DOH - DXB (NO REPORT) DXB - LYS (YOU ARE HERE) NCE - DXB (TO COME) DXB - DOH (POSSIBLY TO COME)
And now, as the Emirates safety video would somewhat say: Sit back, relax; and enjoy this flight (report)
Now that school was finally over (finished 9th grade :P ), summer finally arrived! As usual, I am going to go to France for 5 weeks and then return back to Qatar where I live.
On a warm Sunday 28th of June morning, my mom and I woke up ready for our departure to (this time) Lyon. We almost usually land in Paris, but this time, landing in Lyon seemed to be more convenient for some reason unknown to me.
We arrived at Hamad International Airport at 6:30 am for our flight to Dubai that departed at 9:45 and arrived at DXB local time 11:45.
Everything went smoothly and I was then face to face with our bird for this short flight. A boeing 777-300 (non ER) with registration A6-EMV:
Fligth was good overall, and I experienced for the first time a crosswind landing due to high winds, possibly because a sand storm was present.
Taxi at DXB was the shortest of my life (we exitted the runway, and our parking gate was directly straight beyond that point). It was also the shortest transfer of my life, as we only took 5 minutes from the point when the wheels touched the ground to the point where we had cleared security. :O :O
Thus, we made our way to gate B26 (we had take the train to get there) for our onward connecting flight to Lyon. At the gate, I could see a B77W with registration A6-ENS, which meant the newest cabins with a massvie 12 inches personal TV screen (PTV). I thus got all excited!
Some views of A6-ENS.
As you can see, DXB airport is not very spotter-friendly with these windows…
BUT… when the boarding was announced, and passangers were able to go down to the waiting area on the bottom floor, my excitement quickly disappeared when I saw that our true plane was A6-EBQ (the plane had been hidden from my sight whilst on the top floor), making its fist flight in 2006 and having 9 years. This evidently meant that we were going to be stuck with the old style cabins. I also know that all Emirates B77W with a registration in the form of A6-EB… have old cabins.
Disappointing PTV size, especially when you have known the 12 inches :P Movie selection (particularly French moves) was very poor.
Overhead Pannel:
The load factor in this flight, I would say, was about 80 percent based on my cabin walkthrough I made later during the flight. My mom and I were seated in row 30, in the first two of the four middle seats (seats D and E). Next to me, the seat was empty, and the last seat of the 4 seats was occupied by a woman. However, once boarding was completed,the woman moved to the row in front, where the four middle seats were vacant. This consequently meant that we luckily had two extra seats for just us two. Tons of space! Therefore, the narrowness created by the 3*4*3 configuration was not an issue at all.
Seat Pitch was very good:
Some random pics:
Adjustable Headrest and other features:
Push back was done 2 minutes before schedule. Taxi to runway 30R, followed by a shaky take off.
10 minutes after take off; the video that explores the aspects of ICE entertainment system was launched, thus pausing my movie I had already started. This was really annoying. Plus, on all my previous flights, this video was lauchned while on the ground after the safety video, not whilst in flight…
Speaking of the IFE system…
Each time you want to watch a movie, or watch some TV programes, you have to skip 3 minutes of exasperating advertisements. This really got on my nerves! The problem is made worse as, with this old IFE, there is no timeline bar showing how many minutes remain on whatever you are watching, or how many minutes have gone by since the start of your episode. With Emirates' latest IFE; you can simply click on the timeline bar in order to skip the advertisements. Here, you have to continuosuly press the screen until you have skipped the ads. And sometimes, you will find out that you have pressed too much, and gone to the end of the episode… (All of this is provided you want to skip the ads :P )
Moreover, the IFE, although having a decent resolution, was not very responsive at times. In addition, even though I appreciate the fact that there was 6 episodes of the newest season of The Big Bang Theory (Season 8), I would appreciate that the 6 episodes present are the 6 first ones, not just 6 random ones from the entire season…
Menus were distributed:
Another thing that caught my attention was the MASSIVE IFE boxes under 3 of the 4 middle seats. WOW! That sure must reduce leg space by A LOT!
For the first time on all my Emirates flight, no appetizer (savoury snack + choice of drinks) was served… I did not understand why. Lunch service was directly served over Iran.
I asked to take the salmon, but, the fligth attenetant responded by saying that the salmon was gone, confirming that everyone had asked for it. OK, seriously, this was unacceptable. I do not even understand how and why there was no salmon, given I was certainly not at the back of the aircraft. (Unless the cabin we were seated in was the last one to be served?)
The overall lunch:
The salad was very good! Well seasonsed and refreshing:
The chicken was very disappointing. I did not like the sauce, and the vegetables were too hard. :/
Then, finally, the drinks service came. I do not understand why they do not directly offer the drinks sevice when they hand you your lunch… I took an apple juice.
