I have been tempted to fly EK a few times because of attractive fares in C. The flights were OK, but the couple of times I had problems the attitude and service were so bad (yes, worse than US carriers) that I'm really reluctant to do so again. If it's on the Company dime no way, on my own I think the flights would to be just about free, or really cheap with no connections, checked baggage, or anything else that would give them the opportunity to create problems which they would then proceed to not solve in a highly annoying manner.
And the cell phone thing is a complete non starter, that's going to be a nightmare.