catch22
Oct 27, 03, 6:55 am
WELCOME ABOARD!
This trip was a whirlwind business trip to London and apart from being my first trip report, it was also the first time I have ever flown on the 777. Nearly all my long haul flying has been on the Boeing 747, 767, and various config Airbus Aircraft. However, on this trip I wanted to take advantage of Emirates's double miles sign up offer for Skywards with an additional 50% bonus for First Class travel.
Emirates operates the Boeing 777 and the Airbus A330-200into South Africa.
I also find the CPT-LHR and JNB-LHR flights quite longish so as a MARLBORO MAN I wasn't adverse to a little stopover in Dubai for some Nicotine Therapy and a little of the famous duty free shopping and to check out the award winning lounges!!
I left my home at 6 am in the beautiful and peaceful, Cape Town seaside suburb of Camps Bay early on a Sunday morning in order to catch the first shuttle to Johannesburg at 7am. The shuttle was a KULULA.com Boeing 737-400 with an all economy class configuration.
For such a short flight (2 hours or less) it really doesn't bother me as to what service I can expect, just so long as I am not wedged into my seat with a shoehorn and the airline gets me to where I'm going to on time, with a minimum of fuss. I usually find that if I have no expectations, I am usually not surprised. There's nothing memorable about these short hops.
On the JNB-CPT shuttle route there are several choices of airlines with precious little difference between them in both Y and J classes (Although Kululu is the low cost one class carrier with a comic book superheros marketing theme. What for? Maybe the superheros actually do the maintenence on these old planes inflight). These are Nationwide, Kulula, British Airways/Comair,South African Airways and South African Express.
Check-in with two bags was exactly 30 seconds and I was issued with my boarding pass.
I don't remember anything about this flight because I promptly fell asleep until we were 20 mins out of JNB when we hit bad weather and had a very rough and bouncy ride in.
My first stop of the morning was a breakfast meeting at the swish upscale INTERCONTINENTAL a hotel conveniently located between the Domestic and International terminals at JNB. I had a two hour meeting, a nice English Breakfast and my required countless coffees until it was time to check-in for Dubai and London.
During breakfast, the bad weather finally closed in and the grey African sky chose to open up as I raced a rickety wobbly wheeled luggage trolley from the Hotel Lobby to the International departures terminal. In that short but seemingly endless sprint I was drenched from head to toe. Moral? Allow the doorman of the Intercontiental Hotel to escort you to the terminal with an opened umbrella next time!
Oct 19, 2003
JNB-DBX / EK 763
Sched: 14:15-00:25
Actual: 14:30-00:15
Boeing 777-300
Seat 2A
Class F
Emirates has two daily flights from JNB to Dubai and it operates a code share with South African Airways, so todays flight was full. Check-in is done by South African Staff and is monitored by Emirates employees- strikingly dressed, like all Emirates Aircrew in Tan colored uniforms with distinctive red pillbox hats draped with white veils which flow down the shoulders on one side. The faces are not covered.
First Class has its own dedicated check-in counter complete with the red carpet and flowers. Business Class too has its own counter, and Economy Class has several. There was a huge and patient line in Economy with the end of that line somewhere out of sight in the nether regions of the airport.
Check-in was pleasant and efficient and I was given an invitation to the South African Airways First Class CYCAD LOUNGE
Security screening and immigration was a breeze.
I took some Photos of the Lounge and will upload these when I find some time to master the complexity of doing so.
Nonetheless, the Lounge, as beautiful as it is was deserted at this time of day as most flights leave for Europe in the late afternoon and evenings. It is one of the most beautiful if not one of the best lounges in the world, but on this occasion the kitchen was only serving toasted sandwiches and petit fours. I had about an hour to kill until boarding so I ventured to the Duty Free Area to buy some excellent wines to serve as business gifts.
