Recap on our experience.
Check in: Piece of cake, we were able to check in the car seat with no problems, it was just placed into a plastic bag and we collected it off the luggage conveyor in Newcastle. We dropped the stroller off at the gate for the same process, although we had a carrier so on the return journey we just kept her in the carrier and checked both items in at the desk.
Lounge: Hong Kong was above average, selection of food was better the Qantas lounge in HK. Lounge in Dubai was ridiculous, loved that you could get directly to the gate. It was ridiculously busy outside of the lounge, intensely busy - so we were very glad of that. It does sprawl so services are a distance apart, on par with the Virgin Lounge in Heathrow. Changing services all good and spacious so the little one could sprawl on the floor and stretch out.
In Flight: We were fortunate to have bassinet seats, or so we thought. Key point is that they are no turbulence safe, meaning that any time the fasten seatbelt sign comes on you have to take the baby out. For one of the smoothest journeys I've had the seatbelt sign was on for all times but during service. Highly annoying and I'm pretty sure the pilot forgot / didn't turn it off.
The bassinet itself is fairly intrusive, it stops you from being able to pull out your TV to relax whilst the baby is sleeping, or if you know about this in advance and pull the tv out before the bassinet goes in, you have to slope down in your chair to be able to see it effectively. Over 2 legs of flight with 16hrs in the air, it got a bit frustrating.
In terms of size, our little one is only 5 months now and was 8.1kg/61cm and 8.5kg/65cm at the time. She filled it lengthwise and I can't imagine that she'd comfortably fit in there by the end of Jan. Emirates site says that it's 74.93 cm long and can handle 11kgs. The 74.93cm must be including the width of the frame, as there certainly wasn't 10cm (or 9.93cm to be precise) for her to move around in.
The staff on board were quite honestly, amazing. Everyone of them stopped to say hello to our little girl. Some had a hold and a play and in general it was a pleasure interacting with them. Didn't have any problems, smiles all round.
In Summary: I found Emirates a very good and very cost effective option. The only thing that would deter me is the bassinet, but as my little girl is pretty much at the limit of the bassinet, that will only impact me if we decide to go for baby #2.