Review of Emirates flight from Singapore to Dubai in Economy

UAE

EK - Emirates

Flight taken on 20 July 2024
EK353
01:30 06h 15m 03:45
Class Economy
Seat 86K
Proximanova
2,377 · 72 · 0 · 14

As mentioned in my previous report on KLM’s route from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur, the third and final instalment of my Indo-Malaysian trip in June — my first time flying a 737 in 6 years — will be out only in January 2025. Until then, here’s two Emirates A380 reports to wrap up 2024, one in which I beat 2023’s record of 27 flights by one more — a total of 28. Happy holidays!


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Introduction: World’s best airport, largest aircraft, tallest hotel — and worst tech crisis!


Context: For a long time my parents and grandmother (I don’t have siblings) had been planning to visit Dubai (DXB), that most blingy of tourist destinations, and eventually zeroed in on the middle of July 2024 for a five-day trip. They’re now based in Bengaluru or Bangalore (BLR) in southern India, and would be flying directly from there on Emirates Airline (what else?): the morning EK565 on 18 July (Thursday) on the 777-300ER, and the late-night EK568 on 22 July (Monday) on the A380. For my granny, especially, this would be an eye-opening trip, given that it was only her second time stepping foot outside India — the first being to Thailand in July 2023 — and, what’s more, they would all be staying at the Gevora Hotel, the Guinness-certified tallest hotel in the world! (No, it wasn’t as expensive, even for Dubai-blingy standards, as you’d think…)

Initially they were going to do it all by themselves, but all along I’d been scheming to join them. In early June I booked my own tickets from Singapore, where I live and work, to DXB — at the same time that I thankfully cancelled my would-have-been-disastrous, no-leaving-airports miles/points trip to Northeast Asia — and in mid-June I surprised my family by saying that I’d indeed be joining them for a weekend in the moneyed emirate. Needless to say, they were overjoyed, given that they’d been secretly hoping for me to somehow come along and join in the fun. Though I’d be in Dubai for only a bit short of 48 hours, I figured the time spent with my family (I hadn’t seen them since February) would be well worth it.

With a roundtrip economy ticket from Singapore costing S$750 (roughly US$560), the value was decent, and moreover I’d be flying the A380 on both legs — and these would become my longest-ever flights. The outbound on 20 July (Saturday) would be on EK353, a 6.5-hour sector which operates entirely in the dark of the night, while the inbound on 22 July (Monday) was on EK354, which also departs from DXB in the dead of night but reaches Changi after 3 in the afternoon. Given that I’ve never been outside Asia and that I’m used to 3- or 4-hour flights, the eastbound EK354’s almost 7.5 hours in the air set a new record for me in terms of duration in the air. Moreover, this would be my longest day ever at 28 hours, from midnight in Singapore to midnight in Dubai!

Notably, these would be only my second and third flights on the A380, the first being on Singapore Airlines to Mumbai in December 2023, operated by 9V-SKV. Moreover, at the time EK354/355 was predominantly operated by A6-EUM, which was then the only A380 with a unique four-class 487-seater configuration, and I did manage to catch that special plane — I nicknamed it ’Emirates’ Unique Model’ — on EK354. Since then three more A380s have been retrofitted with that configuration, including Emirates’ newer Premium Economy product — one of them being A6-EOF, the A380 that operated this outbound flight!


For the record, this would be my second trip to the UAE, the first — and indeed my first post-COVID solo trip — being in June 2022. Then I’d flown the EK 777-300ER from and to Chennai (MAA), another southern Indian metropolis where my family lived for almost two decades before shifting to Bengaluru. Dubai remains the only destination to the west of India that I’ve ever visited, and while I would love to make some time for Abu Dhabi or Doha some day before stretching onwards to Europe, now it was best to live and breathe what Tripadvisor ranks as the number one tourist destination in the world. (Though I did manage to fly two more Gulf carriers on fifth-freedom flights in Southeast Asia: Gulf Air in 2023 and now Qatar Airways!)


Little did I know that the day of departure would be filled with the complete global chaos that had arisen from perhaps the worst tech meltdown in recent history… well, scroll a bit further to find out!


Flight routing

  • 1
    EK353 | Singapore to Dubai | 20 July 2024 | A380 | A6-EOF
  • 2
    EK354 | Dubai to Singapore | 22 July 2024 | A380 | A6-EUM (Emirates’ Unique Model… at the time)

As the world careens into a tech crisis, full-service airlines escape unscathed…


Friday, 19 July, afternoon. I had been monitoring Flightradar24 hawk-eyed, and no sooner did EK352 appear on the map on the way to take off for Singapore than I got to know the registration of my A380: A6-EOF, which was pretty decent. Unlike EK354/355, which was pretty consistently operated by A6-EUM on most days at that time, EK352/353 was a bit more of a wildcard, so I guess I lucked out with this particular bird. The older A380s (A6-ED* and much of the A6-EE* series) tend to have more outdated entertainment systems, which was a big no-no as far as I was concerned.

With Dubai four hours behind Singapore, my family was having breakfast from Gevora Hotel’s sumptuous spread, and the stream of pictures from The Dubai Mall was only going to continue throughout the day!


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6pm. But as the day progressed, I remained blissfully oblivious to the major event that had all but paralysed the world, including much of aviation and travel. Only after leaving work did I pay closer attention to it. This was none other than the infamous CrowdStrike software outage that had hit literally thousands of airports and stranded millions of passengers around the globe. Throngs of tense passengers swarmed the counters at Miami, Munich, Mumbai, Melbourne, Manila, you name it.

The below NYT collage captures the utter chaos that unfolded at airports around the globe — including Hong Kong (top row, third from left, with a woman holding a placard), though Mainland China, insulated as it was from Western technology, remained largely unaffected.


