Originally Posted by Buford

Full disclosure - wife here. Last year I listened to a podcast about Emirates and their brand building. The head of their sponsorship department stated explicitly that, "Sponsorship is about relationship building through politics". An example he gave is when Emirates sponsors a big sporting event (eg. Emirates Airline US Tennis Open) the local manager ie. JFK, "...invites key civil aviation people to host, in order to build relationships for future Emirates gates in certain markets". I wrote this down as I'm currently studying marketing. Emirates schmoozes key people and influential politicians - this is what needs to stop. These people are funded by taxpayers yet they often aren't working in their best interests. Be interesting to see a guest list of Emirates invitees to such events!

I also found it a little too coincidental that those cheap fares between the U.S. and Dubai suddenly appeared.