SH,

My experience...

My father recently made a trip from KHI-DXB-JFK-LON-DXB (stopover)-KHI on EK all on Biz class. Since his return dates were not confirmed he did not book the free hotel before departing. However I told him to contact the EK London office for booking the free hotel when he is ready to leave London. When he contacted the EK Lon office he was asked to contact the travel agent in Khi for the hotel.

I contacted the agent in Khi and he told be that the hotel is supposed to be booked 15 days in advance! This sounded ridiculuous. What if I am traveling within the next 3 days or so. Furthermore, the agent told me that all this offer thing is a hoax. He has tried booking the hotel for several pax and all he gets from EK is "Awaiting confirmation". Now this agent is no small player and one of the bogger TAs in Khi so I would assume he would know the reality.

In the end, my father ended up staying elsewhere and never got the free room.

So I feel there is definitely some discrimination around but whether that is due to race or fare is something not known. Whatever it is, EK should sort it out before it starts to lose pax from Pakistan (or maybe that is what they want!). For instance, I for one, think that with EY's new aircrafts and lower Biz Class fares (from GBP700 to Lon and GBP 1000 to NYC), I would not mind switching to EY.

Just my thoughts

Keep Flying!