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EK349 in J class.

 
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aditya466
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Joined: 17 Dec 2014
Posts: 9

PostPosted: Mon Dec 29, 2014 7:20 pm    Post subject: EK349 in J class. Reply with quote

Sorry for the delay in posting this TR. I was caught up in other activities and then I wanted to hold back this TR in the events or AirAsia's missing plane. Just an addition to this mystery of missing planes, the area over where QZ8501 lost contact is very close to the area where my flight, EK348, shook violently, causing the food trolley to topple.

Going on with the TR, this is my TR which includes Emirates' chauffeur service and the Emirates Lounge review in SIN T1.


The Chauffeur

I had booked the chauffeur, which is a service provided free of charge to full paying J or F customers. I have never used this service before, so I was excited to try it out. Booking it was very easy, completely done online. I just typed in the address and put the time of pickup at 20:30, 4 hours before departure. Emirates sent me an SMS 24 hours before the flight to confirm that a chauffeur would be arriving. When my Dad used this service in Dubai and Europe, a Volvo S60 was sent, and I expected the same, if not, worse.

On the 24th, at sharp 20:30, i received a call from the chauffeur. Wow! very punctual. I said my goodbyes to my friend's family and walked down with my friend. We were both fully expecting a Volvo or even a Toyota/Nissan.

I was pleasantly surprised to see this:





A Mercedes E250! I was completely shocked, as I thought Mercedes was used for F class customers! The car was a metallic black, with an Emirates Logo on the windshield. However, the driver was not eager, and was very rude. As I approached the car, he did not offer to lift my heavy luggage or offer any attempt to bring the car closer to me. I had to tell him to help me with my luggage, which then he did.

The ride to Changi Airport T1 would take 30 minutes, according to the driver. The ride was smooth and we passed through the famous Singapore Flyer and Marina Sands again. The photo quality is very poor in low light. I have included the best pictures only.

The interior of a very well maintained Mercedes.



The View on the way to the airport





The arrival at T1 was very smooth. We arrived at the departure terminal, and I got down to grab a luggage trolley. This time, the chauffeur was much more helpful and he removed all my bags from the car and placed them on the trolley.

My first experience with EK's Chauffeur service was excellent, despite the minor problems which surfaced. The only problem was the driver's initial rudeness and I had to force the driver to lower the volume of his Tamil music in the car. Despite that, the service was excellent and most importantly, punctual. I would rate it 9/10.


Emirates Lounge in Singapore Review

Check in was very quick. I walked over to the check in counter and patiently waited in the business class counter behind a small family checking in to Melbourne. The First Class counter to my left was empty and had an lady in EK uniform behind the computer. Then, a large Indian family of about 7 ( Their Indian Passports were very visible) walked to the First Class counter. I heard the lady behind the counter calmly telling them to check in using the Y class counter, but then, the man turned abusive, loudly asking for an "upgrade". Oh god why Embarassed . As soon as the family left, the lady in the first class counter called me in for check in. Check in was very quick and I had to stress how fragile one of my bags was. She was very cooperative and placed fragile stickers all over the box. She handed me my boarding pass and told me the directions to get to the lounge.

Business Class Check in.



First class check in



The boarding pass



As soon as I passed immigration, I went straight to the lounge, since there was nothing interesting in the duty-free. The walk to the lounge was a long one, since I had to pass all the duty free shops. The lounge is secluded, and one floor above the Duty-Free shops. There is another lounge shared by a few airlines opposite the EK lounge.

The Entrance



I have been to the EK lounge in Colombo, so I knew what to expect. Cream coloured leather seats and a generally pleasing atmosphere. I was not disappointed.

At a first glance, the lounge is very big and was fairly empty, except for the few passengers off to Melbourne.

The Lounge





A Lot of EK flights in 2 hours!



I sat down with some Coke and Mixed Nuts and tried to do some spotting, although Singapore is very quiet in the night.



JAL in OneWorld Livery with my ride to CMB in the back.



