[AllOverTheGaff]

That’s it?

A bag in your suite (which was moved) and a gap in between food service?

I’ve never had a glass run dry onboard EK, and if I do, I just press the call button and it is filled in a jiffy with no fuss whatsoever. If it was that bad and you were thirsty there’s always the on-board bar on the A380.

I don’t know that what you have described is anything like as bad as the woeful BA 1st class I got coming back from Bangkok in the smelliest, grubbiest cabin I’ve ever set foot in, the food was inedible, the purser an arrogant sod and I was simply in the way of the crew. The seat was hugely uncomfortable and there was no privacy at all.

I’ve not flown Etihad for a while, used them a couple of years back on an Abu Dhabi jaunt but it is far quicker for me to use EK from GLA and get them to drive me to Abu Dhabi if needs be, that being said, I do like the look of their new suite, but as I’ve only ever had positive experiences with my many flights with EK, it is a struggle for me to change.

Rgds.
AOTG.

[FirstClassWannabe]

AOTG – Each to their own and I have enjoyed reading your flight reviews on EK F and it does sound fabulous. I realise EK have a fabulous product now, but if somebody ripped you off for 3000+ would you deal with them again? Apart from the old fashioned configuration, the staff were inexperienced and should not have been in an F cabin. Food mediocre and Champagne served by the glass rather than pouring from the bottle at the seat etc etc. Maybe I was unlucky as I know they can be excellent but once bitten, and I will not give them another chance (by choice!). Bad value hurts more when paying for flights with your own money.

No need to bring BA into this, but now that you have I did actually fly F this year from LHR-MIA and I also thought it was mediocre.

barbor219 – Actually not anymore but haven´t got around to changing my handle. Saying that I am still a wanabee for SQ, MH and CX.

[1nfrequent]

This discussion does sum up so many of the arguments over airlines here: “I had a bad experience so don’t want to risk it again.” “Really? I’ve had nothing but wonderful experiences – how can you let one bad incident (which really isn’t that bad) stop you from flying X again?”

(And before anyone decides to point it out, yes, I do mainly fly BA because it works for me but my sister is a big Emirates fan and is trying to convert me.) 😉

1F

[AllOverTheGaff]

FirstClassWannabe – 07/05/2014 12:48 GMT
AOTG – Each to their own and I have enjoyed reading your flight reviews on EK F and it does sound fabulous. I realise EK have a fabulous product now, but if somebody ripped you off for 3000+ would you deal with them again?

I understand your point perfectly, and agree with it. The only thing I would say is that some of the other airlines 1st class, not only singling out BA here, but some of their 1st class just isn’t up to the level of what I have experienced aboard the many flights I’ve enjoyed with EK.

I don’t consider BA at all when flying 1st, but do give them a look when I am in business class, that being said, the industry is moving on and expectations are very high even in business, as such, there are now a plethora of carriers with a better overall hard product, and BA’s weak link for me has always been the inconsistent crew.

If you can get an EK suite and not the old style seating (which is only on around 10% of their planes) then you should be in for a real treat and a proper 1st experience with all the trimmings. When I firstly used EK many years ago, I would concur that their service levels weren’t exemplary but it didn’t bother me overtly, I have noted recently, perhaps only in the past couple of years that the service from the CC is a marked improvement, and I believe this may be due to some of the purser’s getting a higher level of training which they are filtering through their subordinates – this was part of a long chat I had with the most personable chap (purser) I met on GLA – DXB a few months back.

Interestingly (or not!) the least good crew’s I’ve experienced lately were on the A380’s – they were still very good but not as personal as the 777 crews which I’d experienced on my GLA – DXB routing.

In closing I do accept that once-bitten-twice-shy experience, I think we all do, but I’d still wager you’ve a far better chance of a great/excellent flight with EK than you do with just about any other airline.

Rgds.
AOTG.

[JohnHarper]

EK F is an excellent product and deserves the award, I haven’t been in their C class for some time but I hear excellent things from colleagues. Interesting that a detractor of the experience on the basis of one flight is a BA apologist. Perhaps he set out to be unhappy.

I wonder what they will come up with now to compete with EY who have certainly stolen the thunder this week.

[esselle]

Interesting to see a story published today that AF are making a big investment in improving their F product.

Is it time for one of our favourite airlines to announce they are improving their F cabin by, perhaps, offering an enhanced range of magazines and making Sudoku books available on request (but please return the pencil at the end of the flight)?

[JohnHarper]

esselle – 07/05/2014 13:51 GMT

But isn’t that airline already offering the best experience in the sky? Surely the others are just trying to catch up!