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Changi Airport (last picture above) was no different, being one of the foremost travel hubs in Asia and the world. However, here the disruptions were by and large confined to budget airlines like Scoot (Singapore Airlines’ budget subdiary), Jetstar Asia (Qantas’ local subsidiary) and independent LCCs like AirAsia, VietJetAir and Cebu Pacific. Full-service airlines did not seem to be as badly hit as LCCs, and indeed Singapore Airlines itself seemed not to be reporting any major problems. As such, this was a major sigh of relief for me: Emirates certainly wasn’t facing anything unusual. (Though it already had faced an extremely unusual crisis three months before — the debilitating Dubai floods in April!)

The bottom row shows some more reports from a BBC live-blog, with passengers stuck across European airports — many of them holidaymakers flying the likes of Ryanair and Wizz Air, but also some on legacy carriers like Air France–KLM, Lufthansa and SAS.


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After work I headed to ION Orchard, one of the most luxurious and world-famous malls on Singapore’s Orchard Road, and headed a level down to its surprisingly affordable basement-level food court. The escalator has a technicoloured, undulating ceiling, and while the ads on the walls beside are usually for luxury brands, this time they were for Lululemon.

I usually go for Thai-style cashew chicken and rice here, and I did the same, all while following the IT meltdown and how airlines were especially badly affected.


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My own A380 had already crossed the Indian coastline, and was heading towards the Thai gulf. Meanwhile, at Changi, an Aircalin A330-900neo was preparing to take off on the 10-hour once-weekly flight (SB701) to its home of Nouméa, and a United 787-9 would depart next for the 15-hour ultra-long journey (UA29) to San Francisco. I spotted some noteworthy aircraft in the air that I’d flown on before — a couple of them with special stickers.

1. 9V-SMF, the 10,000th Airbus aircraft ever built, with a special sticker. I flew this extra-special Singapore Airlines A350 to Kuala Lumpur in October 2022.
2. VT-TVE, the 50th aircraft delivered to the Indian full-service carrier Vistara, which has now merged with Air India. (The special sticker was later removed.) I flew this A321neo from Singapore to Mumbai in March 2023.
3. PK-GHE, the first of only three A330-900neos at Garuda Indonesia, which I’d flown the previous month (June 2024) to Jakarta.


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Later that night. I reached home at around 8:30 and relaxed for an hour before setting out for Changi, a mere 15-minute ride away. The screenshots in the top row are from Grab, the leading ride-hailing/multi-service superapp in Southeast Asia, but I eventually booked the ride from its competitor Gojek, which I strongly prefer for its aesthetics and tone of voice — as I’ve explained before.

As an aside, what a coincidence that the featured image in my phone’s Photos widget was from my earlier Dubai trip in 2022! Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to reach there again, this time with my family.


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10pm. With plenty of time in hand, and with all the updates from The Dubai Mall continuing to flood the family WhatsApp group…


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…I started for Changi Airport, bypassing the new Siglap MRT (subway) station that had opened only the previous month, on 23 June. It never is very long before I reach the airport, and so it was this time, though there was no plane passing above the Changi Airport welcome sign this time around — as is very often the case.

I got down at Terminal 1, or what I nickname ‘Terminal One(world)’, since six out of the nine members of that alliance* that fly to Changi — British Airways, Finnair, Japan Airlines, Qantas Airways and Qatar Airways being the full members, and Fiji Airways being the sole ‘Connect’ member — use this terminal. Malaysia Airlines uses Terminal 2, SriLankan Airlines T3 (as I flew in November in both 2023 and 2024) and Cathay Pacific, where I’d have a similar redeye flight in just two weeks’ time, the physically disconnected T4.

Terminal 1 is my least favourite of the four terminals at Changi, with T2 and T4 having mesmerising architecture and T3 being the one with the Butterfly Garden — though even this is miles above the dreary, depressingly ugly Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (excluding its new SAT-1 satellite terminal, which is much nicer!). That said, a large variety of small, interesting airlines use T1, from Air Niugini, to Myanmar Airways International, to JAL’s subsidiary ZIPAIR Tokyo, to China’s Shandong Airlines and Hebei Airlines… (Taiwan’s luxury-focused Starlux Airlines, which plans to join Oneworld in the near future, shifted from T1 to T2 in August 2024.)


*Moreover, T1 is home to some of the world’s best Oneworld premium lounges including the Qantas First and Business Lounges and the Qatar Premium Lounge. I’m planning to visit to a few of them at the end of March 2025, on a trip to Hong Kong!


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Surprisingly little impact of the IT meltdown at this late hour


With most low-cost flights for the day having departed, and the late-night full-service sectors being the mainstay now, I was spared of the utter chaos and confusion that had plagued the day — all the more so since Scoot, Singapore Airlines’ low-cost arm, is based at T1 and was severely affected by the meltdown.

I proceeded all the way to the right to the Emirates counters, near which there were some check-ins going on for Air China’s late-night CA970 to Beijing–Capital. Moreover, the ‘London rush’ had worn off for the day, with all three Oneworld departures for London Heathrow — Qantas QF1 and British Airways BA16 (both continuing from Sydney) as well as BA12 — having already closed their check-ins (the flights all depart at around 11), and so their counters were naturally deserted.


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Like many airlines, Emirates uses automated check-in and bag-drop counters like Changi, which function the same way as the ones at its DXB T3 hub with the same interface. After a brief passport scan and boarding-pass print-out (though I already had this in my Apple Wallet), I deposited my single suitcase on the belt, followed the prompt, showed my UAE transit visa to the official there and was on my way.


