jakesterUK
Dec 26, 06, 11:39 pm
Saturday 16th January 2006 (Very long! Please feel free to ask any questions.)LGW - DXB EK12 10:00 First (F)
DXB - PER EK420 02:35 Business (J)The tickets for this trip were booked through Wexas Travellers Club in the UK, who I thought I would take advantage of, having been a member for a couple of years but had booked nothing through them. The tickets were no cheaper nor more expensive than anywhere else though the service received was good.
I’m a well travelled person, and usually book tickets direct with airlines. However, on this occasion it made much more sense to purchase from an agent for two reasons. First, we can pay a 10% deposit and not pay the rest until 10 weeks before the journey and second, we got a cheaper rate through Wexas than we would have done from Emirates direct. In reality, it would have been more beneficial to purchase the tickets on the spot, as Emirates went on to raise their prices after about 3 months, meaning that we had an option to buy at the held rate, or take the hit of a fare increase in June/July. I was half expecting this anyway, given that it had happened on the previous journey booked in exactly the same way. If doing the same again, I would probably book direct with the airline, and pay immediately rather than pay a deposit.
It’s a little confusing when you are not given clear instructions about what you are going to receive and when now that e-tickets prevail – you pay £2,500 for a ticket and don’t get anything to speak of in advance of travel – this can be a little confusing/worrying! We got an itinerary/confirmation, but six months in advance of the journey, did not actually reflect the journeys that took place (there were several time changes mainly due to the adoption of daylight saving in Western Australia)!
Friday 15th January 2006
The limousine company called at about 4pm to confirm the time for pickup on Saturday. The elected time was 06:15, which was probably the best time given that the weekend getaway had commenced at Gatwick.
Limousine
The limousine arrived at just before 06:15, and we were in it an on our way after about 5 minutes. The car was a Volvo Estate of some description (sorry not very good with car models), which left plenty of room for our large quantity of luggage (3 large bags, and two well filled pieces of hand-luggage). The ride from south east London through to Gatwick was uneventful and smooth, no traffic at this time of the morning en-route, and we arrived at Gatwick at 07:15. The queue for the car park was enormous, trailing back to the round-about that you turn off from the spur-road. The queue for the departures area was also fairly long, due (I suspect) to people who do not wish to park because of the closure of the multi story car park, and chose instead to remain in their cars until such time as a relative calls to say they've arrived!
The ride was pretty good all-told, so Emirates get a thumbs up for this. ^
Check-in
The check in hall was absolute carnage, thanks in the main to First Choice Airways who seem to block up the whole area with their passengers. I would choose not to travel with First Choice Airways based on this alone. Anyway, Emirates are located on the left hand side of the terminal (the nearest point on the left as you drive up to the departures area ramp). There is a dedicated First and Business check in desk to the left of the main check-in area. The economy check-in area is to the right. At 07:20 or so there were not many passengers about, so we approached the First desk, there was only one other passenger checking in at the Business counter. Before you get to the counter there is a podium, which was staffed by two gentlemen who give out the pre-written lounge invitations. We had a general invitation for the Gatwick Lounge and a Business Lounge invitation for DXB.
At the check-in desk we were asked how many pieces of luggage we had, and were given 'First' tags for our hand luggage. Our checked bags were tagged 'First Priority' even though we only had one segment in First. Check in was fairly swift taking only a few minutes. ^
Security - LGW (Gatwick)
In short - a pathetic attempt at security, my customer satisfaction level was incredibly low at this point. There is no fast-track service on offer here, and no sign of a decent level of service. The queues are not managed and some make-shift queue lengthening (like you get in theme parks) was in action making the queues appear shorter than they actually are. BAA/Ferrovial get your act together, you've had 4 months since the 'security scare' and enough is enough – you are seriously letting the UK down in terms of visitor’s first impressions of a country! Most of the scanners were operational, but there were at least two that were not. The queues have a rather pointless shoe on or off policy, whereby if you want to avoid taking your shoes off, you just look for a queue where people are not being asked to take off shoes. Either make everyone take them off or no-one, but not this stupid/pointless mix!
