Airline review: Emirates 777-300/ER economy class, Stockholm to Dubai

Emirates 777-300/ER economy class, Stockholm to Dubai
---
01. Trip report introduction
02. Emirates 777-300/ER economy class, Stockholm to Dubai
03. Flora Grand Hotel, Dubai
04. Emirates 777-300/ER economy class, Dubai to Stockholm
---

Stockholm Arlanda (ARN) to Dubai (DXB)

Date: 2018-02-15
Flight number: Emirates EK158
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300/ER
Registration: A6-ENL
Age of aircraft: 4½ years
Duration of flight: 6:13 (gate to gate)
Seat: 35K (economy class)

Seat map with my seat (35K) in red. Courtesy of Seatguru.com

Flight EK158 had a scheduled departure time of 13:35, which gave me a few hours at home before I needed to head to the airport. It also meant that we would arrive in Dubai on the same day, late in the evening (22:55 local time). I would have preferred a little earlier departure time, but this was good nonetheless.

I arrived at ARN by commuter train at 11:30, which gave me ample time to drop my bag and pass through security. Definitely not rush hour, as I was airside less than twenty minutes after arriving at the airport.

Bag drop for Emirates

It turned out that the gate for EK158 this morning would be F58. A friend of mine has flown out of this gate several times in the last couple of years, whereas I have often been close, but never close enough. The closest I've been was when my wife and I went to Newark last December, when we had gate F59 just across the hall...

F58, which had eluded me for a long time...

Our Boeing 777-300/ER was already at the gate. The windows were a bit small, and there were jet bridges in the way, but I managed to sneak a peak.

A first look at A6-ENL, which previously had been in Durban.
This was actually her first flight in Europe for quite some time.

Waiting to board

Boarding time was scheduled to start at 12:50, but the first boarding call (for first and business passengers) came almost twenty minutes later. I find this a pretty common phenomenon at ARN. Let's see if I can confirm that now that I've started writing trip reports...

Walking down the jet bridge

Yes, it's still a triple seven!

One last look from the outside, through a tinted window

We were in our seats by 13:35, which was the scheduled time of departure. About five minutes later, boarding was completed, and we started waiting for the pushback.

Seat 35K (by the window) - mine for this flight to DXB!

Nice little detail that they show the seat number in the armrest as well

Decent leg room

USB port in every seat

The local competition here at ARN

We didn't have to wait long for the pushback, and then we started making our way out to runway 08, to take off to the east.

Heading out to runway 08

We have lift-off!

Leaving snowy Stockholm behind

Pushing through the cloud layer

Once we had pushed through the cloud layer, the sun was shining right through my window, which meant bad photo conditions. It did give me some time to rest, though. Gathering material for trip reports is tough work, as other travel bloggers have mentioned. Now I got to experience it myself.

Less than 20 minutes into our flight, we reached 33000 feet, which remained our cruising altitude down to the UAE.

Half an hour or so into the trip, the FAs came around the cabin serving drinks and snack bags. Apple juice is my standard drink when flying (unless I fly Lufthansa, in that case I ask for an Apfelsaftschorle instead), and the herb triangles that came with it were tasty.

Apple juice - my drink of choice in the air

These herb triangles were a good pre meal snack

Dinner was still some time away though, so I decided to try out Emirates entertainment system ICE (Information, Communications, Entertainment). I was not a big fan of their moving map, but there was quite a big selection of movies to choose from.

Headphones with the ICE logo

Still nothing but clouds below us, and the sun is still shining right trough the window. Oh well. Might as well keep watching ICE

Dinner is getting closer - let's have a look at what they offer on this flight!

I decided to go for the beef. My colleague had the chicken, and by the looks of our food, I think I made the right choice.

Rookie mistake not removing the cover on the main dish - but it looked just like airplane food ;-)

Dinner was served almost two hours into the flight. I went for the beef. It looked just like regular airplane food, but it was tasty, though. My expectations on food are usually not high up in the air, but this could almost have been something you'd get at a food court on terra firma. Not a bad review for airline food, in my opinion. The fact that you get "real" cutlery, even in economy class, is also a bonus.

The sun has set

After dinner, the sun set, and the remainder of the flight was in darkness. However, the clouds were dissolving at the same time, so I got to se both Yerevan and Tabriz glowing far below us. A cool detail in these Emirates 777s is the "starry sky" that appears between the overhead compartments as it gets darker. A nice touch!

Stargazing in the aisle...

We're flying over the Caucasus now, and getting closer to Iran. Not that much more time to go...

It did get a little bumpy on a few occasions during this flight. Nothing major, though, and most of the flight was pretty uneventful. The FAs were active and professional, making several rounds through the cabin offering snacks and refills on drinks. They even handed out hot towels. How often does that happen in economy class?!

As we started our descent towards the UAE, the oil platforms in the Persian gulf could be spotted, like tiny sparks here and there. And with the silver pepper of the stars above (the real stars outside, not the ones in the aisle), it was a spectacular approach. (The approach into HKG will be hard to beat, though.) Soon enough, the lights of Dubai were seen, and we flew over DXB to make a turn to land from the south, which provided some nice views of both the city and the airport.

Dubai (and Dubai Creek, for those of you familiar with the city's outline)

That's DXB down there. A 180 degree turn, and then we'll be among those planes...

Any second now!

We touched down at 22:46, nine minutes ahead of schedule. Then we taxied for ten minutes before coming to a halt. We didn't get a gate with a jet bridge, but had to deplane down a stairs, and take a bus to the terminal building. The outside air was a lot hotter than in Stockholm!

One last look at the cabin as we make our way towards the aft exit

Thanks for this flight, A6-ENL!

I'm not sure if the driver didn't really know his way around this gigantic airport, or if we simply had come to a halt in Abu Dhabi instead of Dubai, but it took 37 minutes (!) from the stopping at the "gate" until the bus dropped us off. Not cool. For a modern airport such as DXB and an airline with the ambitions of Emirates, that is almost embarrassing. However, that was the only downside to this flight, which had been very pleasant indeed. Emirates' economy class seems to be close to what many European airlines would call business class (although I have yet to fly business in Europe, so take that with a grain of salt). Seat, entertainment system, food, service - it had all been top notch on this flight. Let's see if they can repeat it on the return flight!