FinalCallDXB

After a relatively sedate few weeks following my Egypt and UK run in early October, which has seen my travel settle back to the routine regional runs on Emirates and the eminently commendable new FlyDubai (LCCs are great when no-one else knows they exist), things are starting to busy up again over the next couple of weeks. Whilst this trip is by no means an epic by the standards of most posters on this forum, I have chosen to write it up as it includes a few personal firsts (first trip to Japan, first EK flight from continental Europe, etc) and is also distinguished by being the first trip where I have deliberately flown a more arduous routing than possible purely to earn miles.

I am the first to admit that this is not a mileage run of the sort championed and exquisitely reported upon on in this forum by such mileage run luminaries as Seat 2A in that it is merely an extension of a trip I was making anyway, but is nonetheless a step deeper into miles earning addiction on my part and thus personally noteworthy in that regard. The trip is actually two main tickets with a few connections in between but as the trips intermesh somewhat I shall write them all up in one thread.

The Dubai to Osaka portion of this trip has been planned for some time, and is flown as part of a London to Osaka ticket on which I have been stopping over in Dubai for a month or so. Emirates have been periodically offering some seriously cheap fares from the UK to points beyond Dubai in recent months and I was delighted to find earlier in the year that I could fly London to Osaka with a lengthy stopover each way in Dubai for only $40 more than I was being quoted for a London to Dubai ticket. Given that Dubai to Osaka tickets regularly top $1500 in economy I snapped this up straight away.

The pseudo mileage run elements of the trip came about after a few friends suggested a trip to Munich to address my cravings for good beer, lashings of pork, and some weather that didn’t involve sunscreen. I had originally planned to fly to Munich direct from Dubai on Emirates but in October Emirates released an offer which awarded bonuses for meeting fixed earning thresholds in the last few weeks of the year. Based on my planned travel for the rest of the year I would fall a scant few miles short of one of these thresholds and thus miss out on a significant uplift to my ravaged miles balance. A little while spent on the Skywards mileage calculator told me that if I flew Emirates to Manchester and then back from Munich direct I would cross the required line, so I booked up and took my next step into miles earning insanity. This also afforded me the opportunity to fly BA from Manchester to Munich via Heathrow and gain a first experience of Terminal 5, a project which I briefly worked on as a graduate consultant and which I had thus been interested to pass through for some time.

As with my last trip, with the exception of the Munich to Dubai leg and a domestic J Class run on Japan Airlines, I am afraid this is likely to be experienced from the back of the bus. Similarly, my recent engagement and the subsequent assault upon my bank account by florists, dress-makers, and many other vendors whose actual services baffle me somewhat, has led to a (hopefully temporary) hiatus in my frequenting of 5-star establishments on personal trips and I shall be largely enjoying the budget end of the lodgings market on this trip.

At present the schedule includes:

• DXB - RUH Saudi Arabian Airlines
• RUH - DXB Emirates
• DXB - MAN Emirates
• MAN - LHR - MUC British Airways
• MUC - DXB Emirates (Business Class)
• DXB - KIX Emirates
• HND - KIX Japan Airlines (Domestic J Class)
• KIX - DXB Emirates

The planned schedule is highly likely to change as I have potentially got to shoe-horn a few additional short haul trips into the itinerary at some point. I will add these flights in if they are in any way unique or previously unreported (or indeed if anyone expresses any particular desire to read about regional hops in the Middle East).

Any comments / suggestions appreciated.

FinalCallDXB

Leg 1: DXB-RUH Saudi Arabian Airlines - 777-200

As the Emirates trip to Manchester / Munich starts in Riyadh for ticketing purposes, I shall include my trip down to Riyadh on Saudi Arabian Airlines (an airline which I don’t recall seeing mentioned on this forum recently). Saudi Arabian Airlines fly from Dubai to Riyadh three times a day using a mixture of 747s, 777s, and MD90s, with additional flights to Jeddah and Dammam. I generally prefer to take the morning flight on the MD90, which is small enough not to crash the frequently woeful customs set-up at Riyadh, but on this occasion was on the popular late night flight, which is operated by a 777.

