Dubai Thanksgiving Adventure on the Emirates Airbus A380 (SFO-DXB-SFO) on Economy

[SQfanatic]

Hi guys,

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I know it's a US Holiday, but this week as my company is on a week long shutdown and my mom's school is off the entire week, we made it a point to travel to Dubai for the entire week.

We booked this back in March (hotel was actually booked in August). Because this was a place my mom wanted to cover in terms of the city. The main problem about taking Emirates to India is not only the flight time from SFO-DXB, but also the fact that it's always expensive year round - We thought of going in December but the expensive prices really made us rethink and decide that since November is cheaper, let's go to Dubai instead and in December, we can go to India via Singapore Airlines or any airline of our choice. Second problem is that spending 2 days in Dubai to cover a lot of things can sometimes be very hectic and when going to India, the time spent there will be considerably less meaning extremely hectic when traveling from city to city in a matter of days. The solution we proposed was let's go to Dubai and spend 6 days actually covering the whole place and come back home. The fare was more than half off compared to what you'd pay in December. Come December, we will travel to India and luckily we booked in April and got also a cheap fare, which totals way less than what we booked had it been December.

Pictures coming in a bit...

[SQfanatic]

Flight: Emirates flight EK226
Route: San Francisco - Dubai
Aircraft: Airbus A380-800 (A6-EVK), 3.4 years at the time of departure
Livery: Journey to the Future
Date of Departure: November 20 (3:40PM), Arrival November 21 (7:25PM)
Seat: 76J (Economy Class)
Configuration: 3-class (Suites, Business, Economy)

This was my second time flying an A380, namely the Emirates A380, which I last flew back in 2014. Honestly, being a Boeing fan, the A380 is very comfortable BUT the windows are too large to my liking.

Our journey started in San Francisco International Airport this past Sunday afternoon. We arrived around 1:30PM as we have done an online check-in. Because Emirates operates an A380 from SFO to DXB, it was expected that the check-in lines are much longer than anticipated. Having flown smaller aircraft (commonly the Boeing 777-300ER), due to the capacity, usually the lines are shorter in Y. But also one thing Emirates still lacks is a line dedicated for Internet Check-in, something that even Singapore Airlines & Cathay Pacific have. This week marks the beginning of folks traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday.



Our Emirates flight would depart from the A gates, typically a gate where Skyteam & One World alliance flights would depart from.



SFO was very busy in the A side of the terminal, as always is during many times of the year.



Our Emirates Airbus A380-800 with the Journey to the Future livery. A6-EVK





Proceeding to gate A6, we could also see the Qatar Airbus A350-900 (Which we will be flying next month on Singapore Airlines next month). Generally the gate was very crowded, and probably part of it was owing to the World cup happening in Qatar.



Boarding commenced around 3:15PM despite us being at the gate around 3:40PM by zone letters only.

Unfortunately, while the crew upon boarding was friendly, he did not like the idea of me filming while boarding. Because the flight was full, I couldn't get a full in-depth seat tour, and likely did not want any other crew to just stop me from filming. United, Singapore and Cathay have been very friendly in this aspect.

[SQfanatic]

We got into our seat 76J, which was a middle seat.

Like Singapore Airlines, Emirates also has a Voyager 3D map system, except it's in a red color interface with very clear flight information. A few pics below:







Unlike Singapore Airlines, Emirates (and similarly Cathay Pacific) have inflight camera modes, and my most favorite showing the plane with the wings and engines, which was a great compensation for not having a window seat.

Cargo belly view:



Most used view - Used for take off, landing, sunrise, sunset, and at any time the window shades are closed. Great compensation for not having a window seat. If only SQ can implement this, too.





Handset, similar to SQ's 2013 cabin products, which even the fact it's reaching 10 years old, I don't think it has aged at all and still looks as if it was brand new even today.



Pilot announcement came and he mentioned the flight time would be about 15 hours and 2 minutes:

Safety video and pushback started along with the engines. The A380 engines and generally the aircraft are quieter than the Boeing 777-300ER; hoping the same with the A350 next month.



We taxied to the runway around 4PM and took off shortly after that:







We took off from SFO around 4:10PM for our 15 hour flight to Dubai. Took a right over the Golden Gate Bridge and started cruising north towards Canada and later the North Pole.



A few things you can access via the handset - One thing I like is you can interchange the 2 (map/ice entertainment) between the handset and the big TV.










Ground camera view:



A few minutes after take off, the ICE video began.








Back to the Full flight of the Voyager 3D:







At around 6PM SF time, they served us our first meal of dinner. Unlike other carriers, there are not too many special meal choice items (i.e. veg lacto ovo meal, which has eggs but no meat or seafood, and it's one of my favorite special meals):



First dinner course - Dum aloo & spinach/veg pulao. I am not a fan of potatoes (except chips and french fries), but the veg pulao was okay. Did not have too much of it. Along with that were some bread and crackers and dessert.



This was an amazing dessert - More like a chocolate brownie mousse. I enjoyed it.