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Also note this interesting sign for a very niche airline, the privately owned A319/A320 operator Myanmar Airways International (MAI), which flies twice daily between Yangon (RGN) and Singapore.

For comparison, SQ operates only the early-morning SQ761 on the 737 MAX, so those looking for other timings to Yangon could consider MAI or the state-owned Myanmar National Airlines which operates 737-800s — though of course their onboard products cannot match SQ’s.


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This done, I proceeded to the WHSmith bookstore located just before the immigration area. I wouldn’t be buying any books or gifts just yet — that would come later! Instead I contented myself with buying a pair of icy-cool Himalaya Salt candies, which act as excellent throat refreshers and provide cough relief.


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Here’s something I’d never seen before: employees of Changi Airport being commended for their achievements! There were a large number of award categories, and it sure felt nice to see the faces that go a long way in making this the best airport in the world. (Full resolution here.)


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These were some of the most recent arrivals, with my A380 (A6-EOF) being joined by another fron Qantas that would now leave for Heathrow. There were plenty of planes on the ground from Mainland China (China Southern, China Eastern, Juneyao), other Northeast Asian countries (ZIPAIR Tokyo, Asiana, Cathay Pacific), Europe (Lufthansa, Swiss, Air France, British Airways — both A380 and 787-9 — and Turkish) and also from nearby (Thai Airways, Vistara, Garuda — the same A330neo I’d flown the previous month — and its subsidiary Citilink).

And those are only the non-9V/9M-registered aircraft!


Astonishingly enough, even an Airbus A350 from Delta Air Lines was currently in Changi for maintenance. That’s not an airline you’d otherwise see in Southeast Asia!


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Louis Vuitton aside, this isn’t as grand a terminal as the others


Immediately after the immigration counters you’re faced with a big Louis Vuitton store — Terminal 3 has one as well (with a massive digital display for a front façade) — which makes it clear that Changi is first and foremost a playground for LUXURY brands. (Common folk, though, still have plenty to eat and enjoy… unlike the airport that Skytrax calls the number one, Doha’s Hamad Airport, which has comparatively little for those with anything less than five-figure dollar budgets.)

The general ambience and aesthetic of T1 is a couple of notches below the other terminals, even though the shops are mostly the same. In the pictures below you find a café area of sorts, with a few stalls like Pontian Wanton Noodles and Pezzo Pizza.


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There was another WHSmith bookstore here, and this time I could not resist picking up a couple of books. Books are rather expensive in Singapore for my Indian standards — no less than S$22 (US$16) each — and so this put a hefty dent in my purse. Then again, most everything in Singapore is expensive!


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On the other side of the glass windows were an Air France 777-300ER and a ZIPAIR Tokyo 787-8, with some more aircraft like a Turkish 777-300ER, a Qantas A330 and a China Southern 737 MAX in the distance.


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Some of the expected departures around that time, skewing heavily towards Europe (LHR, IST, ZRH, MUC, MXP, AMS, CDG, etc.).


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Soon I got bored of the overpriced, underwhelming restaurants — glitzy as they may seem on the outside; T2 and T3 are much closer to the foodie paradise that Changi is renowned for being — and went straight to the gates, bypassing the immigration area one level below.


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Given that Terminal 4 is not connected to the other three, you need a bus to get there, and Gate C21 had a lobby for that. There were several departures for Europe, of course, as 11pm to midnight is when the maximum number of European flights depart from Changi — including SQ336 to Paris and KL836 to Amsterdam (continuing from Denpasar/Bali) as you see below. But there were also a few South Asian flights, like Scoot’s TR562 to Tiruchirappalli or Trichy (TRZ) in southern India, though intra-ASEAN flights are almost never redeyes like these.

My own flight, EK353 to Dubai, had commenced boarding as the clock was about to strike midnight. I was excited to board the world’s largest aircraft on the world’s largest operator of that aircraft — indeed, the only one to order more than 25 of them! (Singapore Airlines is the second-largest operator — though with only 12 active A380s as opposed to Emirates’ 110-plus — and also its launch customer. However, of the 24 A380s that SQ has operated, half are either already scrapped or will be.)


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After I cleared the at-gate security — I was relieved that Terminal 1 has low-ceilinged gates, unlike Terminal 3’s high ceilings — I waited in the holding pen as first- and business-class passengers and Emirates Skywards and Qantas Frequent Flyer elite members took their turn to board. I explained to my family the significance of flying the A380, though of course my first flight on the superjumbo — on SQ to Mumbai in December 2023 — had much more excitement!

Some more recent arrivals included a KLM 777-300ER from Denpasar, continuing to Amsterdam as KL836, as well as an Emirates 777-300ER on the recently relaunched fifth-freedom leg from Phnom Penh that would continue to Dubai as EK349, two hours after my EK353. (For the record, in November 2024 I flew the other fifth-freedom flight that the Cambodian capital has on a Gulf carrier: on Qatar Airways’ QR971 to Ho Chi Minh City.)


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There’s no two ways about it: no one could have harnessed the potential of the only full-length double-decker aircraft in the world like Dubai’s flagship airline did. This — and especially the first-class bar and shower suites — singlehandedly contributed to the wow-this-is-such-a-glitzy-glamorous-way-to-fly factor that every layman associates with Emirates. That ‘Upper Deck (A380 Only)’ sign more than helped contribute to that.

Never mind the fact that the seats themselves are hardly cutting-edge, compared to EK’s own ‘Game Changer’ 777 first class — which sadly remains confined to 9 planes for 9 years since being launched in 2017, until the 777X enters service in 2026 — or what JAL has now introduced on the A350-1000, an unbelievably luxurious first-class suite that helped the thus-far-underrated Oneworld airline to skyrocket to the top of premium-product wishlists.