After a leisurely dinner and pre-trip beverages at the Belgian Beer Cafe at Festival City, a colleague dropped me at Terminal One about 90 minutes prior to departure. Since Emirates relocation to Terminal Three, T1 is an eminently more pleasant place and I was through the pre-check in bag scan, check in, passport control, and security in less than 10 minutes. Once airside I headed straight for Bar 19, which is the only watering hole which offers good views of the apron and is right next to the gates where the Saudi flights generally depart from. Although in economy, I have flown enough sectors with Saudi Airlines this year that I should have lounge access via their Alfursan programme. The programme, however, appears to be run on the worlds worst IT infrastructure and at least 50% of the flights flown never credit. Any attempt to remedy this via their call centre is yet to result in anything other than elevated blood pressure so I have largely given up. I guess if I was missing out on status in something like Miles and More or Executive Club I would be compelled to take more concerted action but, given that I am unlikely to use miles for a romantic weekend in Rabigh or Jubail with the better half, I remain irritated rather than irate at the ineptitude of the programme.

As usual when final call for Riyadh was announced, the bar emptied, and as usual the final call announcement was somewhat premature, given that boarding hadn’t even started. I am always tempted to ignore these fake final calls but am convinced that on the one occasion that I do this it will be a genuine call and I’ll miss the flight. When it eventually began, boarding was unusually smooth, even without any attempt to board the plane in any specific row order, or even to allow first and business passengers on first.

The plane tonight was one of the old configuration 777s so still had cloth seats throughout and the 2-5-2 layout which I detest in economy. The seats are actually quite comfortable but the layout is annoying if you get a seat on the middle block, particularly since I seem to attract seat mates with continence issues. Tonight’s flight was pretty much full, although I did have an empty seat next to me after take-off as the young guy who was sat there was moved up to what looked like the only free seat in business by the purser. The crew for the flight had clearly been on the recently developed customer service course and were all pleasant. Up until 18 months ago I found the flight attendants on Saudi Airlines to be pretty shoddy, but since then many have clearly been in for reprogramming as part of the ongoing saga of restructuring prior to the potential privatisation. Those which have been fixed, whilst by no means the best in the sky, are generally more pleasant and effective than the crews which Emirates subject their Saudi customers to, which in my experience routinely offer the worst service on the EK network.

Post take off, in flight service began fairly rapidly, which is necessary as a hot meal is served on this 90 minute flight. Whilst I did not partake, I can guarantee that the offering was Chicken Biryani or Beef with Cheessy Macronee [sic]. The chicken biryani is actually quite nice (as is most Indian catering ex Riyadh in my experience), and is certainly adequate for the duration of the flight. IFE was available but only the general entertainment channel was switched on, and as this was showing the usual ‘just for laughs’ dross I read some papers and listened to the iPod for a while.

Arrival in Riyadh was unusual in that we landed on the runway next to the Royal Terminal rather than either of the usual general operations runways and thus had to taxi for a Heathrowesque period of time to reach the terminal. Fortunately the terminal was deserted and despite the usual nonsense associated with the first trip on a fresh visa (seriously Saudi customs must now have more photos of me than my own mother) I was out of the terminal within 30 minutes of arriving at the gate.

Lodgings are, as usual in Riyadh, provided by the Holiday Inn Al Qasr, which is a decent property physically but which has the most inconsistent service of any hotel I have been a regular at. The same staff who are borderline obsequious on one visit can act like they’ve never seen me before on another visit 5 days later - it’s not really a big issue but I do find it a bit strange. Priority Club status also seems to have no bearing on service with my colleague, who has less than 10 nights with PC this year receiving an upgraded room on this visit, whilst I received nothing, despite spending enough time in IHG properties that I had re-qualified for PC Platinum before the end of March. When I enquired as to what logic had led to this I was reminded that I only get an upgrade when there is space available, which whilst true is somewhat beside the point.

I sense from the amount I have written that I have not been as attentive to the briefing I’m sat in as I perhaps should be - although I’ve been in here for nearly two hours and we’re still on the greetings and introductions as far as I can see. Trying to hold a meeting in Arabic, English, Korean, and Spanish does not lend itself well to succinctness of discussions. I wouldn’t mind if it was anything to do with me but I got press-ganged into it on my way to somewhere else and now escape anytime before dinner seems a dismally remote possibility. Anyway, they’re starting to speak in a language I can follow to some degree now so I shall cease waffling on until the next leg.

FinalCallDXB

Leg 2: RUH-DXB Emirates - 777-300

As predicted I barely made it out of the meeting in time for my flight a couple of days later never mind dinner (admittedly I exaggerate somewhat but you get the picture). After being urged by the hotel to leave for the airport early as they had been told by their drivers that the traffic was bad en-route, I left about an hour earlier than usual. Either the traffic problems were solved before we encountered them or the driver took an alternate route, as we were at the airport about 20 minutes later.

With check-in and security taking less than 15 minutes, I found myself with the dubious pleasure of having a couple of hours to spend in the first class lounge in Riyadh. Anyone who has read my last report may have noticed the esteem in which I hold this fabulous facility which pampers its users with a choice of both diet and regular pepsi and both chips and nuts. My delight today was compounded by the loss of the usual WiFi functionality and the lack of a functioning coffee machine.

