That's useful to know about the extension to 30th April, but where did you read it?
I still see their advisory notice referring to the end of March.

Yes, me too. I was hoping for a refund of an early April flight but it looks as if it’s just the rebook window that moved, not the cancel. Shame but maybe it will change soon.

Look like all aircraft are still grounded until March 28, 2026. Here’s the video from DJs Aviation on his YouTube channel.

Hardly "ALL" aircraft. It just means they will continue with a reduced number of flights longer than they had hoped. It's understandable that airlines will constantly reassess things.

Mike

Your text is a misrepresentation of the video. DJs clearly talks about reduction of operations. Not ALL aircraft are grounded.

Are lounges and inflight catering operating as normal?

Indeed. EK have 73 aircraft in flight right now as I type this and EY have 24 in flight right now. Not even close to 'all grounded'.

my return to Newcastle has been downgraded from the A380 (PER-DXB) and 77W (DXB-NCL) to the newer A350

annoyingly the schedule change has us leaving Perth a whole 26 hours earlier before a 25 hour wait for the connection to Newcastle. I’ve asked for a reroute and the response was no but we’ll ‘try’ to find accommodation in Dubai for you during the layover

I'll moan, but it's a business decision from EK. Maybe this group can advise how much HUCA I do vs just taking a refund due to the involvement of miles. Sorry if this sounds a bit entitled, re-reading I appreciate that. But I normally only fly oneworld, EK is for luxury perks.

I booked HKG-DXB-MAN return in EKF in March, the outbound was upgraded using miles, the return was a cash F flight. This a a two day UK trip. It's in 6 days time now. I went with Emirates for this trip at the time for the upgrade. Normally I'd do QR F (though that's only half the way, to DOH, for a few more oneworld miles)

For obvious reasons EK have been messing around with the flights in the background, at this point I have 6 flights "booked", impossible connections and so forth, but, they have automatically maintained my F where it was on the plane.

I made my call to the contact centre as we're getting to the point it matters to others, 15 minutes wait till I got thru to the agent. Ambition to just move these flights a month later, I was flexible, though really didn't think the agent could hear me (she was very happy to put me in F in March, but not April)

The annoying answer was, no miles upgrade availability in F, so you're on the way there in business, fine to come back in paid F.

Curious how much of this is HUCA... I'm OK to try and travel in a month if it's First. If not, well I've already got an alternative flight booked a week later (DONE3, cheaper but business) so I'll just take the refund. I could do both as one is personal and one is a business trip.

So I don't want to waste anyone's time, in this case it was 40 minutes to achieve nothing and there are others who need the phone time more. How much EK is holding to miles availability, in which case I may as well cancel and do the same thing again in six months?

**Slight caveat, if I take this flight I'll go to Gold. If I fail to take it I won't requalify and I'll be back to blue. Since I've only ever traveled EK in F it's not a biggie.

How much paid availability is there on the flights you want to upgrade? Do you have an ExpertFlyer account, there you can see F and A bucket availability on HKG/DXB and on DXB/MAN. That will give you an idea of what the lie of the land is.

If you don't have an EF account, just give me the flight numbers and dates and I can have a look for you. This is far from foolproof but if there is good A bucket availability they may make upgrades available.

Slightly off topic but since the flight disruption I saw a change in baggage allowance :
when I looked at baggage allowance in Feb for flight at end of march it was 3 X 23 KG DUR to DXB
now when I search same day its 2X 23?

thanks for the views, I've got an expert flyer account.

For example on the dates I'd originally asked for the flights are at F4 A4 on the flights that they're refusing to move me into F. But I don't want some kind of "you're probably going to be able to use my miles", if they're going to hold my cash I expect to be in F like the original booking. If we're down to "when there is availability" I may as well cancel. I'll rebook later on?

Has anyone had any luck getting them to honour a miles booking if I insisted on escalation?

As it stands my booking is in a bit of a mess, but is still in F for 3 of the 4 legs, but now in 7 days rather than 6 days... And not in April.

Another “incident”

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/fir...ed-no-injuries

“Flights at Dubai International Airport have been temporarily suspended after a drone-related incident impacted a fuel tank near the travel hub and caused a fire.”

It looks like several inbound flights are being diverted to DWC. Flights from Incheon, Kuala Lumpur, and Hong Kong have already landed there, and the Sydney flight appears to be heading to DWC as well.

It seems like there was a second strike (a couple hours after the first one) at DXB a few minutes ago. EK has suspended all flights until the situation is contained.

https://x.com/EmiratesSupport/status/2033356098556805485?s=20