The Gatwick Lounge
After plodding around the departures area and getting a few bits and pieces, we wandered through to the Gatwick Lounge. We were greeted by a man and a woman wearing the Emirates uniform. We were asked if we had been to the lounge before, to which we replied 'no' and asked if we wanted a tour. It was about 08:40 at this stage and we were told that boarding would be in about 30 minutes (it did not take an hour to get through security, more like 30 – 40 minutes, which I though was more than long enough when it used to take a matter of minutes). We were shown where the television's, the smoking room, the food and drink, and the business centre were, and all told it is a quality lounge. Plenty of chairs – there must have been more than 200 (almost as big as Dubai), there were about 16 computer terminals in the business centre, and about 6-8 desks for laptop use. There were newspapers and magazines available at various positions throughout the lounge, and free Internet Access. The chairs were beige and brown leather and the flooring was a mix of carpet and tiles.
The lounge was spacious and had a reasonably sized dining area near the food. The food was not cooked on mass, and was put out as required. All food looked like it had been carefully prepared rather than being mass produced. The drinks available included a full bar, coffee, tea and soft drinks.
The toilets were well appointed (Kenneth Turner Blue Tangerine hand wash and moisturiser were available) and there were 2 or 3 shower cubicles available for use. A Hair Dryer and shaver point was also available.
EK12 - LGW - DXB, First
We were called to board at about 09:20, and the gate was 102 which is on the relatively new pier which is a good 10-15 minute walk from the lounge. You have to go up a rather long escalator, along a rather long walkway, and down an equally long escalator. When we arrived at the gate, there was no-one else at the gate apart from the staff. Our documents were checked and we were ushered through for immediate boarding. We were the first on board (in First), and were shown to our seats.
The A330-200 aircraft was clean and spacious, but obviously one of the older aircraft based on the seats that were available. They were large, rectangular seats, with a 'hood' above the head and a slide-out footrest. The seats were generally comfortable, but after a few hours I found my back beginning to ache. The lumbar support did nothing to help. There were no power points in the seats, though the crew offered to recharge my computer in the galley if I ran out of battery power – I didn’t take them up on this offer. The controls for the seat were in the arm-rest, and the recline/upright, legrest in/out, lumbar support buttons were all on the left arm-rest (I was by the window), and the hood control was in the side of the arm-rest. I could not tell you what the seat pitch on the A330 was, but we were in row 2 and I could not reach the seat in front without sliding down in my chair. I am 6’ 3” if that helps you work it out. When in full recline, the seat in front *could* have ‘squashed’ my feet which would have been uncomfortable at best, and painful at worst.
Overhead storage was only available above the side seats, and none was available above the centre seats. There seemed to be plenty to go around, and I'm sure the crew would have done whatever they could to secure storage for first passengers if there had been a problem.
The boarding continued, and as First Class was full, we waited for the others to board. Thinking our luck was in and First Class was really empty, our peace was shattered by two unruly children, a fish wife and her mute, browbeaten husband. We were then privileged with two more children and their parents, alongside two individuals who were travelling independently.
Completely OT: The story of the children was a contrasting one. The second set of children took their seats, their mum and dad sat behind them, and they played the games and watched the films quite contently, only becoming noticeable when one of them won a game. Being the other side of the cabin we barely heard a peep out of them. The two that were sat in front of us were truly vile children, but probably nothing that wouldn't have been tempered by a bit of attention from their parents who were both adamant that they were going to sleep the entire flight and ignore their unruly beasts. The crew tried their best, but the children were not interested in talking. Parents normally have a bundle of 'things' to keep their children occupied, games, toys, colouring books, food, and whatever else it takes to occupy them. Not so in this case.
Now, as a rule, I enjoy the company of children, not having any myself, and unlikely to, I get enjoyment out of seeing children laughing and playing together. What I don't like is when parents have little or no control over their children, and worse, when the parents do little or nothing to shield unwilling participants in the children's game from bad behaviour. The flight in our little A330-200 was not a smooth flight, but the children decided that once the meal service was over, they would recline their chairs and start to play on them like trampolines. The mother with her eyeshades on, and the father having taken some sedative (I would assume) decided that being a parent was not for him today. Thank god they were travelling no further than Dubai!
The entertainment system was the old-style loop system where they play one 'track' followed by another. This means that they do not repeat the same 'loop' twice and you get a different set of films and entertainment on each loop. I think they may have repeated one of them, since the flight was 6 and a half hours long, and the loops were about 2 and a half hours each. Although not as good as ICE, I still think this is a good system (although it can be a little complex to decode the entertainment listing magazine as they cram 2 months into every edition), which presents a variety of content. I believe that there were also games on the system, though I did not look at any of these.
