Review of Emirates flight from Dubai to New Delhi in Economy

Emirates - Summer 2023

Welcome back to the Emirates Summer 2023 Series! This is the second trip report of the series and features a relatively short hop over to New Delhi after our 12h 45m flight from Toronto. The booking section will remain short and I will link the previous report in the routing section if you'd like to go through the booking process. 

Booking

This itinerary was booked as part of a roundtrip to Delhi. The exact routing was MSP-YYZ-DXB-DEL and the return was booked as DEL-DXB-ORD-MSP. You will notice that several departures out of the United States often connect to EK512 the 10PM departure from Dubai to Delhi. This evening bank is usually more congested from my experience. However, the exceptions to this are the Toronto, Montreal, Washington Dulles, JFK (Morning) and Newark flights which arrive at earlier times. This allows you to connect onto EK516 the 9:50AM departure to Delhi, or my flight EK514 the afternoon 3:25PM departure. My least favorite however is EK510, the 3:55AM departure flight which is easily the worst one at an ungodly hour, and often with an older 777. 

At the time of writing: 
EK242 - Toronto to Dubai - Departs 2:55PM and arrives 11:40AM
EK244 - Montreal to Dubai - Departs 10:15AM and arrives 6:30AM 
EK232 - Washington Dulles to Dubai - Departs 10:55AM and arrives 8:05AM 
EK204 - New York JFK to Dubai - Departs 11:20AM and arrives 7:55AM    

All of these are in the same arrival bank with the exception of the 5th Freedom flight from EWR to DXB via Athens. It arrives late at night. 
EK210 - Newark Liberty to Dubai via Athens - Departs 11:55PM and arrives 11:35PM 

The trip reports in this journey are linked in the routing below.

Dubai International Airport, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

I landed from Toronto at about 11:40AM in the morning on EK242. The transit at Dubai can be a bit of a marathon in that you will have to make your way from your gate to the central concourse, where you will have to pass through a security check and make your way to the departure gate for your connecting flight. In my experience, there aren't too many occasions where I've had to use the people mover. Most recently, I had to use it while transiting for a flight to Istanbul. 

Terminal 3 at Dubai is gigantic and the design is very similar to that of Bangkok Suvarnabhumi. It looks a little like a Cannoli in my opinion! One thing I appreciate is the tinted but gigantic windows, Paris CDG doesn't do this quite as well. Then again, the horrendous red carpet at CDG takes the cake as one of the worst I've seen, right up there with Delhi IGIA. 

A beautiful Mahan Air A340-600 in the background, these are getting incredibly rare to witness. Though Delhi does receive the A340 from Lufthansa and KAM Air (another interesting and unique airline by the way!) . Sorry for the grainy picture. 

There's usually not a lack of seating around DXB in the afternoon, though gate areas sometimes could get crowded. At night, however, I've seen it become quite busy especially with a lot of overnight A380 departures, the same of course applies for the 8AM to 10AM departure bank. I found myself a nice spot and made myself comfortable. 

There's no lack of restaurants or shops at Dubai Terminal 3 Concourse A. Of note are the perfume and watch shops along with a haphazard looking Apple Store, more like a showcase really. 

Anyway, our flight EK514 to New Delhi departs from gate A9, at the far end of the terminal. After getting my boarding pass checked I made my way down the escalator to the waiting area. An A380 was boarding beside us at Gate A8

Boarding

Again I'd like to apologize for not giving a more thorough overview of DXB airport. I was a tad jetlagged and very tired from not having gotten much sleep on the previous flight.

Our beautiful Boeing 777-300ER registration A6-EPD stood at the ramp waiting for us. Our bird was delivered new to Emirates in October 2015 configured 8 in First, 42 in Business and 310 in Economy. 

Boarding was called at around 2:30pm in preparation for a 3:25pm departure. First and Business class passengers along with those who required special assistance. My boarding zone was the final one since Emirates boards back to front for Economy. About 20 minutes later, as I was seated in the front economy section I made my way to the gate. 

And Voila, the majestic and powerful GE90s! 

I was greeted pleasantly by the crew, and made my way to my seat 19A in the forward economy section. This is actually quite a steal to book being just $2 more than the economy rows at the back. Currently you'd pay $12 to book a seat in the forward section compared to $8 in the back. Unfortunately, my friend and I would not have the same luck as last time since 19C was occupied. 

The seat itself was one of the newer ones offered on EK's Triple 7s, featuring a very sharp and large IFE screen. I must admit I do not understand the point of the remote control on the seat, except in the case where touch screen is an issue. I believe EK's newest seats do not feature this remote on either the A380, 777 or A350, which is good news. The seat itself is narrower than the A380, and a lot of people have issues with it. I personally did not find it too uncomfortable, however, one annoying factor is the metal part holding the row of seats to the ground, it eats into the legroom width. This is a frustration I've had even with KLM, so I suppose this is a 777 complaint. You can see how I sort of had to angle my legs so I could sit comfortably. My friend was a lifesaver in this instance letting me encroach a little bit of his space. The charging socket as well as cup holder are always appreciated.

You'll also find on the seat a plush pillow, blanket and headphones. On these shorter flights you will not receive an amenity kit. Of course, I chose to stick to my own headphones. 

