To begin at the beginning:...over the last few months, all around me it seemed as if people were ill. A close friend of 30 years has a terminal illness and there is bugger all he can do about it and then my dear old mum went doolally and is now watching her savings disappear in care home fees. And I bet, given the choice, she now wishes she had spent the money on things significantly more pleasurable.
I don’t tell you this to garner sympathy but to explain a thought process. For years I have thought “that is a good idea, I will do it one day”, specifically in regard to places to travel for adventures. However I never quite got round to doing the adventures, I am not sure why.
Now, I am no spring chicken and those starting their downwards journeys from the perch really gave me, dear old HWV, a sense of my own mortality. The bit of a push to get on with things was further assisted by Number 2 daughter taking a sabbatical from her mechanical engineering consulting job and setting off for Thailand and New Zealand for a year or so. It really was time for me to do something too.
Top of my list has always been to go to Australia specifically to see the Great Barrier Reef. Australia has always appealed anyway but it is simply too big to try and do on a shortish trip. And I have always wanted to go to the Barrier Reef; years ago, friends used to do an annual trip to fish for the black marlin. I was always invited and always faced the usual dilemma – school fees or fishing. Parental responsibilities invariably won out. So this year the GBR and next year the wine regions around Adelaide maybe.
A brief conversation with Mrs HWV featured her saying “go for it”. Excellent. This conversation came back to haunt me but more about that later.
So who to fly with?
Well, this is when I discovered the amazing world of airline prices, which in some cases went up and down like a bride’s nightie!! Business class or its equivalent was compulsory as I wanted to make sure I arrived as fresh as possible, places to go, things to see and not much time to waste on jet lag. So a bed was essential.
I will not allow loyalty to any particular airline to override financial common sense so price had it. I pretty much ruled out both VS and BA from the beginning, at the time both had prices to and fro Sydney/Brisbane for a seemingly inflexible circa £4200, even at so called “sale” time.
Qantas had an excellent deal routing either all the way to Sydney on the 380 and then a domestic to Brisbane or changing off the 380 at Singapore for a 747 flight to Brisbane, interestingly the price crept from near £3000 to £3200 over four days. I thought I should go for the £3200, slept on it and the price had gone up to circa £4200 the following day!! To be fair to Qantas that price dropped back again a couple of weeks later but, by then, I had booked elsewhere.
I booked with Emirates. They were running a sale and then announced a further 10% discount across all their prices for signed up members of their Skywards frequent flier programme, which is free to join. Cathay Pacific was similarly priced.
So I got business returns on a 380 from Heathrow to Dubai and then the same on an extended range 777 on the 14 hour plus non-stop leg to Brisbane, all for about £2700. Dedicated Emirates lounge access of course at all the locations, including the chauffeur drive waiting room on arrival back at Heathrow and with Emirates generally good reputation for its state of the art entertainment systems and food and booze quality, it really was a bit of a no-brainer.
I couldn’t see that there was £1500 of added value in either the VS or the BA product. This was, after all, my money I was spending. And it was with some degree of smugness that I noticed, a week out from my departure, that the cost of Emirates tickets on the same flights, outbound and inbound, had risen to £5400+.
It was an interesting mix of “YAY” and “WTF have I done” I experienced when I pressed the confirm purchase button on the Emirates website.
Shortly after this was when the domestic issues reared their head. I think Mrs HWV had probably really expected that this was a pipe dream which wouldn’t happen. And now, not only was I actually going but she remembered that I, an aged hippy, was going on my own. There followed some entertaining conversations during which not only was the divorce word mentioned but so was castration, on several occasions. Fortunately I discovered the incredible marriage healing properties of an unbroken 16 hand 3 year old Irish Draught X Thoroughbred gelding. PHEW. This trip was getting expensive.
All the preparations went smoothly. I even found my beads from years ago; however I still have no bloody idea where my hair went.
As a matter of course, Emirates provide chauffeur driven cars to all first and business class customers, never mind which fare bucket the respective ticket is from. These transfers are to and fro at both arrival and departure airports. This is a jolly useful and quite valuable extra although as I was intending hopping on a little plane out of Brisbane I wouldn’t be taking up the OZ transfers.
