I know. Planereality is all about airlines, but I could not resist posting a few pics from Dubai:

clock at rotary (round about)

currency exchange
Burj Dubai-will be the tallest building in the world (when complete)
Martha?
Sbux shout out for T!
delicious lunch

skyline
who said there’s no booze in Dubai?

love when a hotel has this channel

outside hotel

cricket

U.A.E. Idol?

no clue…

Uh, Al Ras Corniche

told ya it was all about airlines

LH #631 DXB-FRA
Boeing 747-400
duration: 6 hours with 3 hour time change

passenger drop:

a sample of airlines and flights leaving Dubai tonight:

I found myself stuck in the Dubai airport at the check in lobby. See, I had arrived too early, before the Lufthansa desk opened and I had not printed my boarding pass online; hence, I could not pass through security. The check in desks are not staffed by airline employees, rather airport employees. Some airlines only operate 1 or 2 flights per day from Dubai and when a flight is “open” for check in (roughly 3 hours before departure) the desk staff simply change the signage and the monitor to reflect whatever flight they are preparing.

By the way, passengers have to pass through a security screening just to get to the check in area. This was a free for all. People running into each other, knocking bags off the x-ray machine. People’s bags were passing through the x-ray while they still had a five person wait to pass the metal detector, causing a pile up of bags on the other end. Oy ve…
The check in lobby looked and felt like Grand Central Station at rush hour, on steroids. Some people were running, yelling, sweating and just plain frantic. I sat back, watched the action and snapped a few….

I was second to check in at the Business Class counter. No sweat.

Security was a breeze. Just past the security check point, I saw a British guy storm up to a Dubai Military officer and demand to speak with whoever was in charge.
“Why?” the officer asked. The officer sternly informed the Brit that he was indeed in charge.
The Brit said something to the effect that the security personnel were rude, un-professional and their behavior would make people not want to return to Dubai.
There was another American next to me and we looked at each other and chuckled because neither of us would ever dream of saying something like that for fear of never being let back into Dubai or worse yet, not being allowed to leave!!! The two walked off and I proceeded to the terminal.

Dubai Terminal 1/Main Terminal with lots of duty free shopping:

Pre Departure from Dubai
After I was through security, I still had a few hours to kill in the Star Alliance lounge, right by gate 126; nothing special here; small & crowded; limited seating; 2 service areas, both self serve with full bar, beer & champagne. Finger sandwiches like tuna salad; roasted veggies and flank steak. Candy, potato chips, raisins, cheese & crackers were also available. Some passengers had nowhere to sit. The bathrooms had lots of water on the sinks and floor.
The stalls have a spray gun (like the one in your kitchen) not sure if that’s to wash down the seat or wash your behind (didn’t use it for either). Free, slow Wi-Fi was also available.

Boarding was chaotic as everyone in the gate area crowded the door to the ramp. The first announcement the gate agent made was for all those coach passengers seated in the back of the plane (i.e. rows 40-70 to board). Only after she had said that, she immediately then offered boarding for First and Business Class passengers to board. First time I had seen this and it certainly added to what was already a ja
m-packed mess.

Our ride to Frankfurt:

Once seated (14A), sparkling wine, juice and water were offered. No need to guess what I chose. I was surprised to see some crumbs between my seat and the wall of the aircraft. There was also a giant black hair and the headrest next to mine. Besides these two items the plane was new and clean. The amenity kit was hidden in a compartment behind the seat and I didn’t find it until an hour into the flight.

The amenity kits were the same on my DXB-FRA & FRA-ATL flights. Toothbrush, toothpaste, eye shades, ear plugs, socks, moisturizer, lip balm, ear phone covers and a towelette.

About the same time, the steward showed me where the tray table was. He was amused that I did not know where it was. It took a long time to start the 1st meal service, or at least what I thought would be a meal service. Much to my dismay, only a snack was offered; no menus, no linens and when I asked for utensils, the steward looked shocked. I attribute the lack of food to the fact that this flight left at 2:25am local time. The FA’s were very diligent about refilling cocktails and water.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the plane hit what I thought was a massive air pocket. It was a large enough jolt that even the FA’s serving drinks braced. The pilot immediately came on the PA and explained that another plane had cut us off and that plane’s wing had dipped into our flight path…. I started to wonder what qualifications were required for pilots in the part of the world. I mean, not our Lufthansa 747 pilot, but Iran Air or Royal Brunei Air? Yikes….