After sampling the delights of the lounge for twenty minutes or so I decided to head to Costa instead for a caffeine level adjustment as my reserves were getting somewhat low. Once suitably fortified I spent the remainder of the wait for the flight catching up on the backlog of Economists which seem to accumulate in my laptop bag. An hour or so later boarding was called, with priority boarding line for First Class and Gold Card holders exquisitely observed - it really helps when the boarding process is overseen by armed personnel! I headed to my pre-selected seat of 10A but realised en-route that I had been reallocated to row 25. Unfortunately I hadn’t noticed this early enough to take it up with anyone at check in so had no choice but to head further back into the plane. From the grumbles from those sat around me it seems that I hadn’t been the only person moved from the seat allocated at time of booking.

As usual the flight was packed, with every single one of the 400+ seats appearing to be taken, and as usual the boarding process took an age. The majority of passengers on this flight are migrant labourers connecting through to destinations in the Sub-continent and South-east Asia and thus often inexperienced travellers. Getting everyone in their seat and keeping them there for take-off, never mind getting people to shut off their phones and the like, demands a saint like patience from the crew at times and I do not envy them their task. That said, I often find the crews on these flights to be extremely ungracious towards certain subsets of passengers, with those requiring support from the crew dealt with somewhat disdainfully.

To a large extent tonight’s crew were little different, with the notable exception of a young Geordie lass who was more use than the rest of the crew put together and ran around seating people on both sides of the cabin while her antipodean colleague stood telling the chap in 24G how she had got so drunk last weekend at Yalumba at Le Meridien (notorious Friday Brunch / piss-up with unlimited Taittinger- can be either an absolute hoot or torture dependent on the crowd) that she’d had to call in sick two days later. I presume from her candour with the chap that they were previously acquainted but I really didn’t need to know this, and I would have thought that her continued employment prospects would benefit from her not announcing to half the cabin about her sick leave.

When we finally got on our way, the crew came round with the standard offering of chicken in an unspecified yellow sauce and a soft drink, which I chose not to partake of. This yellow sauce, whilst consistently awful, does not appear to have a fixed recipe and has tasted wildly different on the few occasions upon which I have been hungry enough to sample it. Nonetheless, the flight was redeemed by the excellent IFE, which allows you to block out the masses and pass the flight in a cocoon of mild entertainment. For the first time in a few months the episodes of 30 Rock and Family Guy had been updated so I watched a couple of each and was back in Dubai almost before I knew it.

As is often the case, we ended up parked at a remote stand halfway to Sharjah despite there being numerous spaces available at the Terminal. I suspect the aircraft for this flight is scheduled for a break from service after the Riyadh flight as it frequently parks away from the main apron, never-mind the actual terminal. The bus to the terminal building took an age as we kept having to stop for aircraft to push back so by the time I was through to baggage claim we’d been on the ground for almost an hour. A quick stop in duty free later and I was in a taxi on my way to my apartment.

Next leg DXB-MAN in a couple of days time.

sobore

Nice report, Waiting for the rest.

at least 50% of the flights flown never credit.
That really makes me mad when CS wear you down. Too bad.

jpatokal

Great report! ^ I was about to type that I'm glad to see somebody else flying on "my" old SV DXB-RUH milk run and staying at Al Qasr to boot, but that might sound a little sadistic , so let's just say I'm glad you took the time to write this up and not too surprised that apparently nothing at all (except DXB T3) appears to have changed since I wrote this report almost 2 years ago...

camsean

Great reading so far. Looking forward to the rest.

FinalCallDXB

Leg 3: DXB-MAN Emirates - 777-300

A couple of days later it was time to head back to the airport and, after popping into the office for an hour or so to check up on a few things and pick up an expense cheque, I arrived at the premium check-in area of Dubai’s Terminal 3 about 2 and a half hours before the flight. This is significantly earlier than I usually like to arrive but I knew I had some change fees to pay (Emirates won’t let you settle these over the phone or online) and know from numerous experiences that the ticketing desk at T3 is rarely over-staffed. I had also been advised that check in would close 90 minutes before the scheduled departure time due to the Dubai Air Show so made sure to leave plenty of time.