The cabin started to get dimly lit after dinner service:



Around midnight (if you were awake or could smell some food), it was sunrise and they served us their Emirates margherita cheese pizza. It tasted pretty good. I think this is a staple even on European flights, too. Saw a YT trip report from JFK-FRA for example.





Sunrise just during light snack service:





Somewhere south of the North pole, a brief period of daylight. This lasted till around 5:30PM Dubai time (5:30AM West coast time), so about 5 hours of daylight to enjoy.



Mood lighting before dinner service commenced:





Beautiful sunset south of Russia - 2 hours before landing in Dubai:



Second meal served - Paneer burji and aloo paratha (and a veg cutlet). The veg cutlet was pretty good but not a fan of aloo paratha/potatoes for some reason. Served with fresh fruits and yogurt. This meal was definitely better than the first.





Of course because the flight was a long flight, Wifi is a MUST to use and the full flight package is $20, not bad. There is only 1 draw back though - When the plane is in the North Pole, you won't have any Wifi at all, just won't work there. Sometimes it was generally very spotty, maybe depending on the number of users online. Here's one of our flight somewhere south of Russia.





Somewhere around 6:15PM, 1 hour before landing, pilot made an announcement on landing in Dubai that we would be touching down around 7:15PM, though we landed around 7PM, not bad in terms of arrival.

Some night time views upon landing:







We got to the gate around 7:10PM and disembarked close to around 7:25PM. Immigration was pretty quick - If you are a US citizen, most countries will have a Visa on Arrival, hence you can use the smart gate. One other nice thing is you get a free tourist sim card with 1 GB free for only 1 day. But we still got our tourist sim card with 2GB. I recommend du, very good service and reliability. Reasonable price even to recharge.



We got out of the airport around 8:30PM and headed to our hotel near Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa (JW Marriott Marquis Dubai). More to come soon. Stay tuned.

[SQfanatic]

Thoughts about this sector? Emirates is a pretty good carrier, their aircraft are relatively young and modern. Wifi system is time based, which is consistent with many airlines I've flown in. Crew were otherwise friendly enough to our requests.

The only gripe here is that if you are a vegetarian and do eat some level of eggs from time to time, there is less selection and no vegetarian lacto-ovo meal, probably because Emirates is trying to reduce waste on special meals. The only best options you can get are Indian Vegetarian meal or Vegan meal. Most of the food is okay, not great overall. I'll see what happens next month on my SQ trip.

While the seat was very comfortable as well as the aisles very roomy, it is very uncomfortable sleeping in the middle seat - I only got 2.5 hours of sleep when I fell asleep.

[SQfanatic]

We got to the airport around 7:30PM. Because we are all US Citizens, we could clear immigration through a fast track counter, which there was literally no line. They stamped our passport and gave us a free 1 GB sim card from DU, probably due to the fact we ordered a sim card but 1 GB is only valid for 24 hours. Getting our luggage took less than 5 minutes and we went to the du shop to get our actual Sim cards. That took probably 30 minutes but it was at least activated (I had to verify my year of birth in order for the stuff to work). Our plan has 2 GB, allowing us to recharge from the app, which I did once and it's not that expensive.

Around 9PM, we took a taxi and headed to the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai (in Business Bay).


Downtown Dubai:





JW Marriott Marquis Dubai:

Our room had 2 beds, and it has a sea view. We only got to the room around 9:30PM, staying on the 38th floor (3804). The beds are so soft & comfortable that I got a great sleep on them each night. This was my first time ever staying at a 5-star hotel. In Dubai most of the hotels are 5-stars and there's even 7-star hotels, like Burj Al Arab for example.



Sea view at night:



The one with the pointed bright light in the center is our JW Marriott hotel:

The first night we took a walk around downtown to have dinner at Kamat Indian Vegetarian restaurant. Unfortunately, due to how tired I was, I didn't take any pics, but we did have dosa & curd rice. Both are good, but the dosa is a little more crispier to our liking.



Near the reception of JW Marriott Marquis Dubai:



After a good night sleep, woke up around 8AM to a sea view. Below that, you can see Dubai Metro tracks.



That morning after exploring a plethora of restaurants at the hotel, we decided to have breakfast at Business Bay restaurant. This gives a great view of downtown:



The breakfast is a buffet style. We had it for 3 days (Tues, Wed, and Thurs). I opted to have the American breakfast of my pick: Pancakes, cheese croissant, cheese omelet, hash browns and boiled eggs. It was honestly very delicious.





Around noon, we took a hotel shuttle to Dubai Mall, one of the tourist attractions you must visit in Dubai:



Dubai has a lot of modern architecture in terms of the buildings, apartments, high rises, and offices.







The silvery blue on your left is the Burj Khalifa.



Inside of the Dubai Mall:



Downstairs, there was a level which had the outside heat & humidity. We had a masala ginger chai tea and was one of the best teas we have ever had:




We booked the City Sightseeing hop on and hop off bus. It got a little cloudier but that let up and there was more haze and sun than clouds.

We took the blue line bus to the Palm (stopped at Atlantis the Palm) and later took the monorail to the View/observatory inside Nakheel Mall.



