Here is our in-flight review for our 14 hour, 15-minute flight on Emirates Airlines.
Scheduled flight departure: 9:40am
Boarding time: 8:40am
Actual departure time: 9:45am
Lisa and I had seats 35 J and K towards the back of the plane, a window and a middle seat. However, Lisa wanted to get the aisle seat for this long flight so that she could access the restroom and take some stretch breaks without disturbing too many people. So when our seatmate arrived, he agreed and actually preferred the window seat so it worked out just fine. Here’s what to expect on this flight… (time is based on Pacific time zone)
9:50am lift off
10:10am lunch service begins
11:15am meal trays are collected
12:00pm cabin interior is dimmed, shades are down
1:15pm Lisa goes to bed
1:30pm I try to go to bed, but spend ten minutes looking for my lost eye mask and then having to make something else up
3:42am My eyes open, I’m back awake
4:00am snack served
8:30am breakfast service begins
10:47 flight lands safely
Business class and first class passengers get these fancy lie-flat seats, but Lisa and I aren’t going to fork over a thousand bucks for this upgrade.
Lisa is thrilled to have an aisle seat
each passenger gets these cool little stickers that are used to inform the flight attendants whether or not to wake you up. I didn’t quite understand the Duty Free shopping sticker … they never came around with products to sell and most of the shopping was via a magazine.
I didn’t read that you were supposed to place the sticker near the headrest of your seat — I thought you were just supposed to put it on your head. Fortunately for me I didn’t miss any meal service at all!
There is a ban on our return to the US for on-board electronics, so no Kindles or headphones or laptops. We should be able to survive, as Emirates has a huge catalog of new movies and entertainment options to keep us occupied for hours on end. During this flight, I read some tourist books and watched three movies.
Food service menu. Lisa pre ordered the gluten free option, so here food selections were slightly different.
Lisa’s gluten free lunch. She was mostly happy…
My choice, the vegetarian lunch. I ended up trading the raspberry cheesecake dessert with Lisa for her fruit.
Mid flight snack… this is a chicken and grilled eggplant sandwich on gluten free bread for Lisa.
Meanwhile I received the cheese pizza, which I was able to get off one bite before trading with Lisa because she was really craving this one instead of hers.
Gluten free breakfast. Lisa is not a huge fan of tomatoes, so she skipped out on eating hers.
I loved my breakfast, choosing the frittata
When meals where not being served, passengers could help themselves to these snack items. I took the last Kit Kat!
Cabin interior with a 3 seat – 4 seat – 3 seat configuration.
Overall impressions:
Fourteen hours is a long time to be on a flight. Fortunately for us it was:
#1 a nonstop flight
#2 we had an aisle seat so we were able to use the bathroom multiple times and get up to take a walking stretch whenever we felt like it
#3 it was on Emirates, which is considered one of the best airlines in the world.
Our seats were comfortable enough for our flight, of course we wished that he had a little more leg room and wider seats. Each passenger received an amenity kit that included compression socks, eye mask, ear plugs and disposable toothbrush and toothpaste. And our entertainment options were just about unlimited. One of the coolest things they had was outside mounted cameras that I could access on the screen, so even though the window shades were closed I could always look out to see the clouds and the sky and views. Our service was pretty good, as our flight attendants made frequent passes through the cabin with water and drinks. Bottom line is that we had a good flight and would definitely want to fly with Emirates again!