As expected the paying of fees took an inordinately long period of time, although in fairness this was largely due to the inability of the agent to understand the numerous changes made since booking, as opposed to a significant wait to be dealt with. After sorting out the fees, check in, security, etc took less than 2 minutes so I was on my way to the lounge with plenty of time to spare for refreshments. Whilst I was through in minutes, I am always surprised by the number of people who are unable to transit the e-gate channel for security effectively. My assumption would be that e-gate users would almost by definition be more frequent travellers and thus have got their heads round which way to scan the card, which fingerprint you need to use, the fact that if you don’t move with more intent than a sloth on valium your bag will get stuck in the door, etc. Alas no, and thus almost every-time I fly through Dubai, Sharjah, or Abu Dhabi at least one lane is held up by someone failing to use the machines correctly. Anyway, rant over, on to the lounge for liquid sustenance.

I’ve said it before (and without question I will say it again with very little prompting) but I don’t much like the Emirates Business Class Lounge at Terminal 3. Yes it’s huge and offers a good range of drinks and food but it feels to me like a cafe in a shopping mall and I much preferred the old lounge in Terminal 1. I’m not by any means saying that this is a bad lounge, indeed it’s up there with the best I’ve ever used in terms of its facilities, but it has no soul and I just haven’t warmed to it. That said, I do appreciate the relative generosity of the Skywards programme, as well as that of Emirates champagne purchaser, who has been providing me with access to copious amounts of Veuve Cliquot for the last few years while others try and fob you off with inferior libations given half a chance.

Today was no different and I had a glass of Veuve in hand and a half decent seat to drink it in without delay. Lunch offerings were unusual in that none of the hot dishes available were those which I have seen before in the lounge. Options which I sampled were Iranian Kofta and Beef Stroganoff, both of which were pleasant in a lukewarm sort of way but neither of which were as interesting as the missing Indian offerings. Whilst I’m fairly partial to Indian food in general, eating it in much of the Gulf region generally makes particularly good sense given the ethnic origin and subsequent culinary skill-set of a significant majority of kitchen staff.

Boarding was called a long time before scheduled departure, apparently as a result of the ongoing Air Show. This turned out to be unnecessary and we were sat in the gate area for over half an hour before actually boarding the aircraft. Whilst this would irritate on most occasions, we were treated to an acrobatic display by a fighter jet, the view of which from the gate was fantastic. Given that this was going on in direct view of the gate lounge window and wasn’t exactly quiet, I was amazed that only 4 or 5 people chose to watch, the rest being too absorbed in the overwhelming excitement of sitting or jostling to be at the head of the queue to board to turn around.

Once it commenced, boarding was pretty smooth, with the addition of a specific boarding phase after business but before economy for Skywards Gold passengers (usually the business / first / skywards gold boarding is a single phase). Load today was ok, I’d guess about 70% in economy and full up the front (I enquired about upgrading on the day so know that the load was 100% in business). Once onboard I was glad I hadn’t wasted the money or miles as the aircraft was in the old business configuration.

In flight service today consisted of a hot lunch offering followed by afternoon tea prior to landing. Main meal was a choice between lamb curry and chicken with parsley and mustard sauce. I had the lamb, which was pleasant but pretty tame, and stuck to Heineken (cold ones though for a change - not just cool, actually cold!!)throughout the flight as I don’t really care for the Wild Rock Sauv Blanc that Emirates have been serving recently. IFE was the usual ICE system, which can keep even the most attention span challenged passenger entertained for a good few hours. I ended up watching some older UK detective dramas for most of the flight with a couple of episodes of Frasier for padding.

Arrival in Manchester was on time despite the delay in Dubai, with the airport looking really quite busy in terms of aircraft movements. It’s easy to underestimate Manchester as a regional airport but there was a lot going on this evening, including Etihad and Qatar Airways aircraft from the Gulf, mainline aircraft from most of the European majors, and a whole host of charter operators. Passport control and customs was well staffed, and with no bag to claim, I was out of the terminal and checking into my hotel within 15 minutes of landing.

Lodgings tonight are provided by the Crowne Plaza Manchester Airport, which I have used before and will use again as it is a perfectly decent hotel and is walking distance from the terminal. I always seem to get a Club Room regardless of rate paid and a free drink voucher or two for the bar so it really is good value. On this occasion I got both a Club Room and a letter from the manager apologising that they were unable to give me a Club Room, which was nice but somewhat unnecessary.

