A group of us flew from Birmingham to Manilla (via Dubai) last Monday to represent the UK in the Philippines International Pyromusical Competition.
The leg from Birmingham to Dubai was - frankly - a bad experience, we had seats right at the back, and so were last to get everything on offer - from headsets to drinks to meals, not in itself a problem and expected, but the actual service was not good - the 4 cabin crew seeming to be very inorganised and no cohesion on working together. Almost as if all four were on their first trip.
This was also the experience on the return journey from Dubai to Birmingham.
Seat space was extremely cramped on all legs (same aircraft type - 777-300 I believe) and most uncomfortable - on all sectors the entertainment system kept crashing and was repeatedly turned off to try and reset it.
The cabin crew themselves were attentive I must add - but the disorganisation and glitches make it a near certainty that Emirates wont be our first choice should we have to go to any of their destinations in the future.
On leaving Manilla our party upon reaching the gate , had our boarding passes taken off us and were told to stand outside the gate area and not sit inside, no reason given for our seperation and other arriving passengers were allowed inside. Then when boarding commenced we had to explain our way back in as they forgot that they had taken our passes of us. Still have no idea what that was all about...