EK5102 LHR-DXB 1 MAY 13 (BUSINESS)

Written for pjh, and copied here from the Itinerary Section....

To sum my trip on this flight - DON'T. Change to an Emirates operated flight.

Checked in online, and during the last stage of the booking, we ended up with seats miles apart (must be my signature hassle!) Can't go back into the booking to try again, so stuck with them. Ring QF, get told to ring EK. EK - rightly - say it is not their aircraft, so can't help. Try QF again, get told to sort it out at the airport. Hm.

Get to the airport, redirected from the EK check in (which is at the VS end of the terminal) to the QF check in - riiiiiggggghhhhhhhttttt at the other end of T3. Hm. Tried to use the QF Gold card queue, no dice. My EK gold has no status at all with them, had none of the EK Au perks - no extra baggage allowance etc.

Not allowed to use the EK lounge. Huh? This was booked as an EK flight on Emirates.com. No, redirected to the other end of the terminal again to use this grotty (and I use that word advisedly) BA Lounge. Was like being in an Ikea canteen, lots of plastic furniture. Food pretty poor, nursery style, very limited choice. Wine and booze selection much better Champagne on request only, served with a grimace by the winner of the Olga Klebb lookalike competition....

On board the QF product is not a patch on Emirates'. But then I have never found anyone who is The Skybed to me feels narrow and overly firm. IFE was very good - no where near as many channels as EK ICE, but strangely I felt that there was much, much more I wanted to watch. Had I been going on to SYD, I was sure I would have still had loads to see at the end of it. Felt much more tailored to an 'Anglo Saxon' audience, lots of British comedy, drama and a great choice of movies; I would imagine if you wanted say Bollywood, you'd be pretty badly served by the choice though.

Crew on board not good. Service slow, and inattentive, particularly slow clearing up after the meal service (food was OK, nothing wonderful) which meant the carpets started to look like a bad day on the Somme. On arrival in DXB (on time) the place was looking dirty.

In short - it's early days with this alliance, so they may still be ironing out the bugs. But I would never choose to fly QF over EK again. There is just no comparison.

Thanks for the TR ,you certainly don't seem to be having much luck lately .just out of interest what plane was it ?
Blacky

Thanks for the TR and an interesting comparison. I must say I thought passengers had a choice of which lounge they wanted to use - I'm booked on EK and was definitely told I could use QF lounge in SYD.

Oh dear, this sounds exceptionally poor all round

Thanks for posting, but not what I wanted to hear. Unfortunately change is not an option for us, as I have sold off enough of the family silver already. That said, things may improve - at the start of the alliance it looked like we were going to fall between the cracks for the car service, but all that is now sorted - and making the best of it is something we do well...

Of the lounges issue, QF website says..

"Eligible Skywards Members and Qantas Frequent Flyers as well as travellers in premium cabins will have access to Emirates and Qantas Lounges."

And the EK website says

"iI am eligible for lounge access and departing from an airport with both an Emirates lounge and a Qantas lounge, can I choose either lounge?
We recommend that you use the lounge of the operating airline to ensure convenient gate proximity and access to boarding calls and other flight information."

I have emailed EK on the matter to get some clarification....

The lounge thing is interesting. We tried to get into the EK lounge and even with two Au cards in hand, we had a firm NO.

Re the aircraft - Qantas A380.

My last four flights before this were all in EK First... Trust me, they were absolutely flawless in every respect Even the shower

Are you sure you can't change flights? EK tend to be pretty good about this, normally FoC. Assuming you're booked on an EK ticket, I would just call them - their customer service is really very impressive - and all you want is EK5102 to EK10...

Are you sure you can't change flights? EK tend to be pretty good about this, normally FoC. Assuming you're booked on an EK ticket, I would just call them - their customer service is really very impressive - and all you want is EK5102 to EK10...

