jakesterUK

Post-booking and pre-airport

Having booked tickets (from London Heathrow to Perth via Dubai) in January 2004, with a view to paying for them 3 months before, I received a letter from the travel agent (Airline Network) informing me that Emirates had changed their policy and required immediate payment (well within two weeks). This is just a warning that airlines are at liberty to change their policies whenever they please, so do not rely on airlines to honour ticketing deadlines, they can change at any point.

Two weeks before the flight, I called Emirates and gave them details of my pick up and drop off locations. These did show up on Check My Trip (www.checkmytrip.com), but its worth noting that not all segments of the booking showed up. The first scheduled pickup did not show at any stage although all three other scheduled pickups did show.

The day before the first pickup, I received a call from Tristar (Emirates Chauffer Drive company) to confirm the pickup time – this was confirmed as 10.15, which was 3 ½ hours before the flight was due to leave. Tristar called at about midday, but I was informed that they can call anytime between 12pm and 10pm. As I live in South East London, it was 3 days before Christmas, and I felt the airport could be busy, I decided to bring the pickup half an hour earlier to 9.45am.

jakesterUK

At 9.30am on the day of departure, the chauffer turned up, and informed us that he was early, and we should take our time. We were, more or less ready, so we loaded the car and got ready to leave. No sooner were we ready to go, but another car turned up to collect us. Both cars were nice, and both were Volvos, but the first was bigger and more suited to our volume of luggage, so we stuck with him! The journey was uneventful, on time, and the chauffer was pleasantly chatty, although I’m sure he would have shut up had we asked.

jakesterUK

Assuming there are always the same number of check-in desks, and that they are always in the same location, there are about 6-8 check-in desks grouped together for Emirates customers at Heathrow; about 4 for all passengers, and 2-4 for Skywards members. Having looked at the directions for where the business check-in desks were located, I was none the wiser, so we went to the first available economy desk. The check-in agent noticed that we were travelling in Business class and re-directed us to the correct check-in desk. On reflection, we probably should have noticed the location of the Business and First check-in as they face the main concourse and entrances to the airport. However, they are not on the end of the same row of economy check-in desks, hence the confusion!

There were two desks at check-in – one for First Class passengers and one for Business Class passengers. There was one member of staff at each desk and a third member of staff was present for tagging and transferring the luggage to the luggage belt. There were no other passengers waiting to be checked in, so we were dealt with by both members of staff. One dealt with the issue of the boarding passes and lounge invitations, and the other dealt with the luggage tags. The third member of staff tagged the bags with the Emirates Quick Transfer and Business tags. It was an effortless process, and though not particularly efficient, it was friendly and quick enough. We were able to use the Fast Track lane through security, which was welcome, although the airport did not appear to be particularly busy at 11am on a Tuesday morning.

jakesterUK

Having browsed the airport shopping (it’s not as cheap as it should be, though hours can be wasted browsing through all the various items on display!) we decided to head on to the lounge. Emirates really need to invest in their own lounge at Heathrow – the Red Carpet Club from United Airlines is not a standard that Emirates should align themselves with. The Red Carpet Club has enough staff and customers that the lounge should be well maintained. The RCC was obviously built to a high standard (the fixtures and fittings are decent enough), but it has simply not been maintained through the last few years. Note to United – when you are out of bankruptcy, if not before – refurbish your lounge please, in the meantime, give it a jolly good clean!

There are showers at the lounge, although I had no need for these as we had come straight from home. The drinks and snacks at the lounge are not great - so best make use of the catering in the main departure area. At 11.30am (or so, when we arrived) there was coffee and hot water (for a range of teas), and a range of soft and alcoholic drinks, not huge, but enough. The snacks were pretty poor, with not even fresh cheese and biscuits (there were packets of plastic wrapped cheese). There were some savoury bar snacks and a range of biscuits – but nothing to write home about! In my opinion, the BA Terraces lounge at Heathrow is the benchmark for Lounges in London (though I haven’t had the privilege of the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, or any other lounges at Heathrow). I'm sure this comment will spark discussion on the relative merits of lounges round the world!

jakesterUK

The flight was called, and we made our way to the gate, which was already packed (I hate these big open lounges where you get to see the faces of 300 or so of your fellow passengers). Emirates do use two bridges to board at Heathrow, so we were able to get on board quickly and without disruption. We were in the rear half of the Business cabin on a 777-300 which is used to London Heathrow, this is behind door 2, which means that even with two bridges for boarding, all passengers in economy walk past you. We were given the seats that were allocated at the time of booking on all flights, with no questions. The seats on the 777-300 are big and comfortable.

