Hello Tomorrow, or not.
 

Guess I'm not the only one looking for alternatives to Star Alliance, in particular LH. But is the grass really greener somewhere else?

After doing several pleasant trips with Etihad the last year, I wanted to see if Emirates is really "hello tomorrow". Actually I was kind of forced to use Emirates this time as they were the only ones offering a great business class deal from BCN to BKK. All segments were with the A380.

Limo service worked perfectly, check-in nothing special. Got a window seat which was nice but all in all I expected a bit more style. The seat and screen looked very industrial, Etihad manages to bring a much more relaxed atmosphere into the cabin.

The stewardess specifically asked me if I put the phone to flight mode before departure, even wanted to verify herself. Reminded me of typical LH attitude. In general I found the crew on all 4 segments not very likable. Specially the ladies behaved like princesses and did not seem very customer oriented. Sure they looked all very attractive. But if I want to see beauties, I can go somewhere else.

The food service was pretty poor, slow and weirdly timed. On one segment I waited one hour after departure just to get my first drink. The food itself was mediocre, at least the booze selection was excellent for a business class.

Strangely the amenity bags were only distributed on the DXB-BKK legs. In general socks / eye blinds were in a plastic bag in the drinks holder next to the seat. The amenity bag itself (when they gave it) was surprisingly extensive. Good quality bag and contents. On LX/LH not even the first class kit is on that level.

Also, why they don't put some lotion into the lavatories? Every other airline I used did that for biz passengers. Emirates only puts perfume.

One really positive thing was the bar. Had a good time there. The snacks they had aligned were basically my meal since the regular food service was not available when I wanted. At least they tasted good.

All in all I have to say I was pretty disappointed when I compare to my previous Etihad experiences. Too many things were just average or strange. So will there be any "hello tomorrow"? Most likely not for me. It will stay a "hello yesterday".

An interesting - and, may I say, well-written review.

As a reasonably strong fan of Emirates dating back many years, I'm always disappointed to hear of folk who are new to the airline finding it does not live up to their expectations/hopes.

Quite often we see negative reports based on just a single sector, and it's natural to then take the view that it was down to bad luck on the day. But you flew four sectors and were seemingly not impressed by any of them - or at least not impressed by the product as a whole, from start to finish.

You don't say what the loads were on your flights, but many people feel that 76 is just too big a number (ie with all seats taken) to deliver a high quality business class service on the A380.

Personally I can honestly say that I have never had what I would describe as a poor flight with EK ; but equally I'm not so naive to think that it could never happen. Some of my flights have been satisfactory and no more, but a fair number have been truly outstanding.

I have yet to fly with Etihad. I'm certainly glad that they came along, if only because there is no substitute for competition when it comes to keeping others on their toes. It's good that there is choice out there.

Finally, I couldn't help but smile when I read your comment about the lotion in the bathrooms. The smile was not to do with your review per se, but more the fact that lotion has become something of a running gag here on the EK forum in recent weeks, due to the somewhat unique experiences of one of our regular (and, in fairness, most entertaining) posters :)

:D+1

Mrs. LFC will be flying her first 4 longhaul EK-F segments next month via YYZ>DXB>TPE>DXB>JFK. Hopefully she will have better experience than the OP.^ Ironically, my wife absolutely loves the service on the LH-F longhaul flights, so that will be one of the basis' of her comparison IMO.

LFC

Hmmm lotion. It starts again. :p

Suggests to me that the attendant had a reason to believe that it hadn't been. When checked , was it in flight mode?

The f product is far superior than j so you will have a great time!

I have to agree with the OP.

As someone who flys extensively with SQ, NZ and EY, I have now started doing a bit with EK, mainly the DXB->ICN route every 2 weeks or so in J.

I find the crew generally pretty uninterested in the comfort/needs of passengers. Most of them seem to be low-wage Eastern European crew who really don't give a damn. To me, it seems they're there for the "glamour" of being Emirates crew, nothing more.

The seats on EK 380 leave a lot to be desired in comparison to SQ, and I personally prefer EY, CX and NZ seats, which some others don't. Especially the Mk I EK 380.

Bar is nice and a good place to relax after a tough trip, but that to me is one of the few redeeming features.

I guess it could be worse, I could be flying that route on KE...

