Emirates can boast 2200 channels of the stuff from comedy and worthy radio to recent blockbusters.
Graham Reid flies EK407 from NZ to the UAE ... with a stopover in Aus.
The plane: An impressive-looking Airbus A380-800.
Class: Economy of course. (I hear there is another?)
Price: Total for return trip to Scandinavia (into Stockholm, out of Copenhagen), because I always intended coming back, was $2400.
Flight time: Very long, because of a stop-over in Melbourne. All up from getting on board to getting off at Dubai must have been about 19 hours. It felt longer.
My seat: 54J, the uncomfortable and somewhat hard middle seat of three. Tried for an aisle or window on each leg but no luck. A cramped experience, which I'd be loath to repeat.
Fellow passengers: A cross-section of antipodean faces and ages going to Melbourne, seemed mostly Australian, going to Dubai thereafter.
How full: Absolutely chocka.
Entertainment: For sure. Emirates can boast 2200 channels of the stuff from comedy and worthy radio to recent blockbusters. Not for me for the first 45 minutes to Melbourne though, because I didn't have a headset and the crew were so busy getting meals ready and distributed, my request for one was overlooked. Forgivable. After that it was fine, with excellent movie choices.
(And when I got off in Melbourne the guy next to me made a "duh" noise ... because he had two headsets.)
The service: Efficient and pleasant, and no time for them to slacken up.
Food and drink: Very good. The beef stew with carrots, beans and mash on the way to Melbourne was superb. As was the lamb biryani on the way to Dubai. Can I have some more please?
The toilets: Clean and compact, of course.
Luggage: A 17kg bag in the hold, small carry-on in the locker above. Notable that very few people carried huge bags on board; maybe that message is getting through.
The airport experience: Auckland was efficient but at Melbourne it took a while to get through to the transit lounge — bags checked again? — and some people with kids were understandably getting scratchy.
Would I fly this again? I have family at the furthest point from Auckland on the planet so I have to, but Emirates make it as comfortable as could reasonably be expected. I'll make sure I get an aisle seat next time, though. If there's that mysterious other class up the pointy end of the plane I'd like to give that a go, however.
This was so arduous I fell asleep in Dubai airport and missed my onward connection to Stockholm. So that's a "duh" from me too.
A round-up of unique, bizarre and near-unbelievable travel stories of the year.