FinalCallDXB

Leg 4 MAN-LHR British Airways Airbus A320-200 / Leg 5 LHR-MUC British Airways Airbus A319-100

After a relaxing evening catching up with a couple of people I hadn’t seen in way too long, I awoke feeling refreshed despite the time difference meaning I was wide awake at 5 am. After a leisurely breakfast of coco-pops and espresso (the breakfast of champions!) I walked across to Terminal 3 for check-in. As I was travelling with only hand-luggage I used one of the many self check-in machines to print out the boarding passes associated with the check-in I had done on my phone the previous evening. 5 minutes later and I was through into the terminal with about 45 minutes to kill before the flight departed. The terminal was pretty busy with a lot of FlyBe flights departing, as well as a few additions from BA and BMI. Whilst not exactly up there with the best of the world’s terminal facilities T3 has an acceptable range of food outlets and the standard UK retail offerings of Boots, Dixons, WH Smiths, etc. I chose to sit in Costa, which had a good view of the apron, and which serves some of the more palatable coffee of the major caffeine purveyors.

The leg down to Heathrow was very much a routine domestic leg. I find BA’s offering of a warm sandwich and a drink more than adequate for this run, although I didn’t partake on this occasion. Despite arriving at Heathrow 10 minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival slot we didn’t have to hold for any undue length of time and, following a delay free transit, I was in a completed T5 for the first time.

Suffice to say I was impressed by T5, which I found to be spacious without it feeling like a massive cavernous space and somehow less clinical and devoid of soul than some other new terminals. I would be hard-pressed to articulate why I liked T5 so much yet am left cold by T3 in Dubai, as on paper there is very little to choose between them, although I certainly don’t think I’m alone in this preference.

After leaving Dubai in a rush I needed to find a new jacket, as the thin blazer I had brought with me was patently not sufficient to keep my desert acclimatised self from freezing in Munich. Despite T5 being a shopping mall this proved to be more difficult than expected, with most of the stores wanting significantly more than I was willing to part with for a casual jacket. I find the trend of filling airports with high-end retail somewhat annoying as, whilst I’m certainly not averse to occasionally splashing out on clothes, when I shop at an airport it’s generally because I’ve forgotten something rather than a considered purchase so I would appreciate not being limited in choice only to shops where you need to consult a mortgage broker before buying a jacket. Anyway, rant over again. I appear to be ranting more than usual on this trip - I increasingly think I start each year with a finite amount of patience and by the final quarter it’s running low.

Once my sartorial needs had been met I retreated to the Crown Rivers Pub for a pint of their house brew, which is apparently only available in Terminal 5. The idea of having a house beer for an airport terminal struck me as really quite a nifty idea, and given the amount they were shifting it seemed like plenty of others thought so also. Conveniently the pub was directly adjacent to the gate from which the flight would board so I was able to sup in comfort up until the final stages of boarding.

It was immediately clear that today’s flight would be nothing like full, indeed I think that everyone on the aircraft ended up having a block of three seats to themselves. After boarding the captain came on with the dreaded Heathrow announcement that we would be taxiing to a remote area to await take-off clearance. Whilst this is always annoying, when you’re not on a tight schedule there are worse places for anyone with a strong predisposition towards airplane geekdom to spend an hour than with a front row seat to the tarmac at Heathrow. After waiting for about an hour for a take-off slot we were finally on our way. Service was a choice between a sandwich or a cookie and, in the absence of any visual entertainment from the airline, IFE was provided by Apple and Borders.

Arrival in Munich was about 45 minutes behind schedule but with no queues at passport control and no bag to claim I ended up waiting land-side for friends who had arrived from the London Gatwick about 30 minutes before me. Hotel in Munich was the Ibis Munich Central, which I picked because it was within 200 metres of the central station and thus offered good access to pretty much everywhere. This property was adequate for a weekend break with friends, where all we used it for was a crash pad, but I wouldn’t have liked to use the room for any length of time or to stay there if I were planning to spend anytime working in the room. Munich generally was a fantastic town, and one which I think will become a firm favourite on the reunion circuit of this particular group of mates. That said, I will certainly be avoiding eating any variants on the ubiquitous pork, potato, beer meal combo for the next week or so.

FinalCallDXB

Leg 6 MUC-DXB Emirates - Airbus A330-200 (Business Class)

After walking to the station with the group who were departing for the UK on an earlier flight, I killed an hour or so drinking Gluhwein and watching the trains come and go. Whilst the bars and cafes in train stations and airports are rarely a city’s finest establishments I love the energy and hustle of transport hubs and always seem to gravitate towards them at some stage. The final hour or so before the airport pick-up was passed in the hotel lobby loading up on caffeine and catching up on emails.

