Originally Posted by dkc192

To clarify, bottled water is a standard offering for all PEY pax on medium- and long-haul flights. I forget if that's the case for regional flights too, or if it is an "above and beyond" token for certain elites.

Originally Posted by G-CIVC

In fact, I was Emerald for 2016 and the first half of 2017, GO in 2H 2017 and DM starting this year. And I've done the bulk of my flights with CX, mixture of longhaul, shorthaul and KA, so maybe I have a universal and comprehensive sample size LOL

If we are strictly talking about onboard treatment, then I would rank DM >>>>>>>>>> tie-ish between EM and GO or maybe EM marginally over GO.

Here are some things that I got as a DM (I didn't do any Y after DM, sorry) that I never got as EM/GO
- meal order and display of meal for both me and +1 (by hand, not trolley)
- the meal card
- u can tell they try to go above-beyond. For example, on a supper flight I was proactively offered items on request, such as cheese and ice cream.
- 100% consistent greeting from both ISM and SP, before menu distribution, a bit more personal chitchat.
- (one portion of all) snacks proactively held up on long haul flights
- I've been constantly checked on in a very non-CX fashion on longer flights. More than once, once I woke up they came to me holding the whole snack box or offering drinks.
- whenever a lav was occupied, the cabin crew would proactively call the other galleys to check if there are any empty lavs/block and allow me to cut the line if shorter at those lavs.

EM and GO
- quite consistent ISM greeting, but not for SP, and occasionally ignored on regional.
- water - only for EM, never as a GO.
- (completely) ignored on KA (J)
- never did I get any meal order taken, but I've been told sometimes it's because I'm always in row 11.
- as a DM and GO, the ISM is able to say "Goodbye Mr. G-CIVC" upon disembarkation. Not so much as an EM, but this is really too trivial.
- screwups - for EM, they do not care at all, since they do not have your complaint record on file. EM complaints are dismissed with little compensation/acknowledgement compared to DM/GO.

What I mean is the authority is too stuck in the past and hence ignore the latest instructions given out by CX management, since promotion within CX crew is as slow as it can get. So yeah, essentially what you said.

Personally, if I see that happening I would not go as far as lodging a complaint, but I would love to see better differentiation between DM and Emerald whenever it's possible.