Our noise cancelling headphones were supplied in seat in a black velvet bag. The headphone plug was a triple pin design, I suspect two of them handle the power for the noise cancelling feature of the headphones. They were very effective at drowning out the noise of the children and the fish wife!
Beverage service
We were served a lovely Dom Pérignon 1998 having boarded the plane, this turned out to be a requirement to keep us slightly sedated and prevent any unnecessary deaths on board. Boarding seemed to take about an hour by the time it was complete, and I think we must have left the lounge just after 09:00. We were left with our glasses for take-off which seemed a little odd given that they were empty, and they were glass! Shortly after this, the pre-take-off 'pings' happened, and one of the children decided that he did not want to fly today, so started screaming at the top of his voice 'let me off, I want to get off, get me out of here' to which the head steward (sorry don't know what they are referred to on Emirates) appeared from behind the galley curtain and said 'what's going on here, we can't have this behaviour on board' (which was obviously very effective for calming down a 4/5 year old screamer!) at which the mother appeared from behind her eyeshades and swapped seats with one of the children and calmed him down. Then we took off!
The wines that were available on this flight were: -
White Wine
William Fèvre - Châblis 1er Cru Montmains
Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa – Valley Fumé Blanc
Rijk’s – Private Cellars Smillon
Red Wine
Château Pichon-Longueville – Pauillac
Heitz Cellers, Napa Valley – Cabernet Sauvignon
Ermitage Chapoutier – Ermitage ‘Les Climats’
Port was also served – Croft 1998
There was also a full bar service which I did not take advantage of (too busy drinking the exclusive features of the First Wine, Champagne and Port selection), as well as a supporting role of still water.
Lunch
Lunch consisted of Cocktails with Canapés, Appetisers, Soup and Salad, Main Course, Dessert, Cheese, Fruit and hot beverages & chocolates.
One thing I noticed about the service is that the crew were not very confident about how to best serve the food. It was all done in a silver service style, but this is not always suited to an aircraft with the major and minor turbulence that you experience. Although there was little/no spillage of food (well not that I noticed anyway), I always think tongs would be more suited to serving food than a spoon and a fork! Just a little side thought for you!
Cocktails and Canapés
We started with hot canapés of Spinach fatayer, chicken kibbeh, lamb kebab and seafood vol au vent. I selected the chicken kibbeh and the lamb kebab. Both were tasty, though the chicken kibbeh was the most enjoyable (and unusual) for me.
Appetizers
The choices for appetizers were Iranian Caviar, Arabic Mezze and a Seared Tuna Fillet. I chose the Arabic Mezze, some of which was a little ‘smoky’ for my western tastes (what is it they use to get that smoky flavour, is it a spice of some description?). The tabbouleh, aubergine salad and marinated artichokes suited me down to the ground though. There were 6 different mezze’s served.
Soup and Salad
The Mezze was followed by a superb Broccoli and Stilton Soup. It had the crunchiest and tastiest croutons I have ever had in soup, and the soup itself was absolutely delicious! There was also a choice of a seasonal salad served with croutons, shaved parmesan with mayonnaise and chive or balsamic dressing.
Main Course
My choice for the main course was the braised lamb shanks which were not quite what I expected, but very nice anyway. They were served Arabic style (stuffed with haloumi or feta cheese and spinach I think). The lamb was accompanied by roasted and steamed vegetables.
I selected the Château Pichon-Longueville, Pauillac to have with my lunch, which was a more than suitable accompaniment!
The other menu choices were Grilled Chicken Breast, Fillet of Halibut, Saffron Linguini and Salmon Fillet.
Dessert
There were only two choices for dessert, Lemon Tart and Date Cake, both of which I skipped in favour of cheese. By this stage I was a little stuffed, and not that keen on eating much more.
The dessert, cheese, and fruit were presented on a trolley from which you could select all or any of the options.
Cheese
This was just a simple selection of cheeses which were labelled on the trolley, so I could pick and choose what I wanted. I selected some cheese and crackers and had some fruit with them.
I will try and post the full menus and drinks lists once I have access to a scanner.
Afternoon Tea
Afternoon Tea consisted of a selection of sandwiches, a variety of pastries, scones, and Dundee Cake served with clotted cream and strawberry jam, as well as tea, coffee and other beverages. The scones are large and were well warmed through. They did not do a second round, but did offer additional drinks as they started to clear away (I’m sure if you wanted another scone, they would have been more than happy to supply one).