I wonder how The Residence compares to the BA F cabin in terms of floor area? Probably bigger than the space BA allocate to 14 F seats.

[StephenLondon]

@AOTG:

So when you board in GLA to a dirty seat, disinterested crew and are made to feel unwelcome, you’d just shrug it off. Wow. What does it take to annoy you when you’re spending your money? You must be a dream customer for any business.

Indeed, there were more things that occurred on that disappointing A380 flight, but the overall spirit of “crew first, stuff the F pax” was unwelcoming, left passengers feeling we were a millstone around their neck and a total inconvenience. When you pay for something that turns out to be that bad, why return? But, on other EK flights in F, I’ve had:

-chauffeur drive that didn’t turn up (oops, sorry, our bad, can you get a cab?);
-chauffeur drive telling me F check-in time at DXB is 3 hrs before flight (what?);
-boogers on the wall from a previous pax that hadn’t been cleaned;
-dirty glasses in my ‘personal’ warm minibar;
-empty juice bottles in my minibar which hadn’t been stocked;
-mystery breakfast dish (turned out to be grey eggs) that even the crew were horrified to serve;
-broken seat, no interest in any proactive service recovery;
-hand baggage that was left on the floor across the aisle which is a gross neglect of safety…and I could go on.

The last was the one that finally forced me to pull my business away from EK. If crew were willing to ignore safety by allowing a wheelie to remain on the floor where it could impede exit, or become an airborne missile in turbulence, what else are they willing to ignore? No safety, no business. All of the above was sent in a file to customer relations. Once they managed to reply a paltry ‘soz’ they had the genius to invite me to join their Skywards Reward programme. How insightful.

[AllOverTheGaff]

Erm – yeah…If I got on a plane in GLA and the crew had mistakenly left a bag & charger in there, and then they moved it and cleaned off my seat, I wouldn’t get all steamed under the collar about it.

Dirty seats you say and yet you fly BA who have a well documented history on this board (and many others) of their LHR cleaning crew being useless.

It amazes me after all of the above that you mention that you’d fly with them so often to give you ALL of those issues that you mention. Or was all the above on one flight? Nevermind, given my own experiences over dozens of flights with EK to a myriad of places, I’ve only encountered minor issues which aren’t even worth a mention, I guess sometimes it can be the attitude of the passenger which dictates crew responses, and throwing a bit of a strop over a bag in a suite isn’t my style, in fact, on my last GLA – DXB the purser invited me to leave my bag in the suite next to me which was vacant. He would then spend over an hour in that suite chatting with me about all things EK and how he loved working for them. Seems you must be the unluckiest EK passenger to ever set foot aboard one of their aircraft, I’m sure BA appreciate your custom.

Do you ever have crew bags in BA suites? And do their chauffeur drivers ever not appear?

Rgds.
AOTG.

[JohnHarper]

Do BA have suites?

IME crew bags are always stowed in the business class lockers on short haul!

Perhaps I should never fly with them again.

[esselle]

Several years ago I flew with an airline and the previous passenger using the toilet left a few drops of wee on the seat.

Needless to say I wrote to the chairman, who did not reply, and I have not flown with them since.

(smiley face)

[1nfrequent]

Quite right too, esselle. The only thing worse than inadvertently sitting on a wet seat, is sitting on a warm, wet seat. 🙂

1F

[ZKSmith]

Best first class? I’ll give Emirates that one, was truly amazing when I finally got to fly it. I’m not a huge fan of the claustrophobic suits, but that’s just my personal opinion, and otherwise it was hard to fault.

Best business class? Their A380 seat is great, but really no different from what you get on ANA, Swiss, Thai’s new or refurbished aircraft, Etihad etc etc. The entertainment is excellent, the food generally great, so I suppose Emirates could win the award for this. As for their 777s, no chance.

Best cabin crew? Sorry, but ANA, Asiana, Air Canada, Cathay, Air NZ, Qantas, Singapore, South African and Thai all have Emirates beaten. I’ve flown Emiratesa 14 times and only once were the cabin crew worthy of an award. Most of the time they have been pleasant and professional but nothing special, and once they were the worst I’ve ever experienced on any airline.

[JohnHarper]

Do remember this was an award made in the gulf where the choice was EK, EY, QR, WY and maybe GF. EK were almost bound to win overall just because of the size of their impact.

There were other airlines who got awards e.g. LH being the best European airline serving the gulf and SQ being the best Asian airline serving the gulf so no real surprises there either.

DXB was the best airport in the middle east but SIN was voted best in the world.

As these sorts of awards go which always include an element of bias to the home team I thought it was fair.

[CXDiamond]

I agree, given where the survey was conducted there are no surprises in the results.

[Author]

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