Singapore Airlines B777 with an SQ A380 in the back.





Off to Dubai!





The lounge quickly cleared up for the Melbourne departure. This left the entire lounge to my self! I was the only one in the lounge!

I eventually got up to have a look at the buffet. The selection was OK at most. They had some Red Bean Soup for starters with a small variety of Main course. The main problem was that the food did not compliment each other. They were too random! For example, they had Seafood rice noodles, paneer butter masala, chicken satay and potato and chicken salad. Add the ridiculous soup on offer and I had one of the most culturally diverse plate of food. The lifesaver was the Dumplings which they had on order. I went with some Shanghai Chicken Dumplings and one shot of espresso coffee. I had some warm buns to accompany the coffee. While the dumplings were being prepared, the 2 attendants introduced themselves to me, having noticed my Indian Passport. Both tried to speak to me in hindi, but my hindi is terrible so I had to reply in english. The highlight of the day was when both the attendants told me that they were from Chandigarh, my home town! We had a long chat about the cricket stadium, and their favourite "sectors" to shop. It was an excellent experience meeting someone from your home away from your home.

The dumplings finally arrived, and the 2 attendants had to leave to attend to the other Sri Lankan Businessmen in coats who started to arrive at the lounge.

The Dumplings were delicious!





I had some Mango mousse cake, which wasn't very good.



Before I left, I went to the washroom to wash my face and freshen up. The washroom was very nice, and had 2 showers. There were plenty of amenities ranging from Bulgari Fragrance to Hand Creams to Moisturising Lotion. There were warm hand towels too.

I had to leave the lounge at 00:00, since departure was at 00:30. I said my goodbyes to the attendants, who made this experience very memorable. To be honest, I did not feel like leaving the lounge!

The EK lounge doesn't disappoint in looks or comfort. The washroom is excellent, there is an excellent selection of drinks from the range of coffees and soft drinks to hard liquor. The service was excellent and the attendants were very friendly. The lounge was very large and airy and clean. However, the selection of food needs to be improved, although the quality and taste of the food is excellent. I would rate the lounge 8.5/10, due to the bad variety of food.

The Flight

I left the lounge at 00:00 and walked straight to gate C22, which was very near to the lounge. Security was quick and the guy handling security was a very cheerful man. He wished everyone a merry christmas and he definitely was one of the best security guys I have met! After a quick boarding pass check, I walked straight to the aircraft, but not before taking some photos.

My Plane for the day,A6-EGT



Another 777-300ER to Dubai.





I chose seat 10K, again on Jishnu's advice. First, there would be no one nest to me, and secondly, I would be next to those huge engines! The helpful cabin crew directed me to my seat. Before I left for the airport, I checked the seating diagram of today's flight. There were about 6 empty J class seats. I peeked into Y class and it was completely full.

Seat 10K



I came into the cabin quite early!



The legroom. I don't need to even talk about legroom Cool



The side wireless tablet to control everything on the screen.



Electric Window Blinds




The view outside was excellent!





There were some noise-cancelling headsets from Bose, I assume. I did not open these because I had my own headphones.



Just Before the final passengers got into the plane, the seat next to me was taken by an Indian upgraded from Economy(his e-ticket and passport was in his hand), due to the overbooked flight Crying or Very sad . In fact, every empty seat I saw in my booking in J class had someone upgraded from economy. The J class was also 100% full along with the 100% full Y

The captain came on the PA, and introduced himself and the first officer. He announced the slightly late departure, and slightly turbulent weather, and the cruising altitude of 36000ft. He told us we would arrive 25 minutes late into Colombo, due to the late departure.

Nevertheless, pushback which began on time at 00:25, and the best pictures I took!







The Taxi was smooth and as usual, I switched to the forward facing camera.









We Held short of the runway, as another plane I could not identify was taking off. The takeoff was longer than expected, probably due to the larger payload.

Takeoff at 00:37. Goodbye Singapore!







