An Emirates A380. Photo / BriYYZ
Maureen Marriner flies Emirates from Auckland to Dubai, then on to London.
The planes: An Airbus A380-800.
Class: Economy.
Price: Emirates has Economy Class return fares between Auckland and London from $1699.
Flight time: 17 hours 5 minutes then, two hours later, another 7.5 hours.
Seat: We were in 56F and 56G on both flights. Right-hand two of a middle four and had paid $55 extra each for good leg room close but not too close to the galley.
Fellow passengers: Mixed bunch, returning somewhere, heading to somewhere else. One contingent was off to the World Karate Champs in Romania. Out of Dubai, the Auckland contingent could probably have been called The Great Unwashed.
How full: Smattering of empty seats, unfortunately not near us out of Auckland. From Dubai it was chocka.
Entertainment: Emirate's ICE entertainment system has a gazillion movies, documentaries, drama, TV shows and music in 36 languages.
The service: Pleasant, unflappable.
Food and drink: First flight, Russian salad with smoked chicken; rendang curry with beans; indeterminate cake with embedded cream; cheese and crackers. Plentiful wine, a snack meal of a small lamb pie was offered. Breakfast included scrambled egg or vegetable frittata but I stuck with the fresh fruit and yoghurt. Dubai to London: labneh and red leicester cheese.
The toilets: Wooden accents a nice touch. Always clean and tidy. Good mirrors.
Luggage: 30kg and plenty of room in overhead lockers.
The airport experience: 1. When will Auckland airport get its act together? The international departures area has been a building site forever. 2. Dubai airport has to be unique. We were herded into lifts, up escalators, down corridors, up lifts, all of them packed.
The bottomline: The longer flight, which could have been hellish, was excellent from the smooth takeoff. I slept on and off for about eight hours. On the second leg, desperate for it to end and used to airlines with free bubbles in Economy, I asked if there was any "fizz".
"Sorry, you have to pay extra for Champagne but there is white wine and you could put soda or lemonade in it."
'I find travelling more stressful than performing on stage.'