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With the KLM 777 parked next door, it was now time to step on board the superjumbo and go to my seat all the way at the back of the plane, in row 86. Now that’s not a row number you’re likely to find on anything smaller than this graceful giant!


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The flight: Boarding and departure


Flight: Emirates Airline EK353/UAE353
Date: Saturday, 20 July 2024
Route: Singapore Changi (WSSS/SIN) to Dubai International (OMDB/DXB)
Aircraft: A6-EOF, Airbus A380
Age: 9 years 11 months at the time (first flight: 27 August 2014, delivered: 30 January 2015)
Seat: 86K (window, starboard side)
Boarding: 12:20am SGT, UTC +8 (8:20pm Gulf Standard Time (GST), UTC +4)
Departure: 1:10am SGT (9:10pm GST)
Arrival: 3:40am GST (7:40am SGT)
Duration: 6 hours 30 minutes

Notes:
• Second flight on the A380, the first being on Singapore Airlines to Mumbai in December 2023, operated by 9V-SKV.
• Third flight on Emirates Airline, after two flights in June 2022 from and to Chennai.
• Longest flight at the time — beating the 5.5-hour record set by a horrible Air India A320neo to Delhi in February 2024 — only to itself be beaten two days later by EK354 in the reverse direction, which set a new 7.5-hour record. That it was operated by A6-EUM, the (at the time) only A380 with a unique 487-seater configuration, made it all the more special!


How far back can you go?


Very far back indeed, as it turns out: in fact, I’d chosen Row 86 precisely because of its being in a mini-section of its own, with the right side separated from the left by the toilets, thereby giving a bit more privacy. For this entirely-at-night flight, that would help a great deal in sleeping — and, moreover, the middle seat was empty!

As always, I prefer the K-seat (right-hand window seat) wherever possible, in as high a row number as possible. While many 777s and 787s struggle to have row numbers over 50, this is never a problem on the double-decker A380 superjumbo. Waiting at 86K was a pillow, blanket, cheap headset — all the better to plug into the crisp HD display-plus-handset, my dear — and the ice magazine, which is EK’s only printed publication today now that the Open Skies magazine has ascended into the skies (ahem, heavens) above.


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With another A380 (SQ) standing next door to the KLM 777, I went straight to my single favourite section of the Emirates IFE, which really sets it apart from other airlines: the flight information page — including the aircraft registration — and the tail camera! Despite EK’s outdated-looking IFE system which pales in front of QR Oryx One’s interface, such small details, coupled with the sheer breadth and diversity of the IFE offering, are second to none. Not to mention the informative touchscreen handset, a nifty touch that I don’t think any other airline would bother to have. (Full resolution here.)


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No singing-and-dancing, no exotic locales: Emirates’ no-nonsense safety video


No sooner did I start to browse the globally renowned ice entertainment selection than Emirates’ new no-bullshit safety video began to play. After all the themed safety videos with song-and-dance routines, or exotic locales, or over-the-top commentary — among the airlines I’ve flown, Malaysia Airlines’ exaggerated dance number comes to mind — this one cuts through the mess and presents just the basics in a highly straightforward way.

Certainly, I commended the airline — all the more so being one of the biggest in the world — for presenting things as they are, while at the same time highlighting its diverse passengers from across the planet, without resorting to unnecessary theatrics. (That said, I’ll never say no to well-presented locale-based videos, be it Singapore Airlines’ soothing, charming video that I’ve seen countless times, or Cathay Pacific’s more upbeat Hong Kong-based production that was released the following month — trip report coming shortly!)


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I loved the way it started: ‘This is your no-nonsense safety video. We do not have dancers breaking into song, characters from movies or celebrities trying to be funny, I’m afraid. But at Emirates safery always comes first. … And then you all can get back to our award-winning entertainment system.’

I had only one gripe with this video: it was screened in its entirety twice, in Arabic followed by English. For those of us who didn’t know Arabic — and that means most people on the flight — there was no choice but to sit through the entire 6-minute Arabic video before the English one started. Given the perpetually on-the-verge-of-being-maxed-out storage on my iPhone, I could only take very limited pictures of the Arabic (above) and English (below) videos compared to what I usually do… but I managed to take all the noteworthy shots on the return flight.


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Below are screenshots from the corresponding OMAAT article, which I could not help but agree completely with. And also some details about this aircraft from Planespotters.net, my go-to source for aircraft data.

For those interested, there were some fascinating discussions on this safety video over at the Airliners.net forums, on how it stands defiantly in the face of far more flamboyant productions — especially Air France’s oh-so-très-chic ‘France is in the Air’ safety fashion runway video from the mid-2010s.

Or for that matter Qatar Airways’ latest safety video comedy routine featuring Kevin Hart, which straight-up mocks the ‘flat-out boring’ style of Emirates’ safety video. Yeah, I have a hard time agreeing with that…


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On my part, in my family WhatsApp group, I commended how Emirates was bucking the trend of theatrical, exaggerated safety videos. My mother called me an ‘airlines bazar’ and asked me to ‘Please own one!’

Some more interesting aircraft had landed, especially from the Star Alliance — an ANA 787-9 from Tokyo–Narita, an Ethiopian 787-8 from Kuala Lumpur (continuing to Addis Ababa) and an Air China A321neo from Chengdu–Tianfu — in addition to a JAL 787-8, also from Narita. In the meantime, a 787-8 of AirJapan — ANA’s new longhaul low-cost subsidiary, much like ZIPAIR Tokyo is to JAL — was preparing to take off for NRT, as I got to know of an Air India 777 that had to divert to Krasnoyarsk, Russia, mimicking an identical divert-to-Russia incident from June 2023.


