Emirates: Good, but Doesn't Live Up to the Hype
Written: Jan 28 '06 (Updated Feb 15 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: ICE is an awesome entertainment system
Cons: Very few empty seats, impersonal flight attendents (most of the time) Water service irregular
The Bottom Line: If you are a budget traveler, fly Emirates. If not, fly another airline.
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| teentraveler's Full Review: Emirates Airlines |
As part of the trip to India, we flew a LGW-DXB-MAA and MAA-DXB-LGW on Emirates Airlines. Prior to the trip, I had never even heard of the airline, but when I looked at their website, I saw that they had won several awards. In fact, I discovered Epinions while trying to find customer reviews. In any case, since we had booked on both Delta and Emirates, we were dreading flying an American airline and looking forward to flying the Gulf airline. In fact, the Delta experience was very enjoyable and the Emirates experience...was good, but nothing special.
CHECK-IN
In Gatwick, British Airways (naturally) and American Airlines (due to the Oneworld Alliance) are the only airlines that have their own check-in desks. The other airlines (i.e. Delta, Emirates, Royal Air Maroc) use Servisair, a ground personnel company. This is probably cheaper. Emirates operates out of the North Terminal in Gatwick. We got through check-in easily (there was no line) and left for passport control.
Once done, we went to the boarding gate. This flight was a Continental codeshare, who is a partner with Emirates.
Boarding was done efficiently, and we were soon on the aerobridge.
AIRCRAFT
The plane was an Airbus A330-200 in fairly good condition. This is the main workhorse of the Emirates fleet, and Emirates has over 25 of these aircraft. One of the good things about the A330 is that Emirates uses a 2-4-2- seating arrangement instead of a 3-4-3. This way, you don't have to say "excuse me" twice.
There was no ICE (Emirates' trumpeted entertainment system) on the plane, but entertainment present was definitely more satisfactory than that of Delta or any airline (except Malaysia Airlines).
INFLIGHT
There were no real delays, and the aircraft took off from Gatwick's single in-use runway. I managed to watch the takeoff from two cameras: one pointing from the lower front of the aircraft, and one pointing downwards. A very nice touch! Soon, they came around with hot towels, which are really refreshing.
After a while, the F.A.'s came around with lunch. There were two options: Lamb and rice, or chicken. I went with the lamb. This came with a pasta salad (which I gave to my sister), rolls, cheese and crackers, and a very tiny piece of chocolate. The quality of the food was actually very good! Unlike our previous Delta flight, Emirates had all my parents and my sister's special meals (My parents wanted a Hindu meal for the Indian food, and my sisters wanted child's meals). When I finished, a flight attendent came around asking if we wanted tea or coffee. I had tea (Don't like the taste of coffee, but that's my preference). She came around once more for tea and coffee.
On flights that do not use ICE, Emirates has 6 "sets" of television which are available on select flights. Depending on the length of the flight, Emirates will show a certain number of sets. We had two sets on these flights.
Prior to landing in Dubai, small yoghurt bars were served. I was surprised that they didn't serve another meal as it would have been dinnertime regardless of the time in either London or Dubai. This is one thing that I didn't like about Emirates in which Malaysia Airlines does. However, I did like the yogurt bars.
Transit in Dubai
We were originally planning for Emirates to set up our hotel, but apparently our travel agent forgot to mention that Emirates will only take you in if your connecting flights are within 8 to 24 hours. Our time in Dubai? 24 hours and 10 minutes. This forced us to spend over USD250 for a small room with two small bedrooms in the Millenium Airport Hotel.
DXB-MAA
So after meeting relatives, we set off for DXB. After clearing checkin and immigration, we went to Duty-Free.
It is AMAZING. There are so many shops, and none of them have tax on their products. We bought various gold ornaments for relatives and souvenirs before heading to the gate.
If your traveling to/from India, take note that the usual boarding rules will not apply. When the check-in lady tried to pre-board families, the Indians swarmed the gate and all attempted to get on the plane as fast as possible. This is in no way Emirates' fault, but natural born Indian's should, in my opinion, have the courtesy to have some sort of process.
AIRCRAFT
Again, it was an Airbus A330-200 with no ICE. We also had really lousy seats in the back of the aircraft, and had almost no legroom. Again, after take-off they gave us hot towels, which is what any good airline should do.
After about an hour in the air, the F.A.'s started serving food. You could either have Lamb, or some vegetarian dish. Since I am basically a strict non-vegetarian, I went with the meat, which tasted like a typical meat dish. Since it was all Indian, my mum and dad also went with the non-veg options, as did my older sister.
On this route, I noticed that the F.A.'s were not at all courteous, answering in abrupt and curt replies. I think that this is a route that no F.A. wants to take, as the Indians on the plane were really demanding. Again, some common courtesy would be nice.