Atlantis the Palm hotel, which is also more like a mall:





Some palm views from the monorail:





Modo had a light show inside Nakheel Mall:



A few pics of the Palm Observatory:



View from the 52nd floor:



Actual palms which have high rises & homes/hotels. In the haze, you can see Atlantis the Palm, which is further away.



Downtown Dubai:



Burj Al Arab:











Further you can see Jumeirah Beach on the right and the Dubai Eye ferris wheel:





We took the monorail to another stop to view a light show at the Palm at night:





Boardwalk photos as it started to get dark:









The light show which began around 6PM. Most light shows are at the top and bottom of the hour every 30 minutes no matter where you are.







We took the bus back to Dubai Mall:





Burj Khalifa lit up well at night (8PM):









Around 9PM, we decided to have dinner at a very nice vegetarian restaurant. I recommend it, the food is amazing.



My parents opted mainly for masala/poori, and I went for the Indo chinese (we all shared). Cauliflower (gobi) manchurian & vegetable Szechuan noodles. Really enjoyed it.



Returned back to the JW Marriott hotel and eventually went to sleep.

Here are a few pictures of the bathroom. It is one of the biggest I have ever seen in my life.

Tub, which I'm not sure the purpose of the use when in reality there's a nice walk in shower:



Post-covid travel, we have only stayed at 4-star hotels now at least and most have had a robe and unfortunately in the US, it has been taken out for some reason.

In JW Marriott, there is a bath robe, which is very plush and comfortable.



The walk in shower I was talking about:



This room had RFID locks; You have to tap your key below the room number and then open the door. The reason you see A 3804 is because we are staying in Tower A. There's Tower A and Tower B, so when giving the room number they always asked A or B. The only other hotel I've stayed with 2 towers is Circus Circus (in Reno & Las Vegas) has 2 towers but never seen anything like 2154 in both towers as an example.

[SQfanatic]

Day 2 in Dubai:

As per usual, we only start our journey of touring at around 12/12:30PM. It starts from Dubai Mall only:

Burj Khalifa in the daytime:



Downtown Dubai in the daytime:



First stop was Museum of the Future. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any tour there as tickets were all sold out for the day. But it looks really nice inside:



Victory gesture statue from outside, the peace sign:



We got off at one of the heritage places and here is Dubai Creek:





A place we went to that my dad wanted us to cover was a Souk (Arabic for market). This is basically the spice & gold souk. One area for each. Recommended if you have interest in both gold & spices. We mainly bought spices:

You must visit this place. Some parts of it remind me of India in terms of the layout.



Inside the spice souk:



Look at all those spices:















Taking a walk to the gold souk (market):











Legally, you can take pictures of gold, lots of people were doing it:



















Our last stop around 4PM was the Dubai Frame:







What's so cool is that you feel that you're walking on the ground down. So unique that many people take pics kneeling on this thing:





Views of Dubai:



One side was super hazy and unfortunately that was the Burj Khalifa:











Last we headed to Dubai Mall. This is the Dubai Fountain which we saw the light show:





Burj Khalifa similarly had a changing color light show:















After that and dinner, we headed back to the hotel, shown below at night:



Next day (yesterday, Thanksgiving), we went to the Burj Khalifa and Jumeirah Beach. Before that, we had breakfast once again at the hotel:

Kitchen 6 was definitely bigger with more variety and more space of items. Had the American breakfast again - Waffles, French Toast, green apple juice, yogurt, scrambled eggs, hash browns and an Arabic cheese manakish and fried eggs. Amazing.



Around noon, we headed to the Dubai Mall. Inside the mall, there's a way to walk to Burj Khalifa. This makes sense because if you come during the Summer months (which is way worse temperature wise and humidity wise and worse than temps in Singapore and India), people walk from A/C to A/C.







Borders - A bookstore that closed in the US but has a presence in UAE:





We skipped the line and little did we know they put us as VIP's. We got into the 154th floor within 15-20 minutes and explored and got out around 2:30PM.



154th floor in Burj Khalifa:







A perk of being a Sky VIP member is that you get free refreshments, at least tea and some Arabic snacks, most of which are dates based.























Later we headed down to Jumeirah/JBR Beach via Dubai Marina Mall:







Dubai Marina Mall is very small, but this thing that stands out on top is something very unique in UAE malls:



The mall is overall smaller than the Dubai Mall itself:



The Pier view you can see from Dubai Marina Mall:





Due to traffic by the time we reached Jumeirah Beach, it was sunset, around 5:30PM.



Dubai Eye:

























Night lighting at the Pavillion:





We headed back to Dubai Mall and later took this picture; night shot of the Burj Khalifa on the horizon well lit at night.



We ate dinner at Kamat. Very good vegetarian restaurant with lots of choices as well as Indo Chinese choices which they make different versions of items; something that's hard to find in the US. The food nonetheless was delicious.



Opted for the curd rice & paneer hakka noodles & enjoyed it.



TR to be continued...

[SQfanatic]

Today, our city tour bus pass had expired. So we decided to try the metro. I only have pictures of the metro station and couldn't take any on the train due to how crowded it was.

We decided to visit Dubai Miracle Garden by taking the train to the Mall of Emirates station and after that, took a taxi to the entrance. It takes about 20-30 minutes to just get there. Getting the tickets was roughly around 75 AED per adult. But the price seemed to be reasonable enough.

