Emirates Airlines service

As the peak season approaches, here is a word of caution to anyone planning to travel to the UK with Emirates Airlines. This airline is, in many ways, first class, and deserves the accolades it has had over the years. It is all the more bewildering, therefore, to regularly encounter abysmal treatment on this particular route.

I speak from the experience of at least six round trips on this route, and, in spite of promises, nothing changes. Outward and inbound stops are made at Colombo, Sri Lanka. Passengers assume that this is a normal transit stop and they can break their journey. Not so with or without the approval of the Civil Aviation authorities in Colombo (who one imagines would appreciate the revenue from shoppers). The airline has unilaterally for some years now decided that passengers will remain on the aircraft. You are then treated, during over an hour on board, so inconveniently that you are made to feel like the fare you have paid entitles you to nothing.

This friction never fails, on my journeys, to unsettle passengers, and is a black mark against the airline -- one which I have commented on before in this column to no avail. An added horror now awaits you on this journey (although hardly the fault of the airline, it certainly adds distress and discomfort to this specific route) when you land at Dubai Airport. It is little better than a construction site. You are packed into coaches for the long drive to the airport buildings, then faced with a very long walk to the terminal facilities, which are vastly overcrowded, dirty and generally unsavory.

Come on Emirates -- go the whole mile -- and have some modicum of respect for passengers on this 21-hour journey.

BILL GUERIN

Jakarta