First class dining, varies by route? And gates question
 

I recently flew DEL-ABZ and back, flying EK first the first time in two years. I flew J in and F out. I have two questions

Both my landings and one takeoff were from/to bus gates. Is the bussing incidence higher nowadays due to congestion?

First class ABZ-DXB had no caviar and a pretty limited menu. The flying time, (even just on the second leg ACC-DXB) is the same as to a Western European capital. Is such variation now normal?

I'll check for myself on a forthcoming flight to CDG which will be in F but perhaps fellow posters here have info already on these matters

Thanks

Can't give a definitive answer re food, although I have never (as yet !) had an issue myself with any of the offerings or choices in First. (I do believe that some specific F items are not ordered/loaded at certain outstations, due to concerns over consistency of quality)

I do feel more strongly however about the matter of 'bussing incidence'

On final approach a week or so ago coming into DXB, after a 14 hour stretch from MEL, we were told a) that there would be a slight delay before we could touch down and then b) we would need to park remotely (no A380 stands available) and then c) there would be a further delay whilst the necessary steps and buses were 'got ready'

It all became very tedious, with the leading bus driver seemingly losing his way as we did a comprehensive tour of virtually the entirety of DXB airport ! Suffice to say that it was a full sixty minutes between actual touch-down and me standing at the baggage carousel :td::td::td: (I am not making this up ......)

A less than satisfactory conclusion to what had been, in all other respects, a perfectly satisfactory flight.

It's at times like this that I wish the likes of Tim Clark was taking a business contact (from outside the industry, or at least not directly connected to Emirates) on such a flight ; and his contact might be tempted to ask ....."So .... is THIS what the famous Emirates A380 experience is all about, Tim .......??"

ABZ = Aberdeen...

Looks like it's supposed to be ABJ? Since the post mentions an ACC-DXB leg

Yes - the variation in routes with regard to catering options is standard (for instance, caviar is only served on certain routes with average demand/expectations, as you have been caught out the wrong side of that!). There aren't standard food options across the entire network - beverage is much more standardised though.

Luckily, EK do publish menus in advance on their website for each individual route on their website (front page, right hand side menu - "What's on my flight").

If you compared the F meals served between the DXB - BKK (6 hours) and DXB - TPE (8 hours) routes on the early morning 77W flights, it is shocking how bad the later is - no caviar and full lunch notwithstanding the fact that it's a longer flight, heading towards the same region and departing one hour apart from DXB

Notwithstanding the fact I think it's a little cheap in F not to offer full meals for the gluttons no matter the departure time, EK do try and tailor the meal services to the pax profile - for instance, caviar on the Europe-Australia routes or predominately Western European originating pax - and in your example of 77W routes to BKK, the 3 class service that goes out, 418, continues on to SYD and CHC - but not on other parts of the network. Also see catering on Japanese routes (on all airlines, not just EK!).

I can't wait for my flights to japan! Menu looks awedsome!

Our 9+ hour 4:00AM DXB-CPT flight last week offered F pax only breakfast and limited Light Bites options.

http://sfo777.smugmug.com/Other/Emir...MG_1175-XL.jpg

You raise a good point. I actually don't take those where possible so I'm taking the later flight to Cpt in f. Breakfast on ek is pretty poor much better in the lounge.

Agree. Considering most pax were connecting from all over the globe (us from SFO), something in addition to breakfast would seem appropriate. Even though we ate in the lounge around 2:30AM, we were pretty hungry 8 hours later. Would have liked something a little more substantial or better than this:

http://sfo777.smugmug.com/Other/Emir...IMG_6415-L.jpg

I also agree - I hope it's a holdover from the days when the EK network wasn't quite so global and had pretty well-defined flows (East-West) but now when people come through DXB from all sorts of time-zones, they should really bump up the offerings to be a bit more 24-hour, especially in F.

Hmm....bit of an oddity, that one - but then it IS a very 'awkward' departure time as far as meal planning goes......

Like m3red, I'd definitely be eating in the lounge pre-flight rather than worry too much about the onboard offerings.

Then again .....it's also a matter of semantics where the menu is concerned. A couple of the items listed under 'light bites' would certainly constitute a main meal for most people (even if you needed to ask for a second helping .....:)) and either way, you would not go hungry during the 9 hours.

('heavy' meals and flying don't go well together for me personally....)

Thanks for your responses folks and yes it was ABJ with an ACC stop, sorry.


Ok il check menus before using my precious miles to upgrade to F ... Thanks!

Bussing is now worse than before, it appears?

Whoever planned these meals in EK needs to wake up and see the world to think that Asian gluttons like me somehow has no appreciation of caviar and will only take rice with everything else thrown in.