As an aside I only had one experience of Emirates customer service during this process when a query arose about a changed arrival time. My call was answered promptly and the issue was addressed pleasantly and efficiently. Not only that, the answer provided was correct!! Hallelujah!!
The Tristar Merc arrived at the required time, 16.10. My flight was departing at 20.40 and I live about 40 minutes from the airport. However, I have been on Vflyer long enough to know that a decent session in whichever lounge/clubhouse is not only essential but also compulsory.
The Tristar driver was fun and also knowledgeable, having relatives on or near Fraser Island, one of my places to visit. Terminal 3, or rather, the Emirates bit of it, was quiet, I was actually a queue of one. My luggage was checked through to Brisbane and boarding cards, with lounge invitations, issued for both my flights – the EK004 to Dubai and the EK434 from Dubai to Brisbane.
The lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3 was nice. The food and booze were excellent – frankly, anywhere that serves Veuve Clicquot as the house fizz will be fine with me. I was, of course, in situ for a few hours which meant sampling various foodstuffs was necessary. The lobster and salmon pie was delicious and went particularly well with the fizz although, by then, I was getting to that “past caring” stage. The lounge has a fabulous view of the runway, so I was a very happy bunny, watching the big birds going to and fro.
We were called at about 20.30 for the flight. There is direct access from the lounge to the gate and we were loaded and on our way within 20 minutes.
The 380 might well be a great big ugly bugger but WOW. Upstairs Emirates has the first (14) and business (76) cabins – and the first passengers have access to onboard showers!! The business class cabin has a seat layout which gives all passengers direct aisle access. There is only one seat between the window and the aisle and each seat has its own table and mini bar. The seats alternate so that the actual seat of mine was next to the window, those in front and behind me had the seat next to the aisle, so I was sitting behind/in front of the bar areas of those seats. The seats are flat bed and very comfy.
The take off was smooth and silent, it really is a very quiet airplane, I took a video of our take off which I have posted on YouTube here
As soon as the seatbelt lights were off indulgence began. Champagne was my drink of choice all the way to Brisbane so I suffered on the 380 with vintage Veuve Clicqout, simply delicious.
I was then spoilt for choice as to what to do. There was a bit of a party going on at the bar, the Emirates ICE entertainment system is to die for and now the 380 has wifi too. My plans to get some sleep before Dubai were immediately looking a bit threatened. So I just had to give the wifi a go and spend a bit of time on here and have a good “ooooh look at me” on Facebook. What fun. And beautiful girls just kept on coming round with bottles of vintage Veuve. Oh deary me. Poor old David.
The food. I try to eat minimums on long haul flights – no exercise and loads of food = David is a fat boy. I often opt for two starters as here – and delicious they were too.
The flight was uneventful. I managed to sleep/doze for about an hour or so down to Dubai. Actually I must have slept because when I woke there were some delicious chocolates in my bar area, if I had been awake when they came round they would have been SCOFFED on sight!! Emirates amenity kits were delivered – nice; all named products, Bulgari “smellies” etc. A lot better than the VS equivalent.
We arrived in Dubai a little early. Perfect. The landing is here and it wasn't me coughing.
Disembarkation was easy peasy, a short walk through to transit security(!) – I didn’t even need to remove the laptop from my bag.
There is a huge business lounge in Terminal 3 at Dubai and it needs to be huge with numerous 380s depositing numerous premium passengers in the early hours of the Dubai mornings. It took me an hour to find myself a decent seat, even longer to get a wifi connection. I didn’t mind too much, I wanted to walk around anyway to have a look and get some exercise before the long haul to Brisbane. By about 8am the lounge cleared as myriad Emirates air buses headed off and it became a tranquil place. The food and booze offerings were many and various and the food LOOKED very nice. I didn’t partake; I was saving myself for the next leg.
Last edited by HWVlover on 08 May 2012, 18:53, edited 1 time in total.
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