I am getting serously cheesed of with Emirates now. I am Gold and have been for a few years. I make 3 or 4 return business class return trips from london (usually LGW) to BKK every year. As time has gone on it has got more and more difficult to use miles for upgrades etc.

I have a trip in a couple of weeks and had managed to use miles to upgrade 2 of the legs (DXB - BKK) and (DXB - LGW) to first - whoopee at last managed to get soemthing for my miles. Sadly this was not to be, first I was advised that the DXB - LGW had an equipment change and first was no longer available, then a few weeks later advided that DXB - BKK also had an equipment change and no first on that flight either. To add insult to injury the replacement aircraft are the high density 2 class 777ER without the up to date business seats but rather the old outdated recliners that are more like what would be expected in premium economy on other carriers, and there is no way I would have paid a business class fare to travel on this aircraft type, but now rather than being in 1st I am stuck paying full fare for a rubbish business product that I would not have booked in the first place. Also the upgrade miles have not been re credited to my Skywards account so now I am going to have to get on the phone and start chasing them to get this done.

I have one further trip booked for this year (which will be in 1st) but then I think it is goodbye EK. I pay my own fares and I want to know that I will be getting an acceptable product for my money, which EK is not giving me on a consistant basis. Luckily from London I have many choices such as Thai, BA, Quantas, Quatar, Etihad, Eva etc, who all have a far more consistant product than EK seems to be offering at the moment.

Ahhh - rant over, I feel much better now !!

Trotski