Just had a look at the EK website and was not at all impressed with the new refurbished 773 F and J seating. F looks very mechanical and not at all aesthetically appealing esp for long haul flying, too cluttered. As for J seating EK has gone retro! Back to the old style seating! Considering the A345 seating I would have at least expected modern era seating for refubed AC espcially for a wealthy airline such as EK!

If they use those 773's for the SYD via BKK route, GF will prob have the upper hand with its new refurbed A340's. If they use the old 777's GF will DEF have it, esp with skychef, user friendly BAH airport, and new IFE.

Bit of a let down I'd have to say especially when a new product by EK has always impressed.

Just a clarification for you... the old "777s" are the 773s right now. The 772s have already been refurbished. But I have to say I agree with the rest. EK could have done something much better. But if they can fill their planes with these seats - good for them, and bad for us (since I end up flying them anyway)

Cheers

ps I doubt that GF will have an edge with IFE, since EK is installing ICE on all Boeing Aircraft

Do the re-furbished (old) 772 and 773 have the same first and business as the new 77W that I think has been flying SYD-BKK-DXB? Or is it something different again? Would seem quite undesirable if it not at least to the 77W standard, also confusing to have so many different First products, eg Suites on the 345, side by side beds on the 77W and then something else the 772, 773, then maybe different again on 330?
Thank you.

The refurbished 777's have the same F & J as the new 77W.

Cheers,
Rick

Seeing GF seems to be doing everything right since their new Aussie Head man has taken the wheel -I doubt the new IFE will be anything less than the competitions. Even if not the new system will be more than adequate..GF are doing everything slowly but surely and so far each new initiative has been execllent if not an industry leading one.

I agree that the airlines makes good progress, however, in the past years, especially at the end of the nineties, GF was quite unreliable (e.g. last minute schedule changes) and many potential customers switched to EK instead.

I never flew on GF (I was booked on a flight FRA-BAH-KUL and back in 2000, but they changed the flight times so that I "had" to take EK...which I didn�t regret until today ).

However, their new product is definitely worth a try... ^

EK is planning to have 3 types of seats by the end of this year

Type 1 - on Boeing Aircraft

ICE, flat bed F seats

Type 2 - Airbus A340

ICE, first suite

Type 3 - All other Airbus Aircraft

No ICE, not flat in F

Cheers

Assume the A340-300 is grouped under "all other Airbus" - ie only the 345 has the Suites?
Thanks.

Yes. There has been some talk that some Boeing 777-300ER's will also have the suites (which would confuse things even more) but this is unconfirmed.

Cheers