About 5 minutes of scheduled pick-up a brand new BMW 7 series, which it happily transpired was my ride to the airport, pulled up outside the hotel. The driver, who I believe worked for Sixt, made no mention of Emirates but had my name on a booking form and we were soon on our way to the airport. After a quick pop quiz on my musical preferences the driver decided that Dark Side of the Moon would be an appropriate soundtrack for the journey and that as I looked ‘like a loud music kind of guy’ cranked up the fabulous sound system on the car. The ride to the airport, much of which was driven at speeds which would have made the paint peel from lesser vehicles, was one of those travel moments when you just sit back and look at the cards that life has dealt you and think, you know what, this is a pretty good hand. I would happily have sat in the car all the way back to Dubai but I was at the airport and on the way to check in all too soon.

Whilst I had allocated seat 9B prior to check-in, the desk agent offered me the option of 6K with 6J blocked. Row 6 on the 3 class A330s is a single row between the first class divider and the galley in front of the main business cabin and is thus much more private than being in the main cabin. It is, however, sometimes slightly noisy because of the proximity of the galley and I have found that it’s easy to get forgotten by the cabin crew as you are tucked a bit out of the way. Anyway, for a flight on which I was planning to sleep for the most part I figured the privacy would cancel out any potential negatives and decided to go with the change.

Despite being briefly held up at the bag scan behind a chap who removed each of his 3 phones from his pocket separately, setting off the buzzer after each individual removal, I found my way to the Emirates Lounge within 15 minutes of arriving at the airport. Unlike the behemoth facility at Dubai, I generally love the Emirates Lounges at their out-stations so was looking forward to trying out a new one. The lounge at Munich was significantly larger than I anticipated, with a large television area, and an excellent spread of foods and beverages. In the absence of any champagne I grabbed a glass of Paulaner and a plate of veal and mushroom stew and found a quiet corner to sit with the laptop for an hour or so. With a few more trips back to the food station for the odd snack and top ups of the Veuve, which thankfully put in an appearance just as I finished my beer, the time in the lounge passed extremely pleasantly.

As the plane was boarding from the gate directly underneath the lounge we were allowed to stay in the lounge up until 20 minutes before scheduled departure. Upon boarding I was delighted with my decision to change seat as, while the rear business cabin was packed, the front cabin had only 3 passengers, one in each block of seats. As with all the Emirates A330s I have been on the seats were of the older style i.e. non-lie flat seat, although those on this evenings flight had different covers and newer fittings than those which I have experienced previously. For a flight of 5 or 6 hours like this one, I find these seats acceptable, although I would be extremely disappointed to get these older style seats on some of the longer routes to Asia and Africa (which they often show up on). The main issue I have with them is the lack of divide between seats, which had I had a seat-mate would have made sleeping a lot less private. They are nonetheless extremely comfortable seats and still ahead of the product on many carriers despite being the poor relations of the newer EK business product.

Drinks and towels were offered about 5 minutes after taking my seat, with the choice between the usual champagne or orange juice or a sour cherry drink which I think was alcoholic but not sufficiently so that I am sure. Menus were distributed immediately after take-off and orders were taken as drink and some nuts were distributed as a snack. For those of you whose boats are floated by such things I have typed up the bulk of the menu and will post below later this evening.

Having eaten well in the lounge I chose just to have the smoked duck appetiser and a salad, both of which were extremely pleasant and sufficiently light that they didn’t prevent me from sleeping immediately after dinner. Before turning in I cracked open the amenity kit, which whilst unchanged for several years now, is a good kit stocked with a mix of Bulgari toiletries and more prosaic but significantly more useful offerings from Gillette and Colgate. Fresh from my ablutions I put on the eye shades and turned in for the night. Despite expecting to have my usual fitful airborne sleep I was surprised to be woken by the sound of the first officer announcing the beginning of our descent into Dubai.

For the first time in a long time the flight docked at a Terminal 1 air-bridge, which meant a long walk to reach passport control at T3. Queues at passport control were the largest I’ve seen them in a while, probably a 30 or 40 minute wait for those without an e-gate card. With no queues whatsoever at the e-gate and no bags to claim I was at the Emirates chauffeur drive check-in with little delay and in the car on my way home 5 minutes later. The Volvos at Dubai might not match the luxury of the 7 Series in Munich but the chauffeur drive, and its availability on all business class tickets whether discounted or not, is a major factor in Emirates favour on the odd occasions I get to splash out on a business class booking.

Next leg to Osaka in a couple of days time plus JL domestic leg and return journey soon after. The better half appears to be winning the leave your laptop at home argument so these may have to wait until after the trip.

MUC - DXB Menu to follow below.

FinalCallDXB

Food Menu MUC-DXB

Light Meal:

Appetiser
Sea Food Delight - Slow cooked salmon and halibut and saffron poached scallop, served with a three mustard dressing and a sweet and sour cucumber salad

Roast duck - Lightly smoked duck breast accompanied with an aubergine and bresaola roulade, Waldorf salad, and fresh green asparagus.

