Well after all these years of EK coming to Australian/NZ market, and heard great things about EK. I have finally flown EK last Thursday.

Normally I avoided EK as they are not part of OW or *A which I cannot really collect points for either QF/CX or SQ. They also stopped allowing point accumulation at DJ. I normally fly NZ for Trans-Tasman and Pacific Services. But for my trip with my better half and parent in-laws to NZ from SYD, when I quoted AKL-SYD, EK costs the same as NZ seat+bag option. Whilst I am BD*G and has access to NZ lounge, express check-in/luggage, we decided to try EK413 AKL-SYD Y for my EK trial, especially that I have never tried A380 before.

And boy, weren't we (including my hard to please in-laws) all impressed! Comfortable and spacious Y seats (we were on 48G/H/J/K), delicious Y airline food (very eatable and large salmon fillet), fantastic ICE which is multi-language offering (great for my Chinese in-laws!!!!) which works really well (and does not crash!!). The A380 took off and flew so quietly that all of us did not even realised it (we were all watching movies on ICE). Even the toilet, the stairs to F/J level looks beautifully finished. Also even when it is in A380, they divided the Y into small section so that we felt that we are in a small cosy cabin with dedicated service.

The flight was only 3.5 hours and in a way we wanted to stay in the air much longer, even though it is a Y (and I have flown a number of J services for the last two years).

The only thing that I need to figure out is whether ICE supports Chinese so that my in-laws can navigate ICE themselves if they fly EK again. My only other small gripe (not on EK) is that it departed from AKL at Gate 16 which is MILES AWAY from all the other gates. Probably because they are the only A380 compliant gates at AKL.

I would definitely try to fly them again, even in Y. I wonder what it is like to fly in EK J/F on A380 or their 777s?! (started collecting Skyward points, had 3700 of them but surely miles away from getting J award) Maybe I need to sign up the Citibank EK Platinum Credit Card to collect points ....

Glad to hear you enjoyed your first EK experience, I was hooked after the 1st time.

You can check the skywards miles needed for a J reward ticket here:
http://www.skywards.com/Mileage_Calculator.aspx

The 777 J and F are both excellent and from what I hear the 380 J is also quite nice.

MUsic to my ears! and welcome to the EK family! Im on a flight with ICE end of this week (2 actually)) and will report back on ICE supporting Chinese


Now comes the downside...

Inconsistent Hard product:

Ek Y seats on the 380 and SOME 777s are state of the art and the best in the business Unfortunately this is not true of all aircraft EK hard and soft product are NOTORIOUSLY inconsistent The inconsistency is the worst among the top 10 airlines.

J is not great on Ek outside the 380 Their best product is lie flat and the cabin is crammed 2-3-2 and loads of comp ups. The others (including the infamous ""deeply reclining"") are below even tier 2 industry standards

Ek First Suites Product IMO is the best (absent SQ suites and possibly the new CX product) in the world -- if you dont mind what some people call ""bling"" ( go figure!) The rest of the F product is again well below tier 2 industry standards.

Erratically managed Soft product:

when managed wel, l Ek soft product is top quality Unfortunately management is erratic After 5 excellent flights where I was positively pampered the last flight half empty I had to wait 90 minutes for a cup of coffee because the CC forgot..twice. She also forgot to hand out the wine list on one aisle (all J) Priority baggage delivery was messed woith the priority container loaded first and therfore last out at destination. (this flight originated in DXB) When its all working well if you are elite they even know what your preferred beverage is and what kind of movies etc you like viewing and come and tell you whats new in your favourites!!!!

A mulitinational crew (like FT) means when they all get on they rock! Sometimes (not rarely but sometimes) they dont... and then you ahve a complete failure in soft product delivery. Same true on ground in Dubai only worse there because incentives to team build are absent unlike onboard where everyone bears the costs.


GROUND:
Ek J lounge DXB is a zoo.. it was a zoo practically from the day it opened. It will always be a zoo as Ek facilities expansion is alweays behind thier PAx growth. If you dont mind a zoo it has the best F &B ive seen in any lounge, and great office facilities etc The shower facilities are very poor and the guest policy is terrible. BUT if you are Gold and flying Y you can use it! You can also use a lounge in DXB hub if you are Silver, again with top notch F&B and office facilities. Their outstation lounges are to a uniform standard so below average in airports with excellent lounges (LHR for instance) and above average when the opposite is the case (DEL for instance, or so i have been recently told). Depends on station.

I think ive given you a fair assessment though others will disagree.. I look forward to their opinions, though, as I am also still trying to make up my mind whether I love Emirates or just like it given the above (and the fact i fly 250,000+ a year which makes me a curmudgeonly S*B )

Happy flying!

:-)

Hi Guys,
This is my first post on here.

I have recently been very disappointed by Emirates as they use some old air crafts on certain routes despite charging ridiculous fares!

I was recently flying from HK in J and the seat was only a recliner, it was absolutely terrible! You cant sleep on those seats. i couldn't help feeling robbed! I had the same type of plane in J from Lagos on an afternoon flight. It makes no sense why are they putting such old planes and still constantly increasing the fares. Had i know it was such an old plane i would have happily flown Y.

I am infact considering switching over to Qatar as their fare in J is literally half and i have been hearing very good things about their seating and service.

Being a Gold several times EK staff do not even Welcome you on board anymore...

I full agree about their Lounge being a Zoo! I was there recently around 6am and it was impossible to even use the Toilet, You need to get there before the mad rush if you want to have a shower!!!

The showers in KLM Business class lounge Schipol are far superior as i have recently experienced. The EK showers didn't have Hot water, I had to settle for lightly warm!

Kind of takes the Joy away of travelling in Business class, you are probably better off using the public Toilets in Dubai Airport then the ones in the Lounge.

I did however notice recently that they were doing some work on there so let
us hope to see some improvement.