Emirates is a hit-and-miss airline - my review of Emirates B777-300ER economy class, Stockholm to Dubai
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01. Trip report introduction
02. Emirates B777 economy class, Stockholm to Dubai
03. Emirates A380 economy class, Dubai to Mauritius
04. Friday Attitude Hotel, Trou d'Eau Douce
05. What Mauritius was like
06. Emirates A380 economy class, Mauritius to Dubai
07. Emirates B777 economy class, Dubai to Stockholm
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| Stockholm (ARN) to Dubai (DXB) |
Date: 2018-07-04
Flight number: EK158
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Registration: A6-EBK
Age of aircraft: 12 years
Duration of flight: 6:06 (gate to gate)
Seat: 32K (economy class)
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| Seat map with my seat (32K) in red. Courtesy of Seatguru.com |
As I mentioned in the trip report introduction, the flight between Stockholm and Dubai is a flight that I prior to this trip had made four times already. Not only that - I have also already reviewed it twice here on the blog, on the ARN-DXB and the DXB-ARN legs in February when I went to Dubai for work. So, will this review be of any worth at all? Well, since I mainly write these trip reports for myself, so that I'll be able to go back and review any flight that I've taken in the past, I'd say that it's definitely worth something for me. But I'm hoping it will be worth something for my readers as well. The Dubai trip in February was my first ever trip report here on the blog, and I like to believe that I've stepped up my game since. (In all fairness - those two reports are pretty horrible.) These reviews are a lot better IMHO, and besides, it can be interesting to see how consistent Emirates are. So, for the third time on this blog, here is the Emirates B777 service between these two cities!
We took the commuter train to Arlanda, and bag drop was really fast today. We had already checked in online, and they had a separate line for those who were only dropping their bags off. However, I didn't notice that at first, but took a photo of the economy class line sign instead. The "online check in" sign is the one out of focus, right behind it.
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| This was not our line... |
Security was not super fast, but the lines were far from horrible. We did however spend a long time in the queue for passport control, which was a lot slower than I've experienced before. During the summer of 2018, the heat in big parts of Europe was terrible. When we departed in the beginning of July, the worst heat had yet to arrive in Sweden, but ARN was still very hot, and the air condition didn't really do it's job. It's "never" hot in Sweden, so when it actually does get hot, it's unbearable, as the air condition in most places is a joke. It's usually a lot better in countries that are used to the heat. Such as the Arab Emirates, for example. It was better at DXB, but now I'm really getting ahead of myself...
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| Don't expect to see much of your aircraft if you're departing from the F pier at ARN... |
Our plane, A6-EBK, was already standing at gate F62 when we got there. Boarding was scheduled to start 45 minutes before departure, and they actually started boarding a few minutes earlier than that. Emirates use zones when boarding, and today at ARN, the gate agents made sure that people followed their assigned boarding zones. I just love it when airlines make sure to follow the rules that they have set themselves. Maybe it's the German side of me...
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| Time to board! |
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| I promise I'm not reusing the pics from the last time I took this flight! |
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| The views from the jet bridges are a little better than from the waiting areas at the gates |
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| I love the feeling of boarding a wide body aircraft! |
Despite being 12 years old, the cabin felt fresh. The air was also fresh, as the air condition was already in full swing when we boarded. We had chosen seats 32 J and K, and as we reached our row, a man was already sitting in 32H. This man's name was Al. Al Coholic. He started off with beer and red wine during the meal service, and then numerous gin and tonics, as he dozed off to sleep, mumbled incoherent nonsense, and knocked his G&T glass off his tray table, pouring booze all over the floor in row 32. Maybe we'll try to fly with Saudi Arabia next time... I certainly wouldn't mind flying with "dry airlines", as I seldom drink alcohol in the air. It's hard staying hydrated as it is... On this trip, on three out of four legs, we got stuck beside people who where a little too fond of alcohol, but this man was the only one who was a real nuisance to sit beside.
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| I think we'll take these seats instead... |
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| Unfortunately, we had to continue down the cabin to this area... |
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| Doesn't look too bad either - economy class in Emirates is basically as comfortable as economy class gets |
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| Seat 32K - mine for this flight to Dubai! |
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| Leg room is pretty good |
The seats in Emirates economy are pretty good, as far as economy class goes. Leg room is decent, and the seats are comfortable enough (although the recline didn't work on my seat - not a big issue since this was a daytime flight). In row 32 on this B777, if we turned our heads around, we even had two windows to look out of, so there's nothing to complain about in that area. When it comes to the in flight entertainment system however, a few complaints are in order, because this is where the age of the aircraft started to show. The screen was a lot smaller than on Emirates newer planes, and the sound was pretty bad.
