Emirates

From DFW 12/26/2014. From MAA 1/19/2015. I have been flying out from Dallas/Houston to couple of cities in India. Over the years Emirates have squeezed economy (or cattle class) as much as possible. Sometimes the behavior of the crew is surprising. Food is good however the overall service is okay only. Given that Qatar and Etihad now flies out of Dallas I will avoid Emirates in future.

EK010 LGW-DXB was on an A380. The plane seemed very new with nice entertainment system and it was updated with the latest IFE system with a 10 inch HD screen. Seats were comfortable with lots of space to straighten your legs cabin crew were nice and friendly and food was delicious. The next flight from DXB-BOM was on an outdated B777-300 seats were quite old including the IFE system but the content was almost the same cabin crew were not friendly they seemed to be in rush all the time food was ok. On return my flight from BOM-DXB was on a B777-300ER and that was another plane with much more better seats and IFE system compared to the one I had from DXB-BOM although the service was nice and cabin crew were better with no rushing. On the A380 from DXB-LHR the plane was the same but the seats and screen of the IFE system were the same as the B777-3ER although the whole flight was nice was a bit disappointed with the system as the one I got from LGW-DXB was new. Will fly again with them.

Boarded EK040 20/2/15. From Birmingham on time taxied to runway then had to return for an hour delay due to immigration once taken off cabin service was good the ICE entertainment system was not as good as it should be once nearing Dubai we were told we were in a holding pattern due to sand storm all connecting flights would be held once landed after an hour circling rapidly made our way to departure gate as notice boards stated final call. Got to the gate and plane had already gone. We made our way to transfer desk where nobody would offer an explanation as to why we couldn't land but connecting flight could take off we were given a new flight EK 372 a delay of 6 hours boarded on time but then told we couldn't take off due to sandstorm sat on plane for 3 hours before moving yet planes all around us were taking off finally landed in Bangkok 11 hours late the only thing that helped me from going mad were the excellent cabin staff. Must also make a mention of excellent Chauffeur service. Emirates wants to be worlds best airline not even best in Middle East. Will go back to Qatar for next flight.

I travelled from London to Dubai EK006 by A380 aircraft on 30th July 2014 and Dubai to Dhaka EK584 by Boeing 777-300ER on 31st July 2014. EK006 was excellent the food was great the entertainment system and the service was fantastic! EK584 I sat on 40A in the back cabin of the aircraft there were empty seats but only the window seats are full. This means that I had the whole row to myself to rest my legs and sleep properly while lying down! EK584 was the best flight of my Emirates trip!

EK 10 on Jan 4th onto EK 770. Noticed that 25% of passengers received a drink before take off. Crew too busy to serve all of us. No drink service for the 2hr 27min. Each request met with "it will be along shortly". I realize that is why so many regular business travelers dashed to the bar before the seat belt signs were switched off. The meal was still cold when I mentioned this I was told that "it had been dealt with in accordance with instructions and we are very busy". It is very obvious that Emirates do not carry enough crew on the A380 to serve everyone the same in the business section. Make sure that you are not at the back! The next leg of the journey on a smaller plane was far better. They just did not bring the luggage.

Flew from KUL-DXB-LHR and return. All flights were excellent. Flight was almost full on A380 to and from London but rather empty on A380 to KUL. Flights depart and arrive on time great IFE good food and attentive staff.

My advice would be to avoid Emirates until Dubai Airport improvements have finished: too many planes have to park out on the apron meaning 30 minutes extra until into the terminal delayed baggage and rushed connections. Customer Service standards also seem to be slipping. On arrival at the airport I was informed my flight was delayed 3 hours but wasn't told that an earlier flight was also delayed and I could have caught that one and still made an onward connection. The previous couple of flights also had delayed arrivals (up to 2 hours) and therefore incredibly rushed connections (with onward flight delayed to wait for connecting passengers). Hope they return to previous high standards soon.

EK 385 I have flown BKK to Jeddah twice in the last month and on both occasions misted my connection in Dubai. There should be a 2 hour connection time plenty of time for the connection. On both occasions the Captain said that due to a heavy load of aircraft at this time in the morning we would have to hold. Will give Qatar a go next month as Emirates can not get their act together.

Flew as a package Heathrow to Dubai Dubai to Colombo Colombo to Male Male to Dubai Dubai to Heathrow. On all of our paperwork we had numbered seats together. We actually sat in these seats on the first flight and never sat together again. After 3 days in Dubai we arrived at the airport after midnight to find that there were no seats on the plane so ours had been sold to someone else. We waited to see if there would be seats as we had a connection waiting for us in Colombo. Desk was hopelessly undermanned and after a long wait no seats available anywhere on the plane. After 20 minutes or so it was clear there wasn't a hotel to go to either so spent an uncomfortable night in a cold Dubai airport with a voucher for probably the cheapest meal in the cafe. Got on the next plane in the morning which was delayed by an hour. We did get a voucher to travel from Dubai to Colombo! How this airline has built a reputation for being one of top carriers is beyond us. The only thing that was better than the cheapest airlines was the entertainment system but no way can this make up for the rest of our experience. We did write to express how we thought that our experience should be giving real cause for concern to customer relations. Never got a reply.

Flew SIN-BNE in J class on the 77W. This is my second and last flight with EK in business class and I had hoping for a better experience with them the second time around. This did not happen. The crew looked bored and as though they did not want to be there. They missed our welcome drink and I had to ask for ours as they collected everyone else's empty glasses. Then during the service the crew kept forgetting which rows they had served. A drink and nuts after take off were offered and then it was almost two hours before we were offered our first course. The fun started trying to get a glass of wine. They do not serve wine automatically with the meal like other airlines and instead walk around with a type of wine rack with a few glasses on it. Good luck getting their attention to get a glass. They walked past us three times while we sat looking at them expecting a glass of wine with our entree. I was served red but my partner was ignored. I rang my call bell and they arrived to see what could be wrong with me. A few minutes later the same FA walked past offering bread and no wine. At this point I lost my temper and could not believe what was happening. My partner had finished the entree and not had a drink for over two hours ago by now. Eventually the white wine came and the rest of the service was ordinary. They had no idea which wines they were serving or where they came from. It was just red or white and you pointed at which one you wanted. The food was very average quite boring. To me this airline just lacks soul. The IFE was good and the ground staff at SIN airport and the lounge were delightful. Just such a disappointing onboard experience.