Business Bay metro station, just about a 5-7 minute walk from JW Marriott Marquis Dubai:



Metro ticket as an idea:





What the US lacks in metro stations is that there are no sliding doors, hence leading to the number of deaths due to people being pushed by others, or even worse suicide.

Dubai metro like a few I have been to around the world have glass doors in which unless it opens, it's literally impossible for anyone to just jump.

On another good part, at least the metro has A/C so it does protect it from dangerous heat in the Summer months (Jun-Aug)



Red line:



We took it to the Mall of Emirates station and took a taxi to Dubai Miracle garden.

Burj Al Arab a famous landmark around Jumeirah, but it's a 7-star hotel.



Mall of Emirates. Unfortunately, we had no time so couldn't explore this mall. But would like to hear thoughts about it.



We got to Dubai Miracle Garden around 2PM and spent 2 hours here. It's amazing especially if you have kids or you yourself love animated cartoons (i.e. Smurfs and Disney). Of course lots of unique things made from a flower form, too.



These seem to be 2 camels next to each other:



It reminds me a lot of Disneyland's shape of the kingdom castle. They literally copied it putting most in plant form:







A few picturesque items like a house (no one actually lives there) in a flower form:







Smurf's Land with plenty of Smurfs characters you can name:











I think this is Simba correct me if I am wrong:







Bear (looks like a care bear) in flower form:



More smurfs:



Lots of smurfs next to the Airbus A380 representing many countries of the world.





A ton more of plant shaped objects:





Emirates Airbus A380 in a flower form:











Another miniature Disney castle:



Looks a lot like a saxaphone:







Emirates A380 from closeup:











































After around 5PM, we left back to the hotel as the sunset began:



Sunset view from the hotel:



The Lounge restaurant in JW Marriott, went for a fruit styled cheesecake & cappuccino.



We went back to the Dubai Mall that night:

Some waterfall inside the mall:



Definitely Dubai Mall is a place you must visit. You can't just call it a mall, it has something unique like an ice rink, Dubai Fountain and an aquarium (which we didn't visit due to the price).





Went back outside to Dubai Fountain and near Burj Khalifa to watch the fountain and light show:







We headed back home and one thing I noticed (which is common in Dubai) is Borders still has bookstores here. In the US they closed down all their stores at least several years ago (definitely in San Francisco Bay Area if not anywhere else). Surprised to see it in UAE:



A few pics of the aquarium & ice rink

Aquarium in Dubai Mall:

























Unique European styled architecture in Dubai Mall. Reminds me a ton of Las Vegas hotels:









Dubai Ice rink in Dubai Mall. Unique in tropical climates. since it won't snow in them. I have not seen many in the US. What I like is this is a YEAR round thing and not something you see in the US except November & December during the holiday season.

[SQfanatic]

Last day was Saturday. We started off the morning by doing a Desert Safari tour. The tour consisted of going to a desert and involved riding a quad bike as well as actually riding a camel. Riding a camel is a thing if you go to a desert, especially the Middle East or even Dubai.

Growing up in California, I know people who have ridden horses, but not me. I was initially scared of the camel, thinking it was going to attack me. However, not the case. it seemed to be friendly (did with their guidance). So for me, it was a little intimidating, especially when the camel got up and I sat on it, but it wasn't too bad after that.


Dubai Desert - The roads and highways really remind me of Central California, I-5 on the way to and from LA.





Quad biking park. My parents did not want to partake in that but I did. Coming from a person who has never ridden a motorcycle anywhere, I thought it was fascinating and very fun. So fun that I went 3 rounds on it. I think depending on the tour you get, the time limit you'll get is probably around 30 minutes, most likely.

I recommend trying it. The good thing is before you even start, the guides working at the place (not your tour guide) will guide you on what controls to press and ensure that you drive safely and carefully.





You have to wear a helmet (as you would on a motorcycle):



Sometimes that can mean getting stuck in the sand going uphill. At the same time, luckily there were bikers who helped out and I was able to immediately get back up on my feet.



Next up came camel riding. Before that, the tour guide will actually drive on the desert (yes, people do that). However, it will be a bumpy ride. Your tour guide driver will ensure everyone's seat belt is fastened and you have a place to hold on to and the windows are closed. There's no map they follow but it's likely that they know the place well from someone more experienced as well as the route:





Camel riding began, and like the quad biking did it solo as my parents did not want to part take that and instead watch it. I thought it was pretty neat.









We headed back to the hotel to freshen up and had lunch at Kamat. After that, we came back and later went to Dubai Marina once again. The reason being that we booked a sunset cruise.

I insisted both my parents we take the Dubai Metro to the actual Marina Promenade, but they hesitated and blatantly refused saying they would rather do a Uber or taxi. We took a taxi but they took us to the wrong place and we had to walk ourselves. The other problem was traffic. The rate wasn't a problem but even with the GPS their lack of knowledge.

Because of that, we missed our cruise at sunset. Anyway, the weather wasn't even that great at sunset, too hazy and unlike a few days ago where you can for example see Burj Al Arab from a distance under clear skies, you couldn't this time around. Moreover, regardless, it would still be dark mostly.