Salad
Seasonal salad with a choice of dressings

Main Course
Lamb medallion - Marinated lamb medallions, served with a kapsa sauce, scented rice, and an okra and tomato stew

Anglerfish fillet - served with roasted red mullet, a classic arrabiata sauce, sauteed sliced potatoes, and seasonal vegetables

Corn-fed chicken - with a moist egg and vegetable filling, topped with a rich tarragon jus, served with olive and potato mash, and fresh garden vegetables

Poached beef fillet - with a roasted vegetable medley, spicy saffron sauce, and a cress and potato puree

Dessert
Clotted cream cheesecake - buttery biscuit base topped with a creamy cheese filling, served with a fruity strawberry coulis

Bread basket

International Cheese Selection

Selection of tea and coffee

Chocolates

Before landing:
A selection of beverages will be offered prior to arrival in Dubai

FinalCallDXB

Bar Service:

Aperitifs

A selection of fruit juices and soft drinks

Bacardi Rum, Campari, Gin, Jack Daniels, Rye, Sweet or Dry Sherry, Sweet or Dry Vermouth, Vodka, Scotch Whisky, Malt Whisky

A selection of international beers

Cocktails

Black Russian, Bloody Mary, Bucks Fizz, Champagne Cocktail, Fantasy Island, Kir Royal, Manhattan, Martini Cocktail Classic, Screwdriver, Vodka Martini

Wines

Champagne

Taittinger Brut Reserve NV

White Wine

Vire Clesse 2008
Jean-Claude Boisset

Pescaja, Arneis 2007
Italy

Red Wine
Chateau Cissac 2003
Medoc

Mas La Mola 2006
Priorat, Spain

Port

Dow’s Late Bottled Vintage
2003
Douro Valley

Liqueurs

Baileys Irish Cream, Cognac, Cointreau, Drambuie, Tia Maria

FinalCallDXB

Leg 7 DXB-KIX Emirates - Boeing B777-300

Apologies for the delay in posting the last portion of this trip. As travel was over the Eid break in the Gulf region and the odds of any urgent work cropping up were thus very slim I decided to leave the laptop at home and rely on the blackberry for connectivity. As this turned out not to work in Japan I ended up having an email and phone free week.

With the Eid break moving forward a day at the last minute, I ended up having a day to kill in and around Dubai prior to the flight. With the other half needing to go to press on something before the vacation and thus working regardless I had what I realised was the first weekday to myself, in the city in which I live, for the best part of a year. Naturally, being a man of action, I spent the bulk of the day watching football games I’d recorded over the past couple of weeks and reading through the backlog of the numerous magazines to which I appear to subscribe. In my defence I did try and go for a swim but they were cleaning the pool and at the brief point when the desire was with me the gym was having a ladies only hour (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).

Despite the flight being scheduled for the ungodly hour of 3 am, after such a productive day, I felt compelled to leave the apartment much earlier than necessary and we thus made our way to the airport via a bar or three. As most of the bars in Dubai are in hotels we spent the evening confusing doormen by arriving in taxis with luggage in tow and then not checking in. The exception to this confusion were the staff at Jumeirah Mina A’Salaam who in their usual exemplary fashion recognised me as a regular rather than a guest and offered to store my bags while we grabbed some dinner.

After an extremely pleasant evening we arrived at the airport about 2 hours prior to departure and despite it being rather busy were checked in and through security in less than 15 minutes. After negotiating the ruck through duty free we made it to the lounge, which was mostly crowded but which had space in the usual hidden away corners. Having imbibed generously prior to arrival at the airport, I decided to take it easy and stick to the soft drinks (well Heineken anyway) along with a couple of bowls of wasabi rice crackers. Following a comprehensive ... kicking by an 8 year old Ghanian kid on Pro Evo Soccer on one of the lounges PS3s it was time to board.

I have always wondered who the Osaka flight out of Dubai caters to, and upon arrival at the gate it was pretty clear that it serves a largely Japanese customer base. In addition to myself there was only one other western gentleman and a group of about ten african businessmen (if I had to guess I would say Angolan), with the remainder of the passengers exclusively Japanese. The flight turned out to be absolutely packed, with not an empty seat to be seen in either business or economy, and what looked a pretty respectable load up in first. The aircraft was in the latest 3 class 777-300 layout, with the second generation (i.e. under seat box free) ICE system, and the private suites in first.

