This may sound a bit silly, but airports are really large places and it took us 15 minutes to get to the terminal. Before allowing you into the main departure area, you had to pass though a security screen and it was an absolute scrum. People were everywhere with ground staff shouting out for passengers for specific connecting flights and other staff telling people to queue up for security stations that werent even manned. Shoe screening was taking place, but only if you set the scanner off when you walked through it. We eventually made it through and by this time it was 7:30am which gave just enough time for a toilet break and for my dad to indulge in his pistachio nut fetish in duty free.
While taxiing to the remote stand on the Singapore flight, a list of connecting flights and their gates were displayed so we knew that our flight was departing from gate 13. We got there about 7:40am and boarded almost immediately and took our seats of 28F/G. A bonus was the extra space we had as 28E was unoccupied so it allowed me to stretch out a bit.
Our aircraft was a B777-300ER which out of all the planes I have taken on this trip has definitely been the most comfortable, although Im not quite sure what it is about this specific type of aircraft. A B777-300ER also meant ICE. It was already running so the Very Best of Motown went straight on while the final passengers were being boarded. Again the hot towels and menus were handed out and I recognised a member of the cabin crew from our LHR-DXB flight, but missing was the announcement about all the different languages spoken by the cabin crew. On the menu for this day flight was:
Continental Breakfast
-orange juice
-fresh seasonal fruit
-muffin
-croissant
-tea/coffee
Lunch
-hot smoked and peppered salmon
-seasonal salad
-stir-fried beef -or- grilled herb chicken
-white choc profiteroles
-cheese and biscuits
-chocolate
We pushed back from the gate at 8:15am and took off at 8:30am. The cabin crew served breakfast about 1 hour into the flight and it was perfectly fine, except that again I was thwarted on the tea front as we once again struck some turbulence. After, the crew started taking polaroids of the kids on the aircraft for them and their parents to keep which I had never seen done before. Another drinks service was offered between breakfast and lunch and a movie later, lunch was being served. I chose the chicken and it was rather good, accompanied by beans, carrots and mashed potato.
We touched down at Gatwick North Terminal at 12:20pm (12:30pm was the scheduled time) and arrived at the gate at 12:30pm. IRIS was not in operation for some reason but the immigration queues were moving speedily and I was in baggage reclaim by 12:50pm. It seems as though Emirates has priority baggage working as the first bags off all had First/Business tags on them. However, our bags did not turn up and speaking to the Emirates ground staff, it seems that none of the bags from the Singapore flight made it. They were already in possession of the list of bags that had not made it and sure enough, ours was on the list. Filled in the required paperwork and told that we should have our bags within 48 hours.
Nothing left except the journey home, although this wasnt plain sailing either. The south had experienced a months rainfall in 2 hours that morning and as a result the train network was completely messed up. The chef James Tanner was stuck looking for a way to get to Reading. We were first told that only the Gatwick Express was running into London so having bought our tickets we waited and watched as 3 consecutive services were cancelled. Seeing that some Southern services were running we got a refund on the Gatwick Express tickets and purchased Southern tickets. We eventually made it to Victoria at about 4:30pm, some 2 hours after getting on a train at Gatwick and thankfully we didnt have to wait long for the tube back home.
I phoned the Global Baggage Solutions this morning (21/07) just to get an update and the agent informed me that the luggage had arrived this morning on EK011 and that we should expect a phone call regarding delivery. At 12:45pm, to my surprise the luggage arrived so well done Emirates and Global Baggage Solution.
As an aside, will be off to New York in a couple of weeks so will be able to compare economy on Emirates/Virgin.
Jonathan
