Emirates

I flew from Adelaide to Paris a couple of days ago. Having heard of the really good reputation of Emirates I was looking for to it. I was rapidly disappointed with a very basic service more than average food and their ICE entertainment system really not user friendly with a lack of movie choices. By experience there are far better airlines on offer for a better price too. Travelling back to Australia in a couple of weeks hopefully they will prove me wrong.

DXB-MXP in First. Everything 5 star level boarding with separate F class bus and private suite enables you to join a high level of comfort and privacy. Crew professionalism impressed me I was always called by name from the Purser. Once seat is converted into a bed it is soft and comfortable. EK F class product is far away from all Europeans and can only compete with LH. Highly recommended.

MXP-DXB-BKK-DXB in Business. As usual I found the biz product to be excellent both on A380 and on B773. VIP lounge in Milan is brand new with plenty of seats and amenities with direct separate boarding directly from the lounge. Once on board seats are very comfortable high quality food and drinks smiles and kindness from all the crew. The only weakness is concerning boarding procedures at Bangkok that don't allow priority at all once pre-boarded is all chaotic so you have to literally walk over economy class passengers. EK is one of the most comfortable J class in the market I'll fly with them again.

A380 Dubai - Melbourne. Seated in exit row 52 although some kind of fridge malfunction had soaked the floor so we had to use blankets in order not to get wet - it being a full flight and already in exit row wasn't really going to give it up. Food was slightly disappointing - still perfectly edible but nothing special. IFE was great for TV loads of series but fewer movies. Inflight WIFI is a nice touch although it took me 10 hours to log on. I sent them a complaint email about the wet floor during the flight which I think is pretty good. Overall - the Qantas-Emirates tie up is great for Europe to Australia especially with the overnight timings of the flights and A380's going all directions. Emirates also a solid choice for service.

I flew twice with Emirates in December - Bangkok-Dubai-Gatwick returning Heathrow-Dubai-Bangkok then again Bangkok-Dubai-Istanbul and return. Their inflight entertainment options are above average although their headsets were broken 50% of the time. Other than this I am sad to say on both flights I was disappointed with all aspects of their service. Our group were always split in the most odd fashion - even on our business class flight I was separated several rows apart which made no sense. Food options ran out on one flight - chicken or lamb my parents cannot eat lamb but they ran out of chicken - no alternative or other option! We were no where near the back row so obviously many other passengers only had lamb as an option! There are far better options out there for similar prices or cheaper. Don't make the mistake I made - don't fly Emirates if you have other options.

LGW-DXB-SIN. Plane 2 hours late leaving LGW due to late inbound arrival. Fog at DXB extended delay to 3 hours including an abortive attempt at landing. Landed 03.15 exactly the time onward flight to SIN should have been taking off. That flight had closed so missed connection. Incredibly difficult to get rebooked. Long queues at transfer desk. Staff did not have ability to make re bookings directly but had to call their reservations department somewhere else in airport. Long long waits to get a response (half hour plus for each passenger) and no queuing system on their telephones. No offer to arrange hotels even though some passengers clearly becoming distressed at length of queuing time. To cap it all I later found that my connection was still on the ground when I arrived in DXB and did not leave for another 2 hours even though shown as flight closed i.e.they had allocated my paid for and checked in seat to someone else!

My journey from Bangkok to London Gatwick return was the best journey I have had. On all sectors LGW-DXB-BKK and BKK-DXB-LGW I had a pleasant flight. Flight crew were extremely helpful smiling all the time food and drinks were served on time and food was surprisingly tasty. Fleet that served us on different legs of the journey were as following LGW-DXB was on B777-300ER DXB-BKK was on A380-800 BKK –DXB was on A380-800 DXB-LGW was on B777-300ER. Seating arrangements on both Emirates B777-300ER and A380-800 is 3-4-3 I have always considered these seating arrangements to be very cramped. Surprisingly Emirates somehow made it feel specious with plenty of leg room. Entertainment on board both B777-300ER and A380-800 was wonderful with over 1000 channels of entertainment to choose from flying cannot get boring. If you do manage to get bored then many of the Emirates B777 and A380 are fitted with inflight WIFI internet OnAir at a very reasonable price. I paid £0.63 for 600mb that's enough to last me on all my sectors. Overall I enjoyed everything Emirates had to offer staff were very helpful on board and on ground. Services offered on board were more than I expected. Entertainment food and drinks on board were by the best I have had so far on an aeroplane. I would definitely recommend flying with Emirates if you haven't flown before.

Flew HAM-DXB-BLR and returned BLR-DXB-HAM in mid-December 2014 with Emirates. Before taking this flight I'd heard the hype about Emirates being one of the best airlines so was looking forward to the trip. How far could the reality be from the hype? A long way. Where to begin? The seats are not comfortable stewardesses missed me twice when bringing drinks around and once when bringing meals (I wasn't asleep they just didn't ask and were looking away from me so I couldn't get their attention until I had to practically shout at them - which got an angry- looking glare). On the return leg from BLR to DXB I got a nosebleed in flight and wanted to ask them for tissues - I used the call button but nobody came. Waited several minutes then tried again this went on until the bleeping stopped after about 15 minutes. Not one attendant came to repeated buzzing over that time. Finally it stopped and I got out of my window seat and to the toilet to take care of it myself. I noticed during the flights to BLR and on the return that there were plenty of other people who also got no responses to their calls - they finally gave up or I saw a couple of them get up from their seats and find an attendant themselves - so ignoring passengers seems to be corporate policy. Meals are also average. All-in-all not a good experience over 4 flights with this airline - I would not recommend flying with them - I sure won't if I can avoid it.

EK0015 8th Dec. Flew from UK via Dubai to Capetown. Had to travel for work urgently. Last minute booking was easy and good app. Brightervisas secured my SA visa so I was away quickly. Was able to get 15% off loads of things with Skywards membership and the seats and service was great. Downside was the tea but coffee was OK. On return 1 hour delay due to late passenger which was not great but service was top level.

Travelled on DEL-DXB and DXB-Lagos sector. Aircraft on DEL-DXB sector was good. Seat comfort was ok. Food was good and staff courteous. DXB-Lagos sector aircraft was old seats were not that comfortable. However prompt and good service made up for it. Emirates business lounge in New Delhi is very good. Dubai lounge is also good.