Emirates

✅ Trip Verified | I have been flying with Emirates for 6 years as they offered good customer service, and did not sell exit row seats. No longer it seems. I recently booked a flight from London to Denpasar via Dubai, only to find after paying for the flight that Emirates now charge for exit row seats, in this case an additional £150. I immediately called Emirates to discuss this to see if anything could be done. The representative said my options were to pay for the seats, pay a £100 cancellation fee or email customer services. I emailed customer services highlighting that it is poor customer service and even worse business process to not show the potential full price of the flight until after the customer has booked and requested a fair and reasonable solution. The representative said my options were to pay for the seats or pay a £100 cancellation fee. Shame Emirates. Emirates did not show the full price and are using a misleading process that sells a ticket without showing the potential full price. Even easyJet and Ryanair show users the full price of their tickets before purchase! Emirates used to be a company that put customers at the heart of the business. I guess now it is just money.

✅ Trip Verified | Emirates appear to be upgrading a lot of Economy passengers to Business. At check in the Business Class was only partially occupied on the Madrid-Dubai segment, indeed a few days before check in occupation was very sparse. On the day of travel it was almost full. So where did all the passengers suddenly appear from? I can only guess that they were upgrades, unless Emirates are bulk selling Business seats at lower prices through bucket shops. In either case, it seems extremely unfair on people like myself who have paid full price out of our own pocket, since the service for so many passengers is obviously not as good and why should I have to pay three times as much as my neighbour for the same seat? To add insult to injury, Madrid and Barcelona are Emirates' most expensive business class departures cities in Europe. Example Madrid Australia return is 5000 euros + from Madrid but less than 4000 euros from Paris or London. Having paid above the odds and then to see an invasion apparently from Economy Class is simply insulting.

✅ Trip Verified | Dubai to Zurich. Our flight to Zurich departed on time and we were warmly welcomed by the crew, who provided a very attentive and excellent service on a full flight. The spacious cabin and very comfortable seat made it also a very relaxed flight. The food and drinks were again of very high standard. The chauffeur service during my trip was excellent, always punctual, and the service made travelling very smooth! I was provided with an exceptional good service by very friendly and caring cabin crew. I always felt very welcomed and very well looked after. In the past I had flown Emirates in Economy (which had also been a very positive experience) and did not regret for one moment choosing them for flying business.

✅ Trip Verified | Melbourne to Auckland Due to a medical emergency on the incoming flight from Dubai, the flight from Melbourne to Auckland was delayed by 4 hours. Emirates did sent a text message well ahead of the originally scheduled departure so there was no need to rush to the airport. I waited in the very comfortable Emirates Lounge and the ground staff kept us well informed about the new planned boarding time. Boarding processed smoothly and the crew on this flight was fantastic. They provided an exceptional service and made me feel very welcome. They were just the best! Auckland to Dubai Boarding again was smooth and the flight departed on time. I looked forward to one of the longest non-stop flights on the A380 and I was not disappointed. A very friendly crew provided a superb service from start till the end of this long journey. Dinner was served not too late after departure so that we could settle in for a good sleep. The meal options and wine offerings were again fantastic. For those still feeling hungry, there were additional options of warm and cold snacks available and prepared throughout the flight by the crew. Also, there were plenty of hors d'oeuvres on offer at the bar. The brilliant inflight entertainment system helped to ease any boredom on this long flight. Given the length of the flight, we arrived well ahead of schedule in Dubai.

✅ Trip Verified | Zurich to Melbourne via Dubai. I was punctually picked-up by the chauffeur drive service, and had a smooth check-in and quick transfer through customs & security to the lounge. Boarding commenced on time and I was welcomed by a very friendly and helpful cabin crew. The crew was very attentive and provided excellent service throughout a full and very busy flight. My window seat was very comfortable with lots of legroom and also a small little mini bar with soft drinks, which were replenished throughout the flight. The food offered on board was excellent and Emirates' wine list is of very high quality. Both food and wine offerings were very generous. The inflight entertainment system is the best and has a fantastic selection of movies, shows and music. The A380 is a wonderful plane to fly in, very quiet, spacious and the bar of course is one of the highlights. Overall, I had a great flight. After a 3 hour break I was due to board the connecting flight to Melbourne. Fog in Dubai though caused a delay but we were kept well informed by ground staff and once boarding started it was smooth. The A380 cabin as well as the service in this very busy flight (full business class) was again fabulous. Maybe just something trivial, but I loved that one could adjust the window blinds individually by pressing the respective buttons. The free inflight wifi in business class is brilliant and I enjoyed keeping in touch with friends along the trip. I managed to sleep for most of the flight and after a light breakfast (there are various breakfast options available, I decided to choose the lightest version) we landing in Melbourne.

✅ Trip Verified | Not close to what we expected. We now understand why Emirates is not number 1 anymore. We are frequent travellers going to various locations, always Economy. The flights with Emirates from Frankfurt to Male via Dubai and same way back were pretty "interesting". On all flights we were pretty confused that the blankets we used to keep us warm were taken away before landing, same counts for the earphones. (We had our own but even them they wanted to take away, crazy). The Cabin crew was not pretty helpful and especially soft drinks were not offered often enough, even on request we were simply ignored, maybe because of being Economy guests. Highlight was that the cabin crew lady poured me with Mango juice and did not even say a word. The food experience was average, other airlines offer much better food from a quality perspective and also from the options you have. Entertainment was pretty good.