Summary
The service was just about paced at the right speed, not rushed and not too long, though it must have been a good two hours by the end of the service. I enjoyed the service that we were given and found the staff to be attentive but not over-attentive. Hot towels were provided at various points throughout the flight, and were welcome too (though were very hot).
All meals were served on quality china, and all drinks were served in glasses. The glasses were left with us during take-off (even though they were empty) which was a little annoying, had they been full the story would have been different. The cutlery was metal with the exception of knives which were plastic from London, and I thought they were metal from Dubai to Australia but I may have that bit wrong!
Our seats in the first cabin were secured using an upgrade with miles from the business cabin (though I did try to purchase the upgrade using cash which seemed to be a foreign concept to the staff at the Emirates call centre). The process for upgrading by phone was quick and easy (as I could not successfully submit the form on the web site), and I have found in general the Emirates call centre staff to be friendly and capable of their jobs. For this upgrade, we purchased an additional 22,000 miles, and we secured two seats on this flight without any trouble at all.
The annoying children were the only main problem on the flight. I will not start the children in premium cabins debate here, as I do not think children should be excluded from any cabin (why shouldn’t they travel with their parents in a premium cabin?), but I do not see any reason why children should be allowed to run free, cause havoc and annoy 10, 50 or 200 other people that do not know them, and they do not know.
I like Emirates, and feel that they do their best to offer a quality service at a reasonably price. The tickets for this flight were not cheap, but they were amongst the cheapest for a business class fare, and Emirates offer a good connection time in Dubai (though we elected to take a longer connection time to explore the airport a bit more - tip, don't extend the connection time unless you have to, there's not that much to do!). The service that is offered can feel a little complicated or fussy, but I think that's because you can usually see some part of the organisation taking place. There is always a food trolley that gets wheeled down the aisle because it's in the wrong place to start with and it either needs to be wheeled from business to First or vice-versa. This would be my only criticism of Emirates. I can't recall meeting any of the 'culture clashes' that I have seen reported on other trip reports, and have not witnessed any surly staff on board.
I've not yet experienced poor service from Emirates, though anything is possible. Travelling as a Blue, Silver and currently Gold Skywards member has made little/no difference to my travel experience to date, but may well have some bearing on it in the future.
EK420 - DXB - PER, Business
Coming soon!
DXB - PER EK420 02:35 Business (J)The tickets for this trip were booked through Wexas Travellers Club in the UK, who I thought I would take advantage of, having been a member for a couple of years but had booked nothing through them. The tickets were no cheaper nor more expensive than anywhere else though the service received was good.
I’m a well travelled person, and usually book tickets direct with airlines. However, on this occasion it made much more sense to purchase from an agent for two reasons. First, we can pay a 10% deposit and not pay the rest until 10 weeks before the journey and second, we got a cheaper rate through Wexas than we would have done from Emirates direct. In reality, it would have been more beneficial to purchase the tickets on the spot, as Emirates went on to raise their prices after about 3 months, meaning that we had an option to buy at the held rate, or take the hit of a fare increase in June/July. I was half expecting this anyway, given that it had happened on the previous journey booked in exactly the same way. If doing the same again, I would probably book direct with the airline, and pay immediately rather than pay a deposit.
It’s a little confusing when you are not given clear instructions about what you are going to receive and when now that e-tickets prevail – you pay £2,500 for a ticket and don’t get anything to speak of in advance of travel – this can be a little confusing/worrying! We got an itinerary/confirmation, but six months in advance of the journey, did not actually reflect the journeys that took place (there were several time changes mainly due to the adoption of daylight saving in Western Australia)!
Friday 15th January 2006
The limousine company called at about 4pm to confirm the time for pickup on Saturday. The elected time was 06:15, which was probably the best time given that the weekend getaway had commenced at Gatwick.
Limousine
The limousine arrived at just before 06:15, and we were in it an on our way after about 5 minutes. The car was a Volvo Estate of some description (sorry not very good with car models), which left plenty of room for our large quantity of luggage (3 large bags, and two well filled pieces of hand-luggage). The ride from south east London through to Gatwick was uneventful and smooth, no traffic at this time of the morning en-route, and we arrived at Gatwick at 07:15. The queue for the car park was enormous, trailing back to the round-about that you turn off from the spur-road. The queue for the departures area was also fairly long, due (I suspect) to people who do not wish to park because of the closure of the multi story car park, and chose instead to remain in their cars until such time as a relative calls to say they've arrived!
