Intro
Hello, and welcome to this new report. Today I'm reporting the DXB-MEL leg of my TLS-CBR trip. Here is the routing :
Routing
Flight routing
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4FRA-TLS in Economy with Lufthansa - A320
- 5
- 6
- 7DXB-MEL in Business with Emirates - A380
- 8MEL-CBR in Business with Qantas - B737
Now, let's start the Flight-Report.
Lounge Report
Since I had a few hours at the airport, I decided to head to the EK Business Class lounge. There are so many exotic destinations ! Juba, in South Sudan (the world's newest country) Kabul in Afghanistan or even Auckland, one of the world's longest flights !
On my way to the lounge, I spotted a beautiful A380. One of many…
Let's go !
Welcome to the EK Business Class Lounge ! Sorry for the photo quality, at the time of flying I wasn't a very good photographer… My most recent trips are definitely better in terms of photo quality and not forgetting to take a pic of what I'm served.
From where I sat, I had a nice view of a 777 gate. I flew them twice earlier in the trip, also in business class. The seat was… quite disappointing.
I chose a hash brown, baked beans and some asian crackers. Yum !
And there was also ice cream available. I chose mango, one of my favourite flavors :D
Looks like it's time to head to Gate A17 ! Wow, another exotic route : Luanda, in Angola.
This is the view from the lounge into the duty-free area :
One of the best things about EK lounges in DXB is that they have direct access to the gates from the lounge. So I waited for my flight to start boarding in a Business Class waiting area. Luckily for me, I found a seat !
Boarding & Seat tour
Well, looks like we're boarding !
Because the A380 has two decks (everyone knows that), I had to go on a lift to the upper deck boarding areas. DXB is probably one of the most pleasant airports in the world : convenient, well organized, and probably the opposite of FRA, which is one of the most stressful airports to transit through.
The only thing I don't like abot DXB is that some areas aren't very spotter friendly. But… wow ! Today, we will be travelling on an Expo 2020 Blue Livery A380. There are four of those in the fleet.
Our neighbour is plain-liveried :
I'm very excited !
Fuselage shot :
Welcome to my amazing seat ! I unfortunately couldn't chose a window seat closer to the window, so I had to settle with an aisle-window seat (what ?). Lucklily, I could still take photos.
What a view !
The thing I love about A380s on the upper deck : storage.
The IFE system : tablet, remote and the tv itself. The ICE system is just fantastic. You can watch live TV, which means that, even on a flight, you can never miss the matches of your favourite sports team.
Footbox isn't too small…
Minibar, which is useless, because it's not refrigerated and you can just head to the actual bar for a fresh drink. It's practical if you're ike me though, who is sometimes too lazy to get up if he wants a drink.
Socks & eyseshades :
USB and power ports.
Pillow, blanket and heaphones.
Seat controls. Of course this seat turns into a fuly flat bed.
Orange juice as a welcome drink.
And a matress for the bed is located in one of the storage compatrments.
Oshibori.
Now that I've explained everything in the seat, ime for THE thing to do at DXB : spotting.
The EK safety video is quite boring, but at least its different on the 777s and the A380s, so I don't have to watch the same thing four times.
A video about ICE is also shown :
Another EXPO 2020 liveried aircraft : this time it's an orange 777.
And an orange A380 is here too !
And one of our cousins
The tail camera's quality is not the best, but it's good enough.
FLIGHT
Ok, let's take off !
Ok, seat belt sign is off, time for a loo review (#joshcahill subscriber). It's clean and the amenities are nice. Loo review is passed !
I don't know where exactly this is, but it's beautiful and it makes me want to fly again ! Maybe soon…
Well, time to relax !
Orange juice and warm nuts… sounds like lunch is approaching !
While I wait, let's take a look at the in-flight litterature :
Safety card :
ICE magazine :
And Open Skies, with a beautiful cove !
Our route :
And our plane :
Well, while waiting for lunch, I decided to have a nap, using the excellent bedding provided by EK.
But lunch started, and I chose the light option, so just a good carrot cumin soup and dessert, some kind of chocolate mousse cake. Everything was excellent and I went for some chocolates to finish off.
The sky is beautiful… but I want to sleep now, so let's close the window shade.
At that time, we are starting to overfly the Maldives.
This is the roof of the cabin while it was on sleep mode… a sky full of stars.
I woke up as we were approaching the Aussie mainland… Around five/six hours to go.
I decided to sleep more… so unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to eat before landing.
We parked next to a Philippine Airlines plane :
Goodbye, EK A380 ?
Thanks for the awesome flight, EK !
Now, it's time to head to my QF flight to Canberra… This trip is already finished ? ?
Hi SIA380, thanks for sharing this next report in the series!
Always a nice experience on the EK A380. The problem being that the experience on the A380 is so much nicer than the 777 which doesn't offer direct aisle access...and many still have angle flat seats. Still the soft product is consistently great in J.
LOL same. Also I don't like water cold, so this actually fine for me...for the water anyway.
Yeah, it's too much. The newer cabins A380 and 777 cabins are much nicer visually. Still a lot of wood, but more subtle.
P.S. there was a typo on the date. It said 2021 so I updated it to 2019 for you since the rest of the series is 2019, I'm assuming that's right.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the comment Kevin, oops a typo, something I try to avoid...
I really hope they roll out the cabins quickly, the new 777 and A380 cabins look so much better, and I also like the updated bar area on the A380 !