i’ve flown my share of US, European, and Asian airlines, but today (err, yesterday) was my first time on a Middle Eastern airline, specifically Emirates. and yes, American carriers do have something to worry about. i really enjoyed the flight, all 15 hours plus of it from San Francisco to Dubai, in economy (natch).
pre-flight
i put myself in the very forward cabin in the lower deck and verified i was still there several times in the months leading up to the flight, but noticed that at some point 30 days prior, my seat moved twenty rows back, and at that point they stopped allowing seat changes. just be aware that this can happen.
pro-tip: check in online before arriving at the airport. at least at SFO, there is a dedicated set of counters for people who already checked in online that had no wait (compared to at least 20 people waiting on the other side). [UPDATE: forgot to mention that you can check in online but you can only get your boarding pass when departing from US airports, and a number of others, in person.]
the flight itself
the plane
first off, you can’t go wrong with my favorite plane, the A380.
the seat
second off, you get a real amenity kit in economy, something you see only in premium economy or business on European and American airlines. it has a toothbrush/toothpaste, socks, and an eye mask. the seats themselves are relatively slimline, but comfortable enough, and the seatpan slides forward when you recline so it does feel like you’re reclining more than the actual tilt of the seat.
IFE
and third off, the in-flight entertainment system is the most amazing one i’ve ever seen in an economy class. a large, HD touchscreen with a detachable secondary controller, also touch-enabled. there are 5,000 channels of audio and video, but would you believe there wasn’t a movie in the system i wanted to watch? that was fine though, at least for the trip out, since i wanted to sleep. you definitely get a laaarge variety of audio to choose from, though (including 10 Polish stations). there’s a pretty thick booklet that has all the channels listed out for quick access (you can simply enter the channel number), or you can navigate through the menus on either the large or small screen.
the internet
ahh, the internet.
more like, AAARGH THE INTERNET!!!! it’s the slowest in-flight internet i’ve ever experienced. luckily, it’s priced right for crap: the first 10 MB are free, then the next 500 MB are $1. i blew through my 10 MB really quickly (i guess with my iPhone doing background stuff?) so ended up paying the dollar, but frankly i’m surprised any of my tweets with pictures went through at all. i couldn’t even get the Gmail app on my iPhone to work reliably; i had to use the website. seriously pokey. don’t bother trying to surf the web or get any real work done. it’s fine for mostly-text stuff and iMessage/WhatsApp and so on, but don’t think you’ll be able to work on your trip plans or anything.
in-seat power
each seat in economy has a USB port that can charge an iPhone 6, every other seat has a full-on power plug as well.
food
this is another area which hands down beats western carriers. not only do you get a menu (also available online pre-departure), but the quality and quantity seem to be better.
my only pet peeve is that the soda cans are teeny (typical non-North American size) and they are ridiculously slow serving and picking up trays — as far as i can tell there’s only one flight attendant doing each side of the cabin (both serving and picking up) — at least on our side. oh, they also served a small pizza midflight but i wasn’t hungry(!) so didn’t try it.
other stuff
i was a bad boy:
in Dubai
luckily the lines for passport control were short. they also have “Smart Gates” on either side of the hall that i gather are supposed to be for automated entry. while the sign clearly states that US passport holders can use them, it didn’t work for me or the dozen others with US passports behind me and we had to get in the normal line.
conclusion
i can see why US-based airlines are worried. my experience on Emirates shows they have a better product overall (wifi being the only thing that gets negative marks in terms of hard product), although the service wasn’t spectacular (same can be said about most airlines).
it also bears noting that these airlines, like what i hear of many Middle East companies (though not limited to them alone at all), aren’t the most rights- or employee-friendly. hat tip to twitter friend Jeff (@JR_justJR) for the round-up of sketch labor practices.
in any case, here’s a little tidbit for ya!
Overheard Emirates FA say there are 7 pleats in their hat scarf, which corresponds to the number of emirates in the UAE. #themoreyouknow
— Jonathan Khoo (@jonk) April 4, 2015
Jon, nice article – and totally factual.
There is a lot for US carriers to worry about, but many US labor and corporate laws (eg: subsidies) prevent our airlines from being like this. In some ways, that’s a good thing. In some ways, not.
Hey, the world is a complex place. Lots of grey, little that is clearly black and white, an example is travel choices.