krazykanuck

Preface: It was a boring afternoon at the end of July and one of my co-workers stumbled across the EK mistake fare from IAH-KWI for $387 connecting through DXB. Even with earning only 50% while crediting to AS on 17,408 miles flown, it results in 4.45 cpm. This was alerted in the FT Mileage Run forum too, though we did it mainly as a trip and not a MR. So after a bit of deliberation, four of us booked it for a long weekend leaving IAH Thursday evening and returning Sunday evening with the longest stopover we could manage in Dubai (~22 hrs). Our other coworkers thought we were insane. For a few moments, I thought we were insane too, but whatever. I figured, for $400 plus incidentals, it would be a great experience with a couple friends. Final routing was IAH-DXB-KWI, KWI-DXB-IAH and we’d be gone for 72 hours measured from CST. We would have liked to go a bit longer, but ran up against lack of vacation time and other constraints.

I saw a lot of other FTers booked this deal and despite digging through search results I couldn’t find any recent trip reports that profiled EK in Y. Of course we have more F and C reports than we can shake a stick at, so I figured I'd write up EK in Y for all of you in the event an MR or angry company person makes you fly this cabin.

Sections, all flights in Y, and no hotels:

-EK 212: IAH-DXB (777)
-22 hours in Dubai with no sleep (fancy restaurant, trashy clubs, nice bars, sand dune excursion, and a few random thoughts)
-EK 857: DXB-KWI (A380)
-KWI and the Pearl Lounge at KWI
-EK 854 KWI-DXB (777)
-Marhaba Lounge in DXB T3 Concourse A
-EK 211 DXB-IAH (777)

krazykanuck

We arrived at IAH at an uncomfortably tight T-90 since work kept us past our scheduled leave time. Thankfully we did the passport check and got our BPs pretty quickly, though security at Terminal D was pretty slow. I snuck into the KLM Crown Lounge for a quick beer and to change out of my work clothes and repack my only bag, an overnight bag. No sooner than I walked up to the gate I realize that they are already at my boarding group. We wonder into our home for the next 14-16 hours (depending on direction), which according to an article I found, makes it the 6th longest commercial flight in the world. Wow... They have a large selection of national US and UAE newspapers free for the taking in the jetbridge.

My coworker/friend (let’s call him CO for short) and I had booked 31H and 31K with the hope that nobody would take the middle seat. Fate was on our side since it was empty when we pushed back. Load in Y was probably 85-90%. We were greeted by Y amenity kits, headsets, pillow, and blanket. Once seated, the FAs brought around printed menus and hot towels.


Y amenity kit


Legroom shot



The thing I am probably most impressed with on EK is how efficient and frequent the cart passes are. From where I saw, it looked like they deployed 3 pairs of FAs on each aisle staggered through the cabin so nobody had to wait too long. They also came back with the drink cart twice after the main meal. All of the FAs on this flight were terrific – friendly, attentive, attractive (I’m a single guy, I have to mention that!), and willing to accommodate any request we threw at them.

The food was terrific, especially for economy. It beats anything I’ve had in UA domestic F. I went with the more traditional Middle Eastern meals on the flights and wasn’t disappointed. Here is the menu for the outbound, which is the same as what EK has posted on their web site. I had the Lamb Kofka, while CO had the chicken. I was very pleased, as was CO.

Outbound menu


Lamb Kofka


After dinner, I settled into to play with ICE, EK’s IFE system. While I’d never heard of lots of the movies and the ones I did know were old, there is more than enough on here to entertain somebody through a 14 hour flight. Tons of US tv shows, movies, etc. I liked the onboard cameras.

Taxi at IAH


Once everybody went to sleep, CO and I made friends with the 4 FAs that were awake and hadn’t gone on break so we just chatted and kept drinking cocktails. Once we had drank most of the Jack Daniels we could find, we popped some sleep aid and slept for ~6 hrs or so. A point to note is they put out platters of fruit and snack bars at the very rear galley for eating during the middle of the night.

If for some reason you’re awake when you’re supposed to be sleeping, they serve little cheese pizzas. I had one and they were a tasty surprise, though that may or may not be the residual whiskey talking. No clue what time this was, not that it would have mattered had I known the time. Let's be honest here... Still on a 14ish hour flight. I declined to wear a watch on this trip since I felt like I’d spend more time resetting it than anything else.

