Originally Posted by
subject2load
Must say, skywardhunter, your staunch defence of Emirates throughout this thread has been admirable !! It's pretty clear you are perfectly happy with what - by current & ongoing standards - will be an increasingly outdated config when their new 777 seat comes into being.
However, whilst you are of course perfectly entitled to your own opinion (of which I have no criticism), you must, equally, accept that however hard you try to convince others that the new layout is 'a good thing', there are self-evidently many who disagree. And, in some cases, they will disagree strongly. Several of those alternative views have been voiced here (and there will undoubtedly be many more who do not frequent internet blogs or forums etc.)
As some posters have indicated, it is unrealistic to imply that frequent flyers (and very often, infrequent too) do not look carefully at configs and individual seats when choosing a carrier. Sites such as seatguru and seatplan etc developed to cater to those very demands for information & detailed knowledge.
I myself am an Emirates fan and have travelled with them (albeit with various gaps over the years) since 1986. But I do believe in looking at what is out there, and competition is always healthy. I am halfway through a trip to Australia & NZ, with several countries visited en route. I wanted to be sure of a solo seat on all the lengthy sectors : personal space, with no risk of having to climb - or being climbed - over. I was happily able to enjoy this on CX, NZ, and QR (the latter not a 777 but a 787). The fare, in J throughout, was less than the EK equivalent, and service was just as good ; in fact NZ I would say was better.
I can't imagine what would now encourage me to go for a 2-3-2 aircraft when 1-2-1 is so widely available on quality carriers.
As an aside, I will be flying Melbourne to Perth with QF at the end of the month. It's a four hour sector approx and QF are using A330's with a 1-2-1 config in J, with 28 seats. Ironically, I used Skywards miles to get award seats. And when QF can offer 1-2-1 even a four hour domestic, it really does make it that much harder to be satisfied with EK's 777 for much longer sectors.
1. I didn't imply frequent flyers don't look at configs. I said most people, and I stand by that statement. We are a very small subset of airline passengers with very specific knowledge of the products available.
2. I choose EK for schedule primarily. I used to fly primarily SAA and loved them, and it was hard saying goodbye but these days for me EK is better. That doesn't mean I choose EK over other carriers at all costs. In fact I am flying EY J tomorrow night instead of EK, because it was significantly cheaper (but the schedule and routing is so bad I in fact would prefer EK Y after having flown the outbound last month).
3. I didn't say it is a "good thing", and in fact stated earlier in the thread that given the implementation timeline and lack of retrofit the new seat will already be outdated. However I admire well-run businesses, being an entrepreneur myself and my travel being paid for by my company. I think Emirates is extremely well-run and I admire it. Emirates offers me good flight options with good consistent service and transit and an overall pleasant experience. I'd hate for that to go away, thus am interested in the company being successful. I also understand the need for product differentiation and I still think that this is the right move by EK. Just because all other carriers are going for lower density luxury options in J (the direct aisle JL config notwithstanding, though arguably even that is lower density, given the need to remove some Y rows to fit it in), doesn't mean it's the right thing to do product-wise. A lot of other carriers don't offer F or only offer it on some routes, whereas EK is a more or less full three-class carrier. They're marketing business class to business people, and they carry a lot of them, business is for a upper-class comfortable travel experience for executives, first class is for luxury. That's how EK is positioned and I think it makes sense for their business model.
4. The need to step over someone's legs or be stepped over is completely blown out of proportion by FlyerTalkers, it's a disturbance, but it doesn't define the entire aviation experience, and given all the rest of the EK J and overall experience I still find it to be more consistent than most other carriers. I can trust EK to get things done in a professional manner, with no unexpected f*** ups along the way. That's professional courtesy to their customers and most airlines lack it.
I don't see a need to "conform" to the majority view. On FT when a poster makes some good points or there's a general sentiment towards a product/service/carrier people tend to jump on the bandwagon, despite there sometimes being legitimate counter-balancing viewpoints.
I've surely had some bad EK experience, too. And in fact being a lowly Y traveller most of the time when I get op-upped I get the dreaded E seat on the 777 (and I only fly 777 as no 380 on my routes). I still manage to enjoy it. Having flown J on SAA several times and now on EY, and having flown in an F suite on the EK A380, I am overall quite happy with the EK J product, yes. I take more offense at airlines like EY that sell you EY J then put you in 9W J, or airlines like AI or SG that sell you at 5pm flight then move it to 11am and tell you the day before. Those things hardly happen on EK IME.