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The next course of action was, of course, to switch on the tail camera — this was my first time using it on an A380 — as we began our taxi past the diversity of the Terminal 1 carriers, from KLM to Thai to China Southern, as the cabin lights were completely dimmed for takeoff.


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The Today’s Flight screen showed a rotating display of the routemap, speed/altitude information, local times in multiple global cities and (user-selectable) the tail or forward camera view, along with the occasional safety instruction or two. Impressively, the handset presented most of the same information in a clean, concise manner — including my favourite detail, the aircraft registration (in this case A6-EOF). While the UI and typography leaves a lot to be desired, repurposing the handset into a versatile second screen is something that only Emirates could do.


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Before long, we bypassed the rows and rows of aircraft at the stands, including a JAL 787-8 and Air China A320neo that you see below in the first picture. Then, turning to the runway, all four engines of the A380 roared and whooshed to their maximum capacity, and soon the superjumbo lifted off over the bright lights of Changi and the ships in the dark Singapore seas.

With the cabin being completely darkened, I turned my attention to a white, glowing Emirates logo located on the rear bulkhead, next to the lavatories — and the nearly seven-hour journey to the premier airline hub in the Middle East had begun.


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Post-takeoff: Airline and flight information (there’s plenty!)


Immediately after takeoff, the live airshow feed displayed the current local time in several cities across the world — all of them EK destinations, of course, no matter how far-flung they are, from Los Angeles to Auckland. Then came a notification on the main display to view the menu of the day on the Wi-Fi portal — though I wish it could also be shown on the screen, as that’s what SQ does.


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In short order, Emirates’ overview of the ice system was screened, ranging from the more everyday entertainment options (movies, TV shows, music) to live TV channels… before moving on to inflight messaging, duty-free shopping, Skywards elite tiers and donating to the Emirates Airline Foundation — wow, that’s a lot to pack in at one go!


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I was more interested in the menu of the day, so logged in to the Wi-Fi portal (never mind that stray hotspot called MY MIDDLE FINGER SALUTE YOU !) and chose the free messaging option, as there was no need to pay US$20 for Wi-Fi on an overnight flight. However, when I clicked on the Inflight Dining links, the menu never loaded at all, instead redirecting to a 404 page. And so it would remain throughout the flight, so I had no way to know what I’d be eating. Bummer…

Anyway, the Wi-Fi portal was pretty streamlined and had plenty of FAQs, but this redeye would not be an ideal flight to put it to the test. In other words, no Flightradar24 at 35,000 feet!


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Now I was much more interested in the reasons behind why Emirates Airline became the juggernaut it is, and so went straight to its about-us page. I was richly rewarded with all manner of details, from awards to sports sponsorships — this is something SQ hardly does other than the Singapore Grand Prix — to new destinations, namely Phnom Penh (served via Singapore) and Bogotá (served via Miami). (Full resolution here.)


Some more screens are in the Tourism Bonus section — fleet details, Skywards, co-brand credit cards and other such stuff, as well as an oddly extensive section on inflight cameras and privacy concerns!


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And then I delved deeper into some of the lesser-known topics, such as the Emirates Official Store, the Emirates Airline Foundation — a pretty extensive charity naturally focused on kids in Sub-saharan Africa — and then, at the other extreme of wealth levels, some of the finest cruises and luxury experiences. (Full resolution here.)

For comparison, when I flew on Qatar Airways’ fifth-freedom route from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City in November 2024, the IFE was similarly substantially packed with information about not just the airline, its award-winning services and Hamad Airport, but also the entirety of the Qatar Airways Group and how its dozens of subsidiaries are such a massive contributor to the economy of Qatar. And while Gulf Air (as I flew in November 2023) also had a similar pretty presentation with beautiful typography for its about-us screens, many other sections of the IFE were oddly lacking — a microcosm of the airline as a whole!

(Too bad Singapore Airlines has absolutely nothing by way of about-us screens, as there’s not another airline I can think of that would benefit more from having them.)


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Then I moved briefly to the live TV channels, consisting of Sport 24, CNN, BBC News — which was showing a bunch of funny, offbeat science-y reports — and Sky News Arabia.


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Catering round 1: A small midnight snack


Roughly 50 minutes after departure, the cabin crew came around with a small snack, which was served along with drinks of one’s choice — 7-Up being mine, of course. Since the online menu did not load, I asked the flight attendant what the snack was, but she was none the wiser as to which cuisine it was. ‘All I can see is butter chicken, sir,’ she said, to which I replied, ‘Butter chicken is Indian!’ (Full resolution here.)


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As passengers would largely be sleeping for the five-plus hous of the flight, it seemed reasonable to provide only a quick snack before the lights were dimmed. I had no complaints, regarding the quality of the food, since — though I didn’t know exactly when — another meal service would be coming later, closer to arrival. Meanwhile I scrolled through the movie selection (not that I’d be watching one — I’d do that on the return sector) which had dedicated sections for Disney+, Marvel Studios and Star Wars, among others.

I appreciated just how intricate and down-to-the-last-detail EK’s Indian movie selection was, whether recent movies, slightly older releases until the mid-2010s or classics. And not only for Hindi movies — which had a dedicated section for Yash Raj Films, the iconic production studio I’ve talked about in some previous reviews — but also regional-language movies in Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, etc. This shows just how much Indian travellers have preferred EK over the years, not least because of its movie offerings! (Full resolution here.)


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The flight details were readily accessible from a pop-up menu in the top left corner, with all the stats and camera views you could expect — but, for some reason, the Reuters news headlines at the top were invariably in German or French. Around 1.5 hours into the flight, I switched off the main screen and kept only the handheld controller’s display on, which was still impressively detaild for a device of that tiny size. (Full resolution here.)


