Yes, you are most likely correct I just don’t understand the seat choice... I am a fan of 68 A/K but not sure why a Plat would choose that far back. I guess it becomes irrelevant if you board and see plenty of empty rows free.

14/2/2020 ... last month
VIE to DXB ... only 1 person in F
And the aircraft park on remote stand in DXB
Private F bus somehow

Lounge consolidation and loads
 

This is minor compared to flight cancellations and everything, but I haven't seen it mentioned.

On Thursday 12 March the DXB A concourse J lounge was closed and the F lounge was split, F pax to the left and J to the right. Signage at the lift said something like "Business class passengers can use the F lounge" and the lift had access to the J level disabled. No indication of how long this will last. My flight boarded from A11 on the J side but I guess we'd have been allowed through to the F side to board if necessary.

I was somewhat concerned, as a Gold in Y, that they might refuse entry, but they allowed me and my guest in. Service was J lounge style (self serve buffet, not table service). And there was plenty of space at 8.30 am.

I assume this is due to reduced loads. On my outbound transit (1 March) the J lounge was very quiet.

As a data point on loads, CPT-DXB was maybe half full in Y, but DXB-SYD was full or close to it.

I was on EK 511 DEL DXB and EK009 DXB LGW on 9th March and did not see any empty seat around me.

did not have lounge access as I was a lowly blue ( didnt even use the marhaba lounge as it was a 1.5hr connection )

I was supposed to fly back to india on 29th March but india will not allow me to enter ( even though I am of indian origin with OCI ) as there is a travel ban in place till april 15 for non Indian passport holders.

For those who dont know I had a LGW-DXB-DEL return and had a separate DEL-DXB-LGW return nested inside this.

I flew LGW to DXB in late Feb and had a stopover of a few days at DXB and then flew to DEL .

Came back on the nested ticket from DEL

I suspect that while I might get a refund / change date fee waiver on the DEL to LGW return ticket ( india will deny me entry anyway ) , I might not have any option with the initial ticket I used to travel to India .
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On the other hand it is the return leg of a cheap Y saver and so probably not a great deal in the grand scheme of things

I just posted an update in the Middle East forum. But, I'll post here too.

The UAE is planning to Suspend the Issuance of Visas
https://m.khaleejtimes.com/coronavir...e-of-all-visas

UAE ends issuance of entry visas from March 17th
 

Hi All

That might be the temporary end of our beloved stop overs in Dubai - entry visas stopped to be issued from March 17th onwards:

https://www.arabianbusiness.com/trav...impact-deepens

Shame...

Any consequences on the cancellation policy / fees with Emirates (for tickets destination DXB)?

No surprise! More and more countries are closing their borders.

I prefer it as it's close to the galley (with the missus!)

Latest update from Routesonline.

Emirates this month files additional service changes, as the airline complies with local Government’s travel restriction, resulting in service cancellation. Selected routes also see frequency reductions. Planned adjustment as of 13MAR20 as follows.

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38...as-of-12mar20/

Do you have reference points for these otherwise it could be pure speculation?

Edit: reference link added to the quoted post

it is speculation. There has only been one recent death on EK and this was not related to Corona but a heart attack on dxbiad.

The Rumour Mill so treat with a grain of salt
 

Deleted by user, awaiting further confirmation

It is from the HK government. One of the confirmed cases from yesterday flew on these flights.