We woke up slightly before breakfast (which by this point is being served at about 3 pm Dubai time). CO had the cheese omelette, while I had the mixed pepper frittata. Critics said both meals were delicious. I liked that they served the croissants warm, while the bread that accompanied dinner was cold. Once everything was cleared away, we had limited time left onboard. They began to pick up headsets and blankets, and we all settled into final descent, wide awake at 6 pm and ready to hit the city. Little did we know, sleep would be elusive, but worth it.

Mixed pepper frittata


This is where I leave you for today, as I’m quite tired and have to go to back to work tomorrow. I’m also excited to sleep in my first actual bed since Wednesday night.

One of our first views:



Approximate time at end of this post: Friday, 9 pm Dubai time
Cumulative sleep tracker: approx 6 hours since waking Thursday at 6 am CST

benjahman

i'm diggin this already. good job! looking forward to the rest.

michlflyer

^ Same here. Great start to the report.

nachosdelux

Great so far!

May I ask how tall you are? I would like to get a reference for the legroom.

jacobac00

Very nice start. I enjoy the Y trip reports. That is where I spend most of my time. Seems like they treat you really well on board, other than leg room. That is just about the only thing domestic carriers get right, E+/EC/MCE.

Looking forward to the rest.

farbster

Nice trip report. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

krazykanuck

I'm about 5'8''.

Thanks for all the early compliments! I've enjoyed many, many hours of reading other people's trip reports so I figured it'd be worth the time to write this up for others.

krazykanuck

Once we landed, I made a quick stop at the etisalat booth outside customs to pick up a prepaid sim card for my phone. For only $10 USD (35 AED) you get a card with 100 MB of data, 25 texts, and 25 minutes (both usable to text/call internationally). From there we took a cab to our friend's place to begin our night. Following a quick shower, our first stop was a bar on the 63rd floor of The Address hotel near the Burj Khalifa for a cocktail. This was my first taste of how expensive drinking is here. In our limited sample size, it seemed drink prices at high end bars and restaurants ranged from $18-25 USD each for cocktails. My first impression is that Dubai is very much like Las Vegas, with hotels, bars, and lounges done in a very over the top style for no other reason than because they can. Once taking in the view of the outside, and some very interesting people watching, we moved onto dinner at Qbara.

Qbara

We had to wait a while for our table and it was finally midnight once we were seated at our table. We ordered a ton of food, and unfortunately I don't have the itemized receipt, but everything was delicious. The restaurant is a Arabic/ME fusion type of cuisine and we had everything from seafood, to vegetables prepared with local spices, to lamb, chicken, beef, and salads.

Dinner lasted about two hours before we finally gave up eating. At $100 USD per person, its far more than I'd spend normally, but for a large amount of top tier food in an expensive city, it seemed like a decent value for our only real meal in Dubai.

Live entertainment at Qbara



A partial collection of food pictures, shamelessly stolen from CO-2's photo collection. I really need to acquire a better digital camera...








Two more bars/clubs (whose names I don't remember. They were in a hotel)

We stopped at a couple bars on our way back to the apartment, but there wasn't anything too crazy to report. Needless to say, drinks were still pricey at other places and many of these clubs and upscale bars look exactly as they would in Vegas or NYC.

Following the bars, we continued to drink back at our friend’s place. It’s now about 4 am local time and beginning to get a bit tired. Unfortunately, some crazy person other than me booked us on a tour out to the sand dunes outside Dubai for some messing around in a Land Cruiser and sand boarding that required us to leave a bit after 5 am. So after drinking more and more champagne, I took a 2 minute shower and we hailed a cab to go meet our other friends and the SUV.

Tour to the sand dunes

Once we met the Land Cruiser, I promptly passed out for the ride there seeing as how it was dark and there was nothing to see once we got outside the city. Upon arrival probably 60-something miles outside Dubai, we found our play pen. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves here. It was just breathtaking, particularly since we were there right around sunrise.









Dubai city tour

Once we got back to the city, CO2 and I met CO back at our home base. We got cleaned up and headed to meet the rest of our group at the Burj Khalifa for our city tour, which would take us to Palm Island, Jumeirah Beach near the Burj al Arab, a market, and a water taxi ride. I most enjoyed the water taxi and walking from there to where we met our van. It gives such a different experience than driving through the city in a cab or our friend’s BMW.

Daytime Dubai with I believe Palm Island in the water



Beach



Water taxi



I’ll be adding more photos to this section once I obtain CO’s pictures. He has a bunch of the food from dinner.

