At the risk of de-railing the thread, let me rant about the boarding process at the gate:

I think boarding is, in general, not very organized at DXB (except for flights that have security at the gate, in which case people always behave).

Some of this is cultural, and I know that EK passengers tend to fly very long distances, but that can only be a reason and not an excuse. I have always wondered why the bp scanning system does not simply reject people whose seating zones have not been called yet.

Edit: As to my actual feelings about EK, I have only had one truly poor experience. Apart from that one time, it has always been satisfactory - but has ranged from barely satisfactory to unbeatable. Perhaps the variance in service is what keeps me coming back to EK, much like a slot machine