United Arab Emirates Travel Forum

Has anyone flown with Emirates? I'm going to Australia in March and want to know what Emirates are like as an airline - you know, food, drinks, service, entertainment etc. Went with Singapore Airlines a couple of years ago and wondered how they compared. I just love flying!

emirates has good services, I flew twice with their carrier.

Old Cliffie has flown Emirates a few times between Europe and Japan. Definitely one of the world's leading airlines, with late-model aircraft featuring state-of-the-art entertainment systems. Excellent in-flight service from courteous and helpful crew.

I flew with them in October to the Maldives, obviously via Dubai in economy.

I was very specific with the flights times that I chose, because they lay on different aircraft for different flights.

The Boeing 777 was had from London to Dubai was pretty good. The seats are a tad narrow, as it's a 3 -4 - 3 formation, but the seat pitch is appx. 33-34", hence choosing this flight.

The food was fantastic as far as airplane meals go - best food I've had on a flight before, even better than BA CLub Class.

The flight took off an hour late, but they did cut the travel time down from 7 hours to six, so we still arrived in Dubai on time.

The flight from Dubai to Male was in the airbus A330. This has a 32" seat pitch in economy.

To be honest, despite being a couple of inches less leg room in the A330, I preferred it as it was a 2 -4 -2 formation, so it was only my husband and I together.

In saying all this, I think they are soon starting (or may already have) a new super duper aircraft to Oz, which is most likely more comfortable.

The entertainment on board is good too, lots of movies and games to play, including an inflight computer quiz which you play against other passengers.

Hope this helps

Hi
Agreed, I have used them several times, and had good service.
As always though, delays are very often beyond their control, but at least they explain and apologise ... unlike many airlines.
If you know that you have a known time to wait it seems less annoying somehow.
D

Emirates for sure is my favorite airline. It has got the best in-flight services with all new aircrafts. However I leave you an URL which has got the list of all airlines who has flights to Australia and services they offer. You may like to go to the page and see it for yourself. The URL is as follows:

http://www.austravel.com/planning_your_trip/airline_info/index.cfm?destination=All%20Destinations

Wish you a safe trip.

Emirates is one of the best airlines in the world - with outstanding food, drinks including alcohol, service and entertainment. It is en-par with Singapore Airlines if not better.

emirate airlines rules.

i am pleasantly surprised at their publicy in english fa cup (football) and supporting australian cricket team and all cricket umpires.

The new stadium for Arsenal, one of England's leading football teams, is to be called the Emirates Stadium.

If I could just, perhaps, throw a little contrary opinion into the sparkling fanfare for Emirates speaking as one who has used them extensively - first, business, and economy class - over the last 4 years (at least 8 flights per year and still only Skywards Silver!). In 2000, when I first started using them, I had similar opinions to those above: excellent, top service, clean planes, nice food. The only thing I didn't like at that time was: smoking. Yes, even in 2000 when almost all other reasonable airlines had banned smoking, Emirates were still allowing the afflicted to smoke. It took a while, but they had to get civilsed in the end, and they banned smoking too. Over the four year period, I noticed several things: 1) seat pitch came down drastically (even in business); 2) service standards lowered to the point where one had to get up to serve oneself drinks on a number of flights; 3) cleanliness deteriorated and entertainment equipment malfunctions became the norm rather than the exception.

Now, you may say "so what, look what you get for the price". Well, bear in mind that I, or my company (in some cases), were buying these tickets in Dubai where one only dreams of getting the air ticket prices that are available in the UK.

So, in summary, depends what you have been used to before but I want to know why Emirates has deteriorated. I could venture that they have expanded too rapidly turning out poorly trained staff; being cynical I would say that they collared the market and then started degrading the quality to cut costs. Currently, I'm using Gulf Air between Muscat and London as the only carrier going direct. Their economy class is superior to Emirates based on leg room alone (but face it - space is a very important factor). The entertainment is the same, the food is the same. The price around the same. It remains to be seen how long it takes for Gulf Air to develop the "sardine factor" or the "let's screw the captive market factor".

Happy Flying

Steve

Good balanced discussion... helpful to be reminded that market leaders can get complacent.
If anyone is looking for long-haul, Mike's austravel link above is very useful for anyone looking for alternative ways to get to Oz/NZ.

Thanks.

Amir's !

HI! I'm one for the contrarian opinion. Eventho' I'm a Skyward member, I use Dubai as a hub to get to Africa and other parts of the Middle East. Noticed since last year , their service has gone down, altho the food remains good, at par with the best Asian airlines. Agreed that their seats are very narrow and uncomfortable on long haul flights. Wish they could improve their service and have more polite crew. Bear in mind most of Emirates flights are full and chances of been not gettng a seat if on wait list is very high. Happened to me on a particularly tight sector in Africa, Nairobi-Dubai and would not like the experience of been stranded again!

New kid on the block?

Qatar Airways is rapidly gaining the kind of reputation that Emirates enjoyed a couple of years ago. Like Emirates, the airline is expanding its routes from its home airport in the Gulf.

Well Linda you have received many views on the personal experiences of the Airline by VT members. Also I've learned that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different so if it happens that you fly Emirates to Australia please do let us know what was your experience and how did you like the in-flight services and your flight in general.
Wish you a safe trip whatever Airline you choose.

Not been online for a while - had problems with my PC. Sooo, I'm delighted that so many people have taken the trouble to post replies. A good balance of opinion too. I've decided to give it a go and have booked with Emirates. I like to gather all the info and opinions available but at the end of the day, also like to experience things for myself. I'm going for Easter and I'll let you know how I get on.