Just like I promised in the previous entry, this is post is dedicated to my flight experience from KL to New York via Dubai on Emirates Business Class.
This is absolutely NOT a flight review. It's just me, a J-Class virgin, documenting my time in premium class travel.
The Business Class treatment began at the check-in counter of KLIA where I got to stand in a different queue, followed by the 2-hour wait in the Emirates Lounge. So for the first time ever, I found myself in a section of the airport which I've never been before. Not only the lounge, but the whole section of the Satellite building.
Waiting in a lounge of course beats waiting at the Departure Gate hands down. It's ironic that the premium class gets a whole load of free stuff, like food, drinks and liquor, while the 'commoners' most probably have to shell out money for inflated priced food at the airport. But then again, premium most probably cost 4-6 times more than Economy, so okay.
It was past 11:00pm when I arrived at the lounge, and honestly, I was just too exhausted to be over-excited of anything (I was running on two-hours sleep that day). The Emirates Lounge in KLIA is warm and nice. Reminds me of a hotel lobby. They had some snacks, and some hot food, several types of beverages and booze. At that time, my stomach was already half-asleep so I had some OJ, a creme caramel, and a teeny prawn and glass noodle salad.
When it was time to board, they made an announcement in the lounge and we proceeded to the departure gate which was not very far from the Lounge. After security, the next premium perk was enjoyed - immediate boarding. There was a queue for economy but everyone in Business and First just went straight to the front of the line, flashed our boarding passes, and proceeded to a dedicated airbridge to the plane.
The flight from KL to Dubai is a Boeing 777-300ER and I had an aisle seat. I know it is Business Class and all, but I didn't really enjoy that flight. The seat pitch is huge and you have a bunch of buttons, but all that big space was very overwhelming to me. In fact, I felt rather small and really bumpkin-y! For one, my feet can't reach the seat in front of me, that's an indicator of how big the seat pitch is. Also, I can barely reach the overhead compartment where I needed to stow my handcarry because, ironically, all that overwhelming space and I didn't have much storage space for my stuff at the seat. So I was all crammed in with my handbag and pillows and blanket.
The Boeing also has less privacy so I kept having embarrassing bumpkin moments when I tried out the buttons! I made the reading light on top go on and off a couple of times, I accidentally made the partition that separates me and the next seat go up and down a few times too! And maybe because I was really sleep-deprived, I tried to go into an occupied restroom and took me a while to figure out why the door wouldn't open *puts head in sand*
I slept for about 3.5 hours of the 6-hour flight, and had the Banana Pancake breakfast before we landed in DXB. I might've been still in a daze and the appetite was asleep, because I didn't enjoy my breakfast at all. Well, except for the fruit platter. So when I was in DXB, I headed straight to the Business Class Lounge to see what they had in their food spread.
And again I am so thankful for being in Business because the lounge provided free WiFi throughout. DXB has free WiFi but only limited to 30 minutes and one has to sign up for it.
My transit was about 3+ hours, and in that time I had a yogurt, a mini turkey slice sandwich, some fruits, and tea. Yea, it was too early for my appetite to handle anything more. So I spent the time updating the Luv and friends about my first leg of the flight.
I think I will stop here for this entry because it is getting way too long. Also, I think the next leg of the journey deserves an entry on its own because, it's the Emirates A380, baby! The part of the flight trip that I was really looking forward to :)
Cheers for now,
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