The seats are 18" wide, which is economy class on many other airlines. If that's not narrow, I don't know what is. As for the CW seats being "cramped", I don't know how that could be in comparision to 44" seat pitch or 18" wide seats. Less than SQ's comedy sized offering? Sure. Cramped compared to the old Emirates seats? Don't be silly. Perhaps the new Emirates is better, such as the LHR-DXB, but anybody who's going to be stuck in old business class had better be ready for some real disappointment.

As for "all 777s", all I know is that I was on a 77W according to Emirates and I had the smallest international business class seat pitch ever (46" might be right, but actually seemed to be less). Less than Ethiopian Airlines, less than Rwandair Express, less than a whole host of carriers not known for anything like international-class service or amenities.

The seat is certainly narrow - I didn't go out and measure the width though. However, I am not talking about the numbers. The seat feels cramped because of the way it is laid out.


EK uses all types of planes on the LHR-DXB route except for the A340, including the old 46" pitch 777s.

Somehow (it's beyond me) they still manage to succesfully operate 5 x daily flights into Heathrow, and it is impossible to get seats in Business Class during peak times unless you book in advance. They must be doing something right :)

What they're doing right is that the fares are cheap. I got bidness class HKG-NBO R/T for about $2800 when KQ wanted $4600. The KQ seat is far more comfortable (actually lies flat, with a shell behind and in front of you, and you can sleep) but catering and IFE are far inferior to EK. But considering the flight leaves at 8:30 p.m. or something and arrives first thing in the morning, sleep is what you want to do, anyway.

You get what you pay for, which really shouldn't be a surprise.

But then QR offers a cheaper fare HKG-NBO, as does KQ (maybe they were no seats left on your dates?) If you fly the route often, for future reference, the details are as follows:

HKG-NBO-HKG

KQ Fare (not including tax) 1925 USD
Fare Basis ZLRT1YHK


On LHR-DXB, EK is the same price as BA and VS (within 100 USD or so, and depending on availability) but both BA and VS offer far superior products.

Cheers

When Z is available, sure, it's cheap. The EK fare was available up until the day of departure, and was not Z. The KQ Z fare was gone weeks before. As for the LHR-DXB fares . . . like PT Barnum said, there's a sucker born every minute.

ahh the waitlisting game. If you find the right TA, you can get any fare class at the last minute ;)

Brilliant! Well done, Shilla! :-:

I traveled with Emirates the first time in Sep 2007, and just couldn't stop thinking about that announcement after the trip, and start feeling regret that I didn't record it. Then I tried to search it online, and I am so glad that I can find it here! Thanks, Shilla.

After failing to do so numerous times I flew EK, I eventually managed to record THE annoucement and post it as wav-file. Downloaded to my mobile it makes the perfect alert when a new text comes in :D

http://de.geocities.com/zolagola/files/Emirates.wav