Welcome to my first flight report! I discovered this site recently and I really liked its design and features, so I have finally decided to post some of my reports here.
INTRODUCTION
I am in 5th grade of Aeronautical Engineering, the last year, so we decided to make an end-of-degree trip to celebrate the end of 5 years of hard studying. I went to Thailand with my family in 2007 and we loved the country, so I suggested going there. We were supposed to be a group of 12 people at a first stage, but we ended up being 6, as many friends backed out. When we finally decide to book the tickets, two girls decided to back out, so we ended up being 4 friends. I didn’t mind since those 3 friends were very close ones, so we knew we were going to have a great time. Since we were two guys and two girls, many times we were treated like honeymooners, it was funny to explain that we were just friends, many people didn't seem to get that though.
This report covers the first leg of the trip.
Ground Experience
Since it was February, I expected a light load at least of the flights between Madrid and Dubai, so I was surprised when I saw lots of people lining up for check-in. Emirates has many desks open so the line went quick and we got our bags tagged and our BPs in no time.
Emirates Check-in
We went through security and then to the APM station given that the flight was leaving from the satellite building. There was some construction going on in T4S (it has been like that for quite a while, I wonder when they will finish), so the building didn't look particularly good. A huge line was already formed when boarding was called, we were supposed to proceed by zones, but given the line formed we proceeded the Spanish way.
Taking the lift to go down to the APM station
The APM
Inside the T4S
Enjoying tarmac views
Boarding time
Departure
I entered the plane and passed through the after Business Class section, it was packed, all seats were taken, Emirates seems to do well on Madrid flights.
The first thing I noticed when I entered the Economy cabin was that the plane had the latest ICE version, featuring HUGE screens.
Huge screens
Welcome onboard
We got window seats in the first row of 2-4-2 at the back of the plane, the agent at Madrid office told us that they were one of the best in the cabin, and except for the noise from the engines, she was right. Legroom was OK for me (I’m 183cm tall) and well, the seats were very close to each other and given that my friend and I have wide shoulders, our arms were touching constantly. That didn’t bother us as we know each other, but I imagine that going that way with a stranger would be uncomfortable. So I would try to travel with friends or family when flying Emirates in Y in the future.
Nice legroom
IFE control
Our Spanish neighbor
This tiny one arrived minutes later
Pushing back, you can see T4 and Madrid's skyline
Choosing between the window and the camera was hard
Entering 14L
Drying the runway
Iberia Maintenance facilities
The Southern part of MAD
Flight experience
We departed on time, towels and menus were distributed after take off. I must say that although Emirates IFE is amazing, their headsets are terrible, many of them didn’t work and the sound quality was very bad. We used our own headsets and they worked perfectly. The crew on this flight was fine, nothing special but they did their job with a good level of service. I liked the food, the quality was good and portions were generous, the second service (no pictures) consisted of drinks and biscuits.
Here it's always sunny
Menu
The meal. I went for the salmon, it smelled strong but tasted really good
Coca Cola in Arabic
Algeria
I spent the flight watching films, enjoying the view of the sunset over Northern Africa and chatting with my friends, so the flight passed by very quickly. The crew passed through the aisle frequently offering drinks.
Afternoon passed by quickly
Sunset over Egypt
Getting closer
I loved the ambience
I noticed that they didn’t show the connecting flights information on the IFE like on my previous flight on EK two years ago, that would have been useful. We were put on a holding pattern for about 45 minutes as we had arrived very early to Dubai airspace.
Holding pattern
Dubai views
Taxiing to the stand
On stand
The plane was docked at Concourse A, it was nice and I got the feeling that it was less packed that Concourse B. Our flight to Bangkok was departing from gate A1 so we didn’t have to go to another terminal.
It's good to read your positive flight experience on EK. It helps to start a trip on a high note. Somewhere I read, the true test of a friendship starts with how you get along during long travels.
The food seems like some carriers business class offerings. Fresh fish does not have a smell after it has been fully cooked. Any smells may come from the fish broth, sauce or brine.
I hope to read how the visit to Thailand went. My visits there have been made memorable by people I've met there who volunteered to show me the off the beaten path sights.
Felicidades en tu graduacion! Como decia mi maestra: esfuerzate y sed valientes, nunca dejeis de estudiar :)
Hi Caribel!
Thank you for your kind words. I would say our friendship scored a high mark on the test ;)
It wasn't a bad smell tough, and being salmon that smell is expected.
I will post some photos of my trip in Thailand in the next report. With this trip I have been to Thailand twice, but both trips were typical touristic, so I can't say I had the opportunity to see off the path things. I love that country so maybe in the future I will be able to do so.
Muchas gracias :D
Welcome and thank you for sharing this nice report.
Looks like you had a good start to your trip. The catering is well presented for economy and the portions seem decent.
According to seatguru, the width of EK's seats on that particular plane is 17 or 43.18 cm., which is tight in my opinion.
Very good first report! Nice pics and great details--a pleasure to read. The cabin definitely is aeshetically pleasing and the mood lighting is great. The IFE really is HUGE! The only problem is the 3-4-3 configuration on EK's 777s which makes seats very narrow as you point out. Granted, EK has a more generous seat pitch than other airlines who operate 777s in this configuration, which I'm sure helps. I flew AF once on a 3-4-3 777 with only 32 pitch and it was the most uncomfortable flight I ever had. Like you, I was lucky to be flying next to people I knew so it wasnt awkward always rubbing arms and shoulders. I can't imagine how aweful it would be to travel alone in those seats. Cool pics of Dubai at night on arrival! Thanks again for sharing and looking forward to more reports!
KevinDC - Flight-Report
Community Manager and Moderator
Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad you liked it.
Congratulations to you and your team for this excellent website. Apart from the design, I really appreciate the edition page, it makes the work a lot easier.
Best regards,
Martin
Thanks Martin! Glad to hear it.
Welcome and thanks for this first FR that I had actually first read on Airliners.Net (but that I couldn't comment as I don't have an account there).
I really love the stars ceiling found on EK planes, ME carriers really seem to have an important presence in Spain, I wonder if it's to make up for the lack of Asian and ME destinations offered by IB.
Thanks! I couldn't resist posting my reports also here :). That's right, both QR and EK seem to do very well here, but they have the advantage of offering a vast network of destinations from their hubs. Iberia might have it more difficult as they would rely on O&D traffic from Spain to Asia and ME...
Hola y bienvenido!
The seat issue is a bit scary even uf they sugar-coat it with such a great IFE...I had an awkward experience between JFK and PTY because of the tight seats, no friends that time and no IFE for me that time.
Saludos!
Thanks for your great FR. I had the same problem with EKs headphones. On long flights they give out better ones. The new IFE is really great!