Emirates. Have they outgrown their capacity to give decent service??

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graxx

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After many great trips with Emirates, I returned from London to Sydney this week and can't help but feel they have grown too big to properly cope.
The flight from London wasn't bad- new A380 and the new Business seats were fine. Trouble started when we landed at Dubai and were parked on the tarmac, seemed like some kilometres from the terminal. Unloading the plane was a real drag. Everyone was left standing for about 15 minutes and then we had to climb down to the lower deck (embarrassingly having to pass all the fuming economy passengers while the top deck emptied) to get onto buses. We then drove, and drove, and drove, stopping and staring for about half and hour and were finally dumped (after standing in a queue of buses) at a doorway where we had to queue again for a security check. Finally up on the departures area, we discovered we were at the far end of the vast terminal and had to lug our hand luggage (2 laptops etc can get very heavy!!) for what seemed miles, only to discover when we got to the middle that we had to get the train to the other terminal.
Finally got into the Lounge 46 minutes after we got out of the plane, just in time to have a shower and load onto the next flight (old A380 and looking a bit tired).

Emirates are in the process of building a new terminal and a new airport (40 K's away), but my feeling is that the glamorous airline is showing cracks. When terminals get too big , it makes them tedious to use (I stopped flying Cathay because of the ridiculous distances at HK to get to connecting flights) and I think Emirates are in that fix. Their service on the aircraft seems to be suffering the same syndrome, where the staff don't seem to 'get it' like they used to.

All in all, the London-Sydney experience is not one I would like to repeat and it was not, in my terms, a continuing flight, as one generally gets with Qantas for instance.

Was this just a glitch or is it a symptom of decay?
 
We recently did HKG/DXB/HKG in J on EK, outbound service excellent return they went into hiding and the plane was half full. I did wonder why. At least the bar saved the day.
 
Being bussed in and out of planes at DXB is hardly new. I can remember going through this process a number of years ago.

One thing I disagree on is calling the use of HKG tedious.
 
Arriving at HKG and having to travel (some of it running) for miles from one terminal to another to connect to a flight to London is my idea of tedious!!
 
Arriving at HKG and having to travel (some of it running) for miles from one terminal to another to connect to a flight to London is my idea of tedious!!

I do believe it is just one terminal* in Hong Kong and you must have a very loose interpretation of "running for miles" for transiting in Hong Kong.

* for air passenger loading
 
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What is the MCT at HKG - 55 minutes? I was worried with that previously but never had an issue making that MCT.
 
What is the MCT at HKG - 55 minutes? I was worried with that previously but never had an issue making that MCT.

This is starting to veer off the original topic, but to answer your question, most of the HKG MCTs are 1 hour, but there are a few 50 minute ones. Flight information would be required to provide a more accurate response.
 
This is starting to veer off the original topic, but to answer your question, most of the HKG MCTs are 1 hour, but there are a few 50 minute ones. Flight information would be required to provide a more accurate response.

True - saying that the OP did refer to HKG as tedious;)

As for EK - I don't know if the gloss is wearing off or that has been what they are always like. Consistently inconsistent?
 
Exactly!! Your need to wait for the train. Last time I just made it to the lounge and had to turn around a leave for departure. If I hadn't been in the other terminal, I would have had time for a quick shower!!
 
What I took from the OP is that there are now old A380s.
 
In April coming into DXB and we had to circle in our 77w for about 45 minutes because of congestion i think it was.... That was my first flight on EK down the back in Y and the service didn't knock my socks off...
 
I'll let you know of our DBX experience tomorrow morning. After 13 hours in economy it will be a treat. Not.
 
There are far worst airports for connections than HKG! Take any Australian port or LHR for instance :)

Plus if you're really lazy you can pony up 8 usd for the buggy at HKG but I find its a good bit of exercise to walk the 5 mins to the train!
 
There are far worst airports for connections than HKG! Take any Australian port or LHR for instance :)
!

If you're talking like for like connections (international to international) I'd say most if not all Australian airports have no worse, and in all likelihood easier connections than HKG. I am sure HKG would be worse than ADL and MEL as a minimum, if you had to clear immigration (particularly without HK visitor or APEC card) and then recheck.

Not to say that connections at HKG are bad, usually very easy. There may be sometimes when you have bad luck and you will have to move between gates that couldn't be further apart, as is the case at any large international airport.

Back on topic, In my single return trip DXB experience, which was just arrival into DXB and departure a few days later (i.e. no connections), was delayed both inbound and outbound 45 mins due to congestion (maybe bad luck) and the path, particularly to immigration although it seemed complicated was easy enough to follow.
 
Being bussed in and out of planes at DXB is hardly new. I can remember going through this process a number of years ago.

EY are just as bad at this in Abu Dhabi. But then I guess if you don't like it don't fly them.
 
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