There's a reason I keep flying Emirates, and every time I fly with them, it's a reminder of why I do so.

I was on the 348 from Dubai to Singapore (via Colombo) yesterday on two separate itineraries, both in Y. Flight was completely empty on both legs. I had to disembark at CMB as DXB was unable to issue a boarding pass though they could check bags through.

When I got back onboard at CMB, one of the crew members came up to me with a glass of champagne and a box of Godiva chocolates, compliments of the Purser. My meal preference was noted down as is done in Business by the SFS, who addressed me by name, and the meal was brought before other passengers were served. The Purser later came to have a chat to ensure everything was ok.

It's the little things like this that I know no other airline would do for a lowly Silver who isn't even on the HVC list. Now, I'm a firm believer in service depending on how one interacts with the crew, but this went beyond that and I couldn't quite figure out why I received this special treatment. Here's what I think might have happened:

1) The crew thought I was undercover from HQ or a spy - I was asking too many questions
2) My recent 4 sectors in F flagged me as HVC - this seems more likely since the Purser knew about my upcoming travel

Any other ideas?

So what does classify someone as a HVC?

I fly inter-GCC in F only but am flying to YYZ next week in Y. I am Gold also, should be interesting...

Thoughts?

You mean you fly intra-GCC right?

Anyway, what we have found out is that by default HVCs are all Gold and HVC+ might have been today's iOs.

Correct me if I am wrong, peeps..

You are correct Obi-Wan...

I guess "intra" is the correct grammer...

Been in Dubai too long yelling at everyone in crappy English... Otherwise I get head-bobs and heavy confusion!

it cant be the undercover from HQ theory - most HQs employ bean counters who would be seriously worried if they found a Y pax holding silver status beign served champagne and Godiva

there can be another theory but since i understand this is a family oriented board i will refrain

i once had a japanese FA on emirates give me a stuff toy puppy and proceed to be very attentive throughout the flight.

Maybe you're just a nice guy?

The more you fly with Emirates, the more likely you are to run into the same crews. This year, I have actually flown with one girl four times already (on very different routes!). Needless to say, I get a lot better and personalized service from her now that she knows my preferences (eg. Diet Coke > Diet Pepsi so she keeps the always scarce Diet Coke cans aside for me and pushes the Diet Pepsi on the lesser mortals).

Emirates crew for the most part are hired BECAUSE they are friendly, outgoing and single young men and women. Hospitality comes naturally to them. Trust me, they are less turned on by an HVC+ tag than they are by a regular joe who has a good attitude and chats with them in the galley.

I considered that but don't think it was the case because when that is the case crew interaction is slightly different.

In this case the purser hardly spent any time speaking with me.

Seeing as Yuropflyer experienced the same thing (though he was Gold at the time), it is probably some sort of HVC+ tag.

is this why for my past few flights the crew have greeted me by name and said welcome back? i havent had so many flights pre-booked before, and they never did this before either or have they just got some new policy to say that to all status holders?

Nothing new about it. They are trained to read the boarding pass stubs and if the coupon number (last digit of the E-ticket at the bottom) is anything other than 1 they say "Welcome back".

Maybe but on a couple of flights from LAD - DXB i have had crew say to me 'welcome back, you were on flights with me before - i remember you!' which was interesting. It hasn't happened on any other EK flights mind you.....

are you sure?? quote from Ung1 TR -
"Don�t believe anything Eightblack says about me. And the photo that he claims is of him is actually of me"

AHH I wondered how they knew.
Anyway I had spot on service from the FAs LGW to BKK the other day and the bloke at the gold desk did a top job sorting out my upgrade on the 380 for the way back at the end of the month, and to top it all off just opened my email to find out Ive won 7,000 miles from the HUB so very happy with emirates right now.

Haha, had that been the case, the telephone number on the Purser's business card that I received would not have been just for EK Customer Affairs and Service Audit.

I didn't even know Pursers carried business cards!