The face of the airline, the multi cultural, multi lingual and multi-racial staff are a credit to the airline, and I believe gives Emirates a unique image. The staff were friendly, efficient (although a little out of sync on the first flight) and a pleasure to fly with.

I am 6’ 3”, and found the leg-room to be plentiful, and the seat to be more than adequate. Having flown with BA and Qantas and having used the flat bed products in both companies’ business classes, I found the Emirates seat to be as comfortable, but not flat – in fact it is just a standard, business class, cradle seat. I was able to sleep with no problems on this flight. The seat pitch, although generous, does not allow easy access to the aisle from the window or centre seat when the person in front of you is reclined – this proves problematic if you are not on the bulkhead row (which obviously does not have a reclinable seat in front). The idea of business class seats which do not intrude into the space of the person behind you is a concept which I believe all airlines should adopt, whether the seats are lie-flat, flat beds, or cradle seats. The ease of getting in and out of seats in any class is also more important than airlines seem prepared to admit

The cabin on the 777-300 is spacious and bright. The overhead lockers retract into the ceiling over the centre seats, giving a great sense of space. There seemed to be plenty of storage space for all passengers, and the overhead lockers were not at capacity at all. The seat was panelled with a walnut finish on the centre armrest, suitable for holding several drinks at a time, which also contain the video monitors. On the seat was a pillow, a blanket, headphones and a small plastic packet with eye-shades, socks and stickers to put on the seat (do not disturb, wake for food, wake for duty free).

We were offered Champagne, orange juice and water before take off – I selected the Champagne, as I had been planning my first drink to the holiday since we booked the flights in January! The safety briefing was surprisingly lax (this proved not to be the norm, although I felt that it was more casual than it is with other airlines I have flown). The briefing consisted of a video, shown once in Arabic, followed by the same briefing in English. Neither was particularly good or clear, as the PA system was not loud enough for most people to hear. The video itself was grainy and not clear, any seasoned traveller would be able to see it. Take-off was shown on a forward facing camera which then switched to a birds-eye view following take-off (Quite dull as all you see are clouds, but never mind). This is a nice feature, although the picture can be very grainy and unstable as it is projected on a screen at the front of the cabin.

The flight left the gate a little late, but arrived into Dubai on time.

jakesterUK

The in-flight service was slow to get off the ground, and once it did, it took approximately 2-3 hours to complete. The service appeared to be disorganised, although this seems to be the style for the airline on the London – Dubai route. Perhaps it’s a little more casual than disorganised?
We were provided with Lunch on take off (1.45pm flight) and a snack before arrival at Dubai (which was shortly after midnight).

Lunch consisted of a selection of cold Canapés, a choice of two Appetizers, a Salad, a selection of 4 main courses, two Dessert options, followed by Cheese and/or Fruit and Hot beverages with Chocolates. A Decent and flowing bar service was offered throughout the flight. The food was of a very high standard, and very tasty!

If anyone wants further details - please message me...

jakesterUK

There was a wide choice of programs, films, music and games available on the aircraft. In business and First Class there were also Personal Video players which come in handy. The programming itself was rather dull, both in terms of films (were these the latest – what a dull couple of months it’s been in the film world!?) and TV programs. This may be an uneducated guess, an assumption or simply because of not very good programming being available, but I suspect that part of the reason for this rather dull programming was cultural differences between the Middle East and Western countries. The programming wasn’t particularly thrilling or entertaining, though there was a wide choice.

If anybody has used V:Port on Virgin Atlantic, that’s good programming, and on demand too.

There were about 20 video films to choose from, which provided some relief – though these weren’t much good either – come on Hollywood – what are you doing?

jakesterUK

On arrival at Dubai, we all decanted from the plane from Door 1: First Class first (of course!), followed by Business Class and finally Economy passengers. On exit we were herded to a rather disorganised but thorough security screening area. It’s worth noting that not all countries have a tradition of queuing, so it was a bit of a bun fight getting through the security, however being one of the first off the plane, the experience was not too bad!
Duty Free at Dubai is somewhat overwhelming; there is a lot of it in quite an open space. There are a lot of people (everywhere) and this seems to be the case at almost any time – day or night. Dubai airport operates 24 hours a day and does seem to benefit heavily from being a 24-hour hub. Cigarettes in Dubai seem to be the only reasonably priced item (which isn’t much use when you don’t smoke!), everything else was on par with UK prices, so no real bargains to be had. There is, however, a huge range of items – if you want it, you’re likely to find it here.

Moving on to the lounge, I was both surprised and disappointed by it. There was a lot of space in the lounge and there was also quite a large smoking area upstairs. There was a pretty wide range of food on display, although some of it could do with labelling as it wasn’t clear what it was! The food was replenished quite frequently, and there seemed to be a number of staff clearing away the tables and offering help in this area.