I was thinking the same thing. :D

I think it's more the tax free salary of 30k USD and travel perks, rather than glamour per se :D

I don't think it's entirely fair to point to wages and geographic origin for crew problems, considering EY has the same recruiting pool as EK, and CX and SQ pay quite a bit less than EK, even before you take into account the fact that EK crew pretty much have only one monthly expense, which is a mobile phone contract. I think the problem with crew service, especially on A380s, is the working environment and the corporate culture - you have 76 J seats with a badly designed from the perspective of staff cabin interior and you also have all the drama of working for EK.

I agree with you regarding the product - the EK J product is average compared to what's out there, both in hard and soft product. I think it's definitely the weakest part of the offering. I suppose in order to offer the fares they do in Y and F, they need to pack the J cabins on all their aircraft and the rest of the product certainly suffers because of that.

The OP summarized it well. EY >> EK easily in premium classes, and even in economy. EK is more about perception than reality.

Meanwhile, my main reason to still use EK is (a) flight frequencies (b) FC access as a Plat.

Even f?

I noticed OP segment was on A380.

It's been discussed many times in this forum. But personally I would forgo the bar, and choose 777 for J class. After trying both metal, the reduced numbers of J pax on a 777 seems to allow better services.

Perhaps you might want to try it on one of your sectors next time.

Regarding the FAs, I have to admit they can be hit or misses. I fly GIG/DXB/SIN sector so many times, that quite a few FAs know me by sight (not sure if it's a positive) so I get pretty good services. However I have encountered truly horrid ones as well. In all fairness, I believe this will occur on any airline.

Btw love the lotion bit. We can start it up again!!

The last concern I have with any airline when flying is the cabin service. Since the service is delivered by people (humans) there is always a human error when delivering a service, and quite frankly I rarely came across a crew which truly deserves a 5* rating from me. Safety, IFE, and cabin chairs are the three factors in making my decision when flying an airline, and Emirates satisfied all three conditions. Regarding food, I would make sure my stomach is full before boarding a long-haul flight in case the food turned out to be terrible onboard ;)

I agree though, these stewards are not that good! Asian crew are the best :)

I couldn’t agree more! Even in long-haul first class, the food is horrible, and the bread basket is not that great. Unfortunately I had to eat sweets to keep my stomach satisfied. It is disappointing that even in first class, the food is not as good as other airlines (Kuwait Airways, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Gulf Air, Cathay Pacific, Srilankan, etc.)

As I was told by one of the cabin crew, amenity kits are provided only on night flights. On day flights, there are no amenity kits. I agree that this is a bad policy, but so far they provide the best amenity kit in business class based on my flying experiences with other airlines business class.

I’m pleased to know that I’m not the only one who noticed this issue. It is indeed embarrassing & shameful for Emirates to not provide such a thing in their lavatories when other cheaper airlines do so in their lavatories! :td:

Since Safety, IFE, and comfortable chairs are the factors in making my decision, Emirates remains my first carrier when it comes to long-haul flights. It is disappointing to know that you had a negative experience with them, however, despite joining Emirates last November, I just became a silver Skywards member. This is how good Emirates is for me :)^

How very odd that Emirates should be your carrier of choice when they seemingly treat you so poorly, and - as you say - don't respond to complaints.

These are just a selection of comments you yourself have made about the airline in recent weeks :


"When I flew to KUL (my bag had a business class tag) my bag arrived AFTER economy class passengers, and for my return flight to Kuwait my bag (which had first class tag) arrived after business and economy class bags.

The point is, don't even bother complaining to Emirates since I don't really think they care. You don't get what you pay for which makes me reconsider ever flying in a premium cabin with EK again in the future....."

AND .......

"Well, it's shameful when you pay for a first class service you end up getting economy class service! The priority boarding is disorganized, my bags arrive with economy class bags rather than first/business class bags, no body lotion in the lavatories, no lounge access when you get an upgrade offer (however I managed to get in the lounge ,) amenity kits are provided only on night flights where other airlines such as Oman Air do provide amenity kits on day flights, etc."

How much long haul f on eK have you done aceboy?

LH/LX F class has Bally bag as amenity with La praire lotion etc & Van Laack pyjamas . Their F product is nice , but ver expensive $$

not a fan of lh/lx , did almost a million miles with them & was a Sen card holder for 7 years & regret not moving to BA earlier.

