Emirates

[Brummiegem]

Absolutely.
Isn't it ironic that all flight crew,ground staff and passengers have to go through stringent checks,but a creature as small as a mouse can cause so much travel misery to a couple of hundred people.
However as Ray said,it only needed the mouse to chew through a piece of cable and who knows what would have happened.
As i understand it a good number of passengers were bussed to LHR and they were the lucky ones.
Others were found seats on the EK40 on Monday.However I am not sure if there were any on the outbound aircraft when it finally departed at about 1730 on Monday.

 

[Brum X]

Emirates Go East Festival (BIRMINGHAM)

Looks good, i might go and have a nosey.



Experience a true taste of the East

Discover a vibrant celebration of unique cuisines and cultures in Birmingham.

Eat fresh street food, from exotic noodle dishes to chargrilled Aussie crocodile burgers.

Then sit and relax to the sounds of traditional Shanghai Teahouse music or get carried away by athletic Zulu dancers.

Immersive family entertainment and a feast for all the senses await you at the Emirates Go East Festival.

Free admission.

Saturday, 4 July 2015 from 12pm to 10pm
Sunday, 5 July 2015 from 12pm to 8pm

#HelloEast

Note: Entrance to the Go East Festival is free of charge. Food and drink stalls are payable and vendors accept cash only.

 

[Brum X]

Also this will be a good opportunity for BHX and EK to promote the new 3rd daily flight to DXB :hatsoff:

 

[Ray Finkle]

I think I'm going to go too, maybe for a croc burger

 

[Jon Dempsey]

Two croc burgers please........and make it snappy!!


I'll get my coat!

 

[Brum X]

Two croc burgers please........and make it snappy!!


I'll get my coat!

Ive not had a Croc burger, dont like the sound of it. I did however have a Kangaroo burger once,that was nice.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I've had kangaroo before and quite enjoyed it. I've never tried crocodile though.

It should be an interesting festival and as said it'll give the new service a bit more publicity.

 

[CL44]

I have tried several different things but never crocodile or kangaroo. Might be a visit planned for this event. Anyone fancy meeting up on the Saturday?

 

[Jon Dempsey]

I have tried several different things but never crocodile or kangaroo. Might be a visit planned for this event. Anyone fancy meeting up on the Saturday?

Croc's fine. Got a bit of a bite to it though!!












Taxi for Mr Dempsey please!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

I'm not sure I could give a guaranteed time for a meet up as I'm all over the place at the moment and not sure if I'm going Saturday or Sunday, or what time :s_sad

If others meet up then maybe you could get a FFA banner on Central News

 

[Aviador]

Which reminds me, I promised some car stickers way back. I still need to get them ordered and distributed. :shok: :shout:

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Could someone kindly confirm how many daily rotations there are currently between BHX and DXB and how many are three-class. Furthermore, when will the three-class flights end and have there been any whispers about their permanency?

Last week my wife popped into the Bristol branch of the travel agents we use (well-known world-wide specialists) and was told that the three-class current initiative at BHX is being assessed to see if it will be viable on a permanent basis. Unfortunately, the woman to whom my wife spoke wasn't able to give any clue as to how things were progressing - probably because she doesn't know.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Hi.

As of August 1st there will be three daily flights, EK41/42 (Morning), EK39/40 (lunchtime) and EK37/38 (evening).

Only the morning EK41/42 will see first class and at the moment it finishes on Jan 1st when it reverts back to a two class service.

Mr Kehoe confirmed that it is a trial to see whether 1st would work but there has been no word yet on how things are going.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Many thanks, Ray.

Didn't EK once operate a three-class at BHX on a regular basis? It would have been prior to 2010.

A couple of years ago I had a 'discussion' in another forum (not lums: ) with a prominent person in the aviation industry who took some convincing that BHX was two-class (as it then was) because he was adamant that he used to fly first-class with EK from BHX.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Yeah as far as I'm aware this will be the first time EK have offered First Class from BHX on a regular basis.

They did sell First on the day the A380 operated but that was just for a single flight.

 

[jfy1999]

Any possibility of them offering first class on more than one daily flight if it's a roaring success?