I felt like I was the only one awake on this flight, but it did not matter because the super professional FA’s routinely checked on me to ensure I had all the water and whatever else I needed throughout the night. I was warm and it was tough to sleep. The seats move in just about any direction you want, but when they are all the way reclined and you lay into the shell of the seat, they become a little too narrow for broad shoulders, making on your side the most comfortable way to sleep. Somehow, I managed 90 minutes or so of shut eye.

Shortly before landing in Frankfurt, the cabin lights were turned on and a second meal service started. The same male FA (think Germans in “Beer League”) recited the breakfast choices in German, even though we had already had a conversation in English. I asked him to repeat it in English: “Mushroom pancake (?), muesli or continental cold plate.” I went with the 3rd option which was tasty but not terribly filling. Some variation of deli meat (definitely turkey based as we were flying out of the middle-east) and fruit.

With that, we landed in Frankfurt and I faced a 6 hour layover. My seat after arrival in FRA:

Lufthansa #444; Frankfurt-Atlanta

Airbus A340-300

10 hours with 6 hour time change

A 6 hour layover is bearable; however, the one I experienced was extra difficult because of the hours the layover occurred. I was still on EST time and my arrival in Frankfurt was 6am local (midnight in Atlanta). Essentially, I pulled an all nighter. Yeah, I could have slept sitting upright somewhere, but somehow I had a few ounces of adrenaline left (which I would pay for later)

A business class boarding pass gave me access to Lufthansa’s business lounge, but not the Star Alliance Lounge (like in Dubai). Look, if I spend a few thousand bucks on an airline ticket, I should be entitled to any available lounge. My guess is that the only difference between the two lounges was hot food consisting of breakfast protein, which I was in dire need of and that is really the only reason I was annoyed.

Business Lounge:

After an hour in the business lounge I walked around for a while…a long while. Here is what I saw:

Our ride to the ATL:

Finally, I was on the plane for a leisurely 10 hour hop to the US. What is so impressive about Lufthansa is how genuinely important it is to the flight crew that each passenger has a pleasant experience. You’re flying with a crew that takes pride in the tasks as hand. They execute with passion. I call it service with a smile. ( I didn’t coin that term)

First lunch was served. Lufthansa does it right. When food was served on this 2-2-2 (business class) configured plane, there was a FA in each aisle serving food with an additional 2 fa’s behind with drink carts. The FA called me by name when offering me a beverage–just like US carriers

delicious beef stew:

The seats on this Airbus were the same as the seats on Lufthansa’s 747-almost lie flat. Sleep came quickly after lunch. The in flight entertainment consisted of the typical movies, music and games. I believe the movie selection could use more variety. I am not a movie buff, but of the 2 dozen movies, I had only heard of half of them.
During lunch, I watched “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Not tops on my list but I killed two hours.

Some shots of the empty rear business calss cabin:

The “Asian Snack” and more cocktails were served before landing.

15,281 miles in 4 days…done!

I shot this from the roof of my hotel:

BACKGROUND

I wanted to find some reasonably priced airfare on an international itinerary and include business class in at least one direction. I wound up booking a one way coach class ticket 6 days before departure for around $650 USD on my online booking engine: http//1535.mtravel.com.

The $650 was considerably less than the $3,500 published on various other web sites. This happened to be a Delta code-share flight operated by Air France. For the $650 price, there were 3 departures to choose from; 2 on Delta and the one I chose on Air France. I chose this flight because it looked like the least full flight of the 3. I used Delta’s web site to check seat availability before booking.

After booking, when I first pulled up my itinerary online at delta.com, I was unable to assign myself a seat. I called the international reservations desk and spoke to an apologetic Delta agent who put me on hold so he could call Air France. Twenty-five minutes later, it was determined that Delta & AF computers were not synchronizing seat availability. The DL agent took my seat request and said he would put a request in for my seats. Shortly thereafter I saw my seats assigned on line but could not change them. Incidentally, I could not see my reservation on Air France’s web site and 1 day before departure my reservation disappeared from delta.com. After another call to Delta international reservations, the agent told me my DL SkyMiles # was removed from the reservation, but she put it back on. (?)

AF #385 ATL-CDG (Atlanta-Paris)
Airbus A340-300
Duration: 8 hours; 6 hour time change

Check in was normal, albeit slow considering how few people were in line, for the 8:50pm departure to Paris. The guy next to me was connecting to Cairo from Charles De Gaulle, but his passport had less than 2 months until expiration, making it invalid to enter most foreign countries; even those that do not require Americans to obtain a visa. Ouch!

