Originally Posted by whimike

Unfortunately, I think it will take a long time, if ever, for anything to change. The abysmal customer service, following rules to the exact T without any ability to make a sensible varying decision, is not an EK issue alone, it is pervasive throughout the entire region (at least for airlines). I love flying the ME3 in the air, I dread having to deal with ANY issues on the ground. It really seems as if the airlines see their workers as pawns that lack the capability of making sensible decisions, they don't give them any ability do to anything other than follow very specific instructions/rules without even the slightest variation. I recall the one time I got EK to bend their rules, it took me going about 5 levels up the chain of command to an Emirati manager and took nearly 10 days.

As much as we all like to hate on the US carriers (and for many good reasons), their employees being empowered to make sensible decisions is something I no longer take for granted. If we could combine this with the quality of the EK product, it would be an amazing airline.