Completely inconsistent service standards
 

So I took a DXB-DXB-CAI the other day in business. The standards of service on both flights were completely inconsistent.

Outbound - full in F/J/Y
4 hot towel runs (I don't think I've ever had this many on a 4hr flight on any carrier).
Plenty of tea/coffee/champagne served with breakfast and immediately. following the arrival of the tray.
Plenty of attention from the excellent English attendant on my side of the cabin.
No welcome for Gold members.

Inbound - Almost full in J and almost full in Y (No F)
0 hot towel runs.
Wine served ages after arrival of dinner tray (I actually had to hit the call button a couple of times to get any drinks served at all).
Very nice Gold welcome from the purser.
Cabin crew not particularly visible throughout the flight.

Just wondering how it is possible to have such differing service levels on two legs. What surprised me most (given how crew can differ significantly in performance on flights) is the 4 (overkill) vs 0 (why?) towel runs. Surely this is a basic service standard?

And it still annoys me that it can takes forever to get a drink served with your meal...

Try flying in Y on the 380... You finish your meal and are waiting for drinks and they haven't finished serving the back of the plane.

This is pretty common on EK, in business and first.

I blame this on management.

With the labor laws (or lack thereof) in the UAE, there is no reason this should be happening.

I fly 15 legs a year on EK in F and I must concur that there is a great variation in service levels. While most airlines have their senior stewardess in F, this does not seem to be the case in EK. These young ladies tend to favour the galley for chatting rather than proactively checking what passengers might need. Pursers, on the other hand, are senior and professional. Having said that, I have noticed in the last half dozen flights a trend towards better service, even though cases of utter stupidity still exist. Like the latin poet Phoedrus once said: "quanta species, cerebrum non habet". What a beauty, however it does not have a brain!

Inconsistent indeed. Had crew who have been with the airline 8 weeks do the most efficient meal and drinks service ever (in Y) and also had a couple of occasions where I'd finished my meal before I got a drink.

It happened to me a lot even flying in business class.

I have, sadly, learnt to just get used to the highly inconsistent service standards and just go with the flow. You never actually know what you are going to get.

The meal service in J a bit of a mess at the moment, in my view. I was on EK763 to JNB, departing DXB at 10:15 am. As soon as we were airborne, lunch service was started. I am guessing that most passengers, like me, don't usually have lunch at 10:30 in the morning? Or even 11:00. So would they wait and perhaps do a round of drinks and serve lunch at a more normal time of say 12 or 12:30? No way. When I said it was just too early for me and could I have my lunch later, it was met with the usual "Sorry all the food is heated up at the same time and we cannot re-heat for health and safety reasons". When I said to the cabin senior that it was a bit too early for lunch, it was met with "Yes, I know and I agree. But thats our procedure and we are told to serve it as soon as we take off". I wonder if anyone actually gave this any thought.

My other pet peeve is the bread round on Indian sectors. EK serve a great Indian meal on the Indian sectors but they serve it pre-palated with western bread rolls. Nobody eats (or should eat) curry with wheat rolls! By the time they get around to their bread round with all the great Indian breads, I have usually finished my meal! I once tried waiting for it and ended up eating cold curry ...not nice! I hope someone from EK is paying attention ...

Wouldn't happen to me (in J). I'd just get up and confront a flight attendant. Trust me. But they are also usually nice to me.

And I also don't fly the 380 for the reasons mentioned above. Why do people get so excited about the 380? Retained hype I suppose.

Having flown EK for close to 12 years in F, I kept seeing these inconsistencies. So what did I do? Walk and vote with my feet.^

They have a point. Dining on demand would be nice, but I wouldn't expect it in J class (though QR seems to do it on their B777 to JFK). So many passengers are connecting from all over the world, and/or have been flying all night and/or woken up extraordinarily early in the morning, that normal lunchtime hours are somewhat irrelevant.

In my particular case, on a flight on this length I am definitely keen to have the main meal as soon as possible so that I can sleep (if I choose) uninterrupted. Of course, dining on demand would be better, but absent that I would prefer to eat at the beginning. YMMV.

Bear in mind that on this sector, two meal services are conducted. The first meal is served straight after take off to also allow some time for rest before being served again before landing. I'm sure someone in airline accounting would like to hear your views, so they could scrap one of the services and provided just one main service mid flight :D

EK service seems a russian roulette.

A SGN-DXB lately in J onboard the old A332 seemed to be a form of Y+, with the perk of unavailable toilette, no personal IFE for the middle seat of the B row (2-3-2), and a completely impersonal FA treatment.

Quality of food? Don't let me think...

As for the A380 Y, well...a 3-4-3 on that bird is sweetly different from 3-4-3 on many EK B777 series.

Such bad service! Why do people fly Emirates frequently then? It looks like these guys just cannot get themselves together. Are there good alternatives to this flying mess that could be recommended?

Unfortunately for me there is no alternative. The only hope is that EK will listen to public opinion and make changes. But when things are good at Ek they are really good. Just flew 2
Sectors on EK and excellent service on both sectors with op ups on both sectors.

Good to see it is not all bad, I may try one day.