Emirates Skywards - EK17/18 21/Aug/12

So just got a call from EK in Manchester telling me that tomorrow's EK18 has been changed from an A380 to a 2-class B777. They seem to be shifting passengers onto different flights andI'm guessing there will be lots if claims.

Any ideas why the change? And why they couldn't substitute to another A380?

Perhaps the plane went mechanical, or they need it for a more important route, say, DXB-JED. It is a major holiday in the Gulf right now, so flights will be bursting.

No idea but at least they told you which is contrary to what other have been posting. Did they give you options?

Very interesting, no clue either but EK17 shows as an almost fully booked A388 on expertflyer while EK18 shows as 2class 73R with plenty empty seats indeed.

Planned swapping of planes in MAN is quite unlikely. Positionining the 388 to XFW or TLS for some work...just guessing. They still would need to position the 73R to MAN...

Yeah they called tellling me that due to aircraft change they are overbooked by a lot of seats. They were apologising about it and wondering if I am willing to give up my seat and take an earlier or later flight. I declined straight away due to my schedule back home and they said no problem straight away.

I think I was lucky that they called as well. Due to the flight being full in J I didn't get seats next to each other on the 380, as soon as I hung up I updated my seat selection, and avoided the middle seat in J ;)

A6-ECB (777-300ER in 2 class config) has just left DXB as EK17 bound for MAN.

So definitely no operational arircraftswap in MAN, EK17 just hadn't been changed on expertflyer (non of the flights changed yet on Services by flight or anywhere else on emirates.com) - also interesting that all three MAN flights still showed acceptable availability last night on flightstats,... Well they were at least locked for booking on Emirates.com and all showed pretty packed seatmaps on expertflyer...talking about accuracy or lag of those systems

Thanks KU104 for that heads up on an operational aircraft change, enjoy your flight!

Just got home after flying EK18, and here is what I noted:
1) A6-ECB is still in sleeperettes for J
2) Crew in J were fantastic this time, seemed that they were going above and beyond their duty for everything. Even though the J cabin was full of kids.
3) the aircraft was full with only one seat in J empty (odd for me given that they were calling around to get people off this flight) and it seemed like lots of op-ups from Y to J as well. I am however not sure about this as got different info from different people.
4) When I asked a crew member on that flight, who I have flown with on my trip from KWI - DXB a few days earlier, he mentioned that the switch frrom A380 to B77W was due to the low loads on the flight. Again that was odd as they were trying to get people off the flight (desperately as a fellow passenger mentioned).

And slightly a bit off-topic but we parked at the new concourse gates and were bussed to the terminal. Upon parking, the view from the nose cam showed a deserted area. No one was there to meet us except for 1 air stairs car and 2 busses! I even thought that our bags won't make our 1hr connection because no ground staff were there to offload the a/c! I wasn't surprised when I got to KWI and the bags didn't make it for our group and another group also coming from MAN. And before anyone says anything, I have been in tighter connections and always get my luggage, not annoyed with EK though as it is the first (and only hopefully!) time they lose my luggage. But, the staff in KWI mentioned that this is not the first time they see the MAN flight luggage not arrive! I have another trip end of Sept. to MAN and looking forward to see if they are right.