Good bye and good luck

The purser on all EK flights knows exactly how many miles a pax has in their Skywards account. Not sure if they know how many flights you have taken for the year. But if they see a pax with hundreds of thousands of miles it should set the alarm bells ringing.

I sympathize with you too, i said "good bye" to EK almost a year a go after being a gold member for almost 6 years

Their business class desk rep changed my booking over the phone beyond th expiry of my ticket, which i didn�t realize, arrived at the airport in the limo booked by emirates with my boarding passes printed online to find out that MY BOOKING HAS BEEN CANCELED due the EK staff fault!

They forced me to buy the most expensive economy instead 900 Euros for MXP-DXB-MXP , I had no choice

I wrote to Customer Service and met the EK Area manager, but the answer was NO RECORD OF ANY MISTAKE COMITTED BY THEIR STAFF! And no record of any changes to my old booking, despite my boarding passes and my limo booking!

Now, i gave up, i asked for a refund of my unused portion of that business class ticket, they are REFUSING to refund too!

So my decision was based on many factors and am a happy customer with EY and QR now

Good bye EK

Sadly, this also sort of mirrors my experiences on EK of late.

When Emirates first came into being there really was no-one who came close to them in terms of service. They were one of the best but sadly, have simply sat on their laurels for the last few years.
Catering has most definitely taken a dive (I recently had THE very worst meal I have EVER had on any flight anywhere in the world) and the standards have, in my mind at least, dropped seriously of late.

But the biggest problem are the inconsistencies in service, from the really quite laughable lottery of seats in J & F to the extremes of crew quality, which really can range from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I will continue using them for now at least because the chauffeur service is one of the few remaining genuine benefits (and because I can't bear the thought of having to fly Big Airways and change at T5, as I live in the Midlands) but like DTB, I too have my eye on Ethiad and Qatar for future travel. . .

I remember seeing this sheet in the galley, middle of the night, on a midnight walk to the can. Went back with the phone to take a pic, and they had removed it. So from what I recall.

Some names ( never got to see the page with mine ) had comments and one guy had High Value Customer under his name. Keep in mind that I'd woken up, was half asleep and recovering from the dinner prior to boarding. I dont recall seeing the skywards status but do remember the "High Value Customer" bit.

The Pursers PC is a different story altogether. As someone pointed out they see every thing in your skywards profile ( skywards miles & tier miles ), except for past and future itineraries,( They can but they are locked out, according the the "purser" because of privacy concerns ). And yes comments must be included, because the guy refused to let me see mine, but gladly showed me the profile(s) of other select pax. None of them had comments, but as am paranoid am guessing mine had something nasty in it.

Along with everyone elses comment on "the sheet" they do have one, the Purser on "some" flights comes along to introduce themself to the HVC's (High Value Customers" on the cards they use to write down meal orders it has who is who, the BIG question is - do the crew care????????????????????? Therefore what is the point in having it - another waste of time for EK...

Oh so thats a High Value Customer? Awesome, glad to know am high value for EK.
Now to the awkward bit about the purser coming over and saying "Welcome Back Mr. Roadrunner21. My name is Ms/Mr Purser, I hope you have an enjoyable flight blah blah".... If the person sitting next to you is not a "HVC" they are either not greeted, awkward... or not greeted with their name and a curt nod given to them.
So the person sitting next to you may feel uncomfortable. And Roadrunner21 goes, "damn it I just told the guy next to me that my name is Bob.... now he knows I lied!"

Apart from that meet & greet moment, the EK service reverts back to its usual wheel-of-fortune setup. On one flight the glass gets refilled continuously... on some flights Roadrunner21 picks up the glass walks to the galley and does a DIY job. Once I ended up getting four refills in a row on an overnight flight while reading the amazingly lengthy documents that my employer produces. No one ever bothered to pass by and check the guy in 6A who walks back to the galley ever 18-20 minutes to get a refill.

So Down_The_Back even if EK calls and resolves the issue, dont expect much. In the past three months I've managed to avoid EK on all but three occasions ( there was no other option ).

firstly, D_T_B, i hope that you keep frequenting this section of the board even though you choose to stop flying with EK. i enjoyed reading your trip reports and amusing comments.

the first meet-greet moment is when you step aboard the plane with your BP. on the lower right, most of the time it lists a portion of your skywards number and your level. i noticed that when the FT first takes your BP to tell you which side of the plane you're on and what direction to walk, he/she also will make a point to say, "welcome back, mr. dearbee..." i suppose they only say this for skywards members.

as for the purser greeting, i've never followed up on his/her offer of "please don't hesitate to let me know how i can assist you during this flight." i always have wondered what "extras" i can ask for, besides 2 drinks when my meal is served.

The "extras" could be questions they will answer because you are a High Value Customer

• Ask if they will let you take pix of "THE LIST!"
• Can I check out the crew rest area ?
• Where is the fire axe stowed ?
• Can you substitute my meal with the crew meal ?
• Whats your username on flyertalk / PPRUNE / airliners.net ?
• Is it true that EK chains up and locks the crew at night ?
• Why do some of your colleagues snitch on their coworkers ?
• Where is the secret crew panic room on board the 773 ?
• Whats the pin number for the cockpit door ?

Disclaimer: some of the questions listed above will get you on multiple no-fly / watch lists!

these are superb inquiries to be made under a different alias. D_T_B should have no problems lending us his name for this mission.

I could add some further questions, that the crew are more likely to be able to answer:

To the European female crew - Which Peroxide have you used?
To the majority of the male crew - Where's the best gay bar to go to when we land? (I once whitnessed one of them openly reading Spartacus on a crew seat)
To the majority in F class - how long before you retire to a ground job?

All this said, I am now flying F class DXB-HKG-DXB end of the month, the client insist I fly Ek - You gotta hate some of them huh?

I will however inform EK before I fly and see if it makes any bit of difference!

ahhh, we knew you'd be back even before you left.

hopefully they will make it up to you

Well I am booked with a colleague on EK8 on the 2nd Dec to DXB and then onto Luanda in C class. Guess what.....already changed from a 380 to the dreaded 777-300ER. Still it could be worse, could be a 777-300. By the sounds of things it still could well be!

Same on the way back for me so I guess its not a one off. Pity really, but at least this forum has told me not to even bother asking for any form of refund.

I'm still waiting for an answer from skywards on a partner rewards question I asked 4 weeks ago....
Still love them onboard though....

The 777-300 is way better than the 777-300ER because all J cabins have the new skycruiser seats.