The ride was pretty good all-told, so Emirates get a thumbs up for this. ^
Check-in
The check in hall was absolute carnage, thanks in the main to First Choice Airways who seem to block up the whole area with their passengers. I would choose not to travel with First Choice Airways based on this alone. Anyway, Emirates are located on the left hand side of the terminal (the nearest point on the left as you drive up to the departures area ramp). There is a dedicated First and Business check in desk to the left of the main check-in area. The economy check-in area is to the right. At 07:20 or so there were not many passengers about, so we approached the First desk, there was only one other passenger checking in at the Business counter. Before you get to the counter there is a podium, which was staffed by two gentlemen who give out the pre-written lounge invitations. We had a general invitation for the Gatwick Lounge and a Business Lounge invitation for DXB.
At the check-in desk we were asked how many pieces of luggage we had, and were given 'First' tags for our hand luggage. Our checked bags were tagged 'First Priority' even though we only had one segment in First. Check in was fairly swift taking only a few minutes. ^
Security - LGW (Gatwick)
In short - a pathetic attempt at security, my customer satisfaction level was incredibly low at this point. There is no fast-track service on offer here, and no sign of a decent level of service. The queues are not managed and some make-shift queue lengthening (like you get in theme parks) was in action making the queues appear shorter than they actually are. BAA/Ferrovial get your act together, you've had 4 months since the 'security scare' and enough is enough – you are seriously letting the UK down in terms of visitor’s first impressions of a country! Most of the scanners were operational, but there were at least two that were not. The queues have a rather pointless shoe on or off policy, whereby if you want to avoid taking your shoes off, you just look for a queue where people are not being asked to take off shoes. Either make everyone take them off or no-one, but not this stupid/pointless mix!
The Gatwick Lounge
After plodding around the departures area and getting a few bits and pieces, we wandered through to the Gatwick Lounge. We were greeted by a man and a woman wearing the Emirates uniform. We were asked if we had been to the lounge before, to which we replied 'no' and asked if we wanted a tour. It was about 08:40 at this stage and we were told that boarding would be in about 30 minutes (it did not take an hour to get through security, more like 30 – 40 minutes, which I though was more than long enough when it used to take a matter of minutes). We were shown where the television's, the smoking room, the food and drink, and the business centre were, and all told it is a quality lounge. Plenty of chairs – there must have been more than 200 (almost as big as Dubai), there were about 16 computer terminals in the business centre, and about 6-8 desks for laptop use. There were newspapers and magazines available at various positions throughout the lounge, and free Internet Access. The chairs were beige and brown leather and the flooring was a mix of carpet and tiles.
The lounge was spacious and had a reasonably sized dining area near the food. The food was not cooked on mass, and was put out as required. All food looked like it had been carefully prepared rather than being mass produced. The drinks available included a full bar, coffee, tea and soft drinks.
The toilets were well appointed (Kenneth Turner Blue Tangerine hand wash and moisturiser were available) and there were 2 or 3 shower cubicles available for use. A Hair Dryer and shaver point was also available.
EK12 - LGW - DXB, First
We were called to board at about 09:20, and the gate was 102 which is on the relatively new pier which is a good 10-15 minute walk from the lounge. You have to go up a rather long escalator, along a rather long walkway, and down an equally long escalator. When we arrived at the gate, there was no-one else at the gate apart from the staff. Our documents were checked and we were ushered through for immediate boarding. We were the first on board (in First), and were shown to our seats.
The A330-200 aircraft was clean and spacious, but obviously one of the older aircraft based on the seats that were available. They were large, rectangular seats, with a 'hood' above the head and a slide-out footrest. The seats were generally comfortable, but after a few hours I found my back beginning to ache. The lumbar support did nothing to help. There were no power points in the seats, though the crew offered to recharge my computer in the galley if I ran out of battery power – I didn’t take them up on this offer. The controls for the seat were in the arm-rest, and the recline/upright, legrest in/out, lumbar support buttons were all on the left arm-rest (I was by the window), and the hood control was in the side of the arm-rest. I could not tell you what the seat pitch on the A330 was, but we were in row 2 and I could not reach the seat in front without sliding down in my chair. I am 6’ 3” if that helps you work it out. When in full recline, the seat in front *could* have ‘squashed’ my feet which would have been uncomfortable at best, and painful at worst.