I can tell you this, I have done several long-haul J class on EK (how else do you think I got my silver tier within 5 months of joining Skywards?) My first flight with Emirates was in J class back in November :)

Recently flew Emirates JFK xDXB NBO/CMB xDXB JFK in J.

Like the OP, I was a bit unimpressed.

When I signed up for Skywards on their website, the prompts only asked for Last and First name. The name on ticket matches my passport with middle name, which Skywards did not prompt or ask for. So name on ticket is not a perfect match to that in Skywards and their system rejects it. There no way to add middle name or change without calling Emirates. I called and the agent explained it was a complicated process to change the name in my Skywards account and it was best to either create another one, or each time I make a reservation to call and add my Skywards number. Come on. No way to add my middle name to the Account?

The Emirates Lounge at JFK exceeded my expectations. All aspects were excellent.

On the A380 from JFK to DXB I was seated about 2/3 of the way back in J and the food service was a bit disappointing. I ordered the Mezze Platter, but when the FA served me he explained they had run out and I could have soup. The soup was ok, but it was not the Mezze Platter. That is too big a section J to not have their selection available. The rest of the service was ok, but nothing special.

The lounge in DXB was crowded and poorly laid out.

The boarding process to NBO was chaos and confusion. No special boarding for J or P, just a mass of people trying to board a bus to take us to a remote location to board the aircraft.

The return trip was not much better. Aside from the again-crowded lounge at DXB, there was no place at the gate for J and P passengers to sit. Boarding was delayed a bit and we all stood in a long line while we mostly ignored by the Gate Agents who could not or would not give updates or guidance.

These aren't horrible sins, in fact pretty ordinary occurrences with the airlines I normally fly.

So why switch? The grass is about the same.

You do realise that some people in the last 1/3 of the cabin would have been served the Arabic Mezze? There are six crew working in the cabin and they are each assigned a divided quantity of the meals loaded to serve passengers within their own section. So it would have been that your particular crew member had no mezze left. Once all the orders are taken, they do check with each other if they have any spare of a particular meal and swap them around.

I don't think it's reasonable for a passenger to know the exact service system - if we regard hospitality as a dramatic production, that's all behind the scenes stuff: passengers buy a ticket to enjoy the show, not to take into account all the production issues...

In this case, it was still a service failure.

Wow ..... :eek:

You started with EK way back last November - and it's now March !

So ......years of experience, it must be said.

I see my post attracted some comments, interesting to see that I'm not the only one feeling that way. The thing is: If you haven't seen any better, then sure one can be easily satisfied with EK. About 7-8 years ago I flew EK in F, twice to Asia. I was impressed by those cabins, the flat seat, the entertainment system... at that time they were pretty much top notch. But times change, apparently the crew however does not. I remember back then I ordered a Cognac and they served me that in a Whisky glass, filled up to the top! One could expect a bit more basic knowledge from F staff, at least it was a funny episode.

EK is definitely not a bad airline and they have some excellent deals which can compensate the lack of service. But IMHO they are simply not such a luxury airline (anymore) that they believe they are.

Oh yes, and I'm happy I could amuse some people with my lotion remark. Did not know it's such a hot topic :)

You keep mentioning, and so can only assume you think it is something unusual, that you got silver within 5 months. With all the flying you have done, I would have expected closer to gold by now ;) (At least before the devaluation of earning miles in Feb).

It's great that you have an opinion on things, and that you want to share. But remember this is flyer talk, there are some people on here that do serious amounts of flying. Not a just a few trips - which from past experience of reading your threads were all terrible, and you were boycotting EK, and the EK premium classes, and now suddenly they are your carrier of choice :rolleyes: (I don't count myself anywhere near the serious amount of flying, nowhere near. But the 5 month mark have always (re)qualified for gold)

However, you obviously enjoy travelling, and from reading your threads it's obvious you are still in the phase of it all being new and exciting, and that's cool. So I'll look forward to hearing about your next adventure... something is bound to happen!

I must admit that I haven't generally had the same experience as yourself, though there are always the odd times things aren't as good as you would hope due to someone having a bad day or just not doing their job properly. Luckily it's hardly happened to me, but I can understand it will happen, and obviously its happened to you.

Hopefully if you chose to fly EK again you will have a better experience

if you are still flying with Emirates and the mismatch is not solved yet- you can just send them a passport copy and they can adjust your name in their system.

