Emirates provided a car to pick up myself from South Ken and then on to Chiswick to pick up the GF. Along the A4 things ground to a halt due to a broken down lorry on the elevated section of the M4. Total journey time was a new record for me at 2 3/4 hours.
T3 was the usual zoo. Despite this check in at Emirates First desk was immediate, and we went straight to departures. The fast track line took fifteen minutes to clear, leaving a little time for the United lounge facilities in the lounge complex around gate 12.
Nothing has changed much in United's First Class lounge since I last used it a couple of years ago. It is rather sterile, and you have to know to ask for Champagne, which is Moet NV. Cold finger food is available, but nothing else. The normal serenity was unfortunately broken by three teenage girls who were obviously taking advantage of the open bar facilities.
After fifteen minutes in the lounge, the flight was showing Final Call, so we wondered off down to the gate, where of course, we had to wait for another twenty minutes in the full holding room. This would prove to be a recurring theme throughtout the journey, with 'Boarding' meaning nothing at all, and 'Final Call' meaning nothing either. Finally they started boarding, using dual jetways, one for First/Business and the other for Economy. There was a little chaos near the boarding door, with First and Business pax exchanging positions with those in Economy.
On Fridays, the EK004 aircraft is now an updated 777-200 with twelve seats organised as two rows of 2-2-2. The new configuration includes the newer 500 channel ICE IFE system with massive 19' screens as well as flat beds. The IFE is on as soon as you board the plane, and remains on throughout the flight, even when taxiing to the gate on arrival, despite asking to collect the headphones: in First if you are still using the headphones, they are happy to leave you with them.
There is an electrically operated privacy screen between adjacent seats, but not on the aisles. It rises very high giving utmost privacy to those sitting in the window seats. As soon as we boarded my suit carrier was hung up for me and we were offered Champagne or orange juice. From the full taste and colour, the pre-takeoff Champagne is almost certainly the 1998 Dom Perignon served for the rest of the flight. I have noticed many other carriers provide non-premium Champagne or even method traditional at this point. Arabic coffee and figs are also provided, and I can recommend them.
Then the gaggle of three giggly teenagers who were previously in the lounge boarded. Oh dear, I thought, although luckily my initial fears were unfounded as they had consumed enough to feel the need for sleep almost immediately. The First cabin was full, and we had four FAs for the twelve passengers.
After the doors were shut and the usual 40 minute taxiing around Heathrow we took off, but having the IFE on during this time is most welcome, although of course it is interrupted by the safety briefing.
Very soon after takeoff, the seven course dinner extravaganza begins with a pre dinner drink. The tray table is enormous, although was rather unwieldy to unfold, and seemed a bit rickety. Once set with a table cloth, full set of cutlery (all plastic) and even your own flower, it looks pretty good.
Service is performed in a very traditional way. A selection of warm canap_s are provided, which are fairly tasty even though they don't look very visually appetising. The lamb canap_s are always overcooked.
The wine selection in Emirates First has recently improved from the old two white, two red to three of each, plus the Champagne, and the selections are absolutely excellent, but no dessert wine other than port. Although I remained on the Dom Perignon 1998 for my starter, I switched to the Pichon Baron 1995 for my lamb, a favourite of mine that certainly didn't disappoint at 35,000 feet.
Although you are provided with a removeable menu in a leather bound folder, there is no pre-selection of food from the menu. The starters arrive on a trolley, all three are presented on china dishes for you to choose from. I can never resist caviar with the traditional accompaniments, and I find it rather disappointing that many other airlines have seen fit to drop this option from their First menus. If you want more than one starter, then that's fine. Other options were the Arabic Mezze and Duck Breast.
A selection of at least half a dozen different freshly warmed breads are offered.
After the starters comes a selection of soup and/or salad, again on a trolley for you to select. I skipped this course.
The five mains arrive: Fillet of Lamb Loin, Lemon and Garlic Prawns, Chicken Brochette, Penne Pasta and Red Snapper Fillet with various vegetable and starch options. I took the lamb with veggies and dauphinoise potatoes. Again the lamb was hugely over cooked, but fairly tasty, but the dauphinoise potatoes were a bit of a disaster being rather tasteless and had a strange foamy consistency.
I took a selection of the five cheeses that were presented on a cheeseboard. Serving the cheese this way is a rather welcome, so it's not freezing cold as you come to expect when it's been pre-cut on the plate on the ground. The selections are all rather conservative in taste, but still quite good by airline standards.
As the GF was with me, I was a good boy and passed on both the dessert and the fruit courses.
The tea service was great - they had fresh mint on board so I asked for fresh mint tea - superb, with my own pot, and some Godiva choccies.
Beverage replenishment was frequent throughout: in my quest to accomplish an entire six bottle case of DP on my flight from London to Auckland and back, I kicked off to a good start with seven glasses of Dom as well as a couple of the Pichon Baron.
Coming in to land, I selected the front camera showing the runway. I guess it's rather geeky, but I still like to watch this. The ICE IFE is pretty good and far less buggy than a couple of years ago when I last tried it. However I found it far from intuitive, with both the normal handset and satellite handset seemingly providing duplicate functions. I found it difficult to figure out how to directly dial up the channel I wanted. I found that the noise cancelling headphones provided were as comfy as my Bose QC2's.
The seat was OK but not quite as good as I was expecting. Unless you're in a window seat, privacy is not the best. I slept fairly well for three hours of the seven hour journey. The Virgin seat is still the best in the air for comfort in my opinion. There also seems to be nowhere to put all of the bits and pieces you accumulate on board, like books and magazines. The in-seat massage facility is more of a gimmick than anything else, as is the personal mini-bar where all the drinks are at cabin temperature.
There are no jammies on the 777 overnight flights, but slippers and night shades are provided as well as the amenity kit. The leather amenity kit was pretty good, with a full selection of almost everything you'd need, including an antiperspirant, shaving equipment and Bulgari smellies, and a bunch of Clinique stuff for the girlies. The only thing missing were earplugs. The refurbished 777-200's and 777-300ER's provide laptop charging points via a US style AC connection.
The two loos in the First cabin were fairly standard except that there are flowers, proper towelling face cloths, and some quality perfume and aftershave available for passenger use.
Deplaning was a disaster, with a fifteen minute bus ride from the plane parked at the far end of the new terminal that's under construction to the central transit area. The DXB transit security posts are very sensitive, and I had to remove a pair of shoes and watch, neither of which have ever caused a problem at any other security points.
In conclusion the big plusses are the excellent personal attention, the superb quality and selection of the wine, menu selection especially the maintaining of caviar on the menu, and leaving the IFE on throughout the flight including taxiing, takeoff and landing. The on demand IFE itself was good although not always intuitive. The seat was fairly comfortable, although there are better seats in the industry.
DP Consumption so far: 1 1/6 bottles.
More later on the progress of my assault on the global Dom Perignon marathon.