As we landed, we got the cameras, and watched the landing. When we were nearing the gate, the passengers got up and started unloading, wanting to be the first off the plane. This was a few seconds after the captain told everybody NOT to get up until the seat belt sign is switched off. The F.A.'s did nothing about it.
Stay in Chennai
Stay was very good. Got a lot of relaxation and finished all school projects. Was very saddened to leave.
MAA-DXB
We left our house near the airport to get to Chennai Anna International, or MAA. Long lines at check-in and security. They are kinda strict, with the security guys waving these wand things around you. We got in without major incident. When we started boarding, they didn't even try an organized boarding.
We left MAA in yet ANOTHER Airbus A330-200, AGAIN with no ICE. This time we got breakfast. I really prefer lunch or dinner on Emirates to their breakfasts. The choice was either An omlette or some Veg Pongol something. I noticed though, that they gave us real cutlery on the flights from DXB-MAA and vice versa, as opposed to the Gatwick-Dubai flights. I guess this is because of a security thing that the U.S. and U.K. have cooked up. I went with the omlette. It had some fruit, and some bread. Relatively light, unimpressive fare. This flight passed without major incident, and we landed in DXB safe and sound.
Crazily, we did NOT go through an aerobridge. We actually went down AirStairs before getting on a bus to the terminal. Naturally I thought that a city as modern as Dubai would have only aerobridges, or at least some for the heavies.
We then passed through immigration to get to the hotel which Emirates ACTUALLY gave to us. They had to give us two rooms due to the smallness of the beds. Food was free, and we were content. We actually met more relatives along the way.
DXB-LGW
Since we didn't need check-in (due to the fact that we had our boarding passes and that our bags were checked to Cincinatti) we went directly to Immigration, got our passports checked, and went to Duty-Free. This was on my birthday, so my parents bought me a gold chain on which they would buy some sort of pendant. Very nice!
For boarding, they actually had an organized procedure. Very good!
AIRCRAFT
FINALLY!!!! NO MORE A330'S!!! The aircraft was a Boeing 777-200!!! With ICE!!!! As you can tell, I was extremely happy.
ENTERTAINMENT
ICE is definitely the BEST entertainment system in the air. In fact, Emirates won the Best IFE Award for 2005 from Skytrax, the top airline rating company. The movies and television programs are on-demand. There are over 500 channels of movies, television, audio, and misc. ICE stands for Information, Communications, and Entertainment. Information is basically stuff about the flight information, Skywards (Emirates frequent flyer program) Emirates, and press releases about them. Communications is were you can make phone calls and emails at a considerable fee (Why you would ever want to pay $5 a minute for a phone call is beyond me). If you want the good stuff, though, go directly to Entertainment.
I watched stuff the whole time I was in that 777!
SEATS
The one gripe I have with the 777 is that the seating configuration is not the best if you want width. I am relatively skinny (for an American) but I found the seats very cramped. There are no extra seats to be found on the flight, so no place to stretch out. This is what doesn't attract me to Emirates, is that the popularity of the airline is so large that the flights are jam-packed.
FOOD
They actually gave us more than they did on our last flight! First, they gave me a chicken sandwich thingy and a cookie and fresh fruit. Then, the F.A.'s came around with breakfast, which was an asparagus omlette with chicken medallion, or a cheese omlette. I had the first option.
REST OF FLIGHT
I then watched "Everybody Loves Raymond" until the flight was starting to go down, when I switched to the cameras.
There was a heavy crosswind coming into LGW, and we could see the runway veer to the left, for the runway kept disappearing on the right. However, the landing was very good.
We then collected our carryons and left the aircraft.
F.A.'s
One thing that I noticed about the F.A.'s is that they're young. Unlike the grandmotherly Delta F.A.'s on intercontinental flights, Emirates can use young F.A.'s on these flights. Unfortunately, they are not as personal as the F.A.'s on Delta, and they don't seem to be completely interested in helping you.
CONCLUSION
Emirates is a good airline. But they left me slightly disappointed with the meal service, for I know Malaysia Airlines offers higher class cuisine. The beverage services are few and far between, and I don't like the lack of personal space. Of course this is due to the popularity. I would not recommend against Emirates, but if you have enough money but are flying in coach, I would recommend a slightly less popular or higher priced airline.
ALLIANCES
Emirates is not a member of any alliance as of now. I have heard rumours about it joining the Star Alliance. However, they are partners with one Star Alliance member (United), two Skyteam members(Delta and Continental), one future OneWorld member (JAL Japan Airlines), and one future Star Alliance member (South African Airways). Right now, their North American destinations are limited to New York, with plans to expand to Los Angeles with their new A340-500. Even with New York and Los Angeles as Emirates destinations, their network in the United States is still to small. In order to fully compete, they need to add service to some of these cities: Atlanta, Washington, Denver, Newark, and/or San Francisco, so that they really can encourage Americans to fly them.
Thanks for reading this looooong review!
Recommended:
Yes
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teentraveler
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Location: Kansas, USA
Reviews written: 13
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