up upgrading to business rather than deal with middle seat in economy. In a rare act for one so afraid of flying as myself, I managed to focus on the entertainment for more than ten minutes without losing myself to panic. Managed to watch live football which was a great and pleasant surprise! As it goes, the one leg of economy I had, seated near the front of the bottom deck in economy was the most comfortable and best flight of my itinerary. Great seat.

Auckland to Newcastle via Dubai and I was very disappointed with the service. They had run out of food options so we only had one choice, the staff were unhelpful. My coffee fell off my tray onto my seat, I told the stewardess and she handed me five napkins and walked away. I asked her for another blanket and she never returned, so I asked another stewardess and she walked away. I thought she was coming back so I was reluctant to fall asleep, I sat on my soaked blanket to soak up the coffee on the chair. Half an hour later she didn't return so I had to ask a third member of the crew. The crew were rude about getting the trolleys past us and when they hit a man's foot they didn't apologise. They looked stressed and annoyed during the flight safety announcement. When they brought round the warm towels the stewardess handed one to the person next to me then noticed she had none left to give me. She said "oh" and walked away. When another steward came to collect our towels I said I never received one and he frowned, looked around, and walked away. I wasn't spoken to again. Halfway through the flight an alarm went off and a yellow light flashed the stewardesses asked each other "what does that mean". I pointed to the screen by the toilets where it said "smoke detected". They swore and ran off and came back later to announce "it was just someone's deodorant". Finally we were delayed for an hour when leaving Dubai and were not informed why or spoken to, we just watched the flight safety video and an hour later we suddenly took off.

The London-Dubai leg was great because we got an Emirates A380 and it was generally a comfortable experience with minimal bumps. The service was also exceptional with the attendants appearing warm and friendly while the food was decent. The leg from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur was a whole different story. The plane felt old and gaudy. For 4 hours of a 6 hour journey, we were subjected to so much turbulence that it made it terribly difficult to do anything. Nobody could go to the bathroom too and so I spent 4 hours having to hold my bladder in. The passengers lose all sense of comfort and peace of mind when we have to experience a heavily bumpy journey for a protracted period of time. I was assigned seat 21H due to its accessibility to the bathroom. If anyone chooses this seat, I promise you that you would be subjected to people's butts brushing against your arm for the entire flight. I've had the flight attendants rush past me hitting my arm repeatedly without ever apologizing. They would grab your food trays without asking too. The attendants on the A380 were much more polite and pleasant. Their airline ranking must have gone to their heads.

Nightmare Emirates flight from Dubai to London. We were on our 2nd leg of our journey from Sri Lanka to UK on 5th January. First the flight was delayed from 4.10 to 5.00. Then 45 mins into the flight we were informed by the Captain that there was a problem with the undercarriage and we would be turning back to Dubai. After dumping fuel and circling for a further 2 hrs in Dubai, we landed back in Dubai at 9.00pm. Then we had to wait in a queue with just 2 people at the counter to get docs to go to a Hotel. It was taking for ever. After collecting docs they were asked to go to yet another counter to leave the duty free items bought. It was utter chaos, children were crying, there were a lot of very tired passengers. Finally after a very long time and the Management woke up to the crisis, they offered food and the business lounge for some of the passengers, which we took up. I am totally shocked at the Emirates response to this incident. No regard to the passengers and what they had gone thru. They had over 3 hrs to organise the vouchers for the Hotels and transport for the passengers. Yet they kept passengers waiting longer with their laidback attitude. Will certainly be thinking twice before booking Emirates again!

New York to Dubai. After having flown with various American airlines over the last 8 months I’m relieved to be back on Emirates. The first class on the A380 is everything it should be. Love the privacy of their suite and comfort of the seat, may it be in an upright position, lounge or as a fully flat bed with a separate mattress which is excellent for sleeping. The catering is on-demand, with an amazing selection of food. I tend to over-eat on such flights for I’m eager to try everything. And drink everything. I wasn’t disappointed. Everything I tried was top notch quality and taste. IFE is incredible with an amazing collection of movies and TV shows. And the 32-inch screen is a pleasure to watch. The piece-de-resistance is the shower that sets them apart. The surprisingly disappointing feature on this flight was their internet. Given how heavily they promote online connectivity while flying and the free (or nearly free) service, it is also a frustratingly slow experience. This is something that needs to improve. I simply gave up for the connection was so slow.

Rome to Jakarta via Dubai with Emirates, and terrible in-flight service. Was calling for a flight attendant to help pull the screen from the side of my seat and had to wait for at least 30 minutes before one showed up and that was for the inflight meal service. Then she just stared at me and did not move a muscle until I requested her to help pull out the tv screen. Without waiting for any of us to pull out our tray table, the flight attendant just distributed the lunch trays and they were on our laps. Terrible! Despite asking for an aisle seat for both legs of my journey, I got a middle seat for the second leg of my journey. The ground crew behind the counter failed to tell me that I will get a middle seat as perhaps no other aisle seats were available. Food was so-so compared to a few other airlines I have taken over the years. Overall, I was quite disappointed with my experience, which happens to be my first time with Emirates.

Durban to Birmingham via Dubai return. I have flown three times with Emirates in the past 6 months and been satisfied with the service. However, on the flight from Birmingham to Dubai on 29th December, the ICE system froze which didn't bother me very much. Coupled with that, however, was the fact that our seats could not be adjusted and we had to sleep in an almost upright position. This is not acceptable, particularly as I had paid a premium price for the flight, due to the festive season.

Glasgow to Tokyo Narita via Dubai with Emirates, and on both legs of my trip the seat and service provided by the cabin crew was excellent, however there were a few items to mention. The first was that at Dubai we had a 25 minute bus tour of the airport complex from the gate to reach the plane flying the second leg. No real inconvenience but it felt slightly odd to be on the bus driving around for so long. The second issue was with the food that was served on the Tokyo flight. I had the oriental vegetarian meal booked and I genuinely have no idea what the main portion of my meal was. I was served an odd flavorless mush that resembled wallpaper paste which I couldn't eat, so I had to abandon it and instead have some of the pastries the cabin crew brought round with the coffee. I'd recommend using the airline but to avoid choosing my food option!

I have now flown return from Perth to London Heathrow via Dubai with Emirates on two separate occasions, and each trip has been poor. My expectations had been high which is perhaps why each trip has been a disappointment. I have encountered long delays in flight departures waiting on the tarmac on at least half of the legs flown as flights seem to seldom leave on time. The cabin staff are unfriendly and the entertainment selection is the worst I have encountered. You are hard pushed to find a film title you even recognize in the list of new releases. On two occasions my meal choice has been unavailable (despite being seating fairly close to the start of service) and obtaining a drink (water not alcohol) outside of the allocated service times is as if you have asked for the moon on a stick. Meal quality is however pretty good. Seats are generally comfortable and provide ample space for a long haul flight. I have only flown Emirates as Qantas does not operate its own flights out of Perth and I wish to maximize my QFF benefits by flying on a code share flight.

London to Brisbane return via Dubai with Emirates, and our journey was the worst I have had. The crew were not service oriented and were rude - we waited 2.5 hours before we were offered water or a drink. I had stewardesses telling me "no" and "I am too busy" so many times. The crew gave the impression that they would rather be anywhere other than serving on that aircraft. Do not bother complaining - they seem to have no customer service team, but an email that will give you a generated standard reply. When I did more digging and calling, they admitted that they do not have a phone number or a team that I could speak to.