I may try, but by experience of EK customer service differs radically from yours. When I was trying to set this trip up they were...sh*te, and that's putting a +ve spin on things. They told me that flights that I could see as available on their website were fully booked, that we could only select QF sets at the airport...... Always willing to give a second chance though, not least as the whole combination must have been a process and info nightmare. Problem is that (1) I need to arrange this so our daughter flies in from MAN and hooks up on the DXB - SYD leg (2) I don't want hours in Dubai and (3) I don't want a DXB - SYD leg on a 777 with another stop. With that in mind, moving away from the booking pushes the price up a few hundred pounds each...I'll have a look at the EK10 idea though....

If you're in J, the DXB lounges are really rather special, especially in the new Concourse A

Sad to hear that they weren't great to you - was that the UK? If so, call them at night when the call gets transferred to Dubai

Sarastro, you've had a bad run recently! Time to roll out the private jet

I emailed Customer Services on the lounge issue and received the following

"Please note that Business Class passengers flying with Qantas flights are allowed to use the Emirates Business Class lounge.

However, as mentioned on our below communication we recommend that you use the lounge of the operating airline to ensure convenient gate proximity and access to boarding calls and other flight information when departing from an airport with both an Emirates lounge and a Qantas lounge."

Paul

Thanks Paul - didn't get that choice The EK lounge were adamant that I couldn't use it for a QF operated flight and the BA lounge had a lever arch folder full of rules on who could use their lounge. I would love to have used the nearest lounge to the gate - the EK lounge is right on top of the 380 gates, the BA one made me wish I had a sponsor form

Thanks Paul - didn't get that choice The EK lounge were adamant that I couldn't use it for a QF operated flight and the BA lounge had a lever arch folder full of rules on who could use their lounge. I would love to have used the nearest lounge to the gate - the EK lounge is right on top of the 380 gates, the BA one made me wish I had a sponsor form

So did the flight go from the gate close to the EK lounge? If so, then the 'gate proximity' argument in EK's boilerplate response is b*ll*x.

I too am a little worried about the fine words of a customer service representative cutting no ice with those on the door ("not in those shoes, mate"). However, it's a good while until we test it out for real so the position may change. I shall be keeping an eye on things.

I had a a quick look and a transfer to the 10 would raise the cost by 20%. The 30 is a possibility , but would mean 5 hours in Dubai. And in the end I'll probably be back on the same aircraft that did the LHR-DXB leg anyhow, as looking to transfer off that would cost a day in Australia...

Yep - all the T3 380s go from the same pier, SQ, EK and QF - and the EK lounge sits above that corridor. The BA lounge was down not far from the VS Clubhouse...

Yep - all the T3 380s go from the same pier, SQ, EK and QF - and the EK lounge sits above that corridor. The BA lounge was down not far from the VS Clubhouse...

Having done a fair bit of asking around, it seems the EK /QF partnership is less than equal in respect of lounge access at LHR. As you found, despite being on an EK flight number flying on QF metal is equivalent to wearing the wrong sort of shoes when trying to get into a nightclub as far as the EK lounge is concerned. This was confirmed by a QF agent who called me this morning after I posted an enquiry via their website.

Off to our local IKEA soon to get used to the ambience of the Galleries.....

Off to our local IKEA soon to get used to the ambience of the Galleries.....

Enjoy the meatballs

Just done a return on this service, from DXB-LHR (I had to get to London in a hurry, and the EK flights were full in First and Business).

Better on board - sharply better crew. An overnight flight so very, very limited catering - basically, soup or a sandwich. Breakfast was waffles or cereals.

Inflight entertainment still good, and the seat was strangely rather more comfortable than the flight down - I really do rate this seat, I slept well.

Used the EK lounge in concourse A at DXB, no issues. At Heathrow, the confusion set in again - could I use the AA Arrivals lounge (since there is no shower on the QF 380, and AA allow QF Business to use the lounge)? No, it was an Emirates flight. OK. Go to the EK Chauffeur Drive desk - get redirected since it was a Qantas flight. Make your minds up guys!