We had to call Trip Advisor to be put on the 8PM cruise and my call got cut and had to recharge my minutes and later, kept calling back (after several failed attempts before recharging) an they spoke with the manager mentioning that we wait there till 7:30PM.

We went to Saaragana Bhojan, 5 minutes walk from Dubai Marina for a coffee and returned after that. We waited till 7:30PM hoping that the manager will allow us.

Some pics around Dubai Marina & Pier 7 around 4:45PM:











Nearby the actual cruise is a mosque (Masjid Al Rahim), which here has both a day and night shot:











More of the Dubai Marina at night:



Luckily. the manager of the Dhow Alexandria Cruise said it was our lucky day and had plenty of seats available. We went for it. The only thing is we sacrificed some sleep as the next day we left for the airport and back to San Francisco:



Boarding the Alexandria Dhou Cruise:







Lots of vegetarian options - Opted for the bread & hummus, penne pasta, salad, lentil soup. There was also some vegetable fried rice. Pretty good dinner. Not light or heavy, just about right, as it was a buffet.



Around 8:40PM, we set sail and there's plenty of skyline pictures from here on out:











Dubai Eye in spectacular colors especially representing the World Cup:





Some Middle Eastern dancing took place on the cruise, with Arabian music. Quite an unique experience:



It did get dark at some point of the cruise so the dress really glowed very well in light:





Later dessert was served in the buffet. Chocolate and vanilla cake with some level of fruit filling in it. I enjoyed it







Emaar Properties - Very common sight in Dubai. In the Marina & near Dubai Mall are a few examples. This is well lit on another hand:



Dubai Marina & Pier:





Take a look at the Dubai Eye spinning in multiple colors:




Even though we sacrificed our sleep (got back to the hotel around 11PM, slept only around 12AM and woke up around 5AM to catch our flight around 8:45AM), the cruise was certainly worth it.

[SQfanatic]

Flight: Emirates flight EK225
Route: Dubai - San Francisco
Aircraft: Airbus A380-800 (A6-EVG), 4.1 years at the time of departure
Livery: Year of the Fiftieth Livery
Date of Departure: November 27 (8:45AM), Arrival November 27 (12:45PM)
Seat: 73J (Economy Class)
Configuration: 3-class (Suites, Business, Economy)

Despite some sacrificed sleep due to the cruise the previous night, we flew back to San Francisco and got back yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, unlike most Asian carriers, they only have 1 flight in the morning, which times very well for folks coming from India & a few other countries, though India departures are in the middle of the night (not ideal).

A few pics before and in Dubai Airport and continuing further:


Downtown Dubai at sunrise (around 6AM):



Burj Khalifa:





We got to Dubai Airport close to around 6:45AM.













Inside Dubai Airport.

I will have to admit, Dubai Airport in terms of appearance is good, but it is by far one of the worst airports we have ever encountered compared to Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Incheon (Seoul) and even US airports for example.

Emirates' home is in Dubai, just like you have United's home in SFO, EWR, ORD, IAH, etc, Singapore Airlines' home in SIN and Cathay Pacific's home in HKG. Normally, you should be able to check in at ANY counter. However, that's not the case. They have separate counters for different countries you are flying to. It took quite some walk to go to the line. From there, it was another couple of minutes. Given the number of US flights departing during the 8AM and 9AM hour, it was kind of rushed.

After that, there was continuous passport checking. And let me tell you the worst part. First, you have to show your passport to enter the counter (no problem), then they direct you to go to a smart gate. You can't just cheat out of it and go to the regular part where you just show your boarding pass and passport and just proceed like that. The Dubai smart gate is one of the WORST things they have ever invented. It was a problem when we got off the airport, which luckily arriving didn't take long for them to scan your passport and give you a free sim valid for 24 hours. But departing yesterday, was much worse. The line was long, it took so long to scan passports that after minutes, everyone (including myself and parents) had to exit the gate and proceed thru security (not before showing your passport to an officer). It's almost like they're harassing you. If I have to go alone, no matter what, I will do everything in MY power to not cross this airport.

Security check was fine as long as you obey the rules.



After that, just like when we arrived, you have to take a train, then the elevator to the airside. You can tell there's scores of people almost rushing for their flights. Because of that, we had only 1 hour to spare (30 minutes for boarding).





Dubai Airport, like a mall. Unfortunately, we had no time to glance or shop but I did have a latte at Costa coffee and a mini breakfast before the flight





Our Emirates A380 flight back to San Francisco (A6-EVG). Seems that the livery has been removed and it's a standard livery. No Year of the 50th livery.







The latte was good as well as the apple and cranberry strudel (below):



This gave a good view of the Airbus A380.



Boarding commenced around 8:10AM. At the time we entered the gate, it said "Final Call", so I guess like most airports, they do not make final boarding calls as these airports are silent airports.

After entering the gate, you have to go through 1 more security bag check, like what SQ had in HKG when boarding the flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco. CX had no such thing when I took their 77W in 2018 & 2019. We got on the aircraft around 8:30AM.

