but you don't ring true
I'm not quite sure what you are suggesting here but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
I am not influenced by what is posted here by fanboys of any airline or rubbish published in the Daily Mail et al.
I make my points based solely and entirely on my own personal experiences over years of flying - more than 50 return flights a year. I used to fly a lot with EI but the very absence of what you claim their staff to be was what influenced me to finally abandon them coupled with so many personal experiences of flights not being on time (a MUST for me) and what I perceived to be disinterested staff. If you fly as often with them and have had better times good luck to you but I will not sit idly by while people claim that EI is, somehow "better", when, in my considerable experience, it is anything but.