[Airpocket]

Sam, what exactly was the nature of your problem with EK? I must admit, apart from waiting ages to get through to them on the telephone (are they short-staffed, I wonder) here in the UK their Customer Service has so far been better than Qatar’s in my experience.
However, the on-the-groun experience is a whole different matter.Neither QR nor EK’s base ground staff have a clue about dealing with wheel-chair reliant pax. I speak from personal experience (my Mum needs a wheelchair). Is it so hard for them to handle wheel-chair pax?How difficult could it be!

[anselmfrotzmoser]

The attitude of Middle Eastern Locals won’t change, no matter what. They have an inbuilt arrogance and “never make mistakes”. Discuss a mistake made with an Arab and you will have hours of discussions and lame excuses. The funny thing is, that they think nobody sees through their lies.
They don’t even lie well!

[anselmfrotzmoser]

Actually, even though I would agree that there are a lot of bad ME airlines, I have to say, that so far Emirates has not disappointed me greatly. There are always flights, which are not great, and I think that can happen on any major world airline. However, I have been flying Emirates (economy) for the past 15 or so years and they have always been good. I had to fly a few others once in a while, like CX (not bad), SI (very good), but only American airlines have really disappointed me. The worst airlines in the world. The service is beyond service recognition.

[Airpocket]

Anselm, while you obviously have an insight into Arab culture and mentality, and some of us share your feelings you might want to be wary of certain posters on here who might declare a virtual/cyber fatwa on you! :o)

[anselmfrotzmoser]

Agree. Far Eastern carriers do a great job. EK and QR I have not been disappointed by as yet, though. There is always the occasional flight which is not great, but you have that on any airline.
Mind you, I mostly fly economy class, which, as far as I am concerned should be the defining class for excellence.

[Hess963]

I believe that in all three classes a top airline should be aware and able to distinguish the different services and products which can be highlighted in certain aspects–for example in Y cabin–CX fix shell seat. JL,AF use this aspect only for Prem Y seats.
For C class–my favourite topic–full flat and individuality without losing the possible aspect of twosome sitting–best example new USair Envoy Suite concept, SQ premium C class long haul and that not so newcomer but trying to gain grounds and recognition Oman Air’s new C class solo seats( actually GF F class seat and KE F class solo seat).
As for F class concepts–there is actually no limits for the ultra height of premium travel. Like Emirates Spa in the air–personally a very ostentatious and impractical object of desire–but to have a “whow factor–nobody have in the industry” it does give those pax who have experienced it already a really distinguished feeling of luxury. The suites of EK, 9W, SQ, EY, LX, JL, KE, CX, Oman Air etc.. strive for the
absolute ” have to experience” desires for frequent flyers and fanatics.

The Middle Eastern airlines EK, EY, QR and soon Oman Air have and will have a wording in how to define international travel in all classes. As long as their is enough money to support such innovativ developments and wise decisions to implement them in the right place and at the right time.

[Ahmad]

Airpocket, your racial/cultural slurs are really out of place in this forum and leave a bad taste in one’s mouth.

[Airpocket]

Is it a “slur” if it’s true? I post from experience; while some flights through the ME and on ME carriers have been fine, some have been awful, for the reasons I and other posters have mentioned earlier in the thread. Anyway, if it “leaves a bad taste” then don’t “suck it and see”.
By the way, a “slur” would be a racial ephithet.I’m not making any racist comments. I’m highlighting the pitfals of using the ME, as I would highlight the pitfals of using Air India owing to the less-than-professional service of the Indian crew and management. Similarly, I would advise people to give LHR a miss owing to the surly and unprofessional service of the English security staff. I could go on but I think I have made my point.

[alastair00]

Same here Sam, I’m afraid.

The in-flight service was poor and Emirates customer service simply couldn’t be bothered with the feedback. My complaint took over a year to resolve and when they did “resolve” it, they did so by feeling “sorry I felt that way.”

No miles or offer of a credit/partial refund. I paid the fare in full so reasonably expected more than a half-hearted cabin service.

As such, I’ve not flown with the Emirates since then. Of course I’m sure the loss of my business has hit them hard for they receive not a single penny in state subsidy.

Singapore Airlines remains the best overall experience in my view.

[capetonianm]

Friends of mine have been travelling between Europe and South Africa and China for the last few years, always on Emirates, as they offer the best fares and 30 kilos baggage allowance. They do this triangular journey two or three times a year.