[SQfanatic]

I got settled into seat 73D, which all of us got aisle seats this time. Sad I couldn't get a window seat but happy the aisle seat was more comfortable and manageable for all of us.



Onboard cameras that compensated for not having a window seat camera. This one was the closest you can if you wanted to see the wing somehow. Better than nothing. Not many airlines have this kind of onboard camera, though if they do, it's not the same as this. SQ doesn't have it and luckily all my routes got a window seat.



Welcome screen:



Voyager 3D, Android based, all in red background though SQ and many other airlines like say CI, LX, etc have it in a blue color.



The same can be done on a handset.









Qibla compass - As indicated above, I think this is something Muslims will follow for prayer times. If anyone knows further about this, please comment here and correct me if I am wrong.







Some safety & protection tips, very useful:











Pilot came in with an announcement mentioning the flight time would be about 15 hours, same as it was while going. This is a Polar flight.

Safety video & ice video played even before the pushback and starting of engines.

Safety video, first in Arabic, later in English:



ICE video played shortly thereafter:





We pushed back around 9:05AM and started our engines, which to my surprise with Rolls Royce compared to the other ones with GP engines are much more quieter. The 777-300ER is a great aircraft too but much louder no matter where you sit.



I had my Dubai sim card still working so got a few of these:





We taxiied and it took about 25 minutes to take off.



Another A380 with a Journey to the Future livery, think this one was headed to Germany (Munich), A6-EOJ



A fly Dubai 737 aircraft:



We took off around 9:28AM and headed up north shortly therafter.





After 2 hours after take off, breakfast service began.



Seviya upma along with sambar, croissant, coconut based sweet and fresh fruits. Upma wasn't too bad but not really a fan of sambar, unless it's with dosa.

Along with that you have crackers & cheese as well as a croissant and butter (which I did not use with the croissant)





Some lavatory pics:





Cabin after breakfast service:



Seat was very comfortable with a 31'' seat pitch and the aisles are very roomy on the A380.





Very generous legroom:



Some Voyager 3D map images from the handset:



Cruising northward of Russia, sunset would happen a little before 3PM Dubai time:



Sunset over Russia:









I dozed off after that, but about 1.5 hours later, the cabin lights came back on and lunch service commenced. Why would they do that when it's already dark outside? I thought lunch service would happen only 2.5 hours before landing in San Francisco. Cathay Pacific has done something similar but a dinner service, but at a more appropriate time (i.e. Reference my trip report on CX870 both in 2018 & 2019)



Second meal came and had bhindi masala (okra) and the lentil soup. I liked the bhindi masala but not much on the lentil soup. The cake seemed to be banana flavored, not a fan of it like having banana by itself but it wasn't too bad. Chana masala as well on the side, just okay. Followed by crackers/cheese and some bread and a chocolate. But the second meal was definitely better than the first.





Exploring the Voyager 3D map in more detail:

Window Seat mode:





Time Zones:






World Clocks:




Command Center:













Compass:















Overhead:







Mid flight:







Total Route:





Flight Preview:























Qibla Compass:





Auto Play, which will total all these together:



I slept for a good 3 more hours and woke up to this beautiful sunrise over British Columbia (around 9AM Pacific time and still 3.5 hours to go before landing in San Francisco)









Switched the handset mode to full mode, which one thing you can do on these flights is interchange most of the items on ICE between both the handset and tv (i.e. you can view a camera from the handset and TV even at the same time). On Singapore Airlines, there were some limitations. Unfortunately (or fortunately), none of the flights will have a touchscreen handset, but it'll still be enjoyable regardless. But can't enjoy something I did on Emirates.





















Last meal was a snack, which was an Emirates margherita/cheese pizza, which was good, but the one while going was better





Handset version on the full screen of the time zones and information:





























































We were not too far from San Francisco at this point (1 hour left):



More of the same from the handset:

























Surprisingly, unlike the flights while going and unlike SQ, Emirates actually gave towels closer to landing. I thought the airlines that took towel service away due to covid still have it taken away. SQ should really bring them back, otherwise, nothing stands out between them and other airlines



Pilot came in with an announcement around 12:05PM Pacific time and we commenced our descent around 12:30PM and landed around 12:36PM. We only got to our gate around 12:48PM















Landing in SFO:

[SQfanatic]

Final thoughts about Emirates & Dubai?

Emirates

Definitely regarded as one of the 4 or 5-star carriers in the world and UAE. Their A380 is definitely one of the best in their fleet. Very roomy & spacious as well as the aisles. It gave a welcome feeling after my past 3 trips were on 10-across 77W's, which you can notice the difference. Seat is great with ample legroom and very good entertainment.

Wifi service is by OnAir only and while I did not take pics of the package, I can tell you that it's mostly time based and the full flight one was $19.99, not too bad. SQ at least with Panasonic wifi seems to go back in that direction of time-based vs. volume based. I'll be seeing that for myself when I fly SQ coming up next month for the 17 hour flight.