Love the little spicy sauce you can eat with the crackers:
The dessert was excellent:
The tray is very small:
After the lunch,; I got the opporunity to take some (blurry) shots of the wing:
I decided to take a nap, and for some reason, slept very well and woke up here: (Romania I think)
Yes, we are quite indeed in a Boeing aircraft:
We flew over Croatia and hit some turbulences. A pre-arrival snack was then handed out:
The bun of the sandwich was disgusting. It was all wet and soggy. The cookies, on the other hand, were excellent.
Orange mood lightening throughout the entire flight…
Some more random shots:
The flight path:
We started our descent into Lyon, with some nice views of the Alps I managed to get from my seat. We landed on runway 36R with some 25 minutes before shcedule.
Some seats:
The only shot of the business class I could get:
Some blurry shots of the plane as we disembark:
We have arrived at the end of this fligth report. I hope yoyu have enjoyed reading it. Feel free to comment and ask any auestions you ay have. Safe Travels!
Etienne16
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Verdict
Emirates
7.1/10
Cabin8.5
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi6.0
Meal/catering6.0
Dubai - DXB
9.2/10
Efficiency10.0
Access8.5
Services9.0
Cleanliness9.5
Lyon - LYS
8.6/10
Efficiency9.5
Access8.5
Services8.0
Cleanliness8.5
Conclusion
OVERALL, a very disappointing flight with Emirates, particularly when compared with all my previous flights with them.
Cabin Comfort:
The positive points include a great seat pitch; a lot of space, comfortable seat since I maanged to get some good sleep.
-0.5 because, the massive IFE boxes take up a lot of space. True, it did not impact me at all; but when you consider that Emirates uses these planes to fly all the way to Australia :O
-1 because it was the old cabin. Yes, I know, I am very picky :P. But, simply having the old cabin was a big disappintment for me, and contributed to an overall flight experience that just was not as good. Plus, the cabin just does not look very modern anymore.
Cabin Crew:
They did their job. That is it.
-1 because they did seem rather cold and distant. Not as engaging as I have known before. -1 because there just was not that extra little detial that made me think: WOW!
Meal and Catering:
The BIG bummer of the flight:
-1 because, for some reason, there was no appetizer. -2 because ,my first choice was not available. Ok, seriosuly; this is totally not OK. If I was seated in row 45, for example, I would understand. But why in row 30? Plus; QR and Etihad offer 3 choices of meals, and EK still offers 2 on these flights to Europe. This means that when one option is gone in EK, you have no other choices... -1 because the bread served is cold and not very good, unlike EY who I know serve hot bread. Plus, the pre-arrival bun was disgusting.
Entertainment:
Again, the big bummer of the flight:
-1 because; the screen,; althoght not small; is definitely not big. -1 because it is not very user friendly. The interface is very old and not modern, and it is not very resposnive at times. -0.5 because my my movie was paused for 5 minutes as the ICE video played in the air. I would rather have it paused while on the ground, but certainly not in flight. -1.5 because the movie content was very poor, and there are just way too many ads!
On-time perfromqnce:
Irreproachable. Perfect! Arrived 25 minutes before schedule.
I think that the big over arching problem with EK is the lack of consistency; namely:
a) Amongst its flights (some very good, whilts others very poor) b) Amongst its hard product across its fleet (eg: The business class on A380 vs B777 for instance).
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Those 3 minutes of advertisement seem common to all ME3. Too bad you finally got this old cabin. Even if those PTVs looks way better than the ones in some other airlines... Nice looking salad. The tray is too small...
Thank you for your comment! Yes, it is true that I should not complain much about the PTV size. Haha, I should be glad I actually have a PTV. When I used to take American Airlines from DFW to CDG, PTVs did not exist. I still believe that on their 763, AA does have PTVs. :P
Thanks for sharing this detailed report! What a shame that the catering was disappointing--that is usually EK's strong point. With such tight space in a 3-4-3 configuration, the PTV and meals are important to distract from the back pain :-P Aside from the catering (which I would probably find good, being used to US carriers, lol) the rest of the flight seems really decent and I love how huge those PTVs are. The Lyon route must be doing really well for EK as they are sustaining a 77W daily. This must be the larger commercial aircraft in and out of LYS.
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4 Comments
Those 3 minutes of advertisement seem common to all ME3.
Too bad you finally got this old cabin. Even if those PTVs looks way better than the ones in some other airlines...
Nice looking salad. The tray is too small...
See ya!
Thank you for your comment! Yes, it is true that I should not complain much about the PTV size. Haha, I should be glad I actually have a PTV. When I used to take American Airlines from DFW to CDG, PTVs did not exist. I still believe that on their 763, AA does have PTVs. :P
Have a gooda day!
Aside from the catering (which I would probably find good, being used to US carriers, lol) the rest of the flight seems really decent and I love how huge those PTVs are. The Lyon route must be doing really well for EK as they are sustaining a 77W daily. This must be the larger commercial aircraft in and out of LYS.
Thanks for sharing!
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