FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Travelling the world for 6 months... My sabbatical leave experience
Old Jan 30, 2019, 1:40 am
  #78  
palmanfr
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: In between BRU, AMS, DUS and LUX...
Programs: AF/KL Plat, BA Gold, A3 Gold, IHG Diamond, MR Gold, HH Diamond, ALL Platinum
Posts: 1,041
Lufthansa lounge DXB

I haven't posted much for a while... And the reason is that I am enjoying quite a bit Australia and New Zealand ! Since I am still booking some accomodation and flights for the next destinations, my days are quite full already so I decided to put the blog and this FT thread as a second priority as I have the rest of my life to finish those reports :-) For the time being, I decided to enjoy the moment, and report whenever I can...

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After a few days in the U.A.E, where we briefly visited Abu Dhabi, it was time for my best friend to fly back to France on the direct EK flight to Lyon, departing in the early afternoon.

Myself, on the other hand, was flying the short fifth-freedom flight to Muscat, in neighboring Oman operated by Swiss as a continuation of the Zurich to Dubai flight. This flight was by far the cheapest air option available, and I booked this seat for 74 euros one-way only, luggage included, while Fly Dubai was asking for at least double this amount and Emirates or Oman Air 3 times this price.

The timing also suited my needs as it could leave me a few extra hours in Dubai to visit the places my friend was not so interested in.

The summary of our few days in the U.A.E can be found on my website : Post12 ? Boarding:Now! ? My round the world experience !

I arrived at the airport after dropping the rental car around 19.40, for a flight departing at 22.10. By the way, the rental car facilities of terminal 1 are certainly not in par with the size of DXB airport. The parking they offer is like the size of one in a Burger King…



Checking-in was not too time consuming, maybe 10 minutes in total. Surprisingly, there were several agents from data, the main handling operator in Terminal 1, to staff the few counters for this flight. I believe some were being trained as it took a good 5 minutes to issue the luggage tag and the agent was not really informed of which lounge facilities LX uses in DXB.

Since i still enjoy Star Alliance Gold benefits with Turkish airlines until the end of February (Star Alliance is not really my alliance of choice anymore), I was at the end invited to use the Lufthansa lounge.




LH lounge DXB T1

Exit immigration procedures could have been much faster if I would have used the smart gates, but since I wanted to get one more stamp on my passport, I decided to wait an extra 10 minutes in line to have the old-fashioned exit immigration check, which went without issues this time. Security control took only a few minutes to clear and I was then ready to take the sky train to the main terminal area and the Lufthansa lounge.

The Lufthansa lounge is located between the SkyTeam lounge and the BA lounge. It does not have any outside views but is separated in two different lounges, the first one on the left side, accessible to Business class and LH FTL status holders, and the second one, on the right side, reserved to First class, LH Senators and Star Alliance Gold card holders. I was invited to the second one.

The lounge has a typical Lufthansa design, and I thought I was in Frankfurt for a minute ! (besides the fact this lounge was less crowded than in FRA). Wifi codes were provided upon entering the lounge.

The catering was pretty good, with a selection of cold and hot offerings. I was certainly happy to have some good cheese !

Well maintained restrooms and shower facilities are available within the lounge.


LH DXB Senator Lounge












That guy seems to be enjoying those lounge chairs !


That's going to be my dinner for that day !

At that time of the day, around 20.30, the lounge was mostly used by a few passengers on the TG flight to BKK and some early passengers on the later LH flight to FRA. Boarding announcements were done for those Star Alliance flights.




Departure hall DXB T1


The bird has arrived...


... from ZRH



I arrived at the boarding gate for my flight to MCT around 21:40, as I saw on flight radar that the flight from Zurich did land only 15 minutes before.

Boarding started quite late, at 22.05, but was a prompt operation to complete as we were only 20 passengers to board in DXB. The other (several) passengers from Zurich remained inside the aircraft during the stopover and some were discussing with the crews when I boarded the aircraft.



Swiss International Airlines LX242, November 16th 2018
DXB Dubai – 22:10
MCT Muscat - 23:10
Airbus A330-300 – HB-JHF – Seat 29A, Economy class, Emergency exit, window.



Sneak peek into the business class cabin...


First section of the Economy class


Seat 29A

The seat was selected during online check-in as Swiss charges, even Star Gold cardholders, for seat reservation in Economy class.

As the cabin was very lightly loaded that evening, we were only 2 passengers on the entire emergency exit / bulkhead row 29 consisting of 8 seats.

The captain, who sounded like Swiss German, informed us of the very short flight duration of 40 minutes, and we pushed back next to a Saudia aircraft, at 22:20 for a take off at 22:40 with some great night views over Dubai.




Seat 29A




The cabin was pretty empty that evening...









Service started shortly after and consisted of a choice of juice or cola, served from a tray, with a back of crackers.

Note that the seat had some USB ports available and as usually the case on emergency exit rows, the IFE screen was located on the armrest.








Flying over Muscat

The approach to Muscat was colorful as most of the buildings were lit in red, green and white to celebrate the National day of Oman a couple days later.

We landed at the recently opened Muscat airport at 23:25 and I was out of the aircraft 10 minutes later.


The new airport is very nice !




As I did an online visa to enter the country, I headed straight to the immigration counters where I waited about 20 minutes to get my passport stamped and then waited another 5 minutes to get my luggage.




A bit of a line at the immigration counters...

I was outside the terminal at midnight.

I have to say that the new airport looks very nice ! This feeling was confirmed several days later when I left the country.

Overall, the flight was uneventful but pleasant and convenient, especially considering the price paid. The FA seated in front of me, a Swiss german young lady who spoke some French, was also friendly and told me it was her first time in Oman (The crew stays overnight in MCT. A different crew takes the MCT-DXB-ZRH flight.
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