Let’s just say that these friends are ‘price sensitive’. Each time they travel on Emirates they say ‘never again’, because the service on board has got worse, the food meagre, and above all the DXB airport experience a total nightmare. Last time they missed a connection in DXB as a result of a delayed inbound and were treated in a contemptuous and inefficient manner when trying to get another onward flight. Of course they said ‘never again’, but they’ve just booked for their next trip on EK, even though I advised them to try Qatar. I am not sure if it’s familiarity that makes people carry on using the same providers, or something else such as being locked into a FF programme (scam really). Qatar flights for the same itinerary would have cost them about £200 more, which they can well afford.

I decided long ago, after having to go to Dubai twice on EK on business trips, that I would never again fly with them or set foot in that festering carbuncle in the desert. I’ve done a couple of segments on Qatar and found them far better than EK, so I’m not sure that all the ME carriers are declining.

[Senator]

My sample size of travelling on any ME carriers is exactly 0, so I am the wrong person to comment in many ways. However, I felt obliged to point out that (IMHO) I would NEVER use SkyTrax as measuring point of anything.

I’ve submitted five reviews over the years:
Two severely edited
Three never posted

Enough said

[SimonS1]

I’m a gold card member of Skywards and use EK at least once a month. The service is indeed very mixed and inconsistent, the food (like most airline food) pretty mediocre.

On the other hand I find the hard product good, the lounges uncrowded, schedules flexible (8 flights a day from London), timekeeping reliable and the fares competitive.

Everyone should of course vote with their feet, however the EK business model clearly works as the flights always seem quite full and Emirates has just announced a profit of $845m for the last financial year compared to losses for many carriers.

As Senator says, SkyTrax isn’t really much of a guide, they were thoroughly discredited last year by the Advertising Standards Authority and I doubt are quoted by anyone (apart from BeckyBoop).

[GoldenWings]

Most of the posts on this thread are have a very valid point of view based on inconsistent service delivery on ME carriers, whilst other posts deviates from the topic to express ones point of view towards a specific race and religion. 

Here are some facts behind the current service of ME carriers.

Customer Service:  

Both EY and Ek have staff from over 120 countries working on the front line and behind the scenes. The concept of hospitality and customer service differ from one cultural background to another, even after receiving training from the airline.

Ek has been around for over 25 years and has strong brand image; many people book EK tickets based on that image. EK has been aggressive in achieving the model of “mass” carrier. EY on the other hand is 10 years old trying to provide “boutique” or as they call it EY Inspired service. EY is UAE national carrier which can be noticed through Emirati dishes offering especially in premium cabins. The cabin colours also reflect UAE landscape, beige/brown for desert sand dunes and terqouise for Gulf water.  

Infrastructure limitation is another hurdle: AUH current airport is not keeping up with EY growth as all EY alliances were not anticipated at that time. The situation in AD is different as EY and AUH airport company (ADAC) are two separate entity, unlike DXB were EK and the airport ” under the same umbrella”. AUH new midfield terminal will open in 2017 same year as the introduction of nuclear energy to keep up with the country’s infrastructure development.

[rferguson]

To be honest I’m not so sure that the standards of the middle eastern carriers were as phenomenally high as they would all like us to believe to start with.

Eighteen months ago my partner was based in Doha for three months with his job and commuting on a weekly basis back to London for the weekend. I also travelled out thrice during that period. As my partner was being hosted by the Qatari Government they took care of all his travels on Qatar in J.

One the whole they were pretty good. Exceptional? By no means. Everything was nice and new. If you wanted you could ask some tiny little Thai flight attendant to put your 15kg wheelie bag in the locker for you and they would oblige (it’s amazing how many grown men I witnessed allowing this to happen) but apart from that everything just felt very mechanical and robotic. There is absolutely zero deviation from the service flow. For example on a morning flight from Doha back to London in J I wasn’t interested in breakfast and when the crew took the meal order I said I didn’t want to eat, I just wanted some coffee. Bizzarly this seemed just too much for them to deal with. Instead of just fixing me a quick coffee they insisted they went through the whole motion of laying the table etc etc and I got my coffee once it was time for everyone else to have coffee. For me, that isn’t excellent service.

On the ground in Doha their staff are nothing short of appalling. In fact if they were in Aeroflot uniforms you could believe you were at Sherametyevo. They are rude and even the most innocent query gets this look of contempt from them.

Like myself, my partner is a bit of an airline geek :-). During his stint out there he submitted three reviews to Skytrax – one excellent, one totally negative and one equally negative/positive. They posted the excellent one in full, edited out the negative aspect from the part negative/part positive one and did not publish the negative one at all.

[AMcWhirter]

So far much of this discussion has revolved around inflight standards.

It will be interesting to see how the Gulf carriers’ ground staff cope next year when flight operations at Dubai are set to be scaled back between May 1 and July 20.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/dubai-runway-to-close-for-80-days-in-2014

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