Well I'm off to another overseas trip in November, and will be flying with Emirates from New York. I know most of the EK FA's whose blogs I have been following fly the Boeing 777-300ER which is what I will be flying on. It was just too expensive to fly the Airbus A380 out of Toronto. (After I booked the special from New York, they go and reduce the fares out of Toronto...C'est la vie).
I've basically flown the very same route before, that is getting into New York via La Guardia on AC and then EK from JFK all they way across the pond. Except the flights on Emirates previously were on the Airbus A340-500, such a gorgeous plane to look at, but so tight with space when it came to the seat pitch. On the way into Dubai I was kicked in the back of my seat ever so often, during the +12 hour stretch, that on the way back I sat in the last seat, which had limited recline and was really cramped than the rest due to the curvature of the aircraft, both of which I was well aware of when I selected it online. Also http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Emirates_Airlines/information.php had warned me about this before hand lol. However, that was the start of me booking these last seats on every flight if possible, and being a window person that is sometimes not possible, so i'm usually somewhere along the last few rows. I am not one to sleep on planes and not having somebody behind me makes it so less traumatic. I remember on an AC domestic flight I had this huge guy behind me who held the top of my seat with one hand, shaking it furiously as he laughed hysterically to the show he was watching on the seat back video. I had to call an FA to have him stop it, or I would have had to resort to stabbing the top of his hand with my fork!!
However this trip on Emirates is going to be the test of the EK FA's being called "a bag of mixed nuts", which has been repeated over and over again on Airline trip report sites like www.airliners.net. I know not all flights are perfect, but when you keep on seeing this inconsistency in the level of service, it's difficult not to be a bit more observant next time. Now it would make a world of a difference if one of the EK FA bloggers whose blogs I avidly follow is on board, as that might distract me from keeping an eye for the service; I will be chatting them up instead, perhaps do their interview while on the job!!
The service from New York is on the Boeing 777-300ER and the return is on the Boeing 777-200LR and what is quite exciting is unlike the last trips, these have the brand new uniforms out, which I quite like over the old ones, but I still need to get used to the male FA's uniforms. What is more I have come to understand that the seat back videos are huge, so it's going to be movie after movie on Emirates great and well known ICE system. I know on my flights on Qantas I watched a whopping eight movies on the sectors to and from Los Angeles to Sydney. I will be a bit anxious if we hit some severe turbulence, bringing to mind the Air France crash which was not purely due to turbulence but failed pitot tubes, nevertheless all that rocking to and fro will not put me to sleep this time like it used to in the past!!!
I was hoping to fly Qatar, as that would have definitely added to my list of carriers, and added another Middle Eastern carrier to my list, Emirates and Etihad being the other two. However Emirates' fare won my heart over lol. It was a not that much cheaper but when you are already flying on a budget every dollar counts, and especially when you had no plans to fly in the first place. Well it will be a delight to take to 39000ft and watch the clouds go by!! Well for most of the flights it's night flights, so at least if there are clouds there should be a nice full moon to go with them to blanket them nicely with the soothing moonlight!!
Here is the slideshow from the last trip on Emirates.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcopolovoyager_2001/sets/72157600652466159/show/
And I also flew Emirates DXB-KHI-DXB when I flew on Lufthansa from Toronto to Dubai en route to Karachi.
Sorry adding both the slideshows here which include the Emirates/Lufthansa portions
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcopolovoyager_2001/sets/72157604394577438/show/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcopolovoyager_2001/sets/72157604398938711/show/
