Oh Monsieur Downlow, I don't want to make it about me, but to put things into perspective I must. Imagine EK telling you that if you flew one million actual miles you would get certain LIFETIMES benefits. Over the course of flying fifteen years with EK, they do those oh-so-little touches that melts your heart making you chose them, even if they were more expensive or had to go out of your way. Imagine spending a little over $1 million in business, hitting that coveted "Million Mile Flyer" and slowly going towards "2 Million Mile Flyer" when EK decides to take all your LIFETIME benefits away and downgrading the lifetime status you were promised. Now when you fly, you're just another number, even flying their premium cabins. This is exactly what happened at United two years ago.

Where am I going with this? As our fellow FTer pomkiwi stated, it's a different world out there. The number of airlines in the world have shrunk drastically and cash is king. You're only as good as your last flight AND how much you paid for your ticket.

With EK, as with a few others like SQ, one should have a good in-flight experience, in all cabins. I have flown a good 500K with EK over the years, 90% in F cabin, and their service is superior. As for anything long-term, especially mileage redemption, etc., I have very little faith in any airline anymore.