Emirates

I am a frequent traveler with Emirates and am sad to say it is all going downhill. MNL-DBX-AMM and CAI-DBX-MNL on the way back. The B777-300 ER is a nice plane with departure at 12.20 am. With all the time spent in the airport and the lousy lounges at Manila airport (not airline's fault) one gets to the flight starving. Just to find out they have "Light Bites Service". All options below business class standards. Tiny portion leaves you starving for the rest of the flight until breakfast comes. No service in between. This service takes more than two hours to be completed when people want to go to sleep as soon as possible. Then the connection to Amman was far worse. A330 plane is really bad when the passenger in front of you fully reclines you end up with his head on your lap. When things couldn't get worse they did on the way back. Ground staff at Cairo are as bad as the airport itself. No priority boarding long faces a true mess. Fortunately I was served dinner as it was dinner time. B777-200 also a very bad aircraft. My ICE screen got stuck when the guy in front of me reclined fully. Crew did nothing. Then another red-eye to Manila more "Light Bites" service crew took three hours in offering the duvet for the hard seats (by then they already woke me up). These flights require super-fast bed service not three hours after. An really can't you afford a true meal? Really disappointed.

EK 415 SYD-DXB - business class April 4th 2015. Check-in agent was friendly. Flight was on time. The crew overall worked very hard aside from several juniors who seemed to shadow more senior stewardess whom need to polish further their customer focus skill. Food is of high quality (Seared duck as appetizer and steak). I skipped breakfast which was the first meal as I had enough breakfast from the Sydney Emirates lounge which serves very high quality breakfast. Wine on offer inflight is of high quality. ICE entertainment system again the best there is in the industry. A380 that is deployed in this flight is an early generation of the type as it does not have the latest innovation such as electrically controlled window shutters better ICE controller and slightly smaller screen. Overall a very pleasant flight and will meet the expectations of the most discerning flyer. Note to Emirates whomever design the menu/wine list for EK flight to and out of LAX should take note on the menu served in this flight. I got the feeling that these menu are designed by 2 different staff/divisions.

My husband and I flew from Johannesburg to Istanbul via Dubai in late March 2015. The flights to Dubai and then Istanbul were fairly uneventful. I had requested a gluten free meal. The gluten free portion of the meal was unimaginative and very unappetising. Arriving at Istanbul we waited at least 30 minutes for the luggage to be offloaded. The return trip however was an ordeal from beginning to end. The flight left Istanbul more than an hour late. We had to wait in a boarding area that was far too small for the number of passengers. We arrived in Dubai with 30 minutes to make our connecting flight and were told that we had been rescheduled on a later flight which meant a wait of 5 hours through the night. Our compensation was an inadequate meal voucher. Meanwhile our original connection left more than 30 minutes late in any case and we could still have made it. The new connection also left late by about 40 minutes. My special meal request was not transferred to the new flight. The flight was jam packed and the service was patchy. When the coffee eventually came around it was absolutely cold. I will not be flying Emirates again.

BHX-DXB-BKK 1st April 2015 777 then A380 - EK 0384 and EK 0040. A Tale of Two Cities! The contrast between these two flights was vast so the data below is an average of both hence here is my review for each leg. Leg One Birmingham to Dubai. Plane full seats squashed leg room limited staff mainly rushed and miserable touch screen sensitivity useless. Leg Two Dubai to Birmingham. Plane full seats much larger in width and leg room wonderful attentive staff new screen with light touch sensitivity. No headphones provided to me. The price was £480 return with a return in July which was excellent and was much cheaper than from HRW with a better and shorter DXB layover of 2 hours. Would use again. Two gripes - advertisements at beginning of films and shows annoy me so an ability to just watch 20 seconds of a bit of each film in order to get the gist of it would be great I have no time to wade through numerous adverts just to eliminate 80% of the substandard films. Gripe Number Two yes its the Emirates Music! Great when you only fly them occasionally but hideous when it just goes on and on and on a four chord repeat monotony come on Emirates how about the sound of silence?

