Emirates Johannesburg

12 August 2013. Rating 5/5 : I remember the trip like it was yesterday. My young sister was graduating in Manchester and I had to be there to celebrate with her. My Visa application went smoothly and the next thing to do was to find a flight that could accommodate my budget. After much research online, Emirates was the winner. I remember choosing to sit by the window because I wanted to see everything, from take-off to when we were on the sky. Growing up I had always wondered if clouds were like cotton candy or ice cream or both and flying through them and seeing the thick white clouds up close and personal was unforgettable. It felt like a dream. Because this was my first flight and first trip abroad, I did some research on everything about the trip including things to do at the Dubai airport. My stopover was 6 hours which gave me enough time to explore the place and before you know it, I was on my way to Manchester. Excitement gripped me at the thought of seeing my family and being on another continent altogether. I kept on pinching myself to see if I was not dreaming. I did a bit of touring in Manchester and the two best places I went to were Manchester United Stadium and Trafford Centre. Trafford Centre had the most amazing artwork inside which made it look like a mini museum. This was such an awesome trip that I will never forget it. When it was time to return to a part of me wished I could stay there but there is no place like home. Nombulelo

4 January 2013. Rating 5/5 After some torrid experiences, Annelise finds here travelling mojo again...thanks to an Emirates Johannesburg to London flight.

Review of an Emirates Flight from Johannesburg to Dubai

31 October 2011. Rating 4/5 : A long-haul flight in economy class is cramped and uncomfortable, no matter which airline you fly, which is why little details make all the difference. Our Emirates flight to Dubai was uneventful, but pleasant enough.

The tickets
I booked our tickets on the Emirates website—a quick and easy process. I do recommend that you print out your confirmation/itinerary email as soon as you receive it, because mine somehow got lost in the great dark hole of the internet. Luckily I had forwarded it to my husband before I lost it.

Baggage
Emirates allows 30 kg of baggage in Economy Class, 40 kg in Business Class, and 50 kg in First Class; quite a lot more generous than most airlines. They also allow one set of golf clubs and one pair of golf shoes at no additional charge (after all, Dubai has some world class golf courses). For other sports equipment, see their website for details.

Pets
“Pets are not permitted in the cabin, with the exception of falcons between Dubai and certain destinations in Pakistan.” This was taken from the Emirates website which I thought might be of interest to passengers with an interest in falconry.

Check-in
Check-in closes 90 minutes before the flight is scheduled to take-off. If you suspect that you may get to the airport a bit late, you can check in online, open from 24 hours before your flight. You can then print out your e-boarding pass yourself, or collect it when you check in your bags.

Self-service check-in
Our return flight from Dubai involved a self-service check-in. Being the developing world South Africans that we are, we were quite impressed by the shiny self-check-in machines… but then we still had to queue at an Emirates counter to weigh and check-in our bags. Being the developing world South Africans that we are, we didn’t really understand the point of self-service check-ins.

Flight times
I would recommend flying during the day, other wise you give yourself jetlag as a night of tossing and turning in limited space makes you want to sleep through your first day in Dubai.

My Emirates flight EK764

Our flight was at 7pm, which meant we needed to get to the check-in counter before 5:30pm. We could only leave home at 4pm, which meant Jo’burg traffic on a Friday afternoon was the main deciding factor of whether we would get to go on our weekend in Dubai. I was not optimistic. I went through the Emirates website and discovered online check-in. If you’re checked-in online, you only need to be at the check-in counter 30 minutes before the flight (for your bags). You will need your booking reference number, passport number and of course, your name, to check-in online. When we got to the airport, there was no queue at the Emirates counters, baggage was weighed and checked-in in two minutes and even the credit card verification took only a swift wave of the hand by the official. Boarding the airplane was a different story. There was an expected long line of passengers waiting to board at Gate A25. But the gate did not open on time, which meant we had to stand around and wait. Then when the gates did eventually open, they shooed away the Economy Class passengers to A24—the original gate was only for Business and First Class passengers. There was a lot of grumbling, reshuffling and waiting before we were finally on the plane. Our flight was only eight hours, which is not too bad in terms of long-haul flights. But the seats weren’t particularly comfortable. I feel like the princess and the pea when I describe this, but the seats on the Boeing 777-300ER have thicker foam at the edge of the seat, just under the lower thighs, which leads to a slight numbing of the legs after a few hours. My husband didn’t notice this, however, because he was sprawled out on two seats for eight hours. The ICE (entertainment system) offered a great variety of programmes and games to choose from, including shows and movies from all over the world. It would’ve been great but I couldn’t work out how to change the subtitle language which meant I had to watch a Japanese movie with Greek subtitles. This was not ideal. I ended up watching Hollywood blockbusters (with French subtitles). In-flight catering was not bad. I recommend the beef curry and the mushroom tortellini (surprisingly al dente), but the seafood noodle starter was very oily and fishy, and the apple crumble tasted like baby food. Breakfast was a much better meal, with a croissant and a selection of cold meats and cheeses. Overall the flight was pretty pleasant. The staff were very friendly and helpful, and I was quite distracted by the TV screen. Sparse dotting of lights in the desert below provided extra distraction as my imagination ran wild (Is that a village? A hideout for Aladdin and the thieves? What kind of people live here in the middle of nowhere?). We didn’t experience much turbulence and the landing was smooth. After my (first) two flights with Emirates, I think I would fly with Emirates again. Alice Kühne