Emirates Business Class Flight Review: Manila to Cairo & Amman to Manila via Dubai

At the height of the tanim-bala (bullet-planting) scandal, my friend and I flew to Israel with Cairo, Egypt as our entry point via Emirates with a layover in Dubai.

I used to be just paranoid about Manila traffic that I always arrived at the airport more than three hours before my flight, but now I also have to be extra paranoid against these shameless tanim-bala fiends. I left my house with luggage that resembled those undesirable cling-wrapped canteen sandwiches.

I arrived an hour before the Emirates check-in counters opened, which already saw some long lines. When they finally did at exactly 20:30, the process took only five minutes. I then caught up with my friend at a different counter and together headed for the departure gate. We were shuffling through our purses to prepare the terminal fee of PhP550, when we were told that because the guard had stamped our boarding passes, we need not line up for it and that we can proceed to immigration which took just five minutes. [Editor's Note: Foreign carriers now collect the terminal fee as part of the cost of a ticket.]

As a business class passenger, I had access to Skyview Lounge but I gave the privilege to my friend who was slowly ebbing away from fatigue and hunger while I had an early dinner at home.

I could have joined her at the lounge if I had remembered to bring my Citibank Premiere Miles card *DRAT* so alas, I simply proceeded to the boarding gate. Later, I asked my friend how the food was at the lounge and she said it was just okay.

While waiting, I noticed the free WiFi sign. Although I was sceptic about it, I tried it and much to my delight, the login was quick as well as the browsing.

Boarding commenced on time and as soon as I found my seat, I reclined it a bit, put the footrest slightly up and leaned my head against a divider to rest my eyes.

When I opened them, we had already taken off so I converted my seat to a flat bed and slept throughout with an occasional snack of sandwiches and cheesecake in between.

It was an hour before landing when I woke up and had no appetite for breakfast so I asked an attendant if my friend in economy can enjoy it instead.

"No," I was flatly told. "They have their own." Okay….

After freshening up, I tinkered with ICE (Information, Communication and Entertainment), Emirates’ in-flight entertainment (IFE) by browsing through the selection of movies that ranged from "Gone with the Wind" to "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation." I then noticed the fellow across the aisle busy chatting via Viber. Later I asked him about its use and he said it was one of the free perks of the airline.

I then went to look for my friend who told me she was trying to call me on the phone earlier. I did not understand what she meant until she showed me the flip side of the remote control where you can call another passenger by dialing his/her seat number. I did not hear any ringing until I remembered wondering what the beeping (not ringing) sound was but I was too sleepy to bother to check.

Anyway, I hurried back to my seat as we had started descending an hour ahead of schedule (making our layover wait three hours long now) and came to a smooth landing.

We were then shuttled off to the terminal where I looked for the Skyview lounge to enjoy a quick breakfast of fruits and yogurt, WiFi, a hot shower and the hospitality of its Filipino staff who was so delighted to meet a kababayan.

An hour before my connecting flight, I met up with my friend at the boarding gate and soon enough, we were headed to Cairo.

The first-class seat which is not my seat. Moving on...

My seat. Well, at least the pocket and screen fronting my seat....

I availed of the breakfast of minced lamb and scrambled egg. I wish there was more lamb than was served.

Anyway, as it was still Emirates, the experience was nearly the same although this time, I tried to enjoy the IFE but the movies (Ant-Man and Mr. Holmes) bored me that I decided to sleep some more during our almost three-hour flight as our tour would start as soon as we hit the land of the pyramids. In hindsight, it was a good decision to get some shut-eye as it took us over an hour to get through immigration.

Our friendly and conscientious Egyptian tour guide met us inside immigration and collected all our passports and forms and told us to sit instead of lining up. We followed dutifully until we realized that we were watching passengers from later flights go through immigration faster than us. Naturally, we were all wondering about the delay, which brought us the convenience of not having to pull our luggage from the belt. As soon as our passports were stamped accordingly, the luggage had already been collected.

Mt. Sinai, Egypt. Copyright photo: Gobby de Leon

(An aside here: tour groups are usually seen as boring and tedious and admittedly, that was my expectation but the group I was with has got to be the best there is. We all got along well together. We became friends as we spent a lot of time just laughing together and taking photographs of each other. There were none of the usual jerks who always arrived late for everything, making everybody wait, and no show-offs or know-it-alls.)

MANILA, I'M COMING HOME

Petra, Jordan. Copyright photo: Jason Aguirre

After ten days of oohing and aahing upon seeing and experiencing the Bible come to life (as well as groaning over the same falafel and shawarma menu), we were headed back home but departing this time from Amman, Jordan with another layover in Dubai.

Upon arrival at Queen Alia International Airport, we were met by an airport representative telling us that our counters will open in an hour and that we could either wait at the airport entrance where there were shops or at the counters where we might get bored. We chose to wait at the counters where….

…we spent the time rearranging and repacking our stuff to meet the baggage weight allowance. Or rather, spent the time trying to close our luggage…

…and to arm ourselves against tanim-bala. I saved myself ten bucks by bringing a packing tape from home and, together with another person in the group, used it all up.

Good thing we decided to stand by the counters which not only made us first in line, but they opened half an hour earlier. The entire process was a breeze although a funny thing happened to me at immigration. I was careful to follow the sign where foreign passport holders should be queued up but a security officer weakly raised his arm to his right to indicate the resident passport holder side. I wasn’t sure if he was telling me to go there although my feet followed his lead but I kept my eyes locked on him waiting for him to call my attention. He looked back at me and I kept staring at him and he stared back. His eyes bulged for a moment making me fearful that I was breaching security. It was only when the immigration official took my passport that I broke eye contact with the officer and heaved a sigh of relief.

