Emirates

I did the long haul from Gatwick-Dubai-Bangkok-Sydney in economy for all but one leg when I was in business class. I tried to upgrade the other sections five times over three weeks and was given the run around each time including at the airport three hours before departure. Turns out the plane was full on every leg so they could have saved me time and angst. The crew in economy looked unhappy without exception and were overworked and brusque. Seat comfort was what you could expect - but narrow seats made sleeping very hard. Luckily my fellow travellers were sanguine about the heat stuffiness and general mayhem. Not an experience I want to repeat especially after they lost our bags.

27 June 2014 HYD-DXB EK 529. 28 June 2014 DXB-HYD EK 203. I have been travelling EK between US and India since 2011. One of the best aspects of EK is that they keep changing their products which makes the passenger experience exciting. This time it was a whole new experience on the A380 between DXB-JFK: the food is simply superb the presentation style has changed - better trays and plates a mini-snack bar with crackers and dips food quality and quantity are great the ICE continues to exceed my expectations and it was lovely to watch it on ipad style 12 inch HD screens with a smooth-touch screen remote! The flight between HYD-DXB on B777-200LR was good older IFEs even with 3-4-3 seat configuration it was comfortable [I am 5'5] but the food was simply excellent! I love the fact that EK gives a hot towel lime water [on flights between DXB and India] a menu card and stainless cutlery for Economy. However it would be nice if the flight attendants could learn to smile more but they always seem to be in a hurry. Overall EK is the most enjoyable way to fly!

Flew economy with my wife Sydney to Dubai 17 July and Dubai to Barcelona 18 July. Both flights flawless. Food definitely edible trays cleared away promptly tea and coffee served after the meal when the trays were being collected. Drink runs every hour or so. Snacks available at each galley during flights. Arrival into Barcelona nearly an hour early but only downside was that baggage took some time to arrive on the carousel. Inflight entertainment superb with huge selection of movies and TV programmes.

Flying from Hong Kong back to the UK on flight EK383 on Thursday 17 July our flight was delayed due to bad weather for four hours some time was made up and arrived in Dubai and the flight EK021 to Manchester was still boarding. Told our seats had been re allocated the result - a five hour wait in Dubai waiting for the next flight. Emirates had jumped the gun so to speak. Why?

Return Biz class ticket purchased with EK from Muscat to Beijing. On arrival at DXB airport following the flight from Beijing with a 3 hour wait - barred from using the EK Business lounges in Dubai and told that as it is a code share on the last sector (EK ticket) I would not be able to use the Emirates facilities at Dubai airport but must instead use Oman Air! Staff on the business lounge desk most unhelpful. Following a very long walk through DXB airport to terminal 1 no Oman air lounge was found so option was Gulf Air - who (unlike Emirates airline ground staff) were extremely helpful and friendly! Note for the future - avoid flying Emirates business class if possible!

EK161 DXB to DUB on 16 July and EK384 DXB to BKK on 17 June. We still look forward to a decent experience on Emirates that I have read about here on airlinequality.com. Interestingly people I have recently spoken to have also shared negative experiences on Emirates - I guess we have just been unlucky. Inconsistency is clearly a problem. Some of our sectors were on Qantas and we found the service to be of a much higher standard on Qantas and they were also more family friendly than Emirates. Ultimately we don't have massive expectations in terms of service in economy on any airline but Emirates service was dismissive at times rude and you had to beg for basics like water. I travel on a variety of airlines for work and the Emirates service was similar to that of a very bad US airline. Anyway we arrived intact with all luggage accounted for so not all bad. Would avoid if possible in the future.

QF10 for LHR-DXB connecting to EK380 from DXB-HKG. For the second part of my flight the Emirates A380 experience is just slightly overrated. To start with you could tell that some of the cabin crew were experienced and some were just very new to their job one tried to help a passenger climb over two seats for a toilet run during meal service but were quite clumsy when she dropped the tray of food entirely spilling everything on the aisle. Nevertheless it was evident that the cabin crew tried very hard to impress. What was annoying was the amount of commercials they had on their video screens - other airlines just have safety demonstration videos prior to takeoff but theirs include videos on Dubai the ICE entertainment and skyawards which was slightly unnecessary. The food quality wasn't as good as what was offered aboard Qantas but was still satisfactory. Even if Emirates have been praised over and over again I think it still needs to improve its service consistency and still is not in the same league with airlines such as CX and SQ.

I flew AKL-MEL-DXB-JNB with a minor stop in DUR due to OR Tambo Airport (JNB) being closed due to severe weather. Wheels up at Auckland as EK407 at 6.00pm on an Airbus A380 for a 4 hour flight to Melbourne. The food on the first leg to MEL was excellent. It was Mediterranean chicken. We were in MEL for 1.45 hours to fuel up and pick up/drop passengers off. The second leg was 15 hours to Dubai from Melbourne but with the great in flight entertainment systems and comfy seats the time flew past quickly. Early morning arrival into Dubai at 5.20am then for a 5 hour wait to catch flight EK763 which was a Boeing 777-300ER. Great flight until we hit severe turbulence over the middle of Africa. We dropped a couple of feet which was scary but the EK staff kept us calm and served us refreshments after the turbulence had past. Just before we were about to descend into Johannesburg we were diverted to Durban due to bad weather in JNB. We were in Durban for 2 hours but we weren't allowed off the plane. But the EK staff were excellent they gave us refreshments and they were mingling with the passengers. Highly recommend flying with Emirates great seats (economy) in-flight entertainment systems are excellent and the staff are impeccable. I flew JNB-DXB-SYD-AKL on the way back home with the same excellent service.

NBO-DXB-SGN on 20-21 July 2014. Travels on Boeings 777-300 and 777-200 respectively. Flights on time. Wonderful service from ground staff throughout. Smooth hotel stay (all inclusive) provided and perfectly arranged by EK in DXB due to long transfer. I was only dissatisfied in DXB with a 40 minutes bus ride from aircraft to gate in the middle of the night - unbelievable and extremely tiring. On board: FAs of superior kindness alertness and professionalism. IFE outstanding. Food: Special meal provided. Other passengers were provided with three options all of acceptable quality. Many soft drinks available. 3 options for beers but all industrial waterish and with a boring taste. Wines tolerable there were 2 red wines in mini bottles and 1 white-wine. DXB-SGN was another tiresome new bus ride for 45 Minutes (including a stop for 20 minutes standing as planes were taxiing. Economy cabin was completely full. Food even better than on the previous flight including special meal. Drinks very generous. Staff did well despite a very crowded economy cabin. Too many seats squeezed in (3-4-3 configuration) which make extremely narrow aisles which hardly can accommodate a trolley. Compared to Qatar Airways Emirates appear to be regaining the lead as (apart from DXB bus experience) they are overall more professional even to customers without status cards.

Gatwick to Singapore with a 20 hour stopover in Dubai. Difficult to beat Emirates business class on the A380 in terms of value for money. Only complaint is the shortage of toilets.