 

[nwoody2001]

I suspect there is always potential but if it was a success, id imagine we'd be hearing about it soon enough. currently, 1st class is not bookable after the end f 2015. as soon, if bookings are looking healthy up until then, emirates will need to make it available further in the future... with the service due to start in 23 days, emirates should be getting an idea of how much apatite there is...

its worth noting however that PK has gone on record in saying that he would prefer 2 class instead of 3. whilst 3 class is good for the airline, 2 class is better for the airport.... 773 with 3 classes carry (I believe) 364 pax, but a 2 class 773 carries 427 pax.... that's a difference of 60ish pax per flight..... scale that up to 3 flights per day across a year, and that is a variable just short of 140,000 pax annually!!!!

 

[Kevin Farnell]

It would be interesting to know what the general booking patterns of people flying different classes are.
I would assume that the majority of people flying economy class will book quite some time in advance, as a large proportion will be for holidays or visiting friends/relatives.
A larger proportion of business class on the other hand may well be booked at short notice, as companies respond to changes in the market place or chase orders etc.
As for first class, I have little idea, although I'd guess it's not generally months in advance.
I've been lucky enough to fly first class once - Malaysian 747 LHR-KUL. When we checked in, we were told we had the first class cabin to ourselves. By the time we took off, it was 2/3 full. Late bookings or upgrades?
So Emirates may well not know how first class is going to perform until the new service is well settled in.

Kevin

 

[Jon Dempsey]

I think advertising is the key Kevin.

Some friends flew business out to Dubai and then Melbourne recently departing from Heathrow!!

They didn't know about flights from Birmingham, but the chauffeur service meant there was little inconvenience.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

As for first class, I have little idea, although I'd guess it's not generally months in advance.
I've been lucky enough to fly first class once - Malaysian 747 LHR-KUL. When we checked in, we were told we had the first class cabin to ourselves. By the time we took off, it was 2/3 full. Late bookings or upgrades?

My wife and I fly to Australia (Melbourne) each year to visit our daughter and her family. We've made five return trips with Emirates in that time.

We book with a well-known high street long-haul travel specialist who always seem able to get us decent premium fares so long as we are reasonably flexible with dates (that is, can move a day or two either way) and we usually book several months before we travel.

We live in Bristol and our preferred option for Emirates is BHX. The first year we flew BHX-DXB-BHX in business class and DXB-MEL-DXB in first. That particular year EK had a promotion at BHX for people living in the BS (Bristol) postal area involving reduced prices for premium seats.

In subsequent years we found that travelling from BHX via DXB to MEL and return was almost the same fare as doing the journey from LGW, except that LGW was first all the way but BHX was business to/from DXB then first to/from MEL. Because Emirates supply a chauffeured car (there is a top-up for us to LGW because of the distance) LGW is not that much of a hassle, although this year we encountered serious motorway delays in both directions.

Actually this year (in March) we could have flown from LHR for the same fare as LGW (and BHX although this of course was still business on the DXB legs) but we stayed with LGW as it's marginally more user friendly (in our view anyway) than LHR.

We never pay the full first class fare - our travel agent always has some 'deals' going.

EK used B 777s for the entire journey for the first three years but A 380s in the last two years. Our experience in chatting to fellow passengers in the first class suites is that many are VFR (like us) or tourist. The majority are older people (again like us) from, as far as it's possible to tell, mainly 'ordinary' backgrounds (yet again like us) who've perhaps managed to put away a few quid down the years.

When we used BHX we found it a delight to transit, but if EK can get away with charging the same fares to MEL (and probably to other long haul destinations) from BHX in business as they do from LGW in first (and this year from LHR too) there seems little imperative to put on first class at BHX. Much as we would love to use BHX, from what we've experienced, been told and read about, the EK business product is noticeably poorer than their first product, which is why we use LGW.

We aren't due to travel again until next year and even if it was sooner the morning rotation from BHX would be no good to us flying outbound.

Sorry to have gone on a bit but this is the personal experience of a couple who would love to use BHX if EK would put on the right product. I have no doubt that we are by no means alone. Perhaps EK is concerned about diluting its London services 'up front'.