As far as the food, the number of choices significantly decreased than before. Not many special meals, especially vegetarian lacto-ovo meal, which I like a lot that has eggs but no meat or seafood of any kind. When I last flew EK in 2014, they had a lot of these. This is one of the reasons I will avoid taking them if going to India, more than the fact it's so expensive. It is too long of a flight as well. Sitting in the aisle seat isn't too bad if it's for a person like my mom, she found this good and she didn't sleep at all as she was browsing through the inflight entertainment system (literally she went 22 hours without sleep). For this time, a 17 hour flight, let's see how it goes on SQ. I know it'll be good, but that does not change the fact the flight is long.

Surprised they brought back the hot towel service on the way back, so far SQ is yet to bring it back.

The crew were friendly throughout the whole flight and came to ensure people had things to eat or drink and especially be hydrated with water. There was a snack area in the galley which you could go at any time you wanted to get something. One crew member while boarding the flight at SFO told me not to film, which is absurd because I have never had this happen on any SQ flight nor on any CX or UA flight.

Another nice thing about the ICE inflight entertainment system is in the Voyager 3D maps, you don't have to see the information in both languages simultaneously compared with old times and instead can switch between using both English & Arabic language. I kept mine in English.

Last but not least, generally the Wifi is pretty good and fast when it works. However, sometimes it can get spotty. You can switch between other devices. One problem about it is that because this is a polar flight both ways, you won't have Wifi over the North Pole (strange) for 4 hours at least. That did allow us to attempt to catch some sleep while we could. Is this a problem in all flights with Wifi flying over the North Pole?

Dubai

A vibrant and modern city. Most of the hotels are either 4-star or 5-star or even as high as 7-stars. Not anything below and some can be very expensive but it's worth it. The tour was very good overall. First few days the hop on and hop off bus really aided us with the tours and landmarks we wanted to discover. The weather overall for November was hot and a little humid but manageable almost like going to India in December. Surely, December - February would be regarded as one of the coolest periods. I can't imagine how it would be had this been Summer time like May-October, which is 110-115 before adding the humidity, it would be far worse.

The Burj Khalifa is one of the few places you MUST go to when going to Dubai as well as the Palm. Great views overall. Generally, people were very friendly in Dubai in terms of price negotiations for tours (i.e. we took a 2 day package but the guy from City Sightseeing said we will give you 3 at the price of 2) and folks are generally friendly. For example, if you are lost or want to get to a place like a restaurant, people will go out of their way to get out of what they're doing and guide you or even take you there. You don't see that happen often in the US unfortunately.

I couldn't take pics of the Dubai metro due to how crowded it was and to make matters worse, it was a Friday afternoon we went, in which it looks like rush hour crowd since people have a half day off on Fridays. But I will try to take it again.

Going by Uber or taxi has a very reasonable price in AED/USD but while going to the Marina or Palm or even Jumeirah Beach or the Alexandria Dhow Cruise Marina, you could get stuck in traffic. Hence, Dubai seems to be very well connected to the places in terms of the metro and reasonable walk times. Even our hotel was about a 5 minute walk from the metro station at Business Bay.

Most of the Emirati are mainly Malayali people from Kerala, and they are very friendly in nature, so my mom could strike up a good conversation in Malayalam, as my dad would in Tamil as they also speak Tamil. But there are many people like Asians (Chinese, Filipino (common), Korean, etc) and Africans. Generally like the US, very diverse place.

With so many extra security checks at Dubai Airport, it is probably one of the worst airports to transit or depart from. Very chaotic and disorganized at times. I will visit Dubai again at some point in the future though.

[yflyer]

Nice TR, SQfanatic! You certainly saw a lot of Dubai. The view from the top of Burj Khalifa looks spectacular! I've never been up there. Likewise, never done the camel rides or the buggies in the desert -- all looks really memorable.

The A380 cabin product you got looks to be one of the newest. There are actually 2 older generations of EK A380 cabin products, so it is great that you got one of the newest seats and IFE. I haven't flown EK in a long time, but only got this new cabin product once.

Most of the Emirati are mainly Malayali people from Kerala, and they are very friendly in nature, so my mom could strike up a good conversation in Malayalam, as my dad would in Tamil as they also speak Tamil. But there are many people like Asians (Chinese, Filipino (common), Korean, etc) and Africans. Generally like the US, very diverse place.

Just wanted to point out that there are many people from South Asia (Kerala etc) and all over, who have settled in UAE or are working there, but I would use the term Emirati strictly to refer to the local native Arabs originally from there. There is a huge population from elsewhere who have settled in the UAE to live or to work (as you have said, a very diverse place), but these would all be in the category of non-Emiratis.

With so many extra security checks at Dubai Airport, it is probably one of the worst airports to transit or depart from. Very chaotic and disorganized at times. I will visit Dubai again at some point in the future though.

DXB is quite a mega hub and the focus is throughput and the ability to process large numbers of passengers...yes agree it can be chaotic and quite bewildering... quite an experience!

Thanks again for the TR!

[SQfanatic]

Nice TR, SQfanatic! You certainly saw a lot of Dubai. The view from the top of Burj Khalifa looks spectacular! I've never been up there. Likewise, never done the camel rides or the buggies in the desert -- all looks really memorable.

