edy4eva
Sep 9, 08, 8:16 pm
I have not been able to go online for a while now; busy with a pile of stuff.
A quick report on my recent flight (SYD-DXB) and (DXB-DAM) both in F.
Firstly, the seat in the suite is NOT a flat bed, the footrest goes up so much as 10 degrees less than the horizontal.
The seat pitch (measuring from inside the armrests) is a mere 50CM.
Compare that with the skycruiser seat, which goes FULL FLAT, and has a generous 55/60CM width, 70CM when reclined, and 80CM if you measure from the wall to the small mini wall between the seats; speaking of which, rather annoying if you are travelling with a partner (it does not go down fully), great if you want privacy.
Remembering the flight I took from SYD, I arrived 90 minutes prior to departure time to find EK counters clear as a whistle (from passengers) except for the F counter which was occupied by apperantly J class op ups. When they saw me, they were asked to move to the next counter.
Check in was effortless; the large item I had though, required that I carry it to the last counter where a special trolley was supposed to be waiting for such items (bit disapointing when you expect these sort of things should be handled by staff). The trolley wasn't there and the item was taken by the check in staff close to that area; he promised it will be loaded on the flight (felt shaky about this though as I walked past the duty free and saw him place it next to his counter away from the belt and everything else.
Anyhow, back to check in, I was told there are 6 passengers in F (including 3 paid, and 3 op ups) and was told that this could go up by the time we depart.
The lounge was packed, I estimated more than 50 passengers (lost count actually beyond 20) but anyhow. I had few minutes to take a quick shower and a soft drink (which I carried on with me to the plane as we were called to board as I was about to go under the water).
After I settled into the 2A seat, I notied that the flowers were dead, and that the seat lacked some of its amenties, like the refresher pack, and the headphones. So I jumped to the next seat and grabbed them myself.
As we were waiting, the 6 vacant seats in F became occupied (suddenly by the same group that I had seen earlier at check in, and by other passengers who seemed they've come from economy (they were like OMG this is First! probably it was either their first time on this one, or even just oblivious; not wanting to judge their reaction, I noticed they were suprised by the offer of newspapers, coffee, dates, pj's etc etc, as well as their seat which they played with until we were about to push back.
We waited around 35 minutes before pushback, and a further 15 minutes taxiing/waiting before departure (really it felt like forever, specially with the seats being locked to their upright position and having sprinted 300 kms by car earlier I was starving and wanting to kick back and relax).
The flight information page was non working, so could not note our path, nor our ETA, nor head/tail winds etc. But we flew late, and landed just 5 minutes behind so that might mean we had some good tail winds at some stage.
I snoozed off for almost 8 hours combined after having had the dinner which was just bland (with exception of the desert which was as usual superb). I chose the grilled salmon with veggies and something else I can't remember.
Anyhow, I took pictures of the recline, and the mini-suite width; if you want them I could email them to you.
The seat wasn't working properly, the ICE kept on crashing (Can not fast forward), Staff had me waiting almosyt 30 minutes a couple of times waiting for them to reset the seat. Totally unimpressed with that.
I had 2 small suitcases, one that had my laptop, and another larger one which was left in front of my legs for at least 4 hours after being told by the staff: sorry sir, the flight is packed, there is no place whatsoever for this bag, you have to keep your seat partially reclined :mad: Later on, a female staff took it away and suprisingly found a spot in J above 9A/B.
I have plenty more of detail to tell about EK's service (or lack of), I will update this post later on.
By the way, having flown F in the skyrcuiser seats, with only another passenger onboard, I experienced extremely good service and space compared with that on the A345. I will be flying EK418 instead of the EK412 if it means a s/o in BKK and an extra 2 hours, and a later arrival to SYD. Really that was how much Skycruisers were good.
Cheers
A quick report on my recent flight (SYD-DXB) and (DXB-DAM) both in F.
Firstly, the seat in the suite is NOT a flat bed, the footrest goes up so much as 10 degrees less than the horizontal.
The seat pitch (measuring from inside the armrests) is a mere 50CM.
Compare that with the skycruiser seat, which goes FULL FLAT, and has a generous 55/60CM width, 70CM when reclined, and 80CM if you measure from the wall to the small mini wall between the seats; speaking of which, rather annoying if you are travelling with a partner (it does not go down fully), great if you want privacy.
Remembering the flight I took from SYD, I arrived 90 minutes prior to departure time to find EK counters clear as a whistle (from passengers) except for the F counter which was occupied by apperantly J class op ups. When they saw me, they were asked to move to the next counter.
Check in was effortless; the large item I had though, required that I carry it to the last counter where a special trolley was supposed to be waiting for such items (bit disapointing when you expect these sort of things should be handled by staff). The trolley wasn't there and the item was taken by the check in staff close to that area; he promised it will be loaded on the flight (felt shaky about this though as I walked past the duty free and saw him place it next to his counter away from the belt and everything else.
Anyhow, back to check in, I was told there are 6 passengers in F (including 3 paid, and 3 op ups) and was told that this could go up by the time we depart.
The lounge was packed, I estimated more than 50 passengers (lost count actually beyond 20) but anyhow. I had few minutes to take a quick shower and a soft drink (which I carried on with me to the plane as we were called to board as I was about to go under the water).
After I settled into the 2A seat, I notied that the flowers were dead, and that the seat lacked some of its amenties, like the refresher pack, and the headphones. So I jumped to the next seat and grabbed them myself.
As we were waiting, the 6 vacant seats in F became occupied (suddenly by the same group that I had seen earlier at check in, and by other passengers who seemed they've come from economy (they were like OMG this is First! probably it was either their first time on this one, or even just oblivious; not wanting to judge their reaction, I noticed they were suprised by the offer of newspapers, coffee, dates, pj's etc etc, as well as their seat which they played with until we were about to push back.
We waited around 35 minutes before pushback, and a further 15 minutes taxiing/waiting before departure (really it felt like forever, specially with the seats being locked to their upright position and having sprinted 300 kms by car earlier I was starving and wanting to kick back and relax).
The flight information page was non working, so could not note our path, nor our ETA, nor head/tail winds etc. But we flew late, and landed just 5 minutes behind so that might mean we had some good tail winds at some stage.
I snoozed off for almost 8 hours combined after having had the dinner which was just bland (with exception of the desert which was as usual superb). I chose the grilled salmon with veggies and something else I can't remember.
Anyhow, I took pictures of the recline, and the mini-suite width; if you want them I could email them to you.
The seat wasn't working properly, the ICE kept on crashing (Can not fast forward), Staff had me waiting almosyt 30 minutes a couple of times waiting for them to reset the seat. Totally unimpressed with that.
I had 2 small suitcases, one that had my laptop, and another larger one which was left in front of my legs for at least 4 hours after being told by the staff: sorry sir, the flight is packed, there is no place whatsoever for this bag, you have to keep your seat partially reclined :mad: Later on, a female staff took it away and suprisingly found a spot in J above 9A/B.
I have plenty more of detail to tell about EK's service (or lack of), I will update this post later on.
By the way, having flown F in the skyrcuiser seats, with only another passenger onboard, I experienced extremely good service and space compared with that on the A345. I will be flying EK418 instead of the EK412 if it means a s/o in BKK and an extra 2 hours, and a later arrival to SYD. Really that was how much Skycruisers were good.
Cheers