jackiedada

So I had a particularly eventful Friday at NYC which ended around 6 pm with an update that all flights from JFK on Saturday have been cancelled. Was able to get a seat on EK202 for Friday night. Hadn't been to the JFK lounge in the evening for the last several years (my preferred flight is 204 which is a morning departure) and realized that they still serve a nice selection of starters, entrees, and desserts at the lounge.

Fast forward 13 hours and I enter the DXB J lounge at B:
1. I see the same food items that I had sampled several years ago. Not only that, I was apalled to see that there was hardly 'any' selection at all - a yellow lamb machbous, a chicken stew with few pieces of chicken and carrots floating around, some really dry looking Iranian kebabs. Looked like no one cared - take it or leave it. I didn't touch a thing - came out of the lounge and decided I'd rather take a chance with the a/c meal!

2. Dessert selection - identical to what it was when the concourse B J lounge opened several years ago. No change at all - it was as if the J lounge menu was frozen in time (I definitely recall seeing more items on display when the lounge first opened).

3. Teeming with people in the morning and not a place to sit. You have to walk the entire length of the lounge to get a place sometimes.

4. Loos are perpetually crowded and queues run to outside the loos - there is no way I was going to stand in one - I am not taking a flight on EK to join the army in the first place...

I've had some good experiences with EK in the recent past but this one begs the question - "Seriously EK - is this your J class experience?" I mean the JFK lounge which isn't that big a lounge has a much better selection of food items, has enough seating to cater to 2 A380s which go within 30 minutes of each other - full in J & F plus the several other Plats and Golds like me who are inside the lounge. And they can't get it right at DXB?

Does anyone else feel the same or is it just me who is nitpicking?