For a lounge with this volume of passengers passing through, I was surprised that there was not more seating. Although there is actually a lot of seating in the lounge, there is not enough for the volume of passengers passing through the lounge. There is another lounge in the terminal, but that was too far away from our arrival and departure gates.

When travellers are tired, rest is obviously a requirement, however, a busy lounge with lots of passengers passing through is not really the place to be doing this. A lot of (rather selfish) passengers spread out on sofa’s and chairs – leaving standing room only for passengers arriving in the lounge past midnight (which is one of the busiest times in the lounge). I personally feel that it is possible to do a lot of things to make your journey and that of others less stressful and more pleasurable – simple courtesy, both to other passengers and crew, does pay dividends in the long run!

jakesterUK

Boarding at Dubai was both a pleasure and a pain! The departure lounge is big, but doesn’t have enough seating for all passengers (show me a departure lounge that does). As a result passengers congregate around the doors to the air-bridges and in any other available space. This makes it difficult for boarding to occur. However, when the boarding calls were made, they did board by seat row, they did offer priority boarding for parents with young children, anybody who needed assistance and First and Business Class passengers were invited to board at their convenience. There were two separate air-bridges one for First and Business Class passengers and one for Economy Class passengers.

The A340-300 is a nice aircraft, but immediately feels slightly more enclosed than the 777-300. The lockers overhead down the centre of the aircraft hang into the cabin space, and do invade your personal space a little. However, as we were sitting on the side, this did not prove too much of a distraction – and the added seat pitch on this aircraft made up for the shortfall in head-space. As we were seated in the bulk head seats in the rear business class cabin on both of these legs we did not experience any difficulty with the passenger in front reclining into our space.

On the seat was a pillow, a blanket, headphones and a small plastic packet with eye-shades, socks and stickers to put on the seat (do not disturb, wake for food, wake for duty free). This time, however, the headphones were of the noise-cancelling type. These are not made by Bose (who manufacture a high quality, but expensive noise cancelling headphone), but make a real difference, even if worn without actually listening to anything. Make sure you switch them on or they won’t work!

After some sleep at the beginning of the flight, I awoke to find a wash bag on the armrest between me and my companion. The wash bag (which is a white canvas type thing) contained the following items: -

• Roll on deodorant
• Comb/Brush
• Bvlgari Refreshing Towel
• Chrome Azzaro After Shave Balm
• A Gillette Razor and Foamy Regular Shaving Foam
• A packet of tissues
• Mouthwash
• Rodger & Gallet Eau do Cologne
• Oral-B Advantage toothpaste
• Full size travel toothbrush

Moisturiser, toothbrushes and some other items were also available in the toilets in business class.

jakesterUK

The 12-hour flight had three food services; a light meal on departure, a savoury snack about 6 hours into the flight and Breakfast before landing (this was odd as the flight landed at 5pm, but c’est la vie!).

Again, all food was excellent, and very well presented. The service was much more organised on this flight, and was completed more rapidly than that on the first flight.

As the flight arrived at 5pm, I tried to get sleep on the earlier leg from London to Dubai, and just slept for a short while (3-4 hours) on this flight. I managed to stir myself after about 4 hours and remained awake for the rest of the flight. Adjusting to the local time as soon as possible after departure certainly seems to help adjust the body-clock for the West Australian time-zone.

The flight went reasonably quickly, though did drag towards the end. I would ask Emirates to continue to enhance their in-flight Entertainment product, which although good could be improved further – this will help long flights pass quicker.

Fliar

Great report ^

Would be very interested to hear more about the catering. Do you happen to have a menu transcript?

jakesterUK

This is the point in the trip when I expected things to start to go wrong – however this was not the case. Aside from the fact that I have always dreaded immigration into Australia (in my experience Australian immigration and customs were on par with US immigration and customs in terms of suspicion of all passengers and aggressiveness and rudeness – which they mistake for assertion!), both Customs and immigration were smooth and friendly processes. Have they received some customer service training? I expected to have to search for the chauffeur car on leaving the arrivals hall, but our chauffeur was waiting, card in hand to take us to our final destination.

One tip for all passengers going through customs in Australia. Do not believe for one second that you will sneak that food item into the country – you really will be in trouble if you try (someone was recently fined $10,000 AUS for bringing food into the country). Also, declare everything that they ask you to declare – customs treat you with respect and good humour if you talk to them about what you are bringing into the country. We were taking a present into the country which had shells on it – we declared it, they checked it and everything was fine. Honesty really is the best policy.