Approximate time at end of this post: Saturday, 2 pm Dubai time
Cumulative sleep tracker: approx 7 hours since waking Thursday at 6 am CST

krazykanuck

After our tour guide was overly aggressive with how long he kept us out, combined with a big traffic jam, we arrived at DXB at only T-75, so it’s a good thing we had been provided our boarding passes upon check in at IAH. We proceeded through likely the most efficient exit border control and security I’ve ever seen. I love how the plastic bins at security automatically pop up and run through the xray, and are returned to the start via an under machine conveyor belt so there is never a shortage. We didn’t have time to do anything other than hike to our gate to our waiting A380.







Apologize how light on details this section is, but given it is roughly a 75-90 minute flight, there isn’t a bunch to say. I slept most of the flight. IFE is basically the same as it is on the 777. I think EK advertises wifi on all of their A380s but I didn’t test it out.

This was my first A380 flight and my only thought up until now is “how on earth does that thing get off the ground?” I was seated at the very front of the bottom level, but could definitely feel the four powerful engines. That’ll do it. I am told there was a meal and drink service, but I was sleeping. Somewhat surprisingly, they serve booze on the flights to/from Kuwait, despite not having any in Kuwait.

Approximate time at end of this post: Saturday, 6 pm Dubai time
Cumulative sleep tracker: approx 8 hours since waking Thursday at 6 am CST

krazykanuck

We landed at KWI and my first thought was “this might be the crappiest international airport I’ve ever been in.” Some of my co-travelers opted to leave the airport for dinner, but given that I’d have to pay for the arrival visa (my passport isn’t on the visa waiver list) and I didn’t really want to experience Kuwait City at night, I hung around the airport and experienced the unique conditions. The airport was surprisingly busy up until midnight.

A pretty depressing looking KWI



A half renovated ceiling



Some of the anecdotes include: I went into 3 different bathrooms, and of the 3, none were in any condition I’d want to use. One was in the process of flooding from a leaking sink, the other two had either perpetually wet floors and/or toilets and doors that wouldn’t lock. The airport also looked to be under renovation in some parts, while others looked like renovations began and were never finished. The airport provides free wifi, but it drops the signal so often. Mine was dropping and forcing me to re log in every couple minutes on both my ipad and my android cell phone.

The airside eating options look like a mall from a suburban American city. There is Chile’s Too, Potbelly, Starbucks, and a couple other western options.

Once I had shaken my head enough about the airport and got tired of the smell of smoke, which doesn’t really stay in the smokers rooms scattered through the terminal, and was within T-280 of my departure time, I went to go to the lounge. Somewhere in here I slept for about an hour, curled up in a chair with my head propped up against a wall.

This is also when I finally found an airport agent willing to print by BPs for my flights to DXB and IAH. I had checked in on my ipad, but I couldn’t get to the ticket counter without getting an arrival visa. It took 3 visits to the airside transfer desk to find somebody willing to print my BPs.

The Pearl Lounge

Since we were in Y, and nobody had EK status, I was relegated to Priority Pass lounges. Somewhat surprisingly, KWI has two lounges that are PP accessible: the Pearl Lounge (contract) and the Dasman Lounge (Kuwait Airlines). The latter was under renovation and they had relocated it to what seemed to be a temporary location at the end of the terminal, so I went for the Pearl Lounge, which has a permanent location on the 2nd floor of the terminal. You can only stay here for 4 hours, so if you show up sooner than 4 hours before your departure time like I did, you’ll be turned away and told to come back.

But once you get in, it’s worth it. It provides a delicious hot food selection that was greater in variety than any other lounge in recent memory, a stable wifi connection, showers, clean toilets, and comfy chairs. What more can you want? Other food that isn't pictured included fish, desserts, cold sandwiches, salads, espresso machine, and soup. The only real quirk was that I couldn't find towels for the showers. Thankfully the room had a fully stocked paper towel dispenser. #roughingit

It's just a *little* bit nicer than the terminal



Dinner - at 1 am? Anyway this is beef, basmati rice, vegetable curry, and fried chicken. All delicious, served with an ice cold Mountain Dew.



Once I had my dinner, I went back to join the rest of the party that was camped out on some couches. We shortly headed to the gate where we had to put our bags through the xray machine and walk through the metal detector. Boarding can be described simply as “the running of the gate lice”. As soon as one person got up for the call for premium cabins, literally everybody rushed the door. The GAs then had to re-scatter everybody to their seats and board methodically. We then got onboard rather quickly.