We have flown with Emirates more than 20 times. In the last 4 months we flew Business Class 8 times and First Class once. We have experienced 2 great flights with them but 6 awful flights. Emirates call centre were disorganised and provided conflicting information when we called to try to make changes. The crew in general are by far the worst we have experienced on any airline (including budget airlines). On 4 of the recent flights my wife was pregnant. Emirates made very little attempt to make the flight any better for her. We have flown with Emirates various times over the last 7 years and have found the experience increasingly worse. The food in Business Class has been paired back so much that it is almost inedible. They have chosen to use extremely cheap bread and pastry products as filler. The food at Singapore Business Lounge was inedible I say this as a statement of fact not a complaint. I returned to the main terminal and purchased food and drink from there and brought it back into the lounge. The chauffeur service is also highly variable. At Singapore we were collected by an 8 year old souped up mini van (replete with flashing lights inside and worn out interior) instead of the limousine they promise. We fly a combination of Business and First Class when we use Emirates our reason for this is to try to avoid undue stress when travelling to or from a holiday destination. Unfortunately we have found that for 75% of the time we come home feeling frustrated. We are going to try BA and Virgin for our future trips - I would highly recommend avoiding ever using Emirates airlines.

I flew Emirates from Vienna to Harare in March. The difference in quality of aircraft from VIE-DXB to DXB-HRE was staggering. The Africa-bound plane was old the seats were narrow and uncomfortable (comparatively) the in- flight entertainment system was archaic (without even the detailed route tracker that is the standard of other Emirates planes). Before opting for the Business class flight I had flown Emirates coach a number of times and on the newer planes it is far superior to business on the Harare route if value for money is something you care about. Incredibly disappointed. The massive gulf in quality between the Europe-originating route and the Africa-bound one was massive. Unforgivably so given the fact that we were still expected to pay a premium. Poor showing Emirates.

DUB-DBX-PEK and return. Four Emirates Flights in the last 6 days. First sector from Dublin to Dubai was astonishingly poor for an airline as reputable as Emirates. Chaotic boarding late departure - 1hr 10 minute delay. Staff onboard were generally surly abrupt extremely rude and unhelpful. One particular stewardess on this flight demonstrably lacked the people and interpersonal skills required to carry out her responsibilities. The aircraft's ICE system was particularly ineffective and difficult to navigate. However the further three flights resonated as if it were a completely different airline. Staff were utterly professional courteous caring and engaging throughout. The PEK-DBX flight epitomised the standard for exemplary customer service in every way albeit helped by the fantastic A380-800 aircraft used on this sector. Despite the first let-down Emirates will be my airline of choice for any future longhaul international travel.

SYD-CDG-LHR-SYD. With stops either way in Dubai. Hadn't flown Emirates since 2005 and very mixed reviews but I had to book a trip due to a family illness in England literally booked 4 days before flying and Emirates gave me a very good price. On all 4 sectors I flew A380s couldn't fault them the planes were clean staff were courteous ICE was excellent and meals not too bad and above all the toilets were kept very clean flew in the forward economy section on 3 sectors and it felt very cosy. Keep it up Emirates will certainly fly you back to Italy next year with my wife.

DUB-DXB-PEK and return. First time to fly Emirates. Three flights on the Boeing 777-300 one on the Airbus A380-800. 3/4 sectors typified the renowned Emirates service but DUB-DXB left a lot to be desired with surly uninterested and even some ignorant cabin crew. Some even refused to bring water to passengers. Disgraceful conduct. The IFE system was also difficult to navigate on this sector leading to a less than satisfactory flight. However all other sectors were extremely good particularly service aboard the A380 from PEK-DXB. Staff were exemplary chatty smiling engaging and above all courteous. Our group received complimentary champagne on two occasions during the flight. They went out of their way to make us feel at home. Space was very good the IFE fantastic and food was excellent. All in all a wonderful experience and definitely my airline of choice for future International travel.

Emirates A380 is the only way to fly long distance today. We flew from Spain to Dubai and back on it and once you experience the bar at the back and being able to move around drink chat and socialize you will not want to fly any other way than the A380 Emirates Business Class. It sets a standard of luxury that no other aircraft or airline can compete with. They know the meaning of going that extra mile and the A380 is it!