At the moment, I am sitting in my hotel room in Dubai thanking the powers that be that lie flat beds were invented for airplanes! If it weren’t for Emirates‘ Business Class I think I’d be a zombie right now after having flown in directly from London. And what a flight it was. From the second I stepped into Gatwick airport, Emirates made my visit one that was entirely enjoyable. Even security was a breeze! At check in your ticket is marked Gatwick Premiere and you are seen through a special security line where queues don’t exist and you are given plenty of time and space to remove your laptop from your bag, jacket from your back and shoes from your feet. That in itself is extreme luxury. Then there’s the lounge…
The Emirates lounge was a true oasis. I’m not kidding here, folks. From the plush leather chairs to the wonderful spread of fine cuisine (cheesecakes, full roast dinners and loads of nibbles), if you need to find calm and relaxation before your flight this is the place to do it. As I am still to this day a nervous flyer I found this the perfect “pre-game” to take off. I sat quietly enjoying InStyle magazine, compliments of Emirates, with a glass of champagne and a delicious blue cheese pasta.
When it came time for boarding we were notified in the lounge and off we went to the gate, which was only about a five minute walk. Upon boarding I was seated in seat 10F on the plane. It was a quick right upon entering and I found my seat, was greeted with a glass of bubbly and quickly familiarized myself with my surroundings. The seat itself is a work of complete and utter genius. From the moment you are seated you are presented with an option to turn on the massage function in your chair. Again, this was great in completely relaxing every muscle in my body and helped to prepare me for takeoff. You can then turn on your TV screen and watch as the camera on the front of the plane displays the view (a very cool function for landing as well). Or if you’re more into distracting yourself during takeoff you can get right into watching TV or a movie.
As soon as the plane was in the air I had my footrest raised, massage chair on full blast and the TV playing a classic film. We were offered more drinks from a full list of fine wines, various cocktails and a fully loaded bar of soft drinks and juices. Dinner was a selection of two appetizers and three entrees and all looked equally delicious. In fact, I had serious food envy when my neighbour’s shrimp arrived.
Appetizers, dinner and desert completed, the air hostess came and prepared my seat for sleeping. A mattress was laid, pillow and blanket prepared and I was tucked in for a long snooze for the duration of the flight. However, there were so many fun gadgets to play with and things to see that I only managed to sleep for half the flight. The other half of the flight I was watching movies, programmes on Dubai and checking out the facilities on board. I was even totally taken with the fact that the ceiling on the plane is covered in tiny lights to look like the night sky. It was incredible!
In fact it all ended too soon. I wasn’t yet finished enjoying the luxuries on board and we were already landing. But the convenience of flying Emirates business didn’t finish when we touched down. After landing in Dubai we were given fast track cards that had us through passport control in under ten minutes. The perfect finish to the ultimate adventure.
A massive thank you to Emirates for treating us so well on our flight! Looking forward to the return on Saturday but I can already tell you I’ll be missing Dubai and this amazing weather!
