I flew four legs last week (SYD-DXB-CDG, LHR-DXB-SYD) - the outbound had no greeting or anything like that.

The SYD to DXB and DXB to CDG flights had technical problems and the crew seemed a bit under the pump from a couple of stressed passengers on the SYD-DXB leg.

The return journey was vastly different and as i had experienced before "Welcome back Mr K......" in fact, on the LHR-DXB leg i was even asked how my travels had been and whether my experience with Emirates had been a positive one thus far.