Some more detail has been revealed of the Emirates debacle at Dubai last week as described above.
1. After the fuel-enforced diversion they were informed that it was the intention to disembark the passengers at Sharjah and coach them the short journey to Dubai but none of the steps tried were suitable for a 380.
2. After refueling the 380 was unable to depart owing to another aircraft being in the way (also refueling). Consequently, they missed their slot back to Dubai and had to wait a long, long time for another one.
3. A crew member informed them that, due to the (much) cheaper cost of fuel at Dubai, the 380 in question had been loaded with fuel to do both the original trip to LHR and the return trip to Dubai and that was why they were short and unable to hold on arrival back.
4. The second part of their journey which they had booked direct to SYD was replaced with a two-legger to Perth where they changed to a Qantas flight to SYD. Emirates told them that their baggage was checked all the way to SYD but it wasn't. The baggage was taken off at Perth and left in an unclaimed area.
5. No compensation was offered despite the 4 hour delay at Sharjah, the 6 hour delay at Dubai and the 4 hour delay at Perth. This overall delay of 14 hours meant that one of the party lost a day's work in SYD.
All in all I think this was an absolutely disgraceful way to treat passengers. If it had been FR the media would have had a field day.