The bad weather didn't delay boarding and today there were only 4 passengers travelling in First. This 777-300 is configured for 18 First with 2 abreast seating in the old style airline seats. But, Hey, these seats are ENORMOUS. They stand out like the inviting, tasteful,pastel colored overstuffed armchairs they are. One could throw a party in the space between the seats on this new 777-300. A look back at the full J class makes for interesting comparison. The J seats are also old fashioned types but they are configured in an unacceptable 2-3-2.
(More on this later- I lived through that horror!)and compared to F seats they look really tiny. The meal service in J looks like a collection of minatures while everything in F is larger than life...
But enough of J class. That's for later.
The F class crew this flight were 5 people- 4 female FA's and one male Purser. They were a mixture of Korean, Australian, Arabic and British. One of the problems with Emirates F service is that you are not greeted by name- something that is easy to do when there are only 4 passengers-but perhaps not when there are 18. This flight was no exception.
A Hot towel service is immediately offered along with a glass of Dom, or the beverage of your choice. This is soon followed by a platter of stuffed arabic dates and a thimble of freshly poured arabic coffee from an ornate gold pot.
The menus are distributed in big leather folders and the wine list is passed out.
Noise reduction headphones, elegantly packaged in black and gold bags are already tucked into you seatrests but no amenity kits are given out- except for slippers, socks and eyeshades. Apparantly this is normal for a daylight flight going into night. Only night flights get the kits but in the FC toilets there is an ample supply of razor blades, shaving foams, toothbrushes, toothpaste (Colgate) Aftershaves and Colognes (Paco Rabanne)(Bvlgari)
Push back was a little late and the taxi out was in torrential rain. The nosewheel camera was displayed on the main cabin screen and it makes the wait for take-off that much easier to bear as one can see the aircraft in the queue.
The most thrilling moment for me in many, many years of flying was the take-off roll in the 777-300. The aircraft taking off just before us departed in such a cyclonic wall of water that for a few seconds I wondered if it would aquaplane right off the runway.
Another thing I notice sitting cocooned in the behemoth 777 is that the A-340 and the 747-400 look like TOYS
The take-off roll was quite extraordinary. As the engines howled up to maximum, the whole aircraft juddered and shook. The overhead bins rattled and visibly moved. The whole fuselage seemed to bend for a split second and the massive engine roar was Loud. Then the brakes came off and for an instant there was no traction until the tyres bit into the lake that was the runway and became claws...whee...hee...we were off and our backwash probably made rain in several African countries that day!
We climbed to our cruising altitude of 37,000 feet and hot towel service was offered again, followed by bar service.
We cruised Northeast of South Africa over Northern Mozambique and Southern Tanzania.
Just before Dar-ES-Salaam we were served some nibbles with our cocktails.
Canapes
Lamb kebabs on bamboo skewers
Chicken kebabs on bamboo skewers
Meatballs
Calamata olives
Then our tables were set for LUNCH
Place settings were in full size Royal Doulton China with stainless steel cutlery
by Arthur Price.
REAL steel knives were used. And BIG ones. TWO each.
LUNCH
Appetisers
Seafood Medley
smoked butter fish, grilled Kingklip fillet and gravlax served with a dill mustard and honey mayonnaise dressing
Smoked Springbok
slices of smoked springbok and grilled duck, served with melon fan accompanied with sweet chili sauce
Soup and Salad
Cream of Mushroom Soup
creamy mushroom soup, garnished with sauteed parsley mushrooms
Freshly Prepared Salad
salad prepared by your crew to your liking with a choice of accompaniments offered with
chive yoghurt or tomato and basil vinaigrette
Main Courses
Grilled Fillet of Beef
grilled fillet of beef served with wholegrain mustard butter, garnished with rosemary sprig and cherry tomatoes
King Prawns
sauteed king prawns Szechuan style, garnished with sliced spring onion
Baked Chicken Breast
chicken breast marinated with spices, topped with olive and served with lemon sauce
Farfalle Pasta
pasta in cream sauce topped with chopped asparagus,mushrooms, sun dried tomatoe and sliced olives
Vegetables
turned carrots, broccoli florets, cauliflower, roasted pumpkin with cinnamon,
sauteed marrows topped with red pepper julienne, baby jacket potatoes and egg fried rice
Desserts
Pancake
sesame pancake filled with mango, deep fried and served with custard sauce
Apricot Yoghurt Mousse
A refreshing apricot and yoghurt mousse, topped with chocolate ganache
Cheese
International Cheeseboard
a selection of international cheeses which include, smoked Andean cheese, brie,
simonzola,cheddar, and chevin pepper cheese, served with crackers, grapes and crudites.