As soon as we crossed 10000ft, the seatbelt sign went off. This also allowed me to detach the wireless tablet controller and play around with it.







What amazed me, compared to my previous trip in EK J class was the exclusive J and F magazine, and the electric window blinds. I also don't recall the Tablet and main screen being HD. The touch screen was much better, requiring only light taps.

The Exclusive Magazine



We finally reached the cruising altitude of 36000ft



At this point, I reclined my seat in the 'Lounge' position and went through the menu, although I ordered a Hindu meal. I also had a good read of the magazine. The crew began drink service, offering champagne and wines and soft drinks with warm mixed nuts.

The Menu



The magazine



I put the magazine aside and started watching a movie, 22 Jump Street.



Dinner service began at about an hour into the flight. I was promptly handed my "Hindu" meal. This included fresh fruit, some warm buns, and some mutton/chicken curry with rice and mixed vegetables.



I exchanged the fruits for some strawberry mousse Laughing



The food was excellent and more warm bread was offered which included garlic bread, and scones. I went with some Garlic bread and some brown bread. The bread was deliciously soft, a strong contrast to the Y class bread which was hard, cold and rubbery and on the borderline of edibility. However, I found the portion to be slightly small.

We were also offered chocolate



After Dinner service, we were offered more drinks to which I refused. However, the Indian guy next to me, who did not even have dinner had a binge drinking session. He drank and drank, and then went to sleep, snoring loudly. Oh god why.
Question

The lights were dimmed. I reclined my seat into the bed position and continued watching the movie.



I only wished if they completely turned off that orange light, which began to get annoying, which they finally did.



I dozed off for about 20 minutes. I woke up to the announcment about the Emirates Charity for underprivileged kids. I don't understand why they made this announcement when every single passenger was asleep.This was about some distance away from the east coast of Sri Lanka.



Anyway, I woke up and called the stewardess for some Pepsi and tissues. This was bought immediately, compared to the 3-4 times I had to ask in Y class. There is a difference in service, but I did not expect such a sharp difference in service between Y and J.

As soon as we were passing over the east coast of Sri Lanka, the captain announced that they would begin the descent early to avoid some turbulence ahead. He also told us to expect a rough approach due to strong winds and heavy showers in Colombo.

The Early descent





The passengers were awoken for the landing. The drunk guy beside me woke up for a few seconds to put his seat to the upright position and then went back to snoring again, Mad

At this point we were very near to Colombo.








First, I could not see any rain or any turbulence which the captain promised and secondly, the descent did not cause my ears to pop(again Laughing )

We continued west, towards Colombo, and then took the unusual approach due to the traffic. We turned south west, away from Colombo. We then did a series of turn to align for an ILS approach to Runaway 04 in Colombo.

This is when things started going bad for me. I clicked over 50 photos of the approach, which included flaps, and the terrible rain once we descended below 1500ft. These photos also included the massive cloud of water the engines generated on touchdown and the engine opening up in reverse thrust. These photos never saved. Shocked Confused Crying or Very sad Evil or Very Mad Question

I lost over 50 photos of a once in a lifetime landing Crying or Very sad

I did get a few photos though.







You can get some idea of how wet that landing was. I'm so disappointed I missed out the landing.

The taxi was long and there were quite a few planes at this time. We arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule at about 02:00. I went straight to fast track immigration, when 2 Pakistani guys cut through the line and tried entering Sri Lanka without a valid visa! Some people! Baggage claim was very quick because of the priority baggage tags. My fragile box came unscathed and damage-free. Not even a small mark on the cardboard box!

I have just included some more photos of Singapore.

Sim Lim Square





Ferrari outside Mustafa!



Sentosa Boardwalk and Sentosa it self!













