http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122877609256789273.html

Fascinating insight.
What about SQ and VS flight attendants?

interesting article, but i guess hiring all those pretty faces has a downside too, the FA's start acting like divas/dons instead of the glorified stewards' that they are.

I have always had excellent service except for once during DXB-JFK flight. People are different and it is difficult to generalize.

I read this today in a hotel lounge and the following statement stood out to me:

I suppose not all publicity is good publicity.

I suspect Muslims would disagree with you.

Cheers,
Rick

"Innocuous onboard flirting is condoned: Emirates' rules require attendants to politely accept a business card or phone number if it's proffered by a passenger. (The airline doesn't require the attendants to call or give out their own numbers, unless they want to.)"

"As part of the airline's standard training, Ms. Rodriguez attended beauty and etiquette training. She's required to keep her makeup fresh, even on long flights. High-heels are a must when she's in uniform, even on the ground."

This all seems eminently sensible to me. The EK FAs are certainly a breath of fresh air in comparison to US and UK-based crews. On some of the US airlines I sometimes feel as though I've stumbled into the methamphetamine rehab clinic when the crew welcome me onto the plane.

Not all. I have to say, though, seeing that in this article means I won't ever be using Emirates.

I have had wonderful friendly service from Emirates in-flight crew, every time I have flown them-- mainly JFK-DXB.

I am wondering if that holds true of Etihad as well? Is the average profile of a Etihad FA the same as that of EK, as described in the WSJ?

I don't understand something : why are there so many pax complaining all the time about EK's onboard service ? Is it so "miss or hit" ? Or is it mostly good with some flaws from time to time ?

It's mainly good. I've not had a bad experience yet, and I've been flying with Emirates since 2001. Sometimes the service can be a bit slow, and some of the crew are not as friendly as others, but generally they're pretty good. I think a lot depends on the nationality of the crew. I recently had a flight that had a few Irish girls serving the J cabin. They were great - but some may have found them over friendly.

The main complaints about EK seem to be about the ground experience rather than 'in the air' experience.

Cheers,
Rick

Singapore airlines sets the gold standard in inflight service. compared to them, Ek has to improve quite a bit, of course they r still miles ahead of Euro/US carriers. I personally feel that some of the FAs indulge in country profiling, being haughty towards indians & pakistanis...(I said some of them, not lot of them) atleast thats what i observed a couple of times. But in general, they give no reason to complain about 90% of the time, but occasionally they wont respond to ur call button and u r stuck in the middle seat of a 15 hr flight. btw this can happen to anybody, no profiling in this situation.

Also...EK doesn't seem to have a reputation for too many turnovers-the employees they hire seem to stay. Was recently reading a piece how Emirates Aviation College had graduated its 10,000th student. At the press conference, the 1st, 1000th and 5000th graduates were all there. All are still Emirates employees.

"Crew members aren't allowed to drink in the 12 hours before a flight"

Isn't that a rule for nearly all airlines?

According to a female FA, a friend of mine whom I sent the article to, "its so accurate, its scary actually"