Despite the 3-4-3 layout in economy, I find the newest seats on EKs 777s to be extremely comfortable economy class seats and tend to sleep reasonably well in them. Tonight’s flight was no exception and I was pushing Zs from within 15 minutes of take-off until we were flying over Eastern China. As a result I missed out on the first meal service so was more than ready for breakfast by the time it arrived. Although generally opposed to any consumption of eggs on aircraft I went for the omelette in preference to the mackerel and rice Japanese option and was suitably unimpressed by the soggy mess I was presented with. Nonetheless, the croissant and muffin served on the tray were enough to assuage the worst hunger pangs for a couple of hours.

Post breakfast I managed to catch a couple of episodes of Frasier prior to arrival into Kansai. Despite expecting the airport to be reasonably busy as a result of our early evening arrival time, the terminal was deserted with ours being the only flight in baggage claim. Priority baggage tags worked a treat and we were on a limo bus to Osaka Station within 30 minutes of arrival.

FinalCallDXB

In Japan

We had a fantastic week in Japan, although I think it is fair to say it was a week of new experiences rather than a holiday and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it I think next time I will schedule it as a stop-over rather than a full week or make more effort to get out of the cities. I won’t go into details of our week but shall give a quick summary of the hotels as background for anyone planning a visit:

ANA Crowne Plaza Osaka - A modern and well appointed 5* business hotel, well located in central Osaka with good access to public transport. We received a river-view room on a high floor despite booking on points. During our stay I met up with an ex-colleague at the Hilton and based on the public areas and staff friendliness would stick with the CP next time.

ANA Kyoto - Whilst Kyoto is near enough to Osaka that there really isn’t a need to stay in both I like trying out different places so we switched to Kyoto after two nights. The ANA had a nice location a bit out of the centre of town but overlooking a temple, and with a metro stop less than 50m from the hotel offered better access to most of the city’s attraction than a downtown location would have. The hotel was well appointed, albeit in a somewhat dated fashion (I expect this place was the height of style and luxury in around about 1980), and was impeccably cared for with extremely polite and helpful staff. I would stay again without hesitation if in Kyoto again.

Mercure Tokyo Ginza - Up until about 10 days prior to departure I was booked into the ANA InterContinental but after noticing this hotel was on offer decided to pocket a substantial saving and forego the InterCon. Whilst the Mercure is no doubt inferior to the InterCon I was more than happy with what was a well located and well-appointed modern hotel, and certainly one of the better Accor properties which I’ve experienced recently. For those who want a central Tokyo hotel of a decent standard but are willing to forego the amenities of a 5* this is a commendable property.

Gatwick Alan

Ive just caught up with your report, having been travelling on Emirates myself, its a great read and you have taken a lot of time and effort to write it, and i know having been doing mine.

I do agree with your assessment of the lounge in Dubai T3, i was lucky enough to be in the first lounge, but it still suffers from not being separated properly from the terminal.

FinalCallDXB

Leg 8 HND-KIX JAL Japan Airlines - Boeing B737-800

The trip out to Haneda from the hotel in Ginza was relatively easy, with a short hop on the metro followed by a trip to Terminal 1 on the monorail. The monorail trip out to the airport is a great way of seeing some of the sights of Tokyo, with its elevated position for much of its length offering a great vantage point. As we were unsure as to how long the trip would take, we ended up arriving at the airport earlier than I would have liked. This turned out to be a good thing as negotiating the checking of our bags through to Dubai, which I knew was possible when transferring from JAL to Emirates, took an inordinate amount of time. Eventually we managed to get this done and headed airside to grab something to eat.

Despite the volume of passengers, Haneda is not well endowed with restaurants or cafes so we ended up buying bento boxes and sitting watching the movements on one of the runways. Perhaps unsurprisingly, movements are dominated by JAL and ANA so there was little variety, although it is cool to see the 747s running domestic services. Boarding was called only 15 minutes before departure and the process was entirely automated, with passengers feeding their boarding cards into a machine, which opened the gate through to the jet-way.

Whilst I had originally hoped to book on ANA, their website was an absolute disaster and I soon gave up and booked on JAL instead. As the price difference was inconsequential I booked us into JAL ‘J class’ rather than standard economy. This offers a more comfortable seat (3-2 configuration rather than 3-3) and more legroom but little else. For the price I paid (less than $20 more each) this was pretty good value but for such a short flight wasn’t worth a significant margin more. Service consisted of a single drinks run, which compared poorly to the comparable domestic runs I’ve done on BA in the last couple of months despite being more than double the price. That said, service was extremely courteous and the aircraft was in fantastic shape so I was generally satisfied.

Arrival into Kansai was ahead of schedule by 10 minutes or so and with no bags to claim we were through arrivals and making our way up the escalator to international departures within 20 minutes of landing.