Not as good as expected
 

15 July 2025. DXB EDI. A350

As it says, not as good as expected / hoped for

I'll start by saying PRG-DXD was good. Not excellent but good. Just so this doesn't truly negative

DXB-EDI, budget low cost airline feel. Laclustre crew, poor quality food, no attention, crew in the galley. Daytime flight, lights out, blinds closed. Those that opened told not too. Crew didn't understand EDI was a daylight landing. Pretty poor info for them, they thought it would be nighttime.Their reason for lights out .....
All I'll say is below par. The A350, hyped above it's standard, at least on Emirates anyway

I've travelled UK lowest many times. This flight felt no better

Which class?

Economy. Late minute change to plans, Business only had one seat available and there are two flying

Is the class important? Should Emirates not have the same High standard they praise themselves for, across all cabins?

Economy is pretty much of a muchness across airlines these days. EK used to be much better as they had ICE and better legroom. Other airlines have caught up with IFE, and the legroom has been cutback slightly.

I have to say it's been a few years since I've done EK Y, so no current experience.

Regarding the blinds, I think this is pretty common across airlines. Some people want to sleep, others don't.

I did EK Y in March. First time in about 8 years, I think. Wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, food was ok for airline offering, FA’s were friendly and efficient, I still think ICE sets the standard. Guess it helped that there were 2 flights with one or two empty seats next to me. But in the end it’s economy and that’s a product for large groups of people.

Was happy to return in J though….

Agree with your comment about the window shades. In J they just disable the controls so you can be stuck with closed shades until half an hour before landing.

Looking forward to J on our way back from the UK. Edinburgh (8hrs) is close enough you'd probably stay awake, but far enough you want to properly relax and spread out.

The Prague to DXB was light years apart from DXB EDI. Attentive crew, space, and excellent food. So maybe as they say "I got a bad one"

It’s certainly true that you get excellent and ‘not that good’ crews. And anything in between. In my experience EK crew is on average better than many others, but the fact remains. The purser as the ‘on board manager’ can make all the difference.
Enjoy the return trip. Prague to EDI via DXB seems a long detour, but you obviously had a need for that!

am i the only person missIng the point here? OP flew from Prague to Edingburch (2hr direct) on a massive backtrack to DXB In econOmy?

No, in my post above I also referred to a ‘detour’ and suggested the OP would have had a reason for that. Flying such a distance in Y without reason would be purgatory in my opinion. Would not even do it in F….

Could have spent time in Dubai as he doesn't mention the date for PRG-DXB.

Maybe?!

I was in Prague and Dubai for Business

The point, I tried to book Business DXB-EDI at last minute to rest onboard, but couldn't; so travelled economy and was disappointed. Not angry; just not what I hoped of Emirates. Thought the crew would be more "on the ball" across all cabins, but weren't in Economy [DXB-EDI]

But now you've given me an idea for my next trip .... :cool:

:tu:

Flew EK for the first time last week. In Y. SYD-DXB-LHR. I think the reason I was underwhelmed was the disconnect between their advertising and the reality. SYD-DXB was like a LCC in terms of meals. Hard product was .... ok. I guess. Crew was around if needed. Those two aspects are better than QF or NZ, but that's not exactly a high bar.

What *was* interesting was their attempt to kill the person I was travellling with and the cavalier atttude of the crew towards it.

Person I was with ordered diabetic meals. What showed up was labelled diabetic, but was just a normal meal with a few vegan things thrown in. The rice and potatoes were amusing to see, but the date-fruit based snack bar with enough sugar by itself to put them into a coma was less amusing. Crew didn't seem to understand. Can certainly give that a pass. Whomever designed & approved the meals has zero excuse IMO. The fact they were just crappy quality meals as well didn't really help. The crew did make an effort to come up with something else, so that was nice.

The thing that struck me was that Y seemed to be run like an upmarket-ish LCC. while PE and above seemed to be run as an actual full service airline.

One data point, obviously, but I'm not inclined to ever try EK again. I'll try and stick to CX and JL which I've always liked. Trying EVA in a few months, so that will be interesting.

Im a T1D and find this interesting - presuming the person you’re travelling with doesn’t use insulin? Out of interest was it brown rice? I do wonder if the date bar may have been provided as some sort of hypo bar?

I have to say I’ve never bothered with a Diabetic meal on my travels, not least as they just sound depressing - just nip to the loo before the meal service starts to inject

White rice. I would be doubtful they would be including the date bar for that purpose. It only appeared in one meal/snack out of ... 5 total food service runs. The fact that there were several things labelled as vegan suggests to me that they simply thought of vegan <whatever> as a suitable substitute from something that goes into their normal meal. I can't see them taking on the liability for 'providing XYZ for ABC' when they could avoid the potential liability and the pax could simply ask for an orange juice if needed.