Our chauffeur was overly chatty and really into talking about himself. However, we were quite tired and relieved to be less than 45 minutes from our final destination, so we let him banter on to himself.

All in all, to this point, I would rate the experience with Emirates very highly. With pleasant flight crew, clean and spacious aircraft, and efficient and friendly operations.

jakesterUK

I've got menus from 3 out of 4 trips, so I will post them for you when I've scanned them. I'm not typing them all out!

Watch this space!

Mogensen

thanks for a great EK C trip report. Happy to hear of others that have had a good EK experience.

If you have any comments about the seating please do throw a post Emirates Ultimate Seating Guide

jakesterUK

Business Class, Heathrow – Dubai

Low Calorie Meal Option

Emirates is pleased to offer a low calorie meal option in this menu for the health conscious traveller.

This meal is highlighted by the low calorie logo and the calorific value next to the dish.
Please enjoy the meal and remember to drink plenty of still water to aid the digestion and to help make your journey more comfortable.

No pork products are used in the preparation of Emirates cuisine. All meats served are prepared according to the Halal method.


Bar Service

Aperitifs and Cocktails
Sweet or Dry Sherry, Campari, Dry Martini,
Sweet or Dry Vermouth, Gin or Vodka Martini Old Fashioned,
Bloody Mary, Manhattan. Negroni.
Sours: Whisky, Gin, Brandy, Gin fizz, Tom Collins.

Champagne Cocktails
Hiqhballs: Whisky, Brandy, Gin, Rum.

Wines
A selection of wines from the finest vineyards of
the old and new world,
Champagne Brut.

Spirits
Whisky: Scotch, Malt, Bourbon, Rye.
Gin, Vodka, Bacardi Rum.

Liqueurs
Drambuie, Cointreau, Tia Maria, Cognac V.S.O.P.
Baileys Irish Cream. Late Bottled Vintage Port.

Beers
Assortment of Beers

Soft Drinks
Fruit juices, Cola, Ginger Ale, Tonic Water,
Natural Spring Water, Iced Tea.


Lunch

Canapes
A Selection of Cold Canapes


Appetizers
Arabic Mezze
a selection of Arabic mezze. which includes stuffed aubergine with hommous, fatoush salad, grilled halloumi, lamb kibbeh

Smoked Tuna
smoked tuna filled with crabmeat and creme fraiche, accompanied with a prawn, served on a new potato slice, offered with lemon and orange dressing


Salad
Seasonal Salad
fresh seasonal salad, offered with a choice of dressings


Main Courses
Marinated Lamb Loin
lamb loin marinated in Arabic spices, enhanced with a mild baharat jus, served with broad beans and artichokes, accompanied with okra and tomato concasse and saffron rice

Sauteed Chicken Breast
rosemary and thyme flavoured chicken breast, filled with smoked cheese, served in a basil and sun dried tomato coulis, accompanied with Mediterranean vegetables and spinach dauphinoise potatoes

Fillet of Salmon
pan seared fillet o salmon, topped with baked polenta crust, served in a preserved lemon sauce, accompanied with roasted chilli potatoes, baby carrots and zucchini sticks

Grilled Veal Medallion (291 K calorie)
your choice of a low calorie meal will be grilled veal medallion, served in a sun dried tomato jus, accompanied with pak choy and Asian noodles


Desserts
Chocolate Banoffee Royal
biscuit base topped with a rich chocolate ganache, encased in a banana creme bavarois. served with toffee sauce

Plum and Vanilla Wedge
vanilla sponge pudding with a layer of plum and lopped with crumble, served with vanilla sauce


Cheese
International Cheeseboard
a selection of international cheese, served with crackers, grapes and crudités


Fruit
Selection of Seasonal Fruits


Beverages & Chocolates
Tea: Ceylon, Green Tea. Earl Grey. Camomile
Coffee: freshly brewed or decaffeinated
Espresso or (cappuccino coffee will be available at any time during the flight, except Airbus A310 aircraft


Savoury Snack


Sandwiches
Selection of Open Sandwiches

Bresaola
fine slices of smoked Italian beet, topped with cream cheese and served on French bread

Sesame Chicken
chicken breast with mayonnaise and coriander, served on whole wheat bread

Grilled Vegetables
marinated and grilled vegetables, served on French bread

Hot Smoked Salmon
hot smoked salmon mousse with herbs, served on whole wheat bread


Pastries
a selection of mini pastries, which includes chocolate éclair, raspberry barquette, cherry frangipan iced tart and diamond baklawa


Beverages
Tea: Ceylon, Green Tea. Earl Grey, Camomile.
Coffee: freshly brewed or decaffeinated
Espresso or Cappuccino coffee will be available at any time during the flight. except Airbus A310 aircraft.