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After a few more WhatsApp messages with my family, I settled in for a snooze, with over 5 hours to go. For some reason, I woke up again just an hour and a half later, and put my iPhone clock back by four hours to Dubai time, where it was now just past midnight, before drifting right back to a blissful slumber in the dark of night — whooshing through the night sky in the extreme rear of the lower deck of an A380. Exactly what I’d always dreamt of — sleeping on an A380!


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Catering round 2: A late-night ‘breakfast’ service, plus the entertainment magazine


Now I’d never been on a flight with more than one meal service, and I certainly wasn’t expecting a second meal on this overnight sector, so I was very surprised to get one. The dim mood lighting was turned on — bluish-violet in the centre, peachy-pink at the sides — as the cabin crew came around once again, this time serving breakfast! (The flight attendant, as I found out on disembarking, was Roumaissa from Algeria.)

Oh yes, breakfast at two at night, ahem, morning, Dubai time… though admittedly it was closer to sunrise in Singapore. It may not be very visible below with the dim lighting, but I went for the scrambled eggs and hash browns — with the other option being chicken noodles, which I chose on the EK354 return flight — and this was served with a very generous complement of the following nutritious items: (a) a Nature Valley granola bar; (b) a bowl of fruit; © strawberry yoghurt; (d) Menz & Gasser strawberry jam (in the teardrop-shaped sachet); (e) a drink, in this case apple juice; (f) a roll of bread with Lurpak butter, which I don’t feel is necessary; and (g) a bottle of MOMA water, as opposed to the Mai Dubai bottles that are usually served on EK. The non-edibles were a refreshing wipe, metal cutlery and tissues, and all items played their part.

All-in-all, while perhaps not the ideal time for breakfast, this was a fairly satisfying meal and ensured that I wouldn’t have to eat for the next several hours… until the scrumptious-sumptuous breakfast spread at the Gevora Hotel awaited!


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These were the flight stats, first with 2h40m left in the flight as we were overflying Mumbai in western India, and then with 1h45m left as we had crossed into the Arabian Sea. I must say, though, that all the meters and compasses (and everything else, really) could have done without the glossy, pre-2013-iOS skeuomorphic aesthetic that permeats the entirety of Emirates’ IFE system.

That said, the sheer customisation and comprehensive nature (outdated design aside) of EK’s inflight maps and flight details more than outweigh the old-school interface. (Full resolution here.) As my caption stated:


Looks a bit outdated, sure, but to EK’s credit it’s heavily customised and unmistakably screams EMIRATES. Better by far than QR’s ancient-looking map, a disgrace for Oryx One, that far-more-modern-than-Ice system… but still no match for Panasonic’s ultramodern Arc system, or even SQ A350MHs (Medium Hauls) for that matter!


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Now, with little better to do since I couldn’t return to sleep, I scrolled through my report on the previous (i.e., first) time I’d flown the A380, on SQ to Mumbai seven months prior. That being a slightly shorter 5-hour evening flight, I was able to better appreciate the IFE selection — though I’d chosen a horrible, horrible action-thriller movie (Pathaan) — and the catering and service were very much SQ-standard five-star. This, by contrast, was a flight designed mostly for sleeping your way through the nearly seven-hour journey, and so it wouldn’t be the full EK-xperience. (Full resolution here.)

Later, another flight attendant, Gina — and my caption was proof that I had a bit of a Brooklyn Nine-Nine thing going on at the time, thanks to my flatmates’ fondness of the show — cleared the trays.


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The best way I could think of to keep myself occupied was to flick through whatever was there by way of Dubai/UAE-specific content. Mind you, there was plenty for another 7-hour flight, if not longer! From the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, to the history and future of the UAE, to events and festivals, to wildlife and nature, to even a section on the Dubai Police… there really was no limit to EK’s imagination when it came to such content. (Full resolution here.)


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Just as informative and detail-packed, if not more, was the ice magazine that resembled an old-style brochure crammed with movies and shows, followed by the EmiratesRED duty-free catalogue.

I’ve flown on several other airlines — notably my most frequented Singapore Airlines*, Thai Airways and SriLankan Airlines — which have eliminated their inflight magazines and kept only a duty-free magazine in their place. While better than nothing, having only a duty-free catalogue is a poor replacement for a proper inflight magazine, though at least there is some value if the entertainment selection for the month can also be provided. This is what, despite its congested layout, the Emirates ice magazine manages to do even after the Open Skies magazine was scrapped after the pandemic. (Full resolution here.)

*While SQ does/did maintain a KrisWorld entertainment magazine after COVID-19, I don’t think I have come across a physical copy on most if not all of my flights, with the reading material confined to the KrisShop catalogue.


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There are some more nitty-gritty details of the IFE in the Tourism Bonus section at the end — including some Discovery+, Disney+ and (HBO) Max originals and song/podcast selections — for those who’re interested.


Discovering dazzling Dubai on descent


Close to landing, an extravagant — what else would you expect — tourism video for Dubai was screened, with all the key attractions ticked: the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall, the Burj Al Arab and Palm Jumeirah, the Dubai Frame, the Museum of the Future and the Mall of the Emirates among retail and amusement meccas…


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…Arabian desert safaris, falcon racing, skydiving/parasailing and other such adrenaline-inducing activities for more adventurous members of the human species (I’m NOT one of them)…


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…and, for those more culinarily inclined, a riot of flavours across cuisines and cultures (THAT’S ME!), before ending with a placard proclaiming Dubai as Tripadvisor’s number one Traveller’s Choice destination worldwide.

And why wouldn’t it be, given how the emirate has explicitly marketed itself this way for decades — and serves to be a unifying factor between typical Western and Indian travellers and sanctioned but heavily moneyed Russians and Chinese, who are otherwise kept apart from each other?


