Well the day had arrived
. After five days in New Zealand it was time to return to Sydney. One of the reasons for the side trip to New Zealand was the chance to fly on the A380.When I made the original booking I'd booked in Business but after a bit of thought (and some gentle persuasion from fellow v- flyers) threw caution to the wind and re- booked into First.Having been given late check out at the hotel Mr DL and I left the room and went to wait for the EK driver to collect us from the reception area. As I have posted previously there was only an older couple and ourselves in reception and when the EK driver arrived (bang on time) he made a bee line for the older couple. "Good afternoon. Are you travelling with EK today?" "Yes" says older gent. "Excellent Mr DL " says Mr EK driver "the car is outside".The older couple looked a bit confused so I called the driver over exlaining that we were Mr and Mrs DL. To his credit he looked somewhat embarressed and quickly whipped the luggage out to the car.He advised us that the traffic was very busy up to the airport and that he would useless busy roads where he could. Not another word left his lips following this and approx 40 minutes later we arrived at the airport.
EK check-in was heaving as there were three EK flights leaving that afternoon.There were umpteen economy desks and about 4 business desks and a solitary First desk (complte with red carpet). Unfortunately for us there was a very large party of parents and 4 children in front of us who were causing chaos. It transpired later that only the parents were flying in business (not First) and after several minutes wait we were called to the furthest business desk
.To say I was unhappy was an understatement and I voiced my displeasure to the check- in agent saying that it completely devalued the First experience. There are relatively few first passengers so I don't think it's unreasonable to expect to be able to use First check-in
.The agent had no first tags so then had to walk down to the First counter to get some(meanwhile my face was further resembling a smacked bottom). I'd pre-booked suites 1A and 2A and was asked if we'd like to change these. As I wanted window seats for us both I declined and we were soon issued with our boarding passes,lounge invites and customs pre- clearance stickers which enabled us to use the customs desk to the left of check in and fast track security.We were soon heading to the EK lounge which whilst no Clubhouse was rather pleasant. The lounge (non) dragon was lovely and she suggested she let us know as soon as the flight was called for economy boarding to make the most of the experince in First
The lounge is self - service and split into two sitting areas. We unfortunately chose the area that had a couple of loud passengers who did quiten down after a couple of withering looks from other passengers. The parents who had commandeered check in were also visible but no sign of the kids (who were travelling in economy and later seen down at the gate).The food is rather pleasant with a good selection of Middle Eastern hot dishes and cold salad dishes (the king prawn salad was lovely and Mr DL reported that his Chicken satay dish was nice too). Plenty of puddings were on offer which we passed on knowing that we (hopefully) had some culinary delights to come on board
. Champagne was Moet and again we were rather cautious, saving ourselves for the Dom Perignon 2000 that was coming our way once we boarded .I whipped out to the duty free to dump the last of my NZ dollars and on my return the lounge (non) dragon adressed me by name and said economy boarding was about to begin. Taking this as our cue to leave we gathered our belongings and began the walk to the gate. As we approched the gate it became apparent how big the thing actually is
. Although I've seen the A380 parked up both at LHR and HKG several times this was the closest I'd been. Boarding was yet to commence but literally within minutes the desks were open with a call for passengers travelling in First and business to use the right hand lane (which had a separate jet bridge First and business on the A380 with EK is exclisively on the upper deck). Despite Mr DL and I being quick off the mark a chap in business sprinted (honestly) to be the first on board.Mr DL and I were passengers 2 and 3 and we were soon boarding the aircraft. Greeted by name we were individually escorted to our suites
. Well, what can I say? OMG!!!!! Absolutely awesome!!!!!! Enormous cream /grey leather seats with in-built massager (very reminiscent of the VX First seats),huge TV screen and control pad (similar to an ipad) for controlling temperature,lights, cabin doors,mini bar etc. IFE is controlled via a separate device(I had begun to to have that glazed look being a technological numpty..).No matter the lovely cc assured me they would tend to my every need . Sorted!!!Cabin crew introduced themselves (all have given permission to be named) and Marco, Hazel, Eli and Amanda (the purser) then pampered us to within and inch of our lives for the following hours .Would we like some champagne?? Ooohh, let me think???It would be churlish not to
Part two to follow later
DL