I will get enough points for silver for one round trip to Japan in May :D

Ahem. No! ;)

Some very well-made comments here - and ones I myself can very much relate to, especially in the context of a flight I took just yesterday. I'm putting the experience down to bad luck - albeit with a good dose of unusual incompetence & inefficiency on the part of EK thrown in.

These were some of my own words earlier in this same thread :
"Personally I can honestly say that I have never had what I would describe as a poor flight with EK ; but equally I'm not so naive to think that it could never happen. Some of my flights have been satisfactory and no more, but a fair number have been truly outstanding."

Well ......don't know whether I'm prescient or not ...... but my first poor Emirates travel experience (ie other than purely 'admin' issues) actually came to pass, just seven days after I wrote that that post.

I happened to be in J class on the flight concerned ; however the nature of the issues was such that I can say for a fact that I would have been similarly affected in F too.

This is why I sometimes worry vicariously on behalf of EK newbies who come on the forum from to time, in a state of frenzied excitement/anticipation ahead of their very first (and quite possibly to be their one & only) flight in F class. Sure, it's great to see the enthusiasm - we all like travel for one reason or another, otherwise we would not bother joining forums such as FT. But ....in the real world, things can and do go wrong - and very often it can happen just when you've built up high expectations & hopes.

On another note LE4603 ...... enjoyed reading your earlier post #23 re the dramatic achievement by aceboy of "silver in only five months" :eek:

Come on - give us some details. :p

I like to know the bad as well as the good on EK, just in case it ever looks likely to happen to me.

I want details too!

My expectations on ek are only high in f. J is good most of the time.

Well thanks for asking folks, but I will (for now, at least....) confine myself to an 'executive summary' (corporate speak!) rather than the full gory unabridged version.

So.... a combination of factors :

- shambles of a boarding process at the gate (just about understandable at some (smaller) stations, but shameful at its much-lauded home base of DXB with countless numbers of ground staff to get things right

- shambles of a boarding process on to the a/c itself : Y pax actively encouraged to use the F-only boarding jetty, wandering through F & J cabins for a period lasting over 10 mins in all ("ooh ....why can't WE sit here....isn't it nice ....and such big seats "), thus delaying the initial drinks service & personalised welcome to premium pax

- possibly the worst Purser I have encountered on EK. Perfectly pleasant individual (lengthy discussions between he & me ensued during the flight), but clearly promoted beyond his ability

- a largely dysfunctional & 'disjointed' crew : one FA member asking "can I get you something to drink ?" a full ten minutes after I had actually ordered a drink from another FA, but which was yet to arrive

- overall lack of discretion, initiative & attention to detail, and a robotic rather than flexible approach (if I quote isolated specifics, they might come across as petty/trivial but, taken together, they made for a certain amount of frustration)

One mitigating factor re the boarding : incoming flight had arrived late, and there was a push to get us off with the least possible delay. But that stemmed more from EK's self-imposed scheduling pressures than trying to do us pax a favour)

Not a tragedy given all the nasty things going on in parts of this big wide world. But if experienced repeatedly, and often enough, over a period of time .... you would definitely be thinking of switching carriers. But right now, I am still - fundamentally - a fan of EK.

I was not the only unhappy bunny on board.

Which route was this?

We had y pax coming through the f cabin when I came back from Zurich the other day! Joke!

I flew back from Heathrow last week... had Business and First Class walking through Economy - all past me stuck in 41c, wheeling their trolly bags into me :eek:

In light of my very strong views on the Purser, I prefer not to identify the exact sector because that info (along with details re unusually chaotic boarding, delayed departure, and date already implied) could very well facilitate identification of the Purser too.

He was due to detail fully the relevant issues in his log, which I feel is the correct way to go about things from his side ; and of course those comments would then be assessed in conjunction with any formal complaint I may (stress, MAY) choose to make to EK. It's well known that EK insiders do scan FF websites (a good thing IMO) from time to time - but equally, I don't consider an open forum is the right place to potentially damage someone's career.

I can say that the 'general' routing was from DXB to Western Europe (but not UK), so a medium range sector (777)

m3red - check your PM shortly.

At the risk of de-railing the thread, let me rant about the boarding process at the gate:

I think boarding is, in general, not very organized at DXB (except for flights that have security at the gate, in which case people always behave).

