Dubai to Bangkok | A388 | Emirates Airways First
Again, a similar looking near new black coloured Mercedes Benz arrives at the hotel entrance at our scheduled pick up time. Our driver does all the heavy lifting and our luggage is carefully placed into the boot and then we are off. Despite being a 30km drive, it is not too long before we arrive at the designated First Class departure drop off area. We are dropped off and forced to do our own thing. I was really expecting good things to happen upon arrival - maybe a porter, or a host, or someone to give us assistance from the moment we go out of the car but that didn’t happen. At the same time there are about another dozen or so cars dropping more people off so it does not feel exclusive at all – especially when comparing this to Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal which really is the best lounge experience I have ever had. The Emirates’ terminal is large and new, many check-in areas so nobody is ever left waiting but the BYO luggage to the desks, that’s a bit of a negative for such an over the top airline.
With boarding pass in hand, security checks and immigration completed – we are off to the lounge. The First Lounge occupies the entire floor of the terminal and has direct aerobridges to the planes – this is supposed to make the whole experience a little bit more comfortable.
We have a 9:30 am departure so it is breakfast time in the restaurant. There is a couple of interesting items off the a la carte menu (mushroom filled crepes) but the self-serve buffet, that didn’t really excite me and I didn’t eat anything from their either. One thing about flights and lounges – I am not a fan of breakfast time. I always enjoy breakfast when I am in Sydney though where there are so many great cafes choices and am out most weekend mornings searching them out.
Boarding commences and it’s a complete screw up. There is no dedicated boarding from the lounge to our flight today and there are no announcements either. Like our drop off, we are again forced to work out ourselves how to get to the flight. We find an elevator and a staff member directs us to the floor below us. We go to that floor and it’s completely deserted. There are no connected aerobridges or staff either, so we head to the next floor down which is where general boarding is and that’s where we board from.
This is a short flight, a bit over six hours of flight time, so I work out my game plan - lunch, one movie, shower, light dinner and then we land. The crew, again very multicultural, is not as good as my previous flight. Maybe they appeared less friendly but then maybe it’s just me today, especially after a poor boarding experience. Service appeared a bit rush and they didn’t show the finesse that the last crew did.
No pyjamas were offered on this short flight, nor was an amenity bag offered. It is available on request as I have read but it is a bit awkward asking for something that should be offered in this type of cabin class.
Food was again, anything you wanted at any time, so I ordered the caviar, chilli and coriander king prawns, grilled salmon and a dessert.
I am not a caviar expert at all but it’s consistent to what I have had before, the king prawns were OK, and the grilled salmon was terrible. It was completely dry and overcooked, just like the grilled sirloin steak on my last flight. I sent it back and didn’t bother getting a replacement meal.
On both our Emirates flight there is ob-board wi-fi. There is a complimentary 10 megabyes per person and then after that, you can opt to buy 500 megabytes for USD$1.00 – sounds very good value but too bad the connection was often dropping out – and if you were connected, the speeds were extremely slow or no existent.
I experienced my second shower on a plane which was still very enjoyable. I skipped the next meal service - not that we had any fixed timing to eat. We landed on time and thankfully for those express immigration passes – which is expected for any first class flight – we bypassed the meandering queue of the general passengers and no doubt saved an hour of waiting, easily. There is a sign at the baggage carousel directing First and Business passengers to where the Emirates chauffeurs were waiting landside so that was easy and nobody was going to get lost. Sadly we are driven in a much older Mercedes Benz E Class saloon.
Overall, the Emirates experience started really well, with great crew, with great service especially my never ending glass of champagne – and then it got really ordinary, really quickly. Two out of two main meals were completely inedible for a start. The other foods were comparable to what is offered on other airlines (I mean, you really couldn’t stuff up a caviar course or a dessert course for example). The on-board shower was the fun part and now it’s ticked off my bucket list, I am in no rush to be flying them again.
Next up: Thai Airways, Royal First
And what a better excuse it is than to fly up front and fly the long way around!! But a bigger reason is ‘once you step onto a plane and walk left, it’s hard, very hard, to go the other way’. You see, this forum has corrupted me!! Flying up front – proper long haul First class that is – was only a dream not so long ago, even turning right when entering a plane and seeing Business Class was like thinking “oh, I wish I was there” or “these guys are so lucky” whilst needing to walk a further 30 rows before getting to my seat – that cramped Economy Class seat. But nowadays, long haul Business Class is just so ordinary – sure it’s nice & comfortable – but being right at the front, that’s where it’s meant to be, and that’s why I am corrupted (and spoilt) – all thanks to you guys.
but am hoping to one day. Maybe I shouldn't have used those million QF points doing all that Dom J travel.