✅ Trip Verified | Lyon to Bangkok via Dubai. A horror, expensive for a shabby delivery. In the devices (4 in total) we had only trouble, error of seats, headphones that do not work, screen that does not work, lack on the meal trays, we even had a power cut on our row of seats, and damaged luggage on arrival! And the staff is completely dabbing, no matter what your request, it's always "no" "we can not" "we'll see", never seen people who had so much nothing to do, even for luggage! Une horreur, cher pour une prestation minable. Dans les appareils (4 au total) nous n'avons eu que des ennuis, erreur de sièges, écouteurs qui ne fonctionnent pas, écran qui ne fonctionnent pas, manque sur les plateaux repas, nous avons même eu une coupure d'électricité sur notre rangée de sièges, et bien sûr, bagages endommagés à l'arrivée, SURRÉALISTE ! Et le personnel s'en tamponne complétement, peu importe votre demande, c'est toujours "non" "on peut pas" "on va voir", jamais vu des gens qui en avaient autant rien à faire, même pour les bagages !

✅ Trip Verified | Frankfurt to Bangkok via Dubai. I understood from the crew that Emirates has a new policy to overbook the economy class and upgrade all remaining passengers to Business class. That is what happened on the both mentioned flights, more than 50% passengers got free upgrades to Business. So C class was totally full on the huge A380 results in poor service because the FAs were totally overloaded with this high amount of people. On the flight from Frankfurt to Dubai I had to wait more than 3 hours until they served the dinner. Further I think this is also very unfair for the passengers who paid the business class fare. It seems that the airline is good for economy passengers but sorry Emirates this is not what business people paying a very high fare do expect.

✅ Trip Verified | Zürich to Phuket via Dubai. I had high expectations since I heard that Emirates should be very good, but I was very disappointed. The customer service was terrible. I am not sure they even know what it means. The stewardesses had a very arrogant, superior attitude which I found just low and disgusting. As they went down the aisle they went with hard steps as if they wanted all attention on themselves. One time a stewardess was serving drinks and as she presented the tablet with the drinks, my boyfriend wanted to take the tray to make it easier to take our drinks. Then she said in not such a friendly tone; "Just take the drinks please." Not politeness, no smile. I don't know if they are able to smile, because we didn't see much of it. They may think that the red lipstick makes them look nice, but a smile is way more beautiful. Another time a stewardess was serving food and drinks and as she came to our row I looked up. Then she said in an arrogant tone; "Hold on please", then walked away and came back a little later. I hadn't said anything to her. At the end of a flight a man came to collect all the headphones. I gave mine to my boyfriend so he could give it, because he sat by the aisle. He gave it to the man and a little later the man asked for the headphones, not in a nice way and with no smile. My boyfriend then told him he had already given it. He just looked and then went on. No apology, which one would actually expect. When you work in the service business you cannot act all arrogant and superior, because then you lose customers which you are dependent on to receive salary. They obviously didn't learn what I learned as I was working in the service business. That the customer is the boss. Another thing was that as we boarded the plane, it reeked of perfume, which was just very nauseating to be honest. Very disappointing was also on the flight from Dubai to Phuket as my boyfriend and I didn't get to sit together even though we had booked as a couple. We were told that if there were some available seats in the back that we could maybe sit together. The stewardess never came. My boyfriend then saw that there were some available seats in the back and we asked a stewardess if we could sit there. Then she said that no, these seats are for the cabin crew to sit down for breaks. Uhm, what? I have never experienced that the cabin crew is sitting with the rest of the passengers. So this was very odd. The food was ok, the entertainment was not to be complained about, but the rude, unfriendly, arrogant cabin crew just ruined everything for me. I have this to say to those arrogant stewardesses; "Get over yourselves and get down from your high horse, you are not better than anyone." So I will not be travelling with Emirates again, and I will certainly not recommend it to anyone I know, quite the contrary actually.

✅ Trip Verified | Newark to Athens on Boeing 777-300 in Business Class. Emirates is a better airline than any US carrier but it aspires, it says, to be the best airline in the world. It is far from that.My flight was delayed due to some issue of getting our aircraft to the gate. The information about this delay was non-existent at check-in. I found out about the delay only after the agent in the SAS Lounge (who doesn't work for Emirates) told me about it. Eventually, we were told the flight was boarding. We left to discover nothing of the sort. The gate area was chaos. The flight was not boarding, not even close. The employees, about 6 in number, were glued to their smart phones texting and surfing. I would fire every last one of them. They made infrequent and irregular announcements, with incorrect information. The boarding time kept getting moved. The employees sat on their phones. Finally, we started to board. Well, not the Premium passengers. First, the people traveling needing extra assistance and with children. Eventually, Business class boarded, but only after an Emirates person line jumped with a group of passengers in front of us. Once on board, I encountered a seat with a non-functional small video screen that is used to control the seat! Fortunately, the seat next to me was empty. The seat is not the standard these days. Angled lie flat is so 1980. Middle seats in Business Class? Are you kidding, Emirates? Whoever made this decision should be fired. The wine list contained one champagne (good selection) and two whites (one a dismal CA Chardonnay, the other a nice Sancerre) and two reds (one a pedestrian Oregon Pinot and one a 2007 Bordeaux that was quite nice). This selection pales in comparison to Qatar. Food quality was very good, although the crew wanted to rush me through the meal. I didn't let them. Eventually, they adjusted. Crew service was spotty. At times personal and nice, and at times missing or impersonal. The inflight entertainment is extensive but the system is CLUNKY to use and the endless ads before any movie is irritating beyond belief. It is also very hard to scroll quickly through the movie options. They are also poorly organized into categories, in my opinion. For the money, Qatar is a far better airline with a truly premium treatment for people in premium classes. Better seats, friendlier crews, better wine, and an overall better experience is available on Qatar. Emirates has a lot of work to do.