This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
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Cabin Crew
Winding back to October - I had been eyeing up some decent deals to Dubai for a while. Seeing a general trend of good prices for PE, I decided to take the plunge and book myself a solo trip to Ras Al Khaimah. 4 nights, Half Board, Premium Economy flight came in at a touch over £1,100 which I thought was pretty solid. Alas, booking itself proved a hassle, as the FC discount can only be taken advantage of over the phone or in a VH store. Living in Cambridge, I had passed the usual store many times, although when I decided to cycle into the city centre on my lunch break to book to find that it had closed months ago, I wasn't too happy. My usual commute home instead involved a trip to a Tesco Extra to find a little VH store tucked away, where the booking was swiftly made and confirmed! Between booking and departure I opted for a few extra treats, an upgrade to a King Sea View room for the small sum of £37, followed by an extra upgrade to All Inclusive (£157) and the Club Room treatment (£70-ish). Anyway, I digress!
So the day of the flight arrived. And given I was looking at the whole day off work and a 9pm departure, I decided to have a lie in and make my long trip to LHR late morning. Bus to Cambridge, train to King's Cross, walk to Piccadilly to grab the travel money, and then the tube the rest of the way to LHR, finally arriving at about 1:30pm. Zone A was very quiet, so flexing the Au card, I made my way to the Upper checkin desk, much to the surprise and amusement of the friendly girl giving me my boarding pass 7 hours before the flight. Up the escalator to one of my favourite things at the airport, scanning my pass and hearing the click of the Upper wing door opening for me. When I don't have the luxury of DTCI, I would gladly take walking through a frosted glass door to a private security wing any day. No line in the queue and it was through to the CH in 5 minutes.
My stomach was growling so the first port of call was lunch - but not before a quick stop to the spa desk to book myself in for a very much needed haircut. I ordered some food from the tapas menu - my first try of these. They were a lot smaller than I expected, but very tasty nonetheless given they were accompanied by some NZ Sauvignon which is my favourite. It was at this point I realised that my watch was about half an hour too slow, and my hair appointment was 10 minutes away instead of 40!
As luck would have it, my hair was to be cut by the same gentlemen who cut it back in May - I won't namedrop but he was brilliant, recalling me even from that far back, and offering me a cocktail as soon as I sat down. Great conversation followed with him and 10 minutes later I was a lot less scruffy. Steam shower followed (I do love those) and a facial was had which was really nice.
The next 4-5 hours or so were passed switching between the bar, the loft, the huge couches at the back and the video game stations (which I couldn't really get the hang of at all!). Whilst up in the loft I made a new discovery - that the table actually allowed you to look through the floor onto the pool table below. Fascinating piece of design I have to say.
The flight was finally called just after 8pm, and said my goodbyes to the staff that had looked after me.
Off to Gate 13, where there was no queue on arrival and boarding was already in effect. Straight through onto Golden Girl who was to be my bird for the next 7 hours. Stepped on to find a lady sitting in my seat, 20A, who was happy to move after a poke! 155 on the plane, so a fairly light load. PE was about half to 2/3rds full, and plenty of space in Economy. I didn't see about UC. Pushed back on time, and were up in the air soon after.
The flight itself will probably take up the least in this TR, the crew were friendly and functional, and the lady serving my side of the PE cabin let some of her personality show, which was nice to see. No Au recognition, but I've come to not expect a huge amount on an overnight flight as most people will just want to sleep. I caught The Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks, which was very good watching. Food offerings were good - I'm sorry to say I neglected to note down the PE menu, though I took the veggie option of Ravioli as this sounded the most appealing (not that I am a veggie, sometimes the chicken and beef don't call out to me!).
Alas, no sleep for me on this flight, the only downside to the leather PE seats is that you can sometimes can quite warm in them, and the fans overhead sometimes only serve to dry out my eyes. The lady in 20C was fast asleep and near horizontal, making going for a walk around the cabin a little tricky. This helped to make up my mind that window seats are not always all they crack up to be, so it would be an aisle seat in future.
The flight itself was smooth, very little turbulence, and sunrise came whilst we were making our way south over Iran, avoiding the mess that is Iraq & Syria. It is a strange feeling to look at the in-flight map to see cities like Al-Raqqah and Mosul appear on the screen, and knowing you're only a few hundred miles away from what is going on there.
Caught a preview of the Burj Khalifa on descent, which is quite astounding even from the airport. Thankyous and goodbyes to the crew, bags collected prompty and managed to meet my VH rep in the Arrivals area. My first two interactions with locals only served to annoy them as I tried to break one of my 100 DH notes to pay for a 1 DH bottle of water...
One final point - my transfer to RAK quickly made me realise that I would never in my life attempt to drive in the UAE, for the brief periods that I was awake, I have never seen such aggressive and selfish driving! Arrived safe and sound though at 11:30am, and was now pushing some 20 hours awake, so a buffet lunch and a well earned afternoon kip followed!
I'll leave it there as this has gone on for a lot longer than I had planned. Thanks for reading the whole thing if you did - return trip to follow soon!
Cheers
Last edited by SlimpyJones on 23 Mar 2018, 21:20, edited 1 time in total.