Overhead storage was only available above the side seats, and none was available above the centre seats. There seemed to be plenty to go around, and I'm sure the crew would have done whatever they could to secure storage for first passengers if there had been a problem.
The boarding continued, and as First Class was full, we waited for the others to board. Thinking our luck was in and First Class was really empty, our peace was shattered by two unruly children, a fish wife and her mute, browbeaten husband. We were then privileged with two more children and their parents, alongside two individuals who were travelling independently.
Completely OT: The story of the children was a contrasting one. The second set of children took their seats, their mum and dad sat behind them, and they played the games and watched the films quite contently, only becoming noticeable when one of them won a game. Being the other side of the cabin we barely heard a peep out of them. The two that were sat in front of us were truly vile children, but probably nothing that wouldn't have been tempered by a bit of attention from their parents who were both adamant that they were going to sleep the entire flight and ignore their unruly beasts. The crew tried their best, but the children were not interested in talking. Parents normally have a bundle of 'things' to keep their children occupied, games, toys, colouring books, food, and whatever else it takes to occupy them. Not so in this case.
Now, as a rule, I enjoy the company of children, not having any myself, and unlikely to, I get enjoyment out of seeing children laughing and playing together. What I don't like is when parents have little or no control over their children, and worse, when the parents do little or nothing to shield unwilling participants in the children's game from bad behaviour. The flight in our little A330-200 was not a smooth flight, but the children decided that once the meal service was over, they would recline their chairs and start to play on them like trampolines. The mother with her eyeshades on, and the father having taken some sedative (I would assume) decided that being a parent was not for him today. Thank god they were travelling no further than Dubai!
The entertainment system was the old-style loop system where they play one 'track' followed by another. This means that they do not repeat the same 'loop' twice and you get a different set of films and entertainment on each loop. I think they may have repeated one of them, since the flight was 6 and a half hours long, and the loops were about 2 and a half hours each. Although not as good as ICE, I still think this is a good system (although it can be a little complex to decode the entertainment listing magazine as they cram 2 months into every edition), which presents a variety of content. I believe that there were also games on the system, though I did not look at any of these.
Our noise cancelling headphones were supplied in seat in a black velvet bag. The headphone plug was a triple pin design, I suspect two of them handle the power for the noise cancelling feature of the headphones. They were very effective at drowning out the noise of the children and the fish wife!
Beverage service
We were served a lovely Dom Pérignon 1998 having boarded the plane, this turned out to be a requirement to keep us slightly sedated and prevent any unnecessary deaths on board. Boarding seemed to take about an hour by the time it was complete, and I think we must have left the lounge just after 09:00. We were left with our glasses for take-off which seemed a little odd given that they were empty, and they were glass! Shortly after this, the pre-take-off 'pings' happened, and one of the children decided that he did not want to fly today, so started screaming at the top of his voice 'let me off, I want to get off, get me out of here' to which the head steward (sorry don't know what they are referred to on Emirates) appeared from behind the galley curtain and said 'what's going on here, we can't have this behaviour on board' (which was obviously very effective for calming down a 4/5 year old screamer!) at which the mother appeared from behind her eyeshades and swapped seats with one of the children and calmed him down. Then we took off!
The wines that were available on this flight were: -
White Wine
William Fèvre - Châblis 1er Cru Montmains
Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa – Valley Fumé Blanc
Rijk’s – Private Cellars Smillon
Red Wine
Château Pichon-Longueville – Pauillac
Heitz Cellers, Napa Valley – Cabernet Sauvignon
Ermitage Chapoutier – Ermitage ‘Les Climats’
Port was also served – Croft 1998
There was also a full bar service which I did not take advantage of (too busy drinking the exclusive features of the First Wine, Champagne and Port selection), as well as a supporting role of still water.
Lunch
Lunch consisted of Cocktails with Canapés, Appetisers, Soup and Salad, Main Course, Dessert, Cheese, Fruit and hot beverages & chocolates.
One thing I noticed about the service is that the crew were not very confident about how to best serve the food. It was all done in a silver service style, but this is not always suited to an aircraft with the major and minor turbulence that you experience. Although there was little/no spillage of food (well not that I noticed anyway), I always think tongs would be more suited to serving food than a spoon and a fork! Just a little side thought for you!
Cocktails and Canapés
We started with hot canapés of Spinach fatayer, chicken kibbeh, lamb kebab and seafood vol au vent. I selected the chicken kibbeh and the lamb kebab. Both were tasty, though the chicken kibbeh was the most enjoyable (and unusual) for me.