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On short final, I turned on the tail camera — there being not much use for it on this overnight route, long though it was — and witnessed a majestic nighttime landing from both the window and the screen.


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The dazzling desert lights of Dubai once again glowed unmistakably in the dark, and it was at 3:40 or so — 6 hours and 30 minutes since departure (though EK353 typically crosses the 7.5-hour mark during winter, as I understand) — that A6-EOF finally touched down for a smooth landing at her home, the A380 capital of the world. With this, my first flight on the world’s largest plane flown by its largest operator was complete, though it hadn’t quite come to an end yet.


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A post-flight survey was shown, which I of course rated as 🙂 (5 stars) for everything: there was nothing to complain about, though the all-night nature of the route provided less scope for service than the EK405 morning SIN–DXB sector on the 777-300ER. (Emirates will scrap this fifth-freedom service from Singapore to Melbourne, launched in 1996, at the end of March 2025.)

The airshow now rotated with a bunch of other screens: a thank-you screen, a Welcome to DXB screen and a reminder for those — presumably most people — who were connecting.


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DXB T3 is absolutely unmistakable when it comes to sheer recognisability, with the rows and rows of tails with Emirati flags — some of them having the new striated, fluttering flag that was launched in March 2023 — marking the start of my second trip to the emirate.

Disembarkation took 15 minutes at most, and I had almost stepped off the A380 when I remembered that I’d forgotten my passport bag on board: it had fallen down the side of the seat in the gap with the fuselage. Thanks to Roumaissa, the Algerian flight attendant — she was as pretty as you’d expect for a North African crewmember, with that Arabic-meets-French blend of culture — I was able to get it retrieved, and I could finally admire the double-decker superjumbo I’d been in for all these hours from the outside. My, my, look at those rows of windows!


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DXB T3: Not award-winning, not the best, right?


On stepping from the jetbridge into the foyer I came face to face with an HSBC ad, of the same kind that you’ll find everywhere at Changi. Then I turned into the brightly lit-up arrivals corridors — with the emphasis on the signs clearly being on connections — and eventually arrived at the elevators which would take me a level down to Immigration and Baggage Claim.


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I could not miss one of the striking art installations that had been put up right in front of the elevators, akin to the sculptures you’ll find at Changi as well as my two favourite Indian airports, BOM and BLR. (Full resolution here.)


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At the immigration counters, I showed my passport at the Smart Gates and entered Emirati territory without further issue… but that also meant that the free SIM card that’s handed out at the regular immigration counters was virtually useless in my case. Fortunately I was able to activate it using my grandmother’s credentials, ensuring that I remained on du’s 5G network throughout!


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Logging in to the airport Wi-Fi portal was seamless, with unlimited free connectivity — and this OMAAT article from eary 2018 emphasises just how easy it is to connect to DXB Wi-Fi. Changi, in contrast, used to require a lot of hoops to jump through (as per that article) but I suppose the process has eased in the years since, especially after COVID.

The very worst in my experience is Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. Already one of my least favourite airports in ASEAN in terms of design, the Wi-Fi is one of the worst aspects about BKK, as it forces you to enter an unnecessary email (that’s not even verified later), watch a loud Thai ad and what do you get at the end? Just one hour. Shame on you, BKK, and very well done, DXB!

On the Flightradar24 side of things, most of the Emirates arrivals, mine included, were from East Asia in the EK3xx series. In addition to my EK353 from Singapore there were EK303 from Shanghai, EK381 from Hong Kong, EK323 from Seoul/Incheon, EK319 from Tokyo–Narita — operated by A6-EVS, the final A380 ever — EK367 from Taipei, EK393 from Ho Chi Minh City, EK397 from Phuket, etc. Moreover, many others would be landing in short order: EK377 (Bangkok), EK385 (Hong Kong via Bangkok), EK343 (Kuala Lumpur), EK395 (Hanoi), EK359 (Jakarta), EK399 (Denpasar), EK335 (Manila), EK317 (Osaka–Kansai)… you get the picture. Almost all these destinations are served by A380s, except for Jakarta, Phuket, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.


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Immigration done, I headed to the baggage belts, where my EK353 was sharing a belt with EK367 from Taipei. At present this is the only nonstop flight from Taipei to the Middle East, as Taiwan has historically shunned the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent in favour of its transpacific and intra-Asia strongholds. Qatar Airways does not serve TPE, surprisingly for an airline of its massive scale. Don’t expect EVA Air or Starlux to fly to the Middle East, India or even Australia (outside Brisbane) any time soon!

However, in a record-setting 10-destination expansion in November 2024, Etihad Airways announced a daily flight to Taipei starting from September 2025 — along with Hong Kong, which astonishingly enough (for such a major global hub) was so far not served by Etihad.


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There were plenty of tourism ads for Experience Abu Dhabi and Visit Saudi, and while the former is an established tourism destination in its own right — think Ferrari World, Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Yas and Saadiyat Islands — the KSA has a fair bit of an uphill challenge to shed its image as an Islamic-centric pilgrimage place.

However, with the much-hyped premium carrier Riyadh Air launching in 2025, plus Saudi Arabia being confirmed as the host of the 2034 FIFA World Cup in December 2024, you can bet that many more travellers (at least those without too many moral compunctions) will be visiting the Kingdom in due course.


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Then I turned into the swanky arrivals area, and headed to the store for du, one of two telcos in the UAE — the other being e&, formally known as Etisalat, which was also the consumer-facing brand until 2022. I spent a long time at the store, trying to activate the tourist SIM that I’d received, but all the agents were busy and (as I said earlier) it was a futile endeavour, having passed immigration through the Smart Gates instead of waiting in line at the regular counters.

