Experiences will vary depending on the time of night, just as before. Ten minutes can make all the difference at trhe wrong time of night.
The reason this procedure won't make much of a difference at the critical times is because the traffic numbers haven't changed and the airport hasn't changed.
Previously, aircraft absorbed track miles in a holding pattern. Now the miles will still be flown but in the so-called trombone instead of in a racetrack. Vectors will still be applied.
Previously, once released from the holding pattern, there was a series of known waypoints with track miles relatively easy to determine (since we are kept in the dark) if one applied familiarity and an ounce of common sense, even when being vectored.
Now, the aircraft will be sent down two sides of a "trombone" with a turn onto final possible at any point before the end. Being that much closer to the FAP (when the intercept vector is finally given) means less miles to lose altitude in. The alternative (already favoured by a lot of our guys) is to just drag it in at low altitude with power up.
The only real solution is to spread out the flight schedule - which is contrary to the fundamentals of EK's hub operation and will never happen.
Prediction: getting track-miles-to-run will still be like pulling teeth.
...don't accept the turn
That would require judgment - something which doesn't always seem to be in abundance.
Gimme Wings, fret not! The solution is just to switch on the seat belt signs at 30,000 instead of at 20,000. At EK, experience shows that the more points like this are given to the crew in the briefing, the more confused and worried they get - apart from the ones who just couldn't GAF.