As it is quiet at the moment maybe I can give my thoughts on my first trip with Emirates. NCL-DXB-BKK and back.
Check-in no probs. Security, well I went through a few large airports and a couple of provincial Thai ones this trip and is NCL the only airport left asking pax to take laptops out of their hand luggage case?? It can be a real hassle.
At the gate it is an excellent idea to sort out the ID and tear off boarding cards before the holding area so that when the plane is ready you just walk on. That must increase the turn-around times and saves a lot of the bun fight when “ready for boarding” is announced. Can this not be adopted at all NCL gates??
Food and drink on the plane was excellent(though I don’t have a problem with my normal flight in that respect) but very disappointed with the famed entertainment system. They mention “over 40 films”, but any given flight has nothing near that number.I enjoy watching films but it was only on the way back that I found one I even vaguely wanted to watch and my video screen wasn’t working properly! No option of trying the games either.
And why do all airlines show films that they know they will stop before the ending? Grrr! (and when they can get men on the moon do they really have to serve butter that has a hardness factor of something approaching diamond?? Grrr!)
Then comes the big problem for me. The 7hrs to DXB comes too soon to sleep and feels like the main AMS-BKK that I’m used to so mentally I’m ready to get off in BKK feeling very tired. What I don’t want is the thought of 3 hours in DXB in the early hours followed by virtually the same flight again. The second leg could be the best or worst airline in the world, it doesn’t matter. All you want to do is get the food(quality unimportant) out the way and go to sleep. IIRC we didn’t even get a cup of tea before getting off that one but may have got that wrong.
The return was at different times and worked out better but when it is 2am BKK time, 11pm DXB time(and pax possibly having to miss their evening meal to get to BKK for check-in time) when the first meal is served soon after getting on the plane why do they give us breakfast?????
Not impressed with DXB. Great if you want to buy the latest shoes and handbags and unnecessarily expensive gold objects, but the main seating area upstairs is terrible. Over half the seats unoccupied but you couldn’t sit on any of them as there were-literally-hundreds of bodies lying asleep on the floor right in front of them, even when a lot could have slept against the wall away from the seats. Large queues for the toilets(male and female) as well around the central part of the area.
The biggest plus of all for Emirates is the staff who were all excellent. Well dressed, friendly and efficient in all departments.
My next trip out is already booked with China(done before this trip), and I think I’m pleased except that I will have to rely on that terrible KLM link to AMS. Even this trip while I was waiting for my flight, NCL staff were telling pax that their KLM flight had been cancelled and those with onward connections, well, tough. No reason given(grrr!). And this was after going through security. Also on that route it is no better than 50/50 that my suitcase makes it. Why????
So plenty of good things(including the price) about Emirates but the killer for me is in the timings.