As in any other airport, duty free shops and restaurants met us after the immigration clearance but my friend and I just decided to while away the time at the boarding gate. I did not bother with Skyview as I’d rather spend time with my friend and the other people in the tour group who had become friends as well. Besides, it was just for two hours only.

The charging station proved to be more popular than the concession shops.

We soon started boarding.

I took my seat which was heavenly as it was on the very first row but alas, my seat had a defective leg rest control. The attendant asked if I wanted to transfer but I declined as I was not planning on sleeping anyway.

emirates 777 business class in flight entertainment

This time, I maximized ICE by doing a marathon viewing of “The Big Bang Theory”…

…while enjoying a relaxing massage.

I had the lamb (again) for dinner which was neither here nor there.

Our section was given a fast track card to let us know that we had a dedicated counter at Dubai International Airport but as I was in transit, I had no need for it.

As in the case of our earlier flights, the take-off and landing were so smooth that I hardly felt them. Usually, when it’s take-off, I would feel some heaviness being sucked out of my lungs and during landing, I would hold on tight to the arm rest in order to resist being propelled forward.

Upon landing, I took out my camera when I saw we were going to climb down the stairs upon deplaning but an airport security officer immediately called my attention (as well as another passenger’s) stating that photography was forbidden.

My friend and I had earlier arranged to meet at the Skyview lounge nearest our boarding gate, where we would just pay for her visit so that we could enjoy it together during our six-hour layover. Alas, the Skyview lounge does not allow non-members at all, even for a fee. So we headed for the reclining seat area near our gate and slept intermittently as the seats were not that comfortable.

“Because they’re for free,” my friend remarked peppered with giggles.

Looking at the rest of the passengers, it was like a contest among ourselves to see who could look the most worn out. I think I was winning...

Two hours before our departure, my stomach was telling me to have a light snack at Skyview where I just had a bowl of Thai crackers and celery juice as I was too tired to eat something heavier. Meanwhile, my friend joined some members of our tour group to redeem their meal voucher.

I then headed to the boarding gate and sat on the floor, as all seats were occupied by overseas Filipino workers. I overheard the stories they told one another. One woman was sharing how she feared for her safety at work, while some men were lamenting how they have to buy pasalubong for people back home in which some will even be upset for not getting what they wanted. “As if I am here just to buy them gifts,” sheeshed one man. Another was looking forward to eating pork, while yet another could almost taste a cigarette back home. As it seemed from their conversation, a stick is more expensive in Dubai than a whole pack in Manila.

As usual, boarding commenced on time with a last-minute check on some passengers to make sure that the weight of their hand-carry was kept within the limit.

Except for a brief period of turbulence, the entire flight was smooth.

I slept throughout the flight only to wake up two hours before landing to enjoy a breakfast of instant noodles. Oh, I had a choice of various breakfasts but I just missed eating Asian noodles. They gave me some fruits and jam which I gave to my friend who was enjoying her own breakfast.

Upon landing, naturally, we headed off to immigration where there were hardly any people so I got to the carousel real fast, which took about ten minutes to give up my luggage. At first I waited for my friend, but some fifteen minutes later, she was still queued up at immigration so I decided to wait for her at a restaurant, where she showed up quite some time later. And together, we headed out to endure three hours of snarling traffic. Simply no place like Manila.

---- THE PARANOID TRAVELER ----

11 comments:

AnonymousFebruary 22, 2016 at 6:12 AM
Nakakapagod ang connecting flights at time consuming
Manila to dubai to cairo to tel aviv!
So i choose EL AL israeli airlines
Manila to hongkong(PAL) hongkong to tel aviv(EL AL)
arrive in quickiest way possible.
UnknownFebruary 22, 2016 at 7:00 PM
It's so cool that your friend enjoyed the perks of your business class flight! You're my type of gal! :D
AnonymousFebruary 23, 2016 at 1:24 AM
Lucky you, paranoid traveler, for flying with Emirates to the Middle East and North Africa (Cairo, Egypt). I can see that you all wore jackets at the Pyramid area, so the climate was perfect compared to my last trip in summer 1985 causing my stomach burn (yes the front belly with no bones get burned easily in fiery desert climate) but it was enjoyable, though. After a week, the epidermis started to peel, I loved peeling my tummy nicely, drooling like a one year old baby, ha ha ha. I even had a camel ride, first time in my life! Nice to learn also that Egypt is gradually getting back tourists, as I know, the security situation in Egypt is very critical these days, especially to Westerners particularly Americans and FilAms. Have not been to Israel and Jordan as of yet due to the perennial security concerns that bug us year in and year out. But we have not lost hope because there will come a time when things will be favorable for us to visit the Holy Land from our Southern California home. At this time, we plan to visit South Africa and Kenya this summer (July) and thinking of going to Scandinavia next year. Do not be paranoid to plan to fly Emirates to Los Angeles (if you have not done so), so you can see for yourself how nice this place could be, irrespective of the negative reviews about pollution, over-population, etc. Chow!
StasyaApril 26, 2016 at 6:34 AM
Nice!
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Emirates Business Class Flight Review: Manila to Cairo & Amman to Manila via Dubai

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