redtailshark

I'm blown away. Flew EK F on the 380 yesterday, HKG-BKK.

I had expected Byzantine opulence onboard and I was not disappointed in that. In fact, the configuration of the suites exceeded my already-inflated expectations. The shower was surprisingly well-designed and effective, the seats supremely comfortable, the AVOD screen gigantic and - importantly - fast to respond. It played Marc Bolan, always a plus.

The food was outstanding.

But no, that wasn't it. What really shocked me were the EK staff - on the ground at HKG in the lounge and the CC onboard. EK staff at HKG fixed the seat assignment. I complained about this more as a point of information when I arrived and didn't really expect much to be done. They tracked down the day when this happened, my OTA had precipitated this without feeding the info to the TG and EK res systems - a problem acknowledged by the CSR. She was excellent, investigating this and reporting back. She agreed with me that this undermined the guaranteed seat assignment policy - I had expected warm words and no action but she was able to put me back into my original seat assignment. I don't know how. But she took the matter seriously and dealt with it.

Bearing in mind I was flying on a misfile, a matter that was not once raised, this was shockingly good service.

Absolutely and in all ways this service is the inverse of LX and their reneging and hostility.

Onboard, the CC were not obsequious - something I really don't like - but professional, courteous and unobtrusive. They were not automatons, all of them had some real opinions to share and did so not discourteously but seriously and professionally. They enjoyed showing the toys of the flying sultanate, but more than that, they delivered outstanding service.

^ Awesome. Overall this was the best flight ever. I know EK is resourced at levels that other airlines can only dream of, but even that doesn't account for the excellence of service across the board.

edy4eva

Nice one. Was this your first flight with EK?

pjm1300

You must be an English Professor...

redtailshark

Yes. Quite the experience for a first EK flight. Onboard the 380 I did the walkabout and checked out the Y and J cabins as well. Even J seemed like mini-suites, and Y is comfortable for what it is. Obviously better in all classes than the threadbare UA hard product but from what I saw also better than a traditional class leader in all cabins like SQ.

anxiousone

sorry for being a noob but, what exactly was your issue regarding seat assignment - i don't get it? Were you not going to be in F had it not been resolved? I'm genuinely interested to know.

Glad you had a good flight though... am planning on that same segment in F later in the year having done it before, but i must be utterly jaded and pampered to think the service is what it should be at least and not more. Though it is the only airline, apart from QR, and EY that i have been flying for the past 7 years (CX maybe once a while back).

redtailshark

No, I was moved from row 1 to row 3. My printouts showed the row 1 assignment, which I had selected when I booked this nine months ago. At that time I was the only pax in F.

The other seat was still an F suite, yes, but it was the principle of the problem. The EK lounge agent agreed with me on this point, and if I'd actually paid the $15k (not just for that sector, but the whole set of F itins I was flying) then I would have been royally displeased to have been seat-shifted in classic BA premium cabin style. She told me that seat-shifting causes frustration and this has happened before (OTA's have moved pax, but because their systems don't talk to EK/GDS, the original seat assignment shows even after you've been moved. You don't discover this until you get your BP at transit in HKG...)

Martina made some effort to get this fixed, it took a couple of hours while I was in the lounge.

As for calibrating your expectations, if all you ever deal with is EK and QR F then you need to fly FR to remind yourself of reality. Actually, not FR - they don't promise what they don't deliver, such as CS of any kind. No, fly some regular coach on BA or DL, salted by an irop or two. See what service you receive then.

edy4eva

But rows 2/3 are almost always better than row 1!

armagebedar

What misfile was this? Some kind of mistake fare?

DLATL777

You really have to fly EK F longer than HKG-BKK to get a true experience, but I am glad you enjoyed your "taster".

fcjb1970

Sorry for my ignorance, what is a misfile? I looked in glossary and this term is not there....Thanks

redtailshark

Yes, mistake fare.

Sam Bee

I just returned from SQ Suites on the same (wasn't aware EK was ever an option, well done you!). Had a very similar experience - but just to pick up on a point you made - I would not expect crew to be aware of how much you actually paid be it $119 or $11999.

I havn't see any comments that onboard crew had made any traveller on this fare been made aware that onboard crew knew how much they had been paid (let me know if that's the case).

Well done EK - never have done F, plenty of J, but to be honest having chatted to lots of their crew I think they'd probably give you a pat on the back if they knew you'd only paid pennies. I generally find EK crew respond very well to warmth and smiles (in higher cabins - in Y they are too busy dealing with the 4,732 pax to have time to care ).