Random Photos of the City and Chinatown













This sector of the trip was excellent and each individual part of the trip makes the the whole trip excellent. The Chauffeur service and the Lounge were both excellent. The flight was excellent too. The only negative review of the whole flight is the seat. The seats are too narrow, due to squeezing in 7 J class seats in one row. However this is negligible, unless you sleep in some awkward position Laughing .The service was excellent, the food was excellent and the entertainment was excellent.

I would rate the flight at 10/10.

The Score Summary: Chauffeur - 9/10
The Lounge - 8.5/10
The Flight - 10/10

Which brings the average to a high 9.2/10

I hope you enjoyed reading this TR.

Thanks
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sumantra
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Mon Dec 29, 2014 10:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aditya, thanks for something we have been long waiting for!
An excellent trip report. Nice keen and observant eyes translating sights into words for us. This is perhaps one section of the forum which has an inherent element of creativity, there is an element of creativity even in factual descriptions of events. There are many of us who share our experiences, and we appreciate how challenging it is to put up a good trip report. Hence, we appreciate well-written pieces! This is also a section where many of us use this creative urge to drown out some professional and personal disappointments, which comes out of not just writing, regularly reading nice pieces also helps! Further, I am relatively new to this forum in general, and made a hesitant entry to the TRs section only as late as 2010. However, there is no `old boys' club here, and the warm welcome I got as a newbie, was heartening. I have also made a lot of friends on this forum through this section, met many people in person, and look forward to meeting many others. Keep writing!
I liked your E250 experience, the lounge descriptions (specifically, the food-related descriptions, and comments!), your description of the EK J hardware, your Y-upgraded neighbour possessed by evil spirits, the rain-drenched Colombo approach and landing, and of course, some of the Singapore pictures, of a few places which looked familiar (from my 2002 and 2004 visits to the place: primarily those around Mustafa and Serangoon road, and those close to the heritage hotel, whose name I forget, relatively close to the Merlion and the SunTec City). Thank you once again!
Cheers, Sumantra.
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megatop747
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Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Posts: 131
Location: now LHR / from MAA

PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 8:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sumantra-ji,

The minute I read Aditya's description of the a/c he was about to fly, I was telling myself that Sumantra's reply was sure to follow with the full form of A6-EGT (Exhaust Gas Temparature).

I guess after reading your posts, I have myself started looking at regns with a different view. Very Happy

Megatop
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sumantra
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Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 11:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

megatop747 wrote:
I guess after reading your posts, I have myself started looking at regns with a different view. Very Happy
He he...actually, it started with my love for Air India's naming schemes for aircraft, much like KLM or Virgin Atlant(a/ic), Biman, and other airlines: I have always felt that aircraft have `personalities', and names suit them very well. I liked the Ranis on the Connies, the mountains on the B707s, the Emperors on the B742s, the exotic places on the B744s, the rivers on the A300s and A310s, the ragas on the B77Es and B77A (my favourites!), and the states on the B77Ls and B77Ws. I was rather aghast when AI stopped naming the Dream)liners, and when the `merger' happened, I was even more aghast since IC never named their planes. I like to visualise planes (especially the Air India ones) having personalities as per their registrations, hence the non-sensical name cropping up in my mind Smile
Cheers, Sumantra.
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jbalonso777
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Location: Never, never land

PostPosted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 12:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aditya bro,sorry for such a delayed response to a wonderful TR from you.
I have been quite busy for a while, especially with the mocks coming up. You would know Wink

Anyways, thanks for such an amazing and composite TR! Very well written and covers all aspects of the flight, including the chauffeur, and of course some amazing pictures to complement that. Things the iPhone camera can do. Wink

I did have a sneak preview of this TR from the pictures you sent over WhatsApp, and you told me about the flight, so I knew what to expect Smile

Hmm, they sent an E class for you, maybe they send the S class for F passengers? Just my guess, I could be wrong!

Oh God those people at check in. Some people do give us a real bad name for ourselves...and we are one of the largest countries at the same time. Rolling Eyes

Lounge looks fabulous. Makes sense for EK to open a lounge in SIN because not only do they have so many flights to DXB, they also operate to CMB, MEL, BNE! As for lounges in India, it just goes to show that EK are willing to take it that extra mile, and with that, they've achieved something stunning.