Fruits
Selection of Seasonal Fruits
Beverages and Chocolates
Tea
Ceylon, Green tea, Earl Gray, Camomile
Coffee
Cappuccino, expresso, freshly brewed, decaffeinated
Chocolates
Godiva Belgian Chocolates
The Lunch service was done by old fashioned Silver two tier trolley. Note Trolley not cart
I actually prefer this method as there is nothing nicer than a freshly tossed salad at your seat.
Wines
Champagne
Dom Perigon vintage 1995
Chassagne Montrachet 2001
Geoff Merrill Reserve Chardonnay 1998
Domaine De Chevalier 1994
Rutherford Ranch Napa Valley, Cabernet 1999
Taylor's Port 1997 late Vintage
We hugged the African Coast as we made our way up Africa. We crossed over Mombasa, Kenya and directly over Mogadishu, Somalia.
We passed directly through the tip of the HORN of AFRICA before turning Northwards towards the Arabian Peninsula and Dubai.
Airshow told us the position of the plane in proximity to Mecca at all times-presumably for those of the muslim faith aboard.
Then it was time for a nice savoury Snack and entertainment...
(To be continued)
[This message has been edited by catch22 (edited 10-27-2003).]
[This message has been edited by catch22 (edited 10-28-2003).]
This trip was a whirlwind business trip to London and apart from being my first trip report, it was also the first time I have ever flown on the 777. Nearly all my long haul flying has been on the Boeing 747, 767, and various config Airbus Aircraft. However, on this trip I wanted to take advantage of Emirates's double miles sign up offer for Skywards with an additional 50% bonus for First Class travel.
Emirates operates the Boeing 777 and the Airbus A330-200into South Africa.
I also find the CPT-LHR and JNB-LHR flights quite longish so as a MARLBORO MAN I wasn't adverse to a little stopover in Dubai for some Nicotine Therapy and a little of the famous duty free shopping and to check out the award winning lounges!!
I left my home at 6 am in the beautiful and peaceful, Cape Town seaside suburb of Camps Bay early on a Sunday morning in order to catch the first shuttle to Johannesburg at 7am. The shuttle was a KULULA.com Boeing 737-400 with an all economy class configuration.
For such a short flight (2 hours or less) it really doesn't bother me as to what service I can expect, just so long as I am not wedged into my seat with a shoehorn and the airline gets me to where I'm going to on time, with a minimum of fuss. I usually find that if I have no expectations, I am usually not surprised. There's nothing memorable about these short hops.
On the JNB-CPT shuttle route there are several choices of airlines with precious little difference between them in both Y and J classes (Although Kululu is the low cost one class carrier with a comic book superheros marketing theme. What for? Maybe the superheros actually do the maintenence on these old planes inflight). These are Nationwide, Kulula, British Airways/Comair,South African Airways and South African Express.
Check-in with two bags was exactly 30 seconds and I was issued with my boarding pass.
I don't remember anything about this flight because I promptly fell asleep until we were 20 mins out of JNB when we hit bad weather and had a very rough and bouncy ride in.
My first stop of the morning was a breakfast meeting at the swish upscale INTERCONTINENTAL a hotel conveniently located between the Domestic and International terminals at JNB. I had a two hour meeting, a nice English Breakfast and my required countless coffees until it was time to check-in for Dubai and London.
