Emirates

VIE-DXB after taking off the bassinet on the wall was installed quickly amenity kit distributed and even blankets with collectible monsters. When I asked the crew to fill up our babybottle with hot water this was done in less than 10 minutes. DXB-MNL the crew seemed very tired and unmotivated. I am just wondering why the "sparkle" of the crew was missing? Even at the flight back the crew was so-so at the first leg but at the second leg they tried their best. Emirates takes good care of their passengers food service excellent ground handling (handled by Austrian Airlines in Vienna) was great as the Supervisor blocked the seat next to us so we could rest better and I think its a big plus for Emirates that they lend Strollers in DXB to families.

DXB-ARN-DXB. Biz class return In short both these flights were of a high calibre especially the return leg on the 08/05 ARN-DXB the Purser was an English lady who is a total asset to the airline. Her manner with passengers was professional yet friendly and she and her team gave an excellent service. Both legs service was top notch flights on time and arrived early. ICE as usual had the latest movies and seat comfort superb. My only small gripe again is the food Biriyani in Biz class is not acceptable I chose the Veal which was chewy and tough and had to return it. Wines were good. Failing that a great set of flights!

London Gatwick - Dubai EK016 1/5/2014. Dubai - Kuala Lumpur EK346 2/5/2014. I have been using Emirates for several years and have found little to grumble with until recently. I have flown primarily between the UK and Far East transiting via Dubai. Fares have generally been cheap and the service and food has been passable. I was upgraded to Business class on a couple of occasions but really wouldn't rate it as being much better than Economy class. I flew with them in Jan/Feb 2014 and again on this current trip May 2014. I would have to say and in line with most other reviewers the service has gone downhill dramatically. Boarding the plane was organised and orderly in London Gatwick but quite haphazard and chaotic in Dubai. On both flights food seemed to be served in a chaotic manner. The stewardesses appeared to be a mixture of Qantas and Emirates staff and were often at odds with what each other was doing. They appeared quite stressed at times and were curt rather than polite with inquiries. Emirates staff have never been as polished or professional as MAS staff and from my observations a certain level of rudeness/frustration has crept in and is very noticeable at times. One of my biggest bug bears is that they no longer ask passengers to right their seats to enable people to eat their food in comfort. I quite often end up eating in an impossibly restricted space. Asking a Stewardess for assistance to rectify this is not always responded to positively. The choice of food doesn't seem to have changed for years and has become boring if not unpalatable at times. Travelling in Economy is no longer a pleasure and the term cattle class feels more apt these days. I stopped using Malaysia Airlines years ago because of the cost of their flights and poor service at that time. When I started using Emirates I began recommending it to all my friends because of the level of service and affordable fares. I probably will continue to use Emirates but would consider other options such as MAS Qatar Etihad and Turkish Airlines all of which appear to be doing well in the ratings. I certainly would have misgivings about recommending Emirates to friends at present.

LGW-AKL in First A380 all the way. As usual an extremely good product extremely well delivered. Pricing out of LGW was more competitive than via LHR which is nearer my home but the included chauffeur service meant the added distance and time were negligible. The lounge at LGW despite being under renovation still served top-class food (as do most EK lounges worldwide) with an impressive Margaux to sip. Staff were very courteous. All sectors (LGW- DXB DXB-SYD and SYD-AKL) were excellent - slept reasonably well superb selection of modern films on the IFE high quality cabin crew. The shower spa is a fantastic luxury that I continue to thoroughly enjoy every time I use it - it's a real boon on such a long flight to be able to shower at the time you want to help adjust your body clock for your arrival. I'm not a fan of the First Class lounge in the A380 terminal at DXB it feels completely soulless and the shower was only lukewarm - the second time I've experienced this. The massage in the spa was good though. Return AKL-LGW was almost as good as the outbound. However the menu was limited and repetitive - lamb and chicken biryani on all sectors. Although there was also a pasta dish this was not really the level of variety and quality I expect when flying in First for more than 24 hours. Thankfully a bit of creative thinking with the starters (including the excellent mezze and generous portions of caviar) meant I was certainly not going to be left hungry. Simple things like freshly-prepared toast are also very welcome though I wish they would introduce ice cream. One slight niggle is that I asked for a large bottle of water when I boarded and was told there only 6 for the entire flight so I couldn't have one moments later another member of cabin crew came up and offered one oblivious to what I'd previously been told. Overall though cabin crew were even better on the return leg especially between Brisbane and Dubai. Boarding for the final sector B777 DXB to LGW was a farce and the one real let-down of the trip. I was called from the lounge at 0710 for an 0800 flight then had to wait for thirty minutes in two different holding areas until they could bring a special bus for the first class pax (frankly I'd rather have just got on a normal bus and been able to relax on the aircraft) which then took more than 15 minutes to crawl around the airfield. All in all though Emirates First continues to be by far my preferred carrier to New Zealand for its mix of quality service and cost.

