SIX HOURS TO NEW ZEALAND BY EMIRATES
An early start to the day with the airport transfer. Check-in is fairly quick, as is immigration and through to the lounge after a short stop at duty free. At Melbourne, Emirates uses the Cathay Pacific lounge. Here I also had the choice of Singapore Raffles lounge or Qantas First lounge. But in the spirit of trying new things, decided to try out the Cathay Pacific lounge – the last of the Melbourne international lounges I had yet to visit.
This lounge has a separate section for first class, but the separate section is essentially a sign indicating certain seats are for first class only! The usual coffee (ahh needed that) and drinks, as well as breakfast foods. The lounge is fairly small and quickly fills up. I imagine if a Cathay Pacific flight coincided with an Emirates flight it would be overcrowded. Other than having a computer terminal it is comparable with the United lounge which Air New Zealand has been using since its own lounge was demolished last year.
Despite having no status I managed to get a bulkhead row seat in business class, which is totally full. The overhead bins are jammed full and I notice most pax have a couple of carry-ons. Apparently carry-on limits are not policed as much in Dubai (where the flight originates) than it would be in New Zealand and Australian airports. A number of pax needed to have their bags stored in closet.
Settle into seat, have 1 pre-departure drink before the glass is snatched away and get into a book I’d brought with me but yet to open. After a while I realise we’d been sitting for longer than normal and no sign of departure. Various groundstaff wander in and out talking on their radios. Eventually the captain comes on the PA to apologise for the delay but apparently we have ice on the wings and we’ll give it 30 minutes to melt properly. 30 minutes comes and goes with another update from the captain that it still hasn’t melted. At some point, I forget exactly when, the ground staff leave the aircraft and we push back out of the gate to a remote stand, so an arriving aircraft can use the gate. You know its going to be a long wait when a ladder is pulled up alongside so the ground staff can get back on the aircraft. After an hour and a half on the ground, the FAs finally break open some more drinks – gratefully received. Finally, some 2 hours after boarding, the captain announces the ice has melted and so we can depart. Yaah – but what a joke. Its not even winter, not that cold, and it takes about 3 ½ hours on the ground for the ice to be cleared from the wings.
The flight itself was fairly quick and uneventful, if rather bumpy for the last 30 minutes (100+ kilometer per hour wind gusts). I’ll post the menu shortly. Needless to say the late arrival ruins the plans for the afternoon, but at least we arrived at the destination safely. Immigration is surprisingly quick given the time of day, and the poor limo drivers are grateful we have finally arrived.
Service on this flight was very poor. Not only pre-departure (I thought they could have offered a second drink much sooner) but also during the meal and afterwards. Not offered all the courses of the meal
Not offered drinks – had to ask. No top ups whatsoever. Forgot to offer coffee after the meal. I arrived feeling hungry (very rare for me) and quite dehydrated despite the short flight.