SIN at night...hmm, yeah it is a bit dull then. But then again, T1 at least has a variety...T2 & T3 are mostly the SIN based airlines, majority being SQ. Spotting locations are good though. Unlike DXB, where its not only EK EK EK and EK, spotting there from the terminal is just...sad!

Love the GE90 shots of EGT! Very Happy
Lovely pic of the EK, TK and SQ birds!

Menu looks pretty good, but you would expect that from Emirates' J class offerings anyways! But especially for the time of the day, I must say its very impressive. Where Cathay would give just some light meal or something, EK gives a full meal with a range of courses!

I remember when I was coming back to BOM from HKG (June 2010, 9W75 operated by VT-JWJ, A330-200), they had the duty free run just over eastern-central India, right at the time when everyone was asleep. Uhh Rolling Eyes

In EK's defense, there are plenty of factors for you to think about. For example, your onward flight was a packed Y class flight, with some heavy turbulence and of course during the afternoon-evening, right when the passengers are awake. And hence it took them some time...just my guesses!

Gutted to know about your phone not saving the images...GE90 landing on a rain soaked runway is pretty awesome to see, especially in the night!

The Ferrari 458 Italia/Speciale is the most beautiful Ferrari I have ever seen. And it still has one of the most striking designs aerodynamically, making it oh so gorgeous, despite it being around since 2009! And that beauty comes an amazing beastly 4.5L V8 engine producing 560+ BHP. Okay, I'm going off topic now Laughing

All in all, a superb read, and I wish you many more flights in 2015, looking forward to more writings from you!

Happy new year again! Very Happy

Regards
Jishnu
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Nimish
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 6:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Aditya - thanks for sharing this brilliant TR - with nice pictures and descriptions.

EK's J service seems pretty darn good - right from the chauffeur to the checkin to lounge and actual flight. No wonder they are doing so well!
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sri_bom
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 8:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice report Aditya, when you were in Singapore I was in India so there was no way we could have met maybe next time.

The taxi drivers in Singapore are not that forthcoming to help with luggage’s unlike India and they prefer to sit in their air-conditioned cars. In 2004 Singapore signed an open sky policy with ME3 carriers and although at that time they were not a threat today they have mounted a lot of flights in Singapore and are slowly taking traffic from Singapore via the Dubai hub.

Also good to know you could meet peopole from your hometown at the lounge which is always nice. Great hard product from Emirates specially the side control tablet, electronic window slides, and HD screens and food looks very appetizing.

I don’t like the overhead lights as well specially when you want to sleep and someone switches it on.

Sri_Bom
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aditya466
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Joined: 17 Dec 2014
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 12:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nimish wrote:
Hi Aditya - thanks for sharing this brilliant TR - with nice pictures and descriptions.

EK's J service seems pretty darn good - right from the chauffeur to the checkin to lounge and actual flight. No wonder they are doing so well!


Thanks! The EK lounges are some of the best I have ever been in, and EK service is always consistent.
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aditya466
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 12:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

sri_bom wrote:
Nice report Aditya, when you were in Singapore I was in India so there was no way we could have met maybe next time.

The taxi drivers in Singapore are not that forthcoming to help with luggage’s unlike India and they prefer to sit in their air-conditioned cars. In 2004 Singapore signed an open sky policy with ME3 carriers and although at that time they were not a threat today they have mounted a lot of flights in Singapore and are slowly taking traffic from Singapore via the Dubai hub.

Also good to know you could meet peopole from your hometown at the lounge which is always nice. Great hard product from Emirates specially the side control tablet, electronic window slides, and HD screens and food looks very appetizing.

I don’t like the overhead lights as well specially when you want to sleep and someone switches it on.

Sri_Bom



Mabye next time I am in Singapore we can meet. Thanks for your feedback.
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