During breakfast, the bad weather finally closed in and the grey African sky chose to open up as I raced a rickety wobbly wheeled luggage trolley from the Hotel Lobby to the International departures terminal. In that short but seemingly endless sprint I was drenched from head to toe. Moral? Allow the doorman of the Intercontiental Hotel to escort you to the terminal with an opened umbrella next time!
Oct 19, 2003
JNB-DBX / EK 763
Sched: 14:15-00:25
Actual: 14:30-00:15
Boeing 777-300
Seat 2A
Class F
Emirates has two daily flights from JNB to Dubai and it operates a code share with South African Airways, so todays flight was full. Check-in is done by South African Staff and is monitored by Emirates employees- strikingly dressed, like all Emirates Aircrew in Tan colored uniforms with distinctive red pillbox hats draped with white veils which flow down the shoulders on one side. The faces are not covered.
First Class has its own dedicated check-in counter complete with the red carpet and flowers. Business Class too has its own counter, and Economy Class has several. There was a huge and patient line in Economy with the end of that line somewhere out of sight in the nether regions of the airport.
Check-in was pleasant and efficient and I was given an invitation to the South African Airways First Class CYCAD LOUNGE
Security screening and immigration was a breeze.
I took some Photos of the Lounge and will upload these when I find some time to master the complexity of doing so.
Nonetheless, the Lounge, as beautiful as it is was deserted at this time of day as most flights leave for Europe in the late afternoon and evenings. It is one of the most beautiful if not one of the best lounges in the world, but on this occasion the kitchen was only serving toasted sandwiches and petit fours. I had about an hour to kill until boarding so I ventured to the Duty Free Area to buy some excellent wines to serve as business gifts.
The bad weather didn't delay boarding and today there were only 4 passengers travelling in First. This 777-300 is configured for 18 First with 2 abreast seating in the old style airline seats. But, Hey, these seats are ENORMOUS. They stand out like the inviting, tasteful,pastel colored overstuffed armchairs they are. One could throw a party in the space between the seats on this new 777-300. A look back at the full J class makes for interesting comparison. The J seats are also old fashioned types but they are configured in an unacceptable 2-3-2.
(More on this later- I lived through that horror!)and compared to F seats they look really tiny. The meal service in J looks like a collection of minatures while everything in F is larger than life...
But enough of J class. That's for later.
The F class crew this flight were 5 people- 4 female FA's and one male Purser. They were a mixture of Korean, Australian, Arabic and British. One of the problems with Emirates F service is that you are not greeted by name- something that is easy to do when there are only 4 passengers-but perhaps not when there are 18. This flight was no exception.
A Hot towel service is immediately offered along with a glass of Dom, or the beverage of your choice. This is soon followed by a platter of stuffed arabic dates and a thimble of freshly poured arabic coffee from an ornate gold pot.
The menus are distributed in big leather folders and the wine list is passed out.
Noise reduction headphones, elegantly packaged in black and gold bags are already tucked into you seatrests but no amenity kits are given out- except for slippers, socks and eyeshades. Apparantly this is normal for a daylight flight going into night. Only night flights get the kits but in the FC toilets there is an ample supply of razor blades, shaving foams, toothbrushes, toothpaste (Colgate) Aftershaves and Colognes (Paco Rabanne)(Bvlgari)
Push back was a little late and the taxi out was in torrential rain. The nosewheel camera was displayed on the main cabin screen and it makes the wait for take-off that much easier to bear as one can see the aircraft in the queue.
The most thrilling moment for me in many, many years of flying was the take-off roll in the 777-300. The aircraft taking off just before us departed in such a cyclonic wall of water that for a few seconds I wondered if it would aquaplane right off the runway.
