Before the moaning gets really underway, let's wait and see how the fares vs. miles earned works out. Remember that just being here on FT we are all atypical travellers - the large majority don't really care about miles, they care about price, schedule and/or service.

TaipeiWang, I'm interested to see that you've got an image of the new booking engine - I can't get that online yet. I took part in some user testing last year but didn't mention it here as it would break EK's confidentiality. The site then was a bit of a dog's dinner, trying to do too many things at once, but I'd like to see if it's been made easier.

There were also some other fare features tested in that session, which haven't emerged (yet) but might go down well with at least some of the people on this forum.

I'm not an EK apologist (quite the opposite really) but remember, nobody makes you fly Emirates or any other airline. So if you're not happy with the scheme, as part of all the factors you consider in choosing an airline... fly with someone else!