And some of the older frames are in dire need of maintenance. Flew on A6-EDC a few days ago in J, 17/76 seats had non functioning ICE, many seats wouldn't recline properly and the state of them was, quite simply, disgusting. Not to mention that I suspect the cushioning on a sumo wrestler's mattress was better than the seat I eventually had.

I was advised before takeoff to move seats as the one I had chosen apparently wouldn't recline; the seat the crew tried to move me to was already occupied by another person with a broken seat; the next alternative was a seat in the final row by the bar which was politely declined and I think they eventually moved someone travelling on a staff ticket to accommodate me in a working seat. I did feel bad but this was a paid J flex ticket after all and without meaning to sound like the Christmas grinch, I was extremely hungover and didn't want to partake in or hear the onboard festivities.

And with a load of 72/76, the CSV spent the majority of the time apologising to irate customers. I felt sorry for him seeing as it really wasn't his fault and there was nothing he could do.

Now admittedly this was the inbound to Dubai, the turnaround on the ground was lightning fast due to fog delays in DXB so there was limited time for maintenance to sort out issues but surely everything couldn't have broken on the outbound.