Anyway, I was able to get it activated later, so no big deal.


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Among the very interesting arrivals was 5X-CRN, an Uganda Airlines A330-800neo and one of only two such (the other being 5X-NIL) — an extremely rare aircraft type, with Kuwait Airways operating four and Air Greenland one. Aside from East Asian arrivals (not to mention a Royal Brunei 787 en route to London), the other recent EK landings included EK417 from Sydney, EK708 from Seychelles and EK704 from Mauritius — another destination, like Taipei, that Qatar Airways does not serve!

With the Uber to Gevora Hotel, located on Sheikh Zayed Road proper, being highly priced at AED 88 (US$24) — not to mention it would be quite the haul to reach the Uber stand — I figured it would be much more worthwhile to take a regular cream-coloured taxi instead.


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And so I turned out past the Boots pharmacy — which I’ve otherwise only seen in Bangkok — and proceeded straight to the regular taxi lines. Soon enough, a cream-coloured, red-roofed Toyota Highlander SUV (the same kind of car that I’d first ridden in Dubai) turned up, with the driver being one of many from Kerala, a Southern Indian state, who have made their home in the Gulf. So much so that Gulf countries have the highest concentration of Malayalis, who are people from Kerala — as Canada does for Punjabis, and Singapore and Malaysia for Tamilians.


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The driver was most eager to share what he felt on how the UAE needed to maintain its lead when it came to education and welfare, with Qatar and now Saudi Arabia announcing big ideas and projects — and I was more than fascinated to listen.

It doesn’t take very long to get from DXB to the city centre, around 20 minutes at this time of night, and en route we passed by the Dubai Frame. Before very long we’d hit Sheikh Zayed Road, the main arterial road of Dubai, with all its skyscrapers… and of course the Museum of the Future, with its unmissable oval shape.


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All too soon I reached Gevora Hotel, the tallest in the world, where a bellman/bellhop came around immediately to hand over my 35th-floor (swoon!) keycard. My parents were in one suite, and my grandmother in the other; I chose the latter.


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I’m not going to publish any pictures of the suite, or the trip as a whole… but I’ll leave you with this journal entry to wrap up this report, the penultimate of Two Thousand and Twenty-Four!


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Display all

Tourism bonus

travel illustration

Proximanova invites you to continue reading with the tourism bonus section below :

Product ratings

Airline

Emirates 9.0

  • Cabin10.0 / 10
  • Cabin crew8.5 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi9.0 / 10
  • Meal/catering8.5 / 10
Departure airport

Singapore - SIN8.9

  • Efficiency9.0 / 10
  • Access8.5 / 10
  • Services9.5 / 10
  • Cleanliness8.5 / 10
Arrival Airport

Dubai - DXB9.1

  • Efficiency9.5 / 10
  • Access8.5 / 10
  • Services9.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness9.5 / 10

Conclusion

It’s a wonder that Emirates Airline was completely crippled during the unprecedented Dubai floods in April 2024, yet was barely affected at all three months later, when a debilitating IT crisis brought the world to its knees for nearly a day. There are few machines in the aviation world as well-oiled as Emirates, all the more so with its massive A380 fleet that no one else has been able to harness to such a scale. It really is a comfortable ride in all four classes, and I was happy to have finally flown the EK A380 — all the more so on an overnight flight like this, in order to give the sensation of ‘whooshing through the night sky in a double-decker superjumbo’.

But that also meant that the scope for actual service and catering was somewhat limited. I was a bit surprised that a late-night sector like this had two meal services in the first place: a post-takeoff snack and a late-night ‘breakfast’ service closer to landing, though that probably made sense given the 6-hour-plus duration of the flight. Most of the time I and other passengers spent dozing away, with little chance to enjoy the world-beating ‘ice’ IFE system — though I made full use of that on the return flight! Roumaissa from Algeria is the only FA I remember, as she was the one who helped to retrieve my fallen bag from the seat. Polished, professional, polite, but just a little bit stiff — that’s Gulf carriers’ FAs (as diverse as their original countries are) in a nutshell.

I must also mention, however, that EK is an extremely fixed, conservative and stick-to-its-guns kind of airline when it comes to its branding. The allure of the Emirates brand is largely confined to its A380 first-class shower suites and ’Game Changer’ 777 first class, which a small percentage of flyers will experience. Economy is comfortable enough with that exhaustive IFE, premium economy a bit better, but business is where EK really drops the ball — all the more so thanks to Qatar Airways’ relentless focus on its Qsuite and business-better-than-first experience, not to mention other airlines (including next-door neighbour Etihad) that keep introducing new premium products. And the IFE, crisper clearer screens aside, looks no different today than it did in 2014 when this plane was built, so EK is far from the cleanest Nordic-designed airline out there. If that’s what you fancy and you also want a great entertainment selection, I’d say go for Etihad, Qatar, Air France (even United!) or my favourite in Asia-Pacific, Cathay Pacific.

As for Changi Airport, while I’m not the biggest fan of Terminal 1 compared to the other three terminals, it more than does the trick in terms of retail selection, and I was spared the utter chaos from earlier in the day. DXB T3 is gargantuan in every sense of the term, and a goliath in every way imaginable — and, for the most part, looks quite gleaming with all the glowing lights. While most people might consider it to be not a patch on Doha’s Hamad Airport or Abu Dhabi’s spanking-new Zayed Terminal A, I quite like DXB’s architecture for what it is: efficient, well-stocked with amenities and globally accessible.

My final report for 2024 will be the return journey from Dubai to Singapore on EK354, from darkness to broad daylight — the longest flight of my life, and ironically the shortest day of my life!

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