DUS-SIN-DUS. Again full score for Emirates! It's simply the best. Perfect friendly and attentive crew very good meals no delays wonderful inflight entertainment. Recommend to use also the free Chauffeur service to make it even more convenient.

Been travelling Emirates for a year and on 3 occasions (all from London to Kuala Lumpur). Overall experiences have been good except for our recent flight last week. As before we booked our seats online but one of the seat was changed without our knowledge leading us having to re-booked/changed both our seats to one which we are unhappy with. Check in staff on the day was unhelpful. We will be flying again early June to Kuala Lumpur but will give Emirates a miss on this occasion as the protest. We will consider Emirates again next year.

ATH-DXB-ATH. Arriving at check-in flight was overbooked in economy. They offered me an upgrade to business at 300 euros per sector. During booking business class price was 1300 euros so I stayed with J. An A345 the seat was comfortable and pitch just ok. Catering ok but really nothing special. Crew very attentive IFE the typical ICE on EK which is not my taste. Variety of movies limited. Flight arrived on time. Return a different story. Again overbooked flight and the same offer. Still on J class on a 777-300. Boarding and a bus ride that literally took 37 minutes. Nice tour of the airport! Flight departed with 30 minutes delay due to the bus ride as we got into the plane 5 minutes before the STD. Same thing on catering and seat. This time crew was a bit uninterested and robotic. Arriving in ATH and we have to wait for our bags more than 25 minutes. All in all an average experience. Next time and my schedule permits I will try Etihad or Qatar as their ticket price is a bit lower and inflight service seems to be better than EK.

Emirates had become my airline of choice because of the great seats and entertainment system on their new A380's. Until my most recent flights I also found their service and food to be among the best. However on my recent flights from HKG to DXB and DXB to Dublin I found both the food and service to be awful. Their switch to serving food in J class on open plates is a disaster. The food ends up lukewarm and dry. I much preferred the sealed container. The food was bland and tasteless. The cabin attendants on both sectors were pretty indifferent. On the second sector service was particularly clueless with wrong orders and lack of apology. I might just look for other options next time I fly. One thing also to bear in mind if you can avoid it - the HKG-DXB route flies over Bay of Bengal. Turbulence here as on my flight can be fairly rough during monsoon season. Also for some reason we had to be bussed to the gate when we reached DXB. The ground journey took 20 minutes. The place where we were dropped off happened to be the confluence between T1 and T3 and as a result a lot of transit passengers headed off in the wrong direction. A frustrating mistake to make at midnight when you are already tired.

EK 413 AKL-SYD 13 April Business Class. Disappointing service and poor hospitality. Emirates appear to have lost their former sparkle. Problems started at the Emirates Lounge in AKL where numerous Qantas passengers were denied entry due to different rules applying to status levels and guests. Emirates staff looked particularly anguished dealing with the number of complaints they had on this occasion. The Lounge was full to capacity and it was difficult to find a seat with flights going via Brisbane Sydney and Melbourne all around the same time. However the food in the lounge is exceptionally good compared to competitor offerings at the moment. Onboard the business class standard on the A380 was poor in hospitality comparison to current competitors. Young inexperienced staff surprisingly lacking basic etiquette and manners. Staff looked tired and despondent. During the flight I was either served twice or not at all. Despite the new A380 I was surrounded with broken and depreciated equipment. Meal service very average. The staff just seemed to want to rush and close down the service as quickly as possible. The pricing is definitely competitive and if hospitality isn't important and you just want to nod off this could still be a good way to travel. For me the quality is just not good enough in hospitality for business class. Its not just about the IFE and the swish seating capsule. The outbound flight with Air New Zealand may have lacked the latest technology and wizardry in cabin design but made up for it in spades in terms of hospitality professionalism and overall comfort. Have used Emirates a couple of times over the last few years and couldn't fault them previously. Will avoid them for a while. Clearly lost something as I didn't feel looked after on this occasion.

Birmingham-Dubai-Bangkok-Sydney-Christchurch NZ 19 January 2014. Economy. Nice food and good service. Birmingham - Dubai was a 777 (2 class) and we had bassinet bulkhead seats row 8 which gave lots of legroom. Dubai - Bangkok was the A380 which is super comfortable we had bulkhead behind seats next to the midships galley. There was some noise from the galley and there is a locker above the seats which is not great but we were comfortable enough. Bangkok - Sydney was with Qantas this was the least comfortable as plane was older. Although Emirates is Qantas partner you cannot pre-assign seats for Qantas flights so these were our least good seats. Sydney to Christchurch was again a 777 and not full so I again sat in row 8. I believe that Emirates does not make the (777 2 class) row 8 bassinet seats available until airport check in. If there are no babies needing them you can ask at the gate to move into these seats and if you are a frequent flyer you may get moved It worked for us.