Hey everyone, welcome back to another flight on my short series of brief pre-Flight-Report days reviews :P, where I do some shorter reviews I flights I took before discovering this website, so apologize for the lack of extensive pictures. Today I'll be reviewing a journey I took last May, right after I got off my FlyDubai trip (which is a review already on my page) from Almaty, onwards from DXB to Manchester aboard EK's A380 in Business. This was around the beginning of my vacation days and I was off to watch United's second leg brawl against Bilbao in the Europa League. If only they showed as much fight as they did against Bilbao and Lyon in the final… at least they're on the right track recently:)
After arriving in DXB, I was lucky (or not, depending on whether you enjoy apron views) to be driven through DXB and see their endless widebodies
Back in the terminal, the redeye FlyDubai flight was really getting to me, and I had nearly 6 hours in transit before my EK flight. I ended up checking out the in-terminal transit hotel for a quick sleep. A very solid and spacious room.
With two hours or so to go, I checked out the DXB J lounge. As large as the lounge was, it was outrageously full, especially the dining area. There were groups of people almost stalking the buffet refills and it became nearly impossible to grab certain dishes. I was quite hungry and ended up just grabbing the following. Perhaps EK's J lounges are due for some refreshing, for how luxurious the airline advertises itself to be, this was rather disappointing.
The beef was the only dish with flavor, but this was literally all I could grab since the refills were being emptied so quickly. I also had to walk a good few minutes away from the dining area in order to find a seat. There were a few passengers around me voicing their frustration with the food situation, and quite a large number of people leaving the lounge shortly after entering. I did spot one of them having a nice meal at one of the restaurants in the terminal, I'm glad he found his happy place:).
One benefit of the A Concourse J lounge is boarding directly from it, this helps relieve any stress of fighting with general boarding from the gate downstairs.
Here's our bird for today's flight. No matter how many times I see the A380, it never fails to impress. I do feel that seeing it at DXB feels much stranger compared to having one stand out amongst all the single decker planes at any other airport, here it's still crazy to me that theres just rows upon rows of them.
Aboard we go! Here's the first look at my seat. There was a mattress, pillow, slippers and headphones waiting. The A380 really shines with the extensive storage space in the large armest cubbies. You can also place smaller items in the storage space above the waters. The charging ports are conveniently placed next to your headrest, perfect to scroll on your electronics or get some work done at your seat. I specifically asked for a window seat closer to the window for some extra privacy, as opposed to the one behind me that's far closer to the aisle.
The duvet can be visible in the armrest storage space, and (blue) pyjamas were also offered to J passengers.
Sitting down, you come fact to fact with the entertainment screen. EK's famous ICE IFE system is one of, or perhaps the very, best, in the air. The screen size is quite small, but not a problem. The footrest space can feel a little cramped when fully reclined, as I will later learn. But when sitting upright and extending your legs, it was perfectly comfortable.
Dogman seems to be the newest release on ICE today.
There are also some small treats in the left-side storage space, including some packaged gummy bears and savory nuts. The J cabin was almost all full today, with a lovely British couple sititng in the two seats next to me striking up a conversation with me, and I shared my United friend's recent struggles.
We soon began taxxing out and blasted out from DXB at 14:50, 20 minutes behind schedule, for our 7 hour 30 minute journey to Manchester.
My apologies in advance for not having shots of the menu card, (again, pre-Flight-report days… sorry!).
The crew jumped into service shortly after reaching cruising altitude, which was awesome since I was still suffering from a lack of sleep the night before, and couldn't wait to pass out as soon as lunch wrapped up.
The table was massive, one of the largest I'm seen in J, and I started on some Friends to accompany my meal.
I believe there are around 76 J seats on this plane, and judging by a brief estimate there was at least 90% load today. I'm unsure how many crew members are in charge of the cabin, but you could really feel they were struggling to keep up with the volume of orders/crew bell calls throughout the flight.
My first round of drinks was a whisky along with some nuts. Very tasty and top notch. I also ordered a diet coke which was to come with the starter.
The starter then came around, and served all on one plate with the salad. This was a duck liver plate with crispy polmegranite pieces. I never considerred polmegranite could be made crispy, but this worked really well. Part of the paté was slightly bland, and I actually found myself preferring the polmegranite. This was a really intriguing concept and it definitely worked. The salad was fresh, but nothing too exciting.
My main course was the scallop linguini in marinara sauce. Four large scallops was very generous, the dish tasted great. I wish there was more pasta, I ended up still quite hungry afterwards.
For dessert, I asked for the chocolate cake but was instead offered the green tea one instead. Upon requesting, the crew gladly offered me both. EK never fails to impress with desserts, these were as good as in F.
After dinner, I made the obligatory trip the bar. No matter how many times I fly on EK's giants, this area always amazes me. Quite empty today!
What a sight~
I yoinked some chips before heading back to my seat and catching up on some Friends. Sorry for not showing a fully flat seat today since it was a day flight. You can sort of see it reclined with my neighbor over on the left side.
Still hungry from the small pasta portion, I ordered an "anytime snack", today's being the vegetarian gnocci. It was funny how this had more carbs than my main meal earlier. Despite not having any meat, this was solid and definitely helped fill me up. The sauce wasn't overpowering and being a huge mushroom lover it worked!
With descent imminent, I also grabbed the go-to iced americano!
Nothing much happened after my snack, and we shortly began descending into Manchester!
Thanks for joining this short EK review:)
I saw that cute panda doll on your seat...hehehe😄