Another thing I notice sitting cocooned in the behemoth 777 is that the A-340 and the 747-400 look like TOYS
The take-off roll was quite extraordinary. As the engines howled up to maximum, the whole aircraft juddered and shook. The overhead bins rattled and visibly moved. The whole fuselage seemed to bend for a split second and the massive engine roar was Loud. Then the brakes came off and for an instant there was no traction until the tyres bit into the lake that was the runway and became claws...whee...hee...we were off and our backwash probably made rain in several African countries that day!
We climbed to our cruising altitude of 37,000 feet and hot towel service was offered again, followed by bar service.
We cruised Northeast of South Africa over Northern Mozambique and Southern Tanzania.
Just before Dar-ES-Salaam we were served some nibbles with our cocktails.
Canapes
Lamb kebabs on bamboo skewers
Chicken kebabs on bamboo skewers
Meatballs
Calamata olives
Then our tables were set for LUNCH
Place settings were in full size Royal Doulton China with stainless steel cutlery
by Arthur Price.
REAL steel knives were used. And BIG ones. TWO each.
LUNCH
Appetisers
Seafood Medley
smoked butter fish, grilled Kingklip fillet and gravlax served with a dill mustard and honey mayonnaise dressing
Smoked Springbok
slices of smoked springbok and grilled duck, served with melon fan accompanied with sweet chili sauce
Soup and Salad
Cream of Mushroom Soup
creamy mushroom soup, garnished with sauteed parsley mushrooms
Freshly Prepared Salad
salad prepared by your crew to your liking with a choice of accompaniments offered with
chive yoghurt or tomato and basil vinaigrette
Main Courses
Grilled Fillet of Beef
grilled fillet of beef served with wholegrain mustard butter, garnished with rosemary sprig and cherry tomatoes
King Prawns
sauteed king prawns Szechuan style, garnished with sliced spring onion
Baked Chicken Breast
chicken breast marinated with spices, topped with olive and served with lemon sauce
Farfalle Pasta
pasta in cream sauce topped with chopped asparagus,mushrooms, sun dried tomatoe and sliced olives
Vegetables
turned carrots, broccoli florets, cauliflower, roasted pumpkin with cinnamon,
sauteed marrows topped with red pepper julienne, baby jacket potatoes and egg fried rice
Desserts
Pancake
sesame pancake filled with mango, deep fried and served with custard sauce
Apricot Yoghurt Mousse
A refreshing apricot and yoghurt mousse, topped with chocolate ganache
Cheese
International Cheeseboard
a selection of international cheeses which include, smoked Andean cheese, brie,
simonzola,cheddar, and chevin pepper cheese, served with crackers, grapes and crudites.
Fruits
Selection of Seasonal Fruits
Beverages and Chocolates
Tea
Ceylon, Green tea, Earl Gray, Camomile
Coffee
Cappuccino, expresso, freshly brewed, decaffeinated
Chocolates
Godiva Belgian Chocolates
The Lunch service was done by old fashioned Silver two tier trolley. Note Trolley not cart
I actually prefer this method as there is nothing nicer than a freshly tossed salad at your seat.
Wines
Champagne
Dom Perigon vintage 1995
Chassagne Montrachet 2001
Geoff Merrill Reserve Chardonnay 1998
Domaine De Chevalier 1994
Rutherford Ranch Napa Valley, Cabernet 1999
Taylor's Port 1997 late Vintage
We hugged the African Coast as we made our way up Africa. We crossed over Mombasa, Kenya and directly over Mogadishu, Somalia.
We passed directly through the tip of the HORN of AFRICA before turning Northwards towards the Arabian Peninsula and Dubai.
Airshow told us the position of the plane in proximity to Mecca at all times-presumably for those of the muslim faith aboard.
Then it was time for a nice savoury Snack and entertainment...
(To be continued)
[This message has been edited by catch22 (edited 10-27-2003).]
[This message has been edited by catch22 (edited 10-28-2003).]