I could be completely off base, but I can't help but think that those more put off by variations in service are those that don't often fly the super-premium cabins.

Let me explain...

The person that has either purchased, or redeemed, a flight in EK F that has had aspirational dreams to do so, they are excited about every thing, no matter how little, related to the experience. They will be more likely to notice even the slightest service shortcomings and be bothered by them. (And, there is nothing wrong with that, they expect things to be perfect, and they should be darn close.)

Let me give 2 different examples to explain this...

When I first stated traveling i signed up for the SPG Platinum challenge to get accelerated Platinum status with SPG. When I first got platinum status I was excited about the suite upgrades and would plan my trips to hotels and get excited about the suites. Right out the gate I was batting less than 25% average on suite upgrades, and I would get upset about the whole process, as I would research the rooms and get all bothered about it since it seems the front-desk staff was lying to me, and in several cases they were caught lying. This whole process ended up tarnishing the start of my trips and I would let it bother me for days.

Now, years later, after spending 100+ nights a year in hotels, I am numb to the suite upgrade. I ask for the upgrade, if they say no, I don't care. I go to my room, which I only plan to sleep in, and I mostly care that it is clean and quiet. No suite upgrade? Pfft... Whatever. Even when I do get suite upgrades I only sleep in the room, and would rarely utilize the living room part of it. I came to realize getting a suite was something that had little overall value to me, but I kept getting worked up over it. Now, I am over it, don't care anymore.

The other example is exotic sports cars. I grew up as a kid, like many others, dreaming about Ferrari's and other cool cars. They were always a dream, when I would see one on the road I would point and oooohhhhh and aaahhhh. Then, at some point, I was able to afford one, and got one. And... It was exhilarating. Then, one day I noticed that it became normal. I no longer fawned over it, nor noticed others that drove by, and was clueless that other people would notice my car. What was once awesome and cool was not still awesome and cool but I no longer got all worked up and excited about it. I got numb to it. The days of exotic ridiculous cars are in my past, though, and I am much more grounded now, but even today when I see an exotic car, I can feel that I no longer have that automatic injection of testosterone in my body that I had before.

We can go on and on with examples, such as super hot girls, etc...

The fact is that we acclimate to things that usually at first we thought new and incredible. For me, that is EK F now. It is an excellent comfortable seat, and a nice closet to lock yourself in. I am now numb to service irregularities. I just don't even notice them. I don't pick apart every little thing, I just don't care anymore. I used to, when I first started flying EK F, but it put me in a bad mood when things didn't go as I expected them. Now, I don't care, and I am never in a bad mood. I enjoy my flights, unhindered.

This, of course, is in no way absolving EK of not trying to make things as perfect as possible, nor implying that airlines should be given a pass for poor service. Far from it. I am just trying to give a perspective to why some may find things perfectly fine while others think they are terrible.

Totally agree with the above.

More or less agree, but there is definitely a difference between things which I consider acceptable as variable, and things which I don't think should happen, full stop.

I tend to be pretty relaxed about most human aspects (within reason), such as the warmth of the service, frequency of refills, whether the FAs do regular rounds, and so on.

Also, very few airlines - if any - could claim to always get food right 100% of the time, not the least because there is less control over outstations. And of course, it's a pretty challenging environment to prepare "gourmet meals", no matter what the brochures say.

But proper cleaning of the seats is something much more basic and I am less inclined to cut them slack for seemingly forgetting to do this altogether as it appears in the recent post.

Absolutely, the half used bottle of Voss is unacceptable, and I would have told the purser so and had them deal with the issue on the spot. But, I think these particular incidents are far and few between.

I tend to think like whimike that exceptional becomes the norm with time.

Nevertheless, when you are paying for FCL, you are entitled to a minimum of quality because that is what FCL is meant for.

As for IFE and food, they are the rare distractions on board, so I expect them to be very good, though technically, food can never be as good as in an earthly restaurant.
The overhaul of EK FCL is good news, as current suite is becoming a little bit outdated. (yes, yes, no need to remind me that I'm hopelessly spoiled)

As far as service is concerned, it all comes to the purser, not nationality.
Both legs of this month trip was excellent. FAs remembered everything I've asked for ; and they provided timely me with everything I needed. The purser was British on both legs (or british speaking ..).

And may I say that hard or soft FCL product is not what really bothers me : it's the more frequent pax bad behavior.
Here's what I had to endure for 7 hours : a French putting his bare feet everywhere and being rude to FAs. Damn, that really ruined my flight. And yes, I had to close the doors but this was not cool for IF service ...
I really regret those old times when FCL pax flew classy ...

https://instagram.com/passengershaming/?ref=badge
(photo posted in May for those interested)

So far EY is using the A321 with those domestic cradle seats....

https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/ETD90

Majority has been on A332.

My opinion only of course, but of the 12 individual F flights I've taken, all but one (on a 777) has been excellent. On all but that one, 11 flights on A380 F, the pursor came at least twice to make sure everything was ok. The FAs were all attentive, only twice was my FA "in a bad mood"

The food is much better than AF and TG, not as good as SQ, but its not something i could be overly critical about.

Of course their suites could be wider and need to have better bedding, but the large, a la carte menu, the Dom and Paradis, Bulgari amenities and the shower spa more than makes up for it :)

I suspect will have bothered a fair number of members here by posting the same request on six different threads.

Smells like a spam bot linking to a piece of malware disguised as a Google docs document...

I've done a RBP. Spamming BA and Air Canada forums also.