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.]
Sorry it’s a bit slanted, but you can see the “Web Checked-In” area in the back left is a lot less crowded than the regular check-in to the right.
the flight itself
the plane
first off, you can’t go wrong with my favorite plane, the A380.
Delicious.
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.
Still at the gate at SFO
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.
One of the odder selections
There were two Airshow channels, but they both seemed to show the same thing, just at a slightly different point in the rotation? Or maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention. There are also, of course, the three external cameras, one on the tail, one on the belly, and one at the nose.
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.
Lamb biryani. Quite delish! (the lamb is hidden under the rice.) Other choices were chicken stroganoff or a paneer and vegetable korma.
Scrambled eggs breakfast (which really should have been dinner, since we landed around 7:20 PM, though they start serving 3 hours prior). Other choices were an omelet or chana masala with samosas.
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!