I experienced my first BA J this year to SFO and have just returned from a flight on EK in J. I'm from the regions (ie not near London), so I thought this comparison might be interesting for those on the board who are in a similar position, as well as those who are booking travel for business without a preferred airline / alliance agreement and where cost is a consideration (like myself).

Why I flew with EK

Akin to my review of BA J, I was now embarking on a trip to MNL and having got confirmation to book, I quickly hopped to ba.com to price it up. It came out near 7k, routed via HKG (or possibly SIN) before continuing with CX to MNL.

Because I didn't think the management would be too happy with that cost, I then checked out ebookers to see who else was offering options. From recent flights to GVA from BHX on EZY, I noticed that Emirates flew from BHX, so I priced up BHX > MNL in J, which obviously routes through DXB. It came out at £2.7k.

I headed over to their website to check out the offering - the first thing I noticed was the free drop off & pick up - a fantastic benefit. I live 35 mins drive from BHX airport - compared to the 3 hours on the train to LHR T5, it was no contest.

Price - As I mentioned, I'm not booking travel through a corporate TA or anything like that - the route I'm flying doesn't have the EK flat bed J - it has the cradle angled lie flat. However, the flat bed of BA does not justify the 4k price differential - it's simply not worth it!

The routing is also better - BHX > DXB > MNL gives you two 7hr-ish flights, instead of 12 hours and then 3. Perhaps some would prefer the long flight for more sleep - but I prefer not being stuck in a plane for that long.

So all in all, it was no contest - EK fly from a closer airport and are a lot lot cheaper.

Pickup / dropoff

This is fantastic. You can arrange the pickup / drop off direct from the website, state what time you want to arrive before the flight and they call to confirm the day before. The pickup arrived on time and there were no problems. Emirates also have an arrangement at BHX for their cars so that they can drop you off right outside the terminal building instead of the drop off car park.

Check-in
From the front door of departures to Emirates check in must only be 30 steps or so - with only two flights/ day and obviously one flight at a time being checked in, check in was deserted and I was on my way to the lounge within 2 minutes. This experience at BHX certainly beats getting into T5 via the HEX, taking the lifts and then the long walk to check in.

Security
Evening flight on a Saturday - BHX was deserted. Perfect. Admittedly T5 probably is as well - but no doubt there are less premium passengers flying through BHX so would expect less queues.

Lounge
Emirates have a dedicated lounge right outside the International gates at BHX - it's big enough to cater for the current loads. It also had a nice buffet of hot mains and cold desserts. Better offerings than Galleries.

Boarding
We were called for boarding when they had already boarded Economy - I guess it's the advantage of the lounge right by the gates. They even had a dedicated air-bridge for J as well - painless.

Seat
This is where BA still has the edge. I was flying on a 777 and the config was 2-3-2 in J, so you've either got aisle access but someone wants to get out past you or you have to squeeze past someone.

On the outbound BHX > DXB, it was their 'sleeperette' seat, which is truly awful and a couple of generations for international J out-of-date. The seat in front of you reclines into your space. This will probably be enough to deter some of you from booking it. The other 3 segments were flown with their angled lie-flat seat. This is not as comfortable as the BA seat for sleeping, but it comes close - and it comes close because EK provide mattresses on request! (The CC even insisted on laying it out for me and then placing my blanket on top).

AVOD
No contest - BA is laughable compared to EK and their ICE system. (Two legs were ICE, two were ICE widescreen). Worked flawlessly, incredible choice and selection. And the best feature of all - AVOD available gate-gate. On two legs, a passenger didn't board so bags had to be offloaded - wasted some time and meant by the time we had taken off I was half way through a film. I love this and this is something BA really need to fix.

Food
Always a contention on this board - I don't mind BA food, I quite enjoyed what I had, but EK is definitely another level. Hot starters for one, canapes served beforehand. Service was a little slow, but then it is more involved compared to BA - desserts + cheese served from the trolley - oh, and it's desserts + cheese, not desserts or cheese! Even better, frequently they came round and offered desserts for a second time - I love desserts and they were great.

EK also had great hot breakfast options with pastries offered multiple times. Seriously, I was in airplane food heaven (I also do like Y airplane food). BA seriously need to up their game

Service
I had great crews on my BA flights, they were very friendly, very warm and I would rate them above the EK crews - who were perfectly fine, but they didn't really interact, they just asked a question and served.

Baggage
Every single bag that came out first was tagged priority both at MNL and BHX. EK win here.

Summary

I loved the food + avod on EK and the pickup / drop off. BA seat beats the angled lie-flat of EK but it comes close. I will still continue to fly BA where possible as I love the Britishness of BA, but EK is certainly making it harder.

Of course, the big advantage EK have is cost base - they have less costs than BA, their hub doesn't have flying restrictions and they're quasi government-owned. So it is perhaps not fair to compare them, but the fact is, for travelling East from the regions, EK offer a very compelling product (I'm guessing the same from MAN too) and I would not hesitate to use them again.

The downside of EK is they have a FFP with no benefits to speak of and they're not part of an alliance.

I still need to fly with BA for the USA, but I believe EK have plans to start flying to the west coast of USA from BHX when BHX finishes its runway upgrades in 2014 - it will make it very tricky for me to consider flying BA then, because you just cannot beat a 40 min drive compared to a 3 hr train journey.

I think the program EK are embarking on with serving the regional airports of the UK is a very strong one indeed - BA of course have plenty of people near London to continue to fly with them, so perhaps they don't need me as a passenger but if you live in the regions and are a cost conscious J flyer, give EK a consideration.