Introduction

I needed to take a trip to both Asia and North America and I also needed a few more tier points to ensure that my wife retained her complimentary Gold Card via my Gold Guest List status with BA. Since moving to the Middle East, I have found it increasingly difficult to get over 5,000 tier points with BA on an annual basis but am managing 250,000 miles with EK quite easily. So I needed a OneWorld trip that would give me the requisite number of tier points and ensure that I could travel comfortably between the Middle East, Asia and North America.

Enter the ex-CMB fare from AA. Almost 1,500 tier points for USD 5,000, (thanks to Omar at Flight Spin for helping with this booking!) in F on the majority of sectors.

Flight #1
Routing: DXB-MLE-CMB
Flight Number: EK652
Aircraft: A330-300
Departure: 09:45
Arrival: 18:30
Cabin: First
Load: 100%
BA Tier Points: Not Applicable

I arrived at DXB around 08:00 to ensure I had time to have a decent breakfast before boarding my flight to Colombo via Male. The upgraded EK First lounge at DXB is excellent. Great food, amenities and service.









It was a short walk to the gate from the F lounge.



Upon boarding, the crew politely asked me if I would mind swapping my window seat for a middle seat so that a couple could sit together. I politely declined given that I wanted to see the Maldives from the air.

On board was EK's oldest F seating. It is still pretty comfortable and I am very impressed at how clean and in good condition such an old aircraft is. It amazes we why BA can't keep to similar standards.





As one would expect, DXB is dominated by EK tails.



Is it just me or does a 747 just not suit EK colours?



The flight out was pretty uneventful and we passed over lots of desert, the Margham gas fields and of course very pretty isalnds on approach to MLE.





Once we had landed, all passenegrs for Male left the plane and I was the only remaining passenger in F. We stopped on the ground for roughly one hour as the aircraft was cleaned and prepared. It was pretty uncomfortable as the APU had failed......



The cabin soon filled up and once again we had a full load in F for our short hop to CMB. The food wasn't great on board this flight; certainly not up to the usual high standards afforded by EK.







We arrived into CMB on time.



I then left the airport for my dinner engagement. six hours later I would be en route to HKG.