dusordua

Some weeks ago we had some controversial comments about the quality of Emirates Airlines.
I like to know: what is YOUR personal expirience with this airline?
Does it deserve all the awards like "airline of the year" etc.?

My own expirience (in economy):

Food and drink service is above average.
Entertainment system is far above average.
Comfort of cabin (seat pitch) is only average, or below average.
Service through flight attendants: above average.
Service on the ground: average.

Total rating: 7 (1 = bad / 10 = excellent)

CCW

I have been flying Emirates now for 5 years. I find then to be good and probably the best Middle East Airline. Although Gulf Air is not far behind.

I find C class (2-3-2) on A330 to have the best entertainment system and largest screens also has an in seat video player. But the seat width seems to be small and uncomfortable.

C class (2-3-2) on 777 has a better width but doesn’t have the in seat video and has smaller screens.

F class on 330 and 777 are the same (2-2-2) seat are good and comfortable have large screens and in seat video. But you can’t compare then to the F seats in BA or Singapore.

One of the biggest qualities of Emirates is its crew. With out doubt the best I have ever come across. I think the reason why they keep getting awards is because of there pricing system.

Example if I fly MAN-JHB on BA C class it will cost me £ 3200.00 but if I go with Emirates MAN-DXB-JNB in C I only pay £1800.00.

Food and drink service is above average.
Entertainment system is far above average.
Comfort of cabin (seat pitch) only average in A330 but above average 777.
Service through flight attendants: above average.
Service on the ground: above average.
Total rating: 8

Marco

Emirates, IMO, is a good airline, but the airline doesn't deserve the numerous awards it "wins".

Food and Drinks - average, if not below. Portions can be small. Food can be bland.

Service - average. Some are nice. Some are *****y, no consistency.

Entertainment- above average, no complaints here. Maybe they could install more interesting games.

Seat comfort - below average. The Economy seats on the A330 are horrible! Also the J class configuration on the A330 is 2-3-2 instead of the usual 2-2-2. Y class seating configuration on the 777 is 3-4-3 instead of the usual 3-3-3.

Total rating: 6.5

DXB airport, on the other hand is awesome!

UA1K

The only problem is the seat pitch.I just flew C class yesterday from LHR to DXB and it was far below average-much worse than the c class I flew from JFK to LHR on UA.

Skywards also needs to make a lot of improvements with their program such as upgrade certs and all.They also need to add a higher tier to their FF program-Platinum as right now its only gold and silver.

dusordua

I agree, "Skywards" is below average and not very atractive to join.
When airlines in europe started to copy the american programs, they were poor in the beginning too, but LH and other carrieres improved them.
Let us hope Emirates will learn.

UA1K

Last month,I flew from LHR to DXB and was seated in the middle-over 20 rows from my family-evn though I checked in 90 mins before my flight,I my pre-assigned seatswere released.At the gate,I showed my gold card and was told that they couldn't help me.Then right in front of me,4 pax were upgraded to C just because they were not seated together.Amongst the 4,there were 2 children and they were not even Skywards members!
They still don't get it-upgrade your most loyal members first!

dusordua

Is pre-assigment only for silver or gold members? At the moment I am only a regular member and can not select seats before check in.

sadiqhassan

Overall I have had many ups and downs with Emirates, but they are getting better. After 5 or 6 years of complaints, they finally removed rows of seats from their business and first class on their A330 / B777-200 aircraft, which makes a huge difference

My own expirience (in economy):

Food and drink service is way above average.
Entertainment system is way above average.
Comfort of cabin (seat pitch) is average (above compared to BA,VS,KL).
Service through flight attendants: average.
Service on the ground: well above average.

Total rating: 8.5 (1 = bad / 10 = excellent)

My own expirience (in business):

Food and drink service is way above average.
Entertainment system is above average.
Comfort of cabin (seat pitch) is below average. (average on B777-200 / A330)
Service through flight attendants: just above average.
Service on the ground: above average.


