Hey - just came back from a holiday in Dubai and I’d just like to drop a line to everyone and recommend emirates -highly. They left on time, had friendly staff - my mother had requested a wheelchair and that was ready for her both here in Kolkata and at Dubai as soon as she got off the plane.
The attendant carried her around most of the airport when we were leaving, including the duty-free where she was shopping! (i.e. Pointing to this and that and asking for the prices, all in her wheelchair).
There were little video screens on all the seats with lots of channels and even games, however unfortunately they were showing avatar and I decided to save that for a bigger screen :). They have a completely separate terminal in Dubai, terminal 3, that handled us with excellence.
Even my mum’s request for non-oily food was carried out - on the way back, because on the way there they hadn’t done it, and upon request the steward put it in the computer on the plane - big thanks to him.
However- my biggest gripe is that their website fare was seven thousand rupees more than we got from a travel agency- why is this?
I guess they don’t want to alienate the travel agencies, because a lot of people still use them unfortunately, but I still don’t understand.
Their website too is great, the designers and techies have done as good a job as possible, but it’s still simply too hard to get that much info onto the screen- it’s not their site alone, but almost all travel sites where checking a fare for different dates is almost impossible- the whole thing is too slow - maybe the emirates India website is not actually hosted in India, I haven’t checked.
But anyway, overall highly recommended, and if you’re flying to Dubai, try not to go to an agency but do the whole thing yourself- the visa forms are at dubaivisa.net. Bye :)