I flew on the most controversial Emirates flight in the world - here's what it was like
After grabbing a quick breakfast at the business class lounge,...
... It's time to board my flight home. Emirates uses Boeing 777-300ERs for its Newark-bound flights.
I flew economy class. Looking around, the entire economy section was full. In fact, the section was oversold by a dozen or so seats. That means a few lucky folks got bumped up to business class.
Fortunately, Emirates' economy seats have 32 inches of pitch. It isn't a crazy amount of room, but more than sufficient for my needs.
The seatback cupholder's rotating center ring proved to be oddly entertaining.
The first leg of the flight is a five-hour-long segment from Dubai to Athens.
The main event of this flight was lunch. There was a choice between the chicken with sundried tomato pesto and the Lamb with rosemary sauce.
I went with the chicken. The main course proved to be savory and moist. The barley and lentil salad was quite good as well. But the mango mousse with Kit Kat crumbles didn't work. I discovered that chocolatey mango isn't for me.
After a quick nap, Athens came into view of the plane's cameras.
In Athens, all passengers, even those headed to Newark, are required to deplane. As the airline prepped for the next leg, we made our way through a Greek security checkpoint before...
... Finding ourselves at a boarding gate waiting to get on the plane again. In total, we spent a little more than hour on the ground.
With a fresh crew and a new set of passengers, we board our eight-year-old Boeing 777-300ER. The airline operates a fleet of more than 160 Boeing 777s, the largest in the world.
My accommodations for the next leg of the journey. Again, the entire plane was packed. Emirates provides all economy class passengers with pillows, blankets, and headphones.
All passengers also received an amenity kit which included socks, ear plugs, a toothbrush with toothpaste, and an eye mask.
This leg of the flight will last more than 10 hours...
...Giving me the perfect opportunity to explore ICE; Emirates' in-flight entertainment system with roughly 2,500 channels of movies, TV, and music.
The system can be controlled either by using the seatback touchscreen or this remote control.
I was tempted to marathon my way through a season of 24 but...
... I decided to go with the complete Fast and Furious collection.
But first, another meal. For our second lunch, Emirates offered a choice between chicken in spaghetti sauce and braised beef.
I went with the beef. And it seemed to be the more popular of the two dishes. The braised beef was a bit salty for my taste but remarkably tender. The chocolate dessert was serviceable while the cold orzo salad was a no go. It missed on both taste and texture.
After lunch, the lights went out for a while. This gave me the chance to experience the crown jewels in Vin Diesel's cinematic career while admiring the cabin lights designed to mimic stars in the night sky.
Before landing, dinner was served. With a choice of salmon in a beurre blanc or a chicken and tarragon casserole, I again went for the chicken. The chicken wasn't as tender as I would have liked, but the tarragon sauce's delicate flavor saved the dish. The potato salad with gherkin and parsley was essentially perfect. Great flavor and texture.
Soon after the meal, we landed on time in Newark around 9:30 PM. Here's my verdict.
With less space and fewer amenities with which to work, economy class is perhaps the most difficult of the in-flight products to perfect. Which means there's a thin line between success and brutalizing your passengers.
Fortunately, Emirates is pretty darn good at what they do.
The food was top notch as was the airline's selection of soft drinks and alcoholic beverages.
The 32-inches of seat pitch and relatively generous recline angle offered enough room to engage in some solid napping. Unlike many of the new slimline seats, Emirates economy seats are well cushioned and supportive.
ICE lived up to its billing as the best in-flight entertainment system in all the land for the past 13 years according to airline rating website Skytrax. The large selection of Western and regional films, television shows, and music has something for just about anyone.
Unfortunately, the screen at my seat was slow to react and didn't deliver very good picture quality. But, it should be noted that our aircraft was one of the older planes in the fleet and did not have the latest screens, which are more responsive and delivers a much better picture.
There was one thing that did bug me, however. In January, I had the chance to experience no fewer than five different sets of Emirates cabin crew. Almost without fail, they were all incredibly professional, helpful, and a joy to deal with. Except the gentleman assigned to serve my section on the leg from Athens to Newark.
During the flight, he was terse, he snapped at passengers, and generally wore a dour expression on his face like he really didn't want to be there. But apart from this little speed bump, everything else was great.
So what's my final verdict?
As controversial as Emirates' Newark operation may be in the airline industry, the customer experience, and overall service is outstanding.
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