Originally Posted by
skywardhunter
EY F and J product might be great, but keep in mind not all of their aircraft are even EY aircraft. So they offer a great product on a part of their fleet. For people like me, flying on non-A380 routes, chances of actually seeing a real Etihad premium product are slim. So one must consider Emirates always-average J/F (not that F is average though IMHO) vs Etihad occasionally awesome J/F.
My two cents, purely speculative based on my opinion of Emirates' corporate personality, is that there'll be a big overhaul in about 12-18 months of both J and F. The issue is that they need to face significantly decreased loads in J/F if they want to remain competitive by switching to a 1-2-1 in J and 1-1 or similar in F. Once they get over the denial phase of having to make that decision they'll quickly get to the ego-boost decision that "We are EK, the world's best airline, we need the best product" and they'll go even more overboard on the gold trim than they have before.
In the end, cabin designs are cyclical. EK was the best 5 years ago, EY and QR saw it, improved it, now it's time for EK to strike back.
I completely agree with you based mostly on my own travel habits. I fly a lot from the US to NBO and EK and given the choice between EK, QR, and EY, I pick EK not just because I like the product overall, but because on the 5 hour flight from DOH, DXB, or AUH, they are the only one to offer a proper business class or even a widebody jet. This also goes for many flights in Africa and Europe. I hate flying narrowbodies for over 3 hours (I have done it) and have avoided it on most flights except US transcon flights (but there's not much choice there).