Approximate time at end of this post: Sunday, 4:45 am Dubai time
Cumulative sleep tracker: approx 9 hours since waking Thursday at 6 am CST

krazykanuck

Unlike the flight not 12 hours earlier, I was awake for this one. Shockingly awake for a 3:45 am local time departure (4:45 am Dubai time). This flight utilized the 777, as opposed to the A380. I had seat 21A since I figured a window seat would be nice for the views, which it was. After take off, the ever efficient EK crew went to work serving a light breakfast on the quick hop back to DXB. I enjoyed the food along with my breakfast Jack Daniels and diet coke. Why? Because I could. See the above feeling about Dubai. Plus, it’s always 5:00 somewhere. By this point, my body had completely lost track of what time and day it was. The entire departure from IAH to now felt like one long continuous day. Little did I know this feeling would grow worse, as I would be getting home in “10 hours” yet somehow had a layover and a 16 hour flight in between.

Breakfast snack - I've had stingier meals on domestic F flights. Croissant served warm, of course.



Sunrise over Dubai upon descent



So many EK birds - don't see this at IAH



Approximate time at end of this post: Sunday, 6:30 am Dubai time
Cumulative sleep tracker: approx 9 hours since waking Thursday at 6 am CST

krazykanuck

Once deplaning, we had to go through security immediately. I guess UAE doesn’t trust their neighboring countries to do adequate security screening, which based on the experience at KWI seems like a reasonable assumption. After a painless and efficient screening, we were on our way to Concourse A which not surprisingly is where our flight from IAH landed Friday.

DXB is a wonderful airport with one problem. While it’s gigantic, beautiful, efficient, and full of marble it lacks one thing in abundance. Toilets. CO and I were hiking through the airport looking at the toilet signs and it got to the point where it felt like we were chasing a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that never came. We finally found one and it had a nice line. Oh well. Aside from that, DXB looks more like a high end shopping center than an airport since the whole middle of the concourse is devoted to duty free and restaurants.

I left CO and CO-2 in duty free and went off to find the lounge, which was surprisingly hard to find. The Priority Pass website says its between gates A2 and A3. It neglects to tell you that it’s on the 5th floor, 4 floors above gates A2 and A3 and accessible only from an elevator. For floor snobs, that’s actually higher than the EK Business and First lounges.

I walked in and as I presented my PP card and BP, I was warned that the lounge was busy and asked if I still wanted to enter. Duh. It’s free and I already hiked 10 minutes to get here. I’m getting sweaty and want a drink. So I wonder up to the bar and the barman hands me the stiffest jack and diet I’ve ever had at 7:30 am. Not that it was a high bar as I don’t make a habit of drinking before 8 am. Yum.

I looked at the breakfast buffet but didn’t eat since I wasn’t hungry. They had fried eggs, veal sausage (can’t have that pork!), oatmeal (I think) and a couple other options. It all looked quite good.

Lounge overview



Lounge 2 – while it was busy, there were plenty of staff on hand to quickly clear tables



After a quick refill and a check of Facebook, it was getting time to start the hike back to gate A17 where my flight was leaving from. I got there in plenty of time and thankfully wasn’t bothered by the secondary security checks.

Our 777 for the 16 hour flight home



Approximate time at end of this post: Sunday, 8:30 am Dubai time
Cumulative sleep tracker: approx 9 hours since waking Thursday at 6 am CST. Still.

krazykanuck

I was one of the first people onboard in economy for this leg. Here are a couple pics from seat 30A:





I again picked this seat at OLCI because it had a vacant middle seat, so I hoped it stayed that way. It did. Mr Aisle was a nice British chap traveling on business. I'm not going to to spend a ton of detail on this flight besides the food because it's otherwise essentially the same as the out bound. Same plane, same wonderful service, etc.

We were served breakfast shortly after take off. I failed to get a picture of it, but I chose the scrambled eggs which came with sausage, potatoes, fruit, and a croissant. It was quite tasty. At this point the FA also took our preferences for the main meal which was served a few hours later.

Lunch/Dinner? This is the oriental lamb, which was far tastier than it looks.



Overall it was a smooth and enjoyable 16 hour flight. I only slept 3-4 hours on and off and because it was a daytime flight, there really wasn't a natural time where the entire plane fell asleep.

Once we arrived in Houston, I found the immigration hall to be one of the least busy I've ever seen. I was through in about 15-20 minutes and then back out to find the car, nearly 72 hours exactly to when we arrived at IAH. Overall it was a whirlwind and crazy weekend, but well worth it. We all had a blast!

Hope you all enjoyed following along and feel free to leave any questions or feedback!

Approximate time at end of this post: Monday, 2:00 am Dubai time /Sunday 5:00 pm Houston time
Cumulative sleep tracker: approx 13 hours since waking Thursday at 6 am CST.

flyr16

Wow; I'm jet lagged just reading this TR. Great job.
Thank you for posting.