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| The screens were a lot smaller than on newer planes in the EK fleet |
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| Control for the in flight entertainment - this felt a little dated too... |
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| Reading material before taking off |
Pushback was done a few minutes behind schedule, and there were a couple of planes ahead of us in the line for runway 08. Soon enough we were airborne though, and turned to the southeast for this flight that took a little over six hours, gate to gate. It's funny - a few years ago, six hours would have felt like an eternity to spend on an airplane. Now, it almost feels like a short-haul!
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| Chances are high that you'll be parked next to SAS or Norwegian planes if you're flying to or from ARN |
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A Sukhoi Superjet 100 from Russian airline Gazpromavia that normally never flies at ARN - it had arrived from St Petersburg an hour before, so I'm guessing it dropped off football supporters that had watched Sweden's World Cup match there the day before...
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| Runway 08 in all its 8,202 ft. glory |
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| Airborne! |
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| Passing the archipelago outside Stockholm |
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| I like the sand dunes on the bulkheads |
I made an attempt to watch a movie on the in flight entertainment, but as I've already mentioned, the sound was pretty bad and the screen was small. And on this particular flight, they didn't even have any movies with subtitles in English. I even tried with the same movies that I watched on my previous trip to Dubai, but they all came without subtitles. I don't mind watching movies without subtitles if I'm at home, at the cinema or someplace else where the sound is good, but on an aircraft, I prefer subtitles, no matter what language the movie is in. I tried to listen to some music instead, but the sound quality was too bad for that as well. I don't want to sound like a whining millennial (heck, I've flown several IFE-less planes that were all pushing thirty this summer and enjoyed it immensely), but I don't want to come across as an Emirates fanboy either, so I'm just gonna go ahead and say it: this is a serious problem on Emirates's older planes. Good thing I brought a book!
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| They look nice for economy class, but they didn't pair well with the old IFE on this aircraft |
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| The in flight entertainment was really sub par on this flight |
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| Proust to the rescue! I know, this picture has "pretentious" written all over it... |
About an hour into the flight, the meal was served. The menus had been handed out before take-off, so there was plenty of time to decide which main course to choose. I've been kind of critical this far into the report, but I believe in giving credit where credit is due - this is where Emirates excelled on this flight. The meal was absolutely delicious, and might very well be the best airplane food I've had so far.
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| Let's have a look! |
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| Chicken or fish for main course - how original! |
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| All three dishes are served together on one tray |
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| Emirates branded "real" cutleries |
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| Lentil salad |
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| Saffron butter pollock with lentil ragout |
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| Apple juice, naturally! |
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| Pepsi - or "Bibsi", as it's spelt in Arabic... |
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| Wait a second! This is no apple and blackberry torte advertised in the menu! But this strawberry and rhubarb crumble was delicious anyway, so I wasn't complaining |
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| All gone! This is how good the food was! |
After the meal, hot drinks were served. The "coffee" tasted like instant coffee. Drinkable, but not particularly good. I can't really blame them for not making real coffee for over 300 passengers in economy class though... A refresher towelette also came with the meal.
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| Instant coffee - far from the black gold I got on Austrian in April... |
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Refresher towelette
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| Here you can see the two windows that you get in row 32 - quite impressive IMO! |
The flight continued towards the UAE, and as we passed over the Caucasus, the sun set. Sunrise and sunset views from a plane window never get old, do they? I spent a lot of time glued to the window as the night sky turned all possible kinds of dark blue before finally getting completely dark.
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| What a view! |
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| Some sunset light is still coming in through a few open windows, but the cabin is getting darker by the minute, and the "stars" have started to twinkle above the aisle |
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| Bye bye, sun! See you in Mauritius! |
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| The last daylight is finally disappearing, and I could leave the window and stretch my legs instead... |
I had to visit the lav, and also took a short walk up and down the cabin. I know I called the Emirates B777 mid cabin lavatory tiny in March, but I've since experienced lavatories on CRJ900, Embraer 195 and Fokker 50 to name a few. I retract that part about B777 lavatories being tiny...
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| Plenty of space in here..! |
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| A different section of Emirates economy class |
By the time I got back to my seat, the crew had started handing out the evening snack, a little over 90 minutes before landing. And this is where it's time for some criticism again. The snack was a turkey and pesto sandwich, but it was far from tasty. It was dry and bland, and I only ate it because I was starting to get hungry, otherwise I would have happily left it uneaten. To drink, I decided to have some tea. It was OK, but in all honesty, I would have expected more from an airline from the Middle East...
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| Black tea - meh... |
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| Turkey and pesto sandwich - meh... |
During our descent, Al Coholic next to us repeatedly asked "Have we landed yet?", as he sipped on yet another gin and tonic. Why the crew continued to serve him is beyond me. They must have noticed that he had drifted far into a gin-induced la-la land. We landed a few minutes ahead of schedule, and taxied to a remote stand. Ugh. By far the worst part of DXB. The bus to the terminal took 17 minutes, and we now had some four hours to spend in Dubai before getting on the Whale Jet.
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| Getting ready to deplane |
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| Thanks for this ride, A6-EBK! |
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