Emirates seems desperate to generate more revenue
 

I am receiving emails regularly to sell upgrades

offers to pay for lounge access for your guests

10% discount for extra baggage

8888 miles for some ticket offer??

I still like Emirates but they need to return to their earlier more customer-friendly service, that will generate more revenue

These offers may seem customer-friendly for those who jump in ...

And yes, on my usual legs, F/J cabins have always empty seats these days. This weekend is an exception because it is school holidays though.
Two weeks to the flight, I still can choose a window seat ...

No suggestion of load drop between SYD and DXB, always packed.

Unfortunately, that's how the "business" is run nowadays. Other airlines are much worse in that regard.

Swiss called me before every (!) long haul flight I had booked with them, about 3-4 days before. My phone would show "Swiss Callcenter" when they called, so whenever I missed a call, for the first few times I thought it was something important and tried to call back.. obviously it was very annoying to get told "Yes, we've a great offer for you, for just 2000 CHF you could upgrade to business class" or similar nonsense..

I eventually had enough and told them to put me on the "do not call list".

So.. a few emails aren't really annoying in that comparison..

Discounts, extra miles, upgrades....

sounds very customer-friendly to me.

Hospitality businesses like airlines can never win with blanket approaches :D

Either you're not pro-actively giving better deals to your customers or you're bothering them with sales approaches!

(yes, yes, I know, they could just offer competitive headline pricing, but the days of competing on sticker price are long gone and dead with the advent of price comparison sites, forums like this and people's tendency to only care about the display price, not on any other components)

Fair to say that many, many airlines are engaged in cost-cutting of one form or another. It's pretty much a fact of life in today's competitive climate, and all efficient businesses will look for savings where possible.

The danger arises if & when loyalty & positive perception, built up over many years and with large numbers of passengers, is put at risk. It's a little while since I flew Emirates but my overall history dates back a long way and fundamentally I remain a fan, having experienced enough 'good things' with them to offset any occasional disappointments.

For those unfamiliar with the current version of BA ..... you only have to fly a few sectors with them (especially in J class l/h, or in either class for s/h) to see just how an airline is affected when the axe is swung almost indiscriminately on so many levels. It's at that point when the whole brand image begins to suffer. And once it gets to that stage, it can be very difficult to recover. From what I know and hear, EK is nowhere near that territory. Thankfully.

I wonder how long it will be before EK withdraw the chauffeur service for Business class passengers.

The obvious saving will be to remove the bar from the A380. This would free up space for at least another 6 or even 8 seats.

Both of these must surely appeal to the bean counters but hopefully neither will happen

Not all J fares but Savers and Specials are the obvious choice.

They are desperate, they're having a tough time financially, and are laying off employees as well. Something about making 60% less profit than expected, I wasn't that engrossed in the conversation that my dad and uncle were having, but that was one of the things being said.

Source: My uncle works at EK, he's over 60,and him and a similarly aged colleague have been offered a retirement package if they agree to leave in May this year, rather than their original retirement year which was supposed to be in early 2019.

That would be the BA way of doing things.

I doubt EK would go that far. They need something to differentiate from the likes of BA, and the bar is something that's been advertised widely.

Thanks for this insight. Sounds like a good deal indeed - two years earlier retirement WITH compensation (how much was it? Half a year payment?) when you're still "young". Did he take it? Can he still profit from employee discounts when he takes it?

I think it's something like half of his current salary for the next 5 years or something, which seemed like a decent package, and yes, he did take it, he's been wanting to settle down back in Pakistan so he's packing up his things and preparing to move back in the summer.

Nope. Not from what I could gather, I'll see if I can find out, though it'd be a bit of an awkward thing to ask, I'll try the next time I have the chance to talk.

If you have worked there for a certain time on a certain contract you do get free flights for life

EK dropped chauffeur drive in HK long ago, seems hard to believe they could not have worked out some deal with Uber or ??