Appetizers
The choices for appetizers were Iranian Caviar, Arabic Mezze and a Seared Tuna Fillet. I chose the Arabic Mezze, some of which was a little ‘smoky’ for my western tastes (what is it they use to get that smoky flavour, is it a spice of some description?). The tabbouleh, aubergine salad and marinated artichokes suited me down to the ground though. There were 6 different mezze’s served.
Soup and Salad
The Mezze was followed by a superb Broccoli and Stilton Soup. It had the crunchiest and tastiest croutons I have ever had in soup, and the soup itself was absolutely delicious! There was also a choice of a seasonal salad served with croutons, shaved parmesan with mayonnaise and chive or balsamic dressing.
Main Course
My choice for the main course was the braised lamb shanks which were not quite what I expected, but very nice anyway. They were served Arabic style (stuffed with haloumi or feta cheese and spinach I think). The lamb was accompanied by roasted and steamed vegetables.
I selected the Château Pichon-Longueville, Pauillac to have with my lunch, which was a more than suitable accompaniment!
The other menu choices were Grilled Chicken Breast, Fillet of Halibut, Saffron Linguini and Salmon Fillet.
Dessert
There were only two choices for dessert, Lemon Tart and Date Cake, both of which I skipped in favour of cheese. By this stage I was a little stuffed, and not that keen on eating much more.
The dessert, cheese, and fruit were presented on a trolley from which you could select all or any of the options.
Cheese
This was just a simple selection of cheeses which were labelled on the trolley, so I could pick and choose what I wanted. I selected some cheese and crackers and had some fruit with them.
I will try and post the full menus and drinks lists once I have access to a scanner.
Afternoon Tea
Afternoon Tea consisted of a selection of sandwiches, a variety of pastries, scones, and Dundee Cake served with clotted cream and strawberry jam, as well as tea, coffee and other beverages. The scones are large and were well warmed through. They did not do a second round, but did offer additional drinks as they started to clear away (I’m sure if you wanted another scone, they would have been more than happy to supply one).
Summary
The service was just about paced at the right speed, not rushed and not too long, though it must have been a good two hours by the end of the service. I enjoyed the service that we were given and found the staff to be attentive but not over-attentive. Hot towels were provided at various points throughout the flight, and were welcome too (though were very hot).
All meals were served on quality china, and all drinks were served in glasses. The glasses were left with us during take-off (even though they were empty) which was a little annoying, had they been full the story would have been different. The cutlery was metal with the exception of knives which were plastic from London, and I thought they were metal from Dubai to Australia but I may have that bit wrong!
Our seats in the first cabin were secured using an upgrade with miles from the business cabin (though I did try to purchase the upgrade using cash which seemed to be a foreign concept to the staff at the Emirates call centre). The process for upgrading by phone was quick and easy (as I could not successfully submit the form on the web site), and I have found in general the Emirates call centre staff to be friendly and capable of their jobs. For this upgrade, we purchased an additional 22,000 miles, and we secured two seats on this flight without any trouble at all.
The annoying children were the only main problem on the flight. I will not start the children in premium cabins debate here, as I do not think children should be excluded from any cabin (why shouldn’t they travel with their parents in a premium cabin?), but I do not see any reason why children should be allowed to run free, cause havoc and annoy 10, 50 or 200 other people that do not know them, and they do not know.
I like Emirates, and feel that they do their best to offer a quality service at a reasonably price. The tickets for this flight were not cheap, but they were amongst the cheapest for a business class fare, and Emirates offer a good connection time in Dubai (though we elected to take a longer connection time to explore the airport a bit more - tip, don't extend the connection time unless you have to, there's not that much to do!). The service that is offered can feel a little complicated or fussy, but I think that's because you can usually see some part of the organisation taking place. There is always a food trolley that gets wheeled down the aisle because it's in the wrong place to start with and it either needs to be wheeled from business to First or vice-versa. This would be my only criticism of Emirates. I can't recall meeting any of the 'culture clashes' that I have seen reported on other trip reports, and have not witnessed any surly staff on board.
I've not yet experienced poor service from Emirates, though anything is possible. Travelling as a Blue, Silver and currently Gold Skywards member has made little/no difference to my travel experience to date, but may well have some bearing on it in the future.
EK420 - DXB - PER, Business
Coming soon!