OK, so precisely nothing happened.... No signs of volunteers being sought or pax being switched to other carriers, so either they matched the numbers perfectly or did things in a very subtle manner, with J being completely full on 3 of the 6 flights...

EK are renowned for shoving a letter in your face asking you if you wish to transfer to an alternative flight in return for a free one! All sounds great and they get many people offering. I did this in LHR for a trip to SYD via DXB in Y. I have EK Gold card (I fly lots with them as my base is DXB) and get lounge access. Having offered I was then told to step aside. Looking forward to my free ticket I chatted to the other folk (around 10 of us) going to Dhaka, MEL and BKK, we had all be offered the same thing, (mine was a onestop BA flight) and free ticket LHR-SYD-LHR on EK.

25 minutes before departure, we were told that we would ALL get on. It was a mad panic, rushing to tag our bags for final destination and we were all there - all in economy...

No lounge, not even a Duty Free Voucher (BA Offer this to anyone offering to bump off) and to top it all no bags in SYD either.

EK, like most airlines, should have a lilst of FT's that do not mind being bumped off. It would save the embarressment of telling everyone they had overbooked and fewer would be put out.

Saying that, as a Gold Card holder, I do on several occassions get bumped from Y - J without even asking. Seldomly from J - F though. F very often full of EK officials... My mother did however, and had never flown them before, no card nothign, just a single elder woman, she lashed up the F class service, especially on the new 340-500 from SYD none stop to DXB!