Hi there Saltire74 - I can empathise with your sentiments, as I too haven't been on an EK aircraft for a while now. I sometimes get a little emotional whenever I spot one from my window seat, parked up (say, just after I've touched down somewhere in the world), or positioning itself in the take-off queue, ahead of or behind me, so to speak.

My former loyalty to EK has been interrupted by a prolonged spell with OW carriers, notably QR, CX - and, just recently, MH too. I came to find that, in broad terms, the OW benefits can prove more generous / useful where earn & burn rates and lounge privileges are concerned, than the more restricted Skywards programme. Plus, all three of those carriers mentioned have served me very well, thus helping to soften the blow of missing Emirates. Malaysia in particular were a very pleasant surprise - if only because I was apprehensive as to just how much of their former 'quality' might still be in evidence, given the well-documented difficulties they have been wrestling with ever since the horrendous double tragedy. Those difficulties certainly do still exist ; but my own experiences of their current A380 product from LHR to KUL (in F), and then onwards to Australia (in J, A330) were very positive overall.

Where I must sympathise with you - and I really, really do !! - is that you have been forced by circumstances to date BA after a close relationship with EK. And that must hurt. At least I can mostly avoid BA for all long-haul stuff (except just occasionally to the Americas) and tolerate them, when necessary, for s/haul within Europe. But there is of course not a single aspect of BA service - whether on the ground or in the air - that equals (let alone surpasses !!) that offered by Emirates. And so I feel for you ...... believe me.