Total rating: 7.5 (1 = bad / 10 = excellent)


My own expirience (in First):

Food and drink service is way way above average (probably best ive had.)
Entertainment system is average except A340-500 is above average.
Comfort of cabin (seat pitch) is way below average.
Service through flight attendants: average.
Service on the ground: way above average. OMG have u SEEN the Dubai lounge, its to DIE for!

Total rating: 8 (1 = bad / 10 = excellent)

Land-of-Miles

What is so good about the DXB F Lounge, it is distinctly average in my opinion (have you tried the Wing or Pier at HKG for instance?). Distinctly average is a phrase which could sum up EK quite well. Except for their C and F seating which is becoming distinctly below average (with the possible exception of the A345).

sadiqhassan

I have tried the Wing, and it was also great, but I find the Emirates lounge better for the following reasons.

* They serve Halal food (I am muslim)
* The lounge is rarely crowded, becaue no FF's are allowed in unlike The Wing.
* I found the food to be better in the Emirates lounge, although the Wing's food is also excellent.
* I love the massage chairs in the Emirates lounge hehe
* The bedrooms in the Emirates lounge are truly amazing, with ensuite bath etc etc (the wing may have some, i cant remember )
* The view from the Emirates lounge is amazing

Mogensen

The EK F DXB lounge is admittedly good, but in my opinion very oriented (decoration, seating, food + drink selection and so on) towards the middle east business man, which of course is natural, as this is EK home market, I would enjoy to see a bit more of an innovative approach in the lounge decoration maybe with high end technical stuff, for instance their "business center" sucks - really! And instead of two-three massage chairs - that as sadiqhassan has said are nice - however why not incorporate a real massage offer instead. Also they could consider importing some more interesting non alcoholic drinks, or offer a juice bar and maybe employ a chef to fix up a selection of 5 dishes instead of the all buffet style, which in my opinion is not truly luxury.

I wouldn't mind being offered the job, to work out a "refurbished" lounge concept for DXB... Maybe get some inspiration from the MH lounge in Kuala Lumpur, the holideck lounge in LHR (which certainly is innovative) and maybe some of the Virgin Lounges + Hong Kong lounges that I unfortunately still, have not tried...

Oceanbound222

I just flew first from JFK - DXB - JFK.

The F lounge in Dubai is nothing to write home about. It is comfy, but that is about it. They had food, but that is about it. In other words, I was not overly impressed by it. It was a big room with comfy seats and hot foods. I guess that is all any lounge can be.

fratboy

They're just above average in my opinion. I wouldn't quite call them 'Airline of the Year' because I feel their product still needs upgrading and the cabin interiors are looking a bit dated. However, they have an excellent corporate image and where they lack style they make up for it in areas such as flight frequency, unrivalled global coverage which is continually growing, and very competitive fares. I've only flown EK on CAI-DXB and LHR-DXB-MRU though would like to tryother routes, but now that they're leaving SQ's Krisflyer programme there won't be any incentive to.

MichaelJFK

Here is my two cents, all in Y class:

Boeing 777 (BKK, HKG)
Food and drink service is above average
Entertainment system is above average.
Comfort of cabin (seat pitch) is average (Yes, even with the much talked about extra seat I had no complaints -- Pitch was very good).
Service through flight attendants: above average
Service on the ground: above average

Airbus A340-500 (JFK, DXB)
Food and drink service is way above average
Entertainment system is way above average -- ICE Rocks!
Comfort of cabin (seat pitch) way above average -- even for 14 hours.
Service through flight attendants: above average
Service on the ground: average

Airbus A330-200 (HKG)
Food and drink service is above average
Entertainment system is above average
Comfort of cabin (seat pitch) average
Service through flight attendants:average
Service on the ground: average

I have always encoutered extremely pleasant flight crews but like any services industry some days are better than others. In comparison to the U.S. mainliners there really is none -- Emirates is far superior.

Ground service is average because many times it appears to be outsourced to local handlers abroad -- which is fine. All have been professional and some exceeded expecations.

Overall 8.5

dusordua

We like to hear from you about your first class flight.

You told us about your economy and business class flights from JFK to DXB, so was first class worth the money?