EK lounge Manchester is very good in my humble opinion and is only about 18 onths old and not very busy, even with full A380. Lounges in DXB are quite crowded but no more so than most HUB airports eg T5 BA LHR, and do have smoking areas if required. Have not been through Joburg for some years so could not comment on EK there, but most African lounges in my experiance are nothing to write home about eg Kenyan Nairobi. As for A340 V B777 V A380, I prefer seats on 777 or A380 to A340 or indeed A330 in EK configuration. I do like A340 as a plane but prefer SQ configuration on seating which seem more comfortable to me. You should be aware given large B777 fleet at EK that some of them are more comfortable than others in that they have POD seating on newer aircraft and older "Lazy boy" seats on older ones. ICE is VERY GOOD through out the fleet but is better on A380 due to better screens. Hope the above helps.
