LHR-DXB-SYD Tuesday July 26 2012

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16 years

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Just a brief report of the above trip aboard an Emirates A380:

Punctuality: excellent - everything happened at the time advertised except for a slight delay getting out of DXB.
Aircraft: LHR-DXB (A6-EDF) a very pleasant, newish A380; DXB-SYD (A6-EDC) a rather drab interior (economy) and beginning to look a little tired in places (obviously, a very early A380 that had done a significant number of rotations).
Food: ok, just. Some of the meals were excellent; others rather bland and tasteless. The meals on the first sector were much better than the second.
Service (surprising, this): poor. Meals took ages to be served and passengers were left for too long with finished meal trays.

All in all, I found Emirates to be a rather over-rated airline on the evidence of this trip and, surprisingly, standards were rather higher on the first sector than the second. In fairness, though, I'll wait until I have completed all remaining sectors (SYD-AKL; AKL-MEL-DXB-LHR) before giving a definitive judgement. At the moment, though, Singapore Airlines seemed a lot better when I flew them.

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24 years 2 months

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I have made two trips to Thailand with Emirates and agree that they are overrated. Whilst the service in premium cabins might be of a high standard, I have found the economy service to be consistently poor, and I have come across a handful of staff who lack the most basic of service skills. It's not an airline I plan to fly with again any time soon.

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Funnily enough, everyone I have spoken to who rates Emirates highly flies at least Business Class.

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Monday August 6: Emirates SYD-AKL EK 412 A6-EDB

Much better service on this flight. Also, the fact that the aircraft was not full made a difference; as did the absence of turbulence.

Always nice when you have a row to yourself :D Of course, the airline would like you to squashed in like a can of sardines... :diablo:

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AKL-MEL-DXB: August 22

Passable, just. Flown on an Emirates B777-300ER, service was ok, food ok but seating rather cramped.

DXB-LHR: August 23

Dreadful. Sitting in the rear of the B777 on the right (window seat), this has to be one of the least comfortable journeys I've endured due to an extreme lack of space. Also, there was a two-hour delay due to a sick baby whose parents were not impressed with Emirates' provision for said child and elected not to fly (so, baggage had to be unloaded), and the three idiots seated in front of me had their seats fully reclined virtually the whole time.

The latter two weren't really the airline's fault but I don't think I'll be flying Emirates again. :mad:

Mr Totty, you are a seasoned traveler. Have you been in the Dreamliner yet? I know some call it the nightmareliner, everyone unto their own. But I would like to hear a first-hand report.

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16 years

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Good heavens, that's the first time I've been called a seasoned traveller. It's just that my family lives on the other side of the world, so needs must. :)
As for the Dreamliner, I'm keeping a lookout for when it starts flying regularly into Heathrow, at which point I'll take a flight. I think United are flying it here in the near future, so perhaps then.
I'm quite keen on American airlines right now. Popular perception seems to be that they are not very good, but I greatly enjoyed the AA flight I took in February. Perhaps United will be as good.

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16 years

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Just saw this, having flown on an Air France 777, with the same 10 abreast seating (having flown the opposite direction on their 9 abreast 777), I found the seats incredibly uncomfortable too, I'll try and avoid that configuration wherever possible!

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16 years

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Oh, is that what it is. I had wondered, because I had not been uncomfortable on any of the (BA) B777's I'd previously flown. I presume, being older aircraft, that they had the nine-abreast seating.
Thanks for the info. I too will ask when I'm booking.

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16 years

Posts: 455

It's purely airline preference, according to a website I just randomly looked at the following are 10 abreast:

Air France
Air New Zealand
AA
ANA
Austrian
China Southern
Emirates
JAL (domestic only)
KLM
TAM

Member for

16 years

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Thanks.

I'll stick with BA and SIA from now on, I think.

AA is still ok, because it generally still runs B757s on the routes I fly, which are, of course, single-aisle.