Some of this is cultural, and I know that EK passengers tend to fly very long distances, but that can only be a reason and not an excuse. I have always wondered why the bp scanning system does not simply reject people whose seating zones have not been called yet.

Edit: As to my actual feelings about EK, I have only had one truly poor experience. Apart from that one time, it has always been satisfactory - but has ranged from barely satisfactory to unbeatable. Perhaps the variance in service is what keeps me coming back to EK, much like a slot machine :D

One could argue that the only way that cabin crew managers, senior pursers all the way up to VPs for the customer experience have of gauging their operations is from feedback from customers. I suspect internally that they don't listen much to their staff, but feedback from HVCs especially is taken note of. Without knowing the specifics, you could say potential career damage was done by the provision of poor service, not by your feedback. I would very much encourage you to write in, especially considering you are Gold. I know for a fact that very much more minor complaints (I would argue even frivolous) are taken seriously from Gold or Platinum pax. As much as I don't enjoy the idea that behaving badly and throwing a tantrum gets you better service on EK, they, or at least Customer Affairs, does seem to respond to that, unfortunately. Therefore your actual, reasoned, serious complaint of substance should get forwarded on, at least.

I mean, look at that fiasco with the new Y service design that got shelved - not after cabin crew warned them, but after a load of Golds and Platinums complained about the shambles.

Thanks for those thoughts eternaltransit.

Have carefully digested all that you say, and will be suitably guided ^

Just my personal philosophy on hospitality businesses! I find in most large hospitality organisations I've worked with, feedback in the extreme cases of excellent and poor service needs to be sent in - especially from frequent customers - as there is a tendency for frontline staff to not be taken too seriously, or their complaints to be funnelled into some faceless "guest satisfaction" index which doesn't really make any changes happen!

Not to say that an organisation like EK will make massive changes because of HVC feedback, but I think that feedback is definitely part of the process!

At the very least, in my own experience of a poor flight experience recently (essentially multiple little factors, multiplying over the length of the flight - individually minor, but the damage is done), customer affairs did put a note on my profile so that the Purser on the next flight had already briefed his SFS that there was a problem on a previous flight and to make sure this flight went well - and to their credit they were much, much better!

I travel regularly In J from LIS-BKK-LIS and have always receive an excellent service from LIS-DXB-BKK. In my opinion EK have improved a lot, over the last twelve months, especially in their catering department. I agree there are some agitated staff out there, but some people do have a tendency to complain a lot when they are residing in a hotel, restaurant or on a plane. You only have to work in these environments, for several years, to know that you become less tolerant of bemoaners. I would never knock the staff on EK, because I know how hard they work. I do agree that the 777 provides a much better service, but the staff on the A380 have improved a lot in the last 12 months as well.

My only gripes with EK are:

The lounge catering in DXB is a lower standard than other EK lounges around the globe. However I now use the C terminal lounge that I believe is far superior than either B or A.

DXB boarding is chaotic especially for Business passengers. I always stand in the economy line just to avoid being punched by a Y passenger who thinks you are queue jumping.

One half hours circling over DXB

The dimise of the Skywards program especially the points increase.

Must be like music to the ears of EK management. No need to bother with internal staff assessment reviews from now on ! (We should instead just focus on getting rid of all those complaining customers ....what an inconvenience they are. Oh hang on a mo ...aren't they the very same people who help pay our salaries....:confused:)

So .....you would "never knock" any of their staff, because you "know how hard they work"

This means that a member of staff can be incompetent or unprofessional in the extreme - but you would "never knock them" simply because you feel they work hard.....?

Out of interest, do you apply the same philosophy to staff working at restaurants or hotels ...?

The vast majority of EK staff I have encountered since I first flew the carrier a year after its inception back in the mid-eighties have been very good to me personally AND very efficient in their job. However .....there are today (AFAIK) around 20k cabin crew in total ; would you not think it's just possible that out of that number, a small percentage might actually be less than satisfactory - or even very poor - at what they do .....???

And when you say that "some people do have a tendency to complain a lot when they are residing in a hotel...." - could this conceivably be because they have received thoroughly unsatisfactory service ? Service for which they may well have paid a significant amount of money from their own pocket ....?

I am perplexed. I really am.

(not sure what you mean by "agitated staff out there" - although in fairness to you, perhaps that is just an issue of semantics)