I awoke the next morning (day of the flight) to reports of a potentially viable explosive device having been found in central London, leading to a somewhat mild panic as to the travel situation for the rest of the day. Both the Emirates and Heathrow websites were still showing our flight as scheduled, so slightly reassured I went ahead and booked our minicab for 5:00pm which would leave us plenty of time to get to Heathrow from Harrow for our 10:15pm departure.
The taxi arrived just before 5:00pm and we were at Terminal 3 for 5:30pm. There were 2 people in front of us at the online check-in desk and while waiting we were kept amused by the family of 5 at the next desk who were checking in no less then 10 enormous bags. They were clearly overweight yet the first thing they asked the check-in agent was, is there anywhere here for us to go clothes shopping? Anyway, check-in for us was pain-free and we were done by 6:00pm. There were frequent announcements advising passengers not to go through security until 2 hours before their departure time so we headed off to Pret for an hour where there was a guy playing Championship Manager as Cheltenham Town (by the looks of things he wasnt doing to well).
We headed to the security checkpoint at 7:00pm and the queues were not as bad as I feared. As usual there were the ground staff handing out clear plastic bags and making sure that the hand baggage restrictions were being adhered to. First was the boarding pass check and then the x-ray scanners. I got my clear plastic bag out but was told to put it back in my rucksack by the ground staff. Going through the scanner, I made the rookie mistake of forgetting to take my belt off so I bleeped and had to adopt the starfish position for what was a pretty thorough frisking. Next came passport checks which the last time I went through were absent. Not sure if this was a response to the devices found in London or if this is a permanent thing. I went through no problem, but as my dad is a Malaysian citizen he had to show his permanent residence stamp which is in his previous passport as it would cost him something in the region of 300 and a day in Croydon to have the stamp put in his current passport. After this was the shoe check which led to people scrambling for any available space to sit and take off/put back on their shoes. If this is to be a permanent thing then BAA need to sort out more spacious premises for this to take place. The whole security process took about 20 minutes from start to finish which I thought was not too bad.
Spent the next hour and half in the departure lounge doing nothing particularly exciting (they had run out of pies in EAT) and our flight was finally called at 9:30pm to be departing from gate 20. Why is it that Heathrow gate allocations are always so late when other airports around the world have no trouble with letting passengers know gate allocations at check-in or even before on the internet?
Boarding commenced at 9:50pm and we took our seats (31F/G). The plane was extremely hot and I joked to my dad that they were getting us used to Dubai (it would be around 47_C while we were out there), but the couple next to us were clearly uncomfortable and the cabin crew got them some water which then set them off doing a water round pre-take off which was extremely welcome. Our plane was a B777-200 which had been refitted with ICE which is an extremely good AVOD system, although it would be nice if there were some newer movies on the system. There was some jerkiness during the flight as the hard drive was being accessed but nothing too serious, unlike what has been reported on V-Flyer previously. The captain announced that we would be delayed as there was a problem loading the plane as one of the loading vehicles had broken down and that we would try to make up the time on route. The flight duration was to be 6 hours and 15 minutes. The cabin crew came round and handed out hot towels and the menu for this flight which comprised of:
Light Meal
-seasonal salad
-pan fried chicken medallions -or- tilapia fillet
-orange and chocolate torte
-cheese and biscuits
-tea/coffee
Breakfast
-orange juice
-fresh seasonal fruit
-croissant
-breakfast pastry
-tea/coffee
We pushed back from the gate at 11:05pm and took off at 11:30pm and thankfully as we got going, the temperature in the cabin became more bearable. Dinner was served an hour into the flight and I chose the chicken which was good except that it could have done with more sauce. Having said this, Im probably not the best person to review food as I can and will stomach just about anything. The tray that dinner and subsequent meals came on had an anti-slip mat to prevent the individual dishes from sliding about which I thought was a good idea not sure if other airlines have these as well and I also liked the triangular dishes that the food came in definitely a welcome change from the rectangular dishes I am used to.
The period between dinner and lunch was unremarkable and I watched Blades of Glory (very, very funny) and then tried to get some sleep, which I didnt. There was no further drinks service although I think that this was due to letting the cabin sleep. The lights came back on around 2 hours out of Dubai and hot towels were handed out to freshen up before the breakfast service. We started our descent at 8:20am Dubai time and landed at 8:40am although it took us 20 minutes to reach our gate.
In the terminal, the signs to immigration/baggage were a little confusing and we made a couple of wrong turns, meeting up with other lost passengers before finding our way. The rest of the formalities were completed without any incident, our bags being first off (although missing my KLM luggage tag) and we were out of the terminal by 9:00am.
Jonathan