Dude playing piano in food court; terminal E in ATL:

Boarding was orderly, as this flight was about 40% full. My boarding pass indicated Zone 5, however, Delta Sky Miles Elite members receive priority boarding after Zone 1 (business class) is called.

What I noticed about this Airbus A340-300 was how narrow the aisles were, barely wide enough to tow a roller bag behind me while heading to my seat. In coach, Air France uses a 2-4-2 configuration. When I saw my seat, I was shocked at how little leg room I would have, but knew I had the seat next to me open and did not panic.

Shortly after takeoff, a small plastic bag containing eye shades, ear phones, ear plugs and a towelette was given to each passenger seated in coach class. Drinks were offered, including beer, wine and champagne (all complimentary) along with a small bag of pretzels. I asked the FA for two Heinekens.
“Two?!” she replied with a surprised look….
“Yes” I said, “it will save you a trip back in 5 minutes”
“Oh” she said; and kindly passed me two Heinekens.

At first, the IFE (in flight entertainment) was not working at all, but it was re-set quickly and worked fine for the rest of the trip. Too bad the girl behind me did not know there was a remote control in the arm rest. She only used the touch screen (with force), pounding constantly on the back of my seat (flying pet peeve #1). I raised my in seat remote above my head a few times in order to give her a clue. It must have worked because the pounding stopped shortly after.
Full dinner service commenced. Beef Burgeon accompanied by curry cous cous with baby shrimp, cheese and pudding. Small baguettes and more cocktails followed. I found the cabin entirely too hot to fall asleep. I was literally sweating, just sitting there and unfortunately, there were no personal adjustable air streams overhead. I told the FA the cabin was too hot. He nodded and said OK. Eventually I fell asleep for about two hours and woke up freezing cold, to broad daylight inside the cabin and FA’s serving breakfast.

Flying pet peeve #2-When someone is walking to the bathroom, WHY must they touch every seat’s head rest as they walk by, causing passengers to rock back and forth in their seats? Use a cane if you can’t support yourself.

Connection
So I dashed to my gate at the other terminal because I was uncertain as to whether I had to go through customs. It seemed like at least 3 miles from Terminal 2E to Terminal 2F; it was probably more like a mile but I was working on 3 hours of sleep. There was no customs per se, but I did have to go through security again, although shoes were allowed to be kept on as opposed to the USA. By the time I did this, I needed a restroom asap. The facilities resembled that of the whole terminal; crowded and dated. I found one bathroom on the lower level of the terminal; 3 stalls, one of which was out of order and only 2 urinals. I waited in line because I had to.

Terminal 2F at CDG:

Air France #526 CDG-DXB (Paris-Dubai)
Boeing 777-200ER
Duration: 6 hours-3 hour time change

Asked the gate attendant for a seat without anyone next to me; no luck, she put me in the middle between two people but actually she did me a favor because the exit row was huge. The exit door of the 777-200ER has a mini window in it.

My seat:

After all passengers boarded and the doors closed, a few FA’s gathered in my exit row. They were looking out the small window in the emergency door and pointing at the wing-we were still at the gate. Then the co-captain came back to have a look, then the pilot stared at it for a moment-all speaking French. I decided to get up and have a look and saw nothing. I asked the FA if he needed me to get out on the wing and have a look; he did not get my joke. No idea what the issue was but it did result in a late take off, only by about 20 minutes.

Much to my surprise, lunch menus were passed out in coach.

I chose the chicken casserole which was delicious. Much better than it looks in the picture. Cognac and coffee were offered after lunch. No sleep on this plane, my ass hurt too much from sitting on hard coach seats, even after the cognac.

I watched a few episodes of the Sopranos. I think Air France needs some more variety for movies, there are only about 20 movies and although I am no movie buff, I had only heard of about half of them. More than half way:

The second meal (er…snack) service, consisting of small finger sandwiches, included no alcohol, even for sale; only juice, water, coffee and soda.

This leg of my journey to Dubai was uneventful but bizarre. After flying in darkness nearly the whole way from Atlanta, I was on my next flight for only 2.5 hours and it was dark again. (we were blazing our way east, away from the sun)

From the rear of the plane where I was stretching, somewhere over Saudi Arabia… Get me outta here…

…yeah:

My seat (middle) after arrival in Dubai:

After 14+ hours in coach, I was ready to get off this plane. Luckily it was time to do just that AND I was at my destination.

I had very low expectations for coach class, but Air France did a marvelous job the whole way. Everything you would expect; attentive & friendly service, good food and clean planes.