AndyFlyer

Thanks for a super trip report with excellent photos.

I, too, have just done a quick A380 EK flight (BKK-HKG return) and agree entirely with your comments. The crew certainly don't offer much - you had to ask for everything other than a welcome drink upon boarding. They did come up with a bottle of DP 2002 and pour it, which was a nice touch. The call button was not answered, and upon going to the galley to ask for a coffee, I realised why - the crew (on a 2 hr 07 min flight) were busy eating! Seems a bit strange they were compelled to gulp a meal down on such a short sector, when they then spend four hours in HKG Airport doing nothing much.

The food was dire from start to finish - not good quality, and poorly presented. The tray concept is certainly not First Class at all. With five guests on my first segment, and four on the return, one would have thought the crew would have done a more high-brow service. I actually removed my cutlery / bread plate, etc. from the tray and handed it back to the crew, just to make my point. The main course was served on a bread plate, and it looked worse than some of the "slop and drop" presentations in European business class on other carriers. The crew tried to rush the meal service through to completion in an hour. They literally cleared one plate the chucked the next one down. And two shiraz wines on the wine list - which is rather uninventive, in my opinion. Given the amazing choice of wines in the market, why have two very similar reds? Overall, it was very poor.

The worst part of my trip was boarding in BKK. I found a dirty glass in my mini-bar (still with lipstick on it and liquid in the glass), no headphones, no goody basket, and a cell-phone charging. I pointed this out to the crew, who said they had piled all their roll-aboards into the seat when they boarded as they didn't think anyone would be sitting there, and perhaps the cleaners hadn't touched the seat during the BKK stopover. I mentioned that I'd had the seat reserved for over a month, and they just shrugged their shoulders. Not the nicest welcome to a First Class cabin.

Overall, I found the service standards to be poor, the cabin tacky and gimmicky, the food poor and about the only fun/different part of the flight was the shower. Would I fly them again? Certainly not.