I am an IT consultant, and this brings me lot of travel opportunities across the globe. I have flown several airlines, stayed in many hotels and dozed at innumerable airports. Of the airlines that I have flown, I could classify them in categories A, B and C in a decreasing order of recommendation.

On my trips to Middle East, due to non-availability of tickets on European airlines, I have been forced to fly on carriers such as Gulf and Kuwait.

In 1998, our corporate travel agent booked me a seat on Emirates to Dubai. The first leg of the trip was on Virgin Atlantic from New York City to London Heathrow. Undoubtedly, I could testify to what my friends and co-workers had said about Virgin Atlantic...excellent service! On my stop-over at London, I was skeptical whether Emirates would be any better or even comparable to Virgin!

To my astonishment, I found Emirates Airline a very non Middle Eastern Airline. My emphasis means, no sooner that I got inside the aircraft did I receive a sense of belonging.

The cabin crew was very professional and courteous. Aircraft was clean. No sweaty seats. Right temperature.

Captain’s greeting was extremely personal and sorta ’’I care for you.

The in-flight service gotta be the best... I can tell ya that the food was yummy!! Variety of veg and non-veg stuff. Drinks...alcohol, yup...but I skipped on that one.

Emirates was one of the first airline to introduce a personal screen on each seat for in-flight entertainment. They have continued to innovate since then...always having a wide selection to choose from.

To make one feel good, they asked each and every passenger if they’d want to have an instant photograph... many of them were presented with their pictures as souvenirs...33,000 ft. in the air!

When we arrived at Dubai Internation Airport, I had a 16 hour stop-over and then another hop to Bombay. Emirates arranged for my transit visa and of-course a decent hotel room, all complimentary!

Great value for money, and certainly the best value in in-flight service. I prefer it over any other airline.

No. of times flown on this Airlines:	Between 7 - 10
Class flown most frequently:	Business Class