In another thread, someone mentioned one of the rating agencies with 5 star, 4 star, 3 star, etc. airlines. Apparently, most of the legacies are 3 star. I don't, know if this is true, but it is possible that the legacies are looking to be good enough, just good enough.

If you think about it in general terms, most seats are filled in the served markets. Good enough is able to do that. I'm no bean counter and would love it if we had 20 something hotties crewing all of our flights, but that isn't the way it actually is.

Some legacies have farther to go than others to provide service at the "good enough" level. I have only recently travelled on my own companies' flights internationally. In my small random sample, service actually exceeded MY expectations. IMO, service quality is driven by the purser. I really can't offer much more insight than that.

IMO also, the airlines of the Middle East are geographically well placed for transshipment of pax, not necessarily so for O&D, but there certainly is some of that.

It has always been my opinion that all of Dubai's investment in turning their country into Las Vegas was misplaced. The money would have been better spent by buying Belize and developing there. If you build it, they will come, will not last there, again my opinion.

If emirates opened a US base, there is no question they would get an absolute flood of ready applicants. I don't know how that would jive with US labor law and their business model. However, if Boeing is lobbying to open up US skies for Emirate cabotage, I am absolutely entrenched in my opposition.