Thanks yflyer. Yes, we did. This was originally my mom's asking for many many years, especially to see it before going to India. But because Emirates' fare is so expensive during the Winter peak season as well as generally on the way to India, we had to think how to make it happen this year as it's a post-pandemic year to make up for vacations we missed.

So we thought and to also help me and my dad that let's go during my company's Thanksgiving shutdown period for a week to Dubai alone and then go to India in December by SQ. The fare in November on Emirates at the time we booked (March) was significantly cheaper than if we chose December ($1080 per person). SQ in December to MAA was around $1340, but EK in December is around $2500+.

The main problem is if we had done both Dubai and India in one trip, because of how hectic touring can be and the lack of actual relaxation (to our choosing), by the time we get to India, the problem is that India has its own set of hectic activities from both a traveling standpoint & a religious standpoint, meaning we would be dead tired and not in a position to do anything, literally and the time would be significantly shortened.

I'm happy the trip happened and I enjoyed it but learned some of the activities like the cruise, while good, were a little unnecessary given that we had to run around taking a taxi, stuck in traffic, walking to the Marina and missing the cruise. The more sad part of not relaxing was to enjoy what the hotel had to offer during maybe an evening or afternoon break (Look at caveman's TR for example). In my opinion, there's no use in staying in a 5-star hotel and not actually balancing that time with actually enjoying it, as we never know when we will get to enjoy the same thing again.

Moreover, I'm very glad you found it memorable. Hope it'll serve as a very useful reference if you plan to travel to Dubai again in the near future.

The A380 cabin product you got looks to be one of the newest. There are actually 2 older generations of EK A380 cabin products, so it is great that you got one of the newest seats and IFE. I haven't flown EK in a long time, but only got this new cabin product once.

I agree that the EK cabin product is one of the newest, but it looks pretty much the same as the way I had it when I flew the A380 back in December 2014. The maps were the only thing that stood out as different compared to previous times I traveled in EK, definitely interactive. Heck, I even got to watch a few channels on my EK226 flight to Dubai on what things could be covered if we stayed 1, 2, 3, 5, or even 6 days in Dubai. The problem is many of these were quite crammed and it would help to actually do 1-2 things a day, take a break at the hotel and go to the next places.

The aircraft they put on the SFO and LAX routes is at least 3-4 years old, relatively the youngest aircraft. The wifi is very consistent on the fleet which is also a good thing. Maybe the only one subtle difference is the screen seems to be very thin compared to other carriers (almost like an LED or OLED screen). Probably my guess maybe due to the longer range of the younger A380's as opposed to the older ones (similar reason why SQ puts their youngest A350's to SFO, LAX, YVR, SEA nonstop from SIN).

Similarly happens when SQ put their 77W's to HKG and onwards to SFO, about 95% of the time, they treat SFO with the newest and youngest 77W (SWU-SNC), and on occasion some older Wifi 77W's, too (SWB-SWT), not something that always happens to LAX or even JFK routes (at least when HKG-SFO was operated at the time). Last year, commonly SWW & SWZ was used, but more often SWW was used on SQ8/7.

Nice TR, SQfanatic!

Just wanted to point out that there are many people from South Asia (Kerala etc) and all over, who have settled in UAE or are working there, but I would use the term Emirati strictly to refer to the local native Arabs originally from there. There is a huge population from elsewhere who have settled in the UAE to live or to work (as you have said, a very diverse place), but these would all be in the category of non-Emiratis.

Thank you for that. I agree with that for sure. It's just that my mom did refer to the folks who we have had interactions with from Kerala as Malayis since she spoke in Malayalam to them after asking where they're from and all. I'll surely take note of this.

Nice TR, SQfanatic!

DXB is quite a mega hub and the focus is throughput and the ability to process large numbers of passengers...yes agree it can be chaotic and quite bewildering... quite an experience!

Thanks again for the TR!

No problem. Thanks again for reading it. Glad you enjoyed it.

Definitely agree about DXB being a mega hub, no question about that. And I have gone to the city of Singapore numerous times but when entering back at the airport, I don't think the checks were this much compared to DXB. I've gone to HKG before and the city and it wasn't that bad either personally.

The most frustrating part was having to actually scan our passports ourselves. There's something called a "smart gate" for passport control. First when you show your passport, they direct you to go there first before going thru the right side (where you can show your passport and boarding pass and they just let you proceed). You can't just cheat your way and go to the right side and proceed.

It's like a professor wanting you to try before asking for their advice on coding. On the trying part of this, it took such a long time to even scan the passports. And at that point, it got worse that pretty much 95% of the passports had trouble reading the information that everyone had to exit the smart gate and proceed to the right and go quickly to security (yes that included both me and my parents as well). The amount of time waiting was horrendously long.

First security check was not a problem line-wise. Then, you have to take a train (just like when we arrived in DXB) to the departures hall/airside. That's when we didn't have too much time. Then at the gate, we boarded and another bag check came (I don't think I remember this the last time I flew thru DXB). I think HKG has a similar thing but I only noticed it once on my transit flight in Jan 2017 flying SQ2 (9V-SWZ) from HKG to SFO, but not at all on my CX flights.