Pushback, Taxi and Takeoff

I was one of the last people to board and the doors were shut at around 3:15PM. The captain introduced himself and the first officer, and announced a scheduled flying time of 2 Hours and 45 Minutes. Our route would take us out over the Persian Gulf for a bit and then over Iran, into Pakistan, before entering Indian airspace. 

We pushed back from the gate at 3:25PM for an on time departure. Dubai is notorious for it's long taxi times but sometimes you get lucky if you're close to the runway. It's not as bad as Chicago where you're almost guaranteed a 40 minute wait for take-off usually, 

The dirty windows were definitely annoying while trying to take pictures on the ground. We had a relatively short taxi to the runway today. 

Twin EK 777s waiting for clearance to take off! Great sight isn't it? Not very uncommon at DXB though given the congestion and surplus of 777s! 

Finally, we were cleared for takeoff and turned onto the runway! 

The 777's massive GE90s spooled up on the takeoff roll. The sound is a fan favorite of the aviation industry. Soon, we lifted off into the skies above Dubai at 3:41 in the afternoon. 

I got a distant but nevertheless beautiful view of Downtown Dubai. The Burj Khalifa of course steals the limelight on departure. 

We made a turn over the Deira Islands. 

After another turn over Ras Al-Khaimah, we were on our way in the general direction of Delhi. 

As soon as the seatbelt sign was switched off, the crew got meal preparations under way. This being a shorter flight always needs a higher degree of efficiency than those leisurely meal services on long haul and ultra long haul routes. 

Lunch

Two choices were offered for lunch, an Indian non-vegetarian option as well as an Indian vegetarian option. The non-vegetarian option was Rara Gosht - a North Indian mutton curry (read more here: https://www.whiskaffair.com/mutton-rara-recipe/). The vegetarian option was a Paneer Butter Masala, one of my personal favorites. I went with the Paneer, since I wasn't too keen on the mutton, it can potentially be a bit tough on flights. Both dishes were accompanied with rice and Dal Makhani. This was accompanied with a packet of roasted nuts, a cup of water, a bun (looked like a pav to be honest), butter, chocolate, some pickle, an Indian street food style chaat with potatoes, tomatoes, lentils and cucumbers as well as a unique Indian dessert called Kesar Cham Cham. The Kesar Cham Cham is essentially a dumpling of curdled milk soaked in a milk sauce infused with saffron. I washed this down with a coke and water (not expecting the water cup haha). As is the norm on Emirates, this meal was extensive, and the tray was once again PACKED. Metal cutlery was provided which I appreciate a lot (This is a remark towards Delta whose bland and tough chicken is often a pain to cut with wooden cutlery). Wet wipes too are a useful addition to the tray. 

The Paneer dish was excellent, the sauce was extremely well made and the rice and dal makhani were cooked perfectly.  The street food style salad was a refreshing addition and the tamarind chutney they had incorporated was pretty original.  The dessert was extremely sweet and while I enjoyed it, I couldn't really taste much of the saffron (then again, it has a subtle taste so it probably got overpowered). Emirates catering out of Dubai really is the gold standard of aviation cuisine in Economy Class. Only Singapore Airlines can rival them in my opinion. 

Cruise

Soon, the cabin crew cleared the trays, and we had about an hour and a half left in the flight. By now, the jet lag and tiredness was really starting to take it's toll but I didn't want to be completely dazed when we landed in Delhi, so I asked an FA for some coffee post lunch. Perhaps I should've tried to get some rest on the previous flight haha. Pictured below is our 777 flying over Pakistani air space. 

Descent and Landing in New Delhi

Afternoon turned to dusk as we sped our way towards New Delhi. I got some clicks just moments after a beautiful sunset.

At approximately 7:19PM Delhi time, the captain briefed us on our arrival into Delhi and mentioned we'd begin our descent into Delhi momentarily. The weather in Delhi would be hot and dry (No surprises there!). 

I apologize for the blurry pictures. The darkness along with blurry windows and shaking definitely messed up a few of these (Not to mention my shaky hands at times) . We approached Delhi and lined up to land. 

We touched down at 7:42PM at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport and taxiied off the runway. 

Unfortunately, we had landed about 43 minutes earlier than our scheduled time of arrival. This meant the gate we were supposed to use was occupied by another aircraft at this time due to congestion at Delhi. With our early arrival we had to wait for approximately 35 minutes to reach the gate. 

An Air India B787 beside us, beside it was a Qantas A330 to Melbourne! 

Deplaning

Soon, we reached the gate and deplaning was quite a quick process. Business and Economy class passengers used separate jetways and it was done in an orderly fashion. By 8:25PM I was off the plane and headed towards Immigration. 

Immigration, Baggage Claim and Delhi Airport

Immigration is one of the largest headaches while arriving at Delhi, often with serpentine lines. Fortunately I missed the night departure bank it only took about 30 minutes to clear. Surprisingly, getting my baggage was painless (relatively), taking only about 15 minutes after this. This of course, could be down to the fact that I had only a single bag to get, reducing the odds of another annoying Delhi baggage claim story.  Exiting the air conditioned terminal, I was blasted with the dry Delhi air. 

Thank you so much for reading this flight report! This brings me to the conclusion of the MSP-DEL leg of my Summer 2023 trip. You can look forward to the DEL-ORD leg of this trip soon, but before that I have a Singapore Airlines roundtrip to share! Fly safe! 

-KL 872