Transit in Dubai

I am impressed! As I was disembarking my Emirates flight recently, the purser at the door said “Have a good day Miss L”. I seriously did a double take. I mean it. I doubled up and looked back at her and laughed and said, “How did you remember?” This was the person whom also checked my boarding pass only an hour earlier when I boarded. She said she always remembered with a wicked smile.
Now when I was flying for commercial airlines this was something that was especially driven down into the depths of our souls during training for dealing with premium guests. However I was only in cattle class this day (now I have to pay full fare for my flights cry cry). Ok I admit, there was only probably about 30% capacity today, however there were still at least 80 passengers on board my flight, and that is a lot of names to remember.
One thing I say I am not impressed with however is, the terminal situation in Dubai. As I sat patiently at a café waiting for my gate to open (they only open an hour prior to departure), at least 100 people who I could only assume were on my flight also, were crowding the outside of the secure gate, sitting on the ground, sitting on each other and fighting for what minimal seating was provided. Outside the gate, we all look lovingly to the lonely looking bench seats on the exclusive inside of the gate…all because there are no staff on the desk to check boarding passes. I don’t know, maybe I am missing something but here’s an idea. Why not have the seating area open so all the fare paying passengers can have a seat not only on the flight but whilst waiting to board, and check boarding passes on the door on the way to the aircraft?