Having transited at all of the above-mentioned airports, other than SIN I prefer DXB.

bbar - you describe BA now as exactly the way they were when I gave up on them a decade ago. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was....

Im one of the long time gold defectors and am happy I did.

I'm Gold with EK til 12/14, but I'm struggling to see why I should requalify.

I'm also Gold with Qantas, and will be for the foreseeable future. So no need for EK Gold (which is a ripoff).

I fly QF metal for the first time this week. I'll pass judgement then. I expect the usual: the novelty will have worn off by the time I land. I'll think of my gripes with EK, but then get philosophical about it and concede that the overall EK product is consistent, largely predictable, and therefore reliable; and I will then conclude that all things considered EK is the best for me.

I'm not really in the camp of people who fly an airline because of their reward programme. The overall experience, sans status, has to make sense. I see you live in Sydney, so maybe it does for you. But even if I think QF is great, I won't fly them because I'm based in DXB, SIN and JNB. EK makes the most sense.

I've written a new computer program in BASIC :-

10 Budley says he's not flying EK again
20 Wait 2 months
30 Goto 10

You won't. I flew J on QF recently as part of an EK AKL-SYD-BKK-DXB-CPT-DXB-AKL itinerary, all F except for the QF leg and the DXB-CPT leg. QF would have to be the worst business class I have ever flown. EK was in a different league (except for the purser on BKK-DXB who thought it was OK to keep patting me on the shoulder).

LOOP might be less tedious.

Ah, BASIC has probably moved on since my Sinclair ZX81 days.

A gentle reminder, nee reinforcement, for me as to why I keep on flying EK and something to ponder upon for those who are in the "Bye Bye EK' camp.

Was on EK202 which was routed via KWI due to a technical snag and most pax missed their connections.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emira...erted-kwi.html

Was taken to the "Connections" counter where they had already booked most of us to later flights. Most people were handed out a hotel voucher and an onward boarding pass for their connection - those to BOM were booked on EK506 dep 9:25am, and to LHE on EK622 21:50.

When my turn came, the agent couldn't find my name in the list of BPs with her. She sent me to her supervisor who checked her system and then informed that they had booked me on EK504 dep 3:55 am, the earliest departure after my missed connection, EK500. And since the flight was already overbooked, they had upgraded me!

Not sure if any other airline could have handled it any better, including getting us back to DXB so quickly and putting me on the next flight out. I am pretty much sure that I am not going anywhere else at least in the near future.