It's a shame that PG Monkey didn't have a fabulous flight, and by his / her admission he / she is not a frequent flyer, so it's all a matter of context as for the majority of us this is miles away from a terrible Y experience.
Emirates for me pioneered the feed 'em and entertain the masses to keep them quiet and happy. Back in the days it was them (and oddly Kuwait Airlines) that had seat back TV's - a novel idea in Y. But now everyone does that, many airlines feed you well in Y, so it comes down to crew (and seat pitch!) and a couple of personal things that make the difference for a flight. Emirates have always been above average for me crew wise.
But - for comparisons sake in October I took my first Qatar flights - 6 of them - 5 were brilliantly staffed, but 1 (KUL-DOH) had a similar crew with similar failures that just fell down massively - staff got stressed, 200 odd people
ended up sticking their meal trays in the kitchen (inevitably leading to piles of them falling over, blocking toilets), call bells not being answered, well it all just spiralled out of control. But I knew that was the exception - and I could see it walking on the plane as the crew were massively arrogant and borderline rude (i'm the most pleasant person to be on your plane, i've never pressed a call bell in any class - much nicer to go for a stroll and a chat
).
If i'd have taken that flight in isolation i'd never touch Qatar Airlines again. Same for any airlines. So hopefully what PG Monkey takes from this is the vast majority of EK Y flights are better than this, so I hope he takes another just for comparisions sake. On average, it should be far better!
And with no disrespect to BHX, I wonder if EK has 'poorer' sectors that staff don't like serving. I know EVA Air staff can't stand doing the BKK-LHR sector. I wonder if the idea of a couple of days down time in BHX for what I imagine is a demanding SEA Beaches Party & ISC crowd is not their idea of a great flight (i'm putting this out there as supposition, not fact!).