I wasn’t planning to blog inflight. Watched ‘The Lucky One’ (isn’t he beautiful), did a bit of work, read a bit of Hello!, and now I’m tuned into John Mayer’s new album ‘Born and Raised’. Good entertainment selection Emirates has offered us. No issues with that. Lunch was yum too. But hmm, I couldn’t be a tad disappointed with a few things with my trip thus far.
I got my E-gate few weeks ago to save time, because, well, if you’ve arrived at DXB at late nights you’ll know why. Got to the airport today, and walked to the ‘E-gate’ area (laughing inside at the 100others who had to queue)….tried it on one gate – didn’t work. Tried another, didn’t work. All four gates didn’t work. Great.
Good thing was there was one counter with no queues next to the E-gate so I could go there anyways instead of going back in-line to join the rest. Ah well, must be a one-off glitch?
Walked to Gate 135 and decided to go in since it was coming close to boarding time. Got in, and realized that there were probably 2x more people than there were seats. I looked around, and around, and around. None. Of course there were a few many chairs where very considerate people have decided that their bags needed a seat more than families. I was just quite surprised because this is Dubai International Airport – and this is Terminal 3, where everything is supposed to be better and nicer. Did they not count how many people can fit a aircraft when they designed how many seats should go in a boarding room?
Alright, maybe it’s another technical mistake – they chose the wrong boarding room for the wrong flight, and I’m just having a bad day.
Time to board – walked out and then wa la, what is this? Steps downstairs? Where are we going?
To a, bus?!
Just last Eid we took Fly Dubai to Muscat and yes, we had to take a bus and walk in the hot sun onboard the aircraft but that is fine – we are paying a minimal amount for a budget airline so we make do. This is Emirates airline, one of the most prestigious airlines in the world, where flights are generally more expensive because ‘you get more’. I didn’t expect to carry my hand carry down a flight of stairs, wait for a bus, jump in a bus while it goes for 15mins to the aircraft.
Did I forget to mention it is mid-summer and it’s about 42degrees in Dubai right now?
One hand holding my laptop bag, the other holding my 7kg hand-carry, no hands for an umbrella to protect myself from the scorching sun, I stepped out of the bus. And boy, was the queue, slow. So we all had to wait in the sun while people get in, and by the time I got to my seat, I was sweaty and, grumpy.
Not happy.
I’m not done yet!
Food-time came soon after and I lowered my tray. Coffee stains and dried juice marks were all over my tray. Grossed out I told the air-stewardess if they could wipe this up for me. She did not smile, nor did she apologize. She just told me could I use the tray in the middle-seat (as no one was sitting there), because she can’t get a cloth right now. I lowered the middle and saw dried-up brown stains too. Ah, I want my food so I just took it anyways.
Hang on, I forgot to tell you about magazines. I’ve flown mainly Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and Brunei Airlines half my life and there are always, always magazines. Just random girly magazines, you know. I asked the air stewardess around 10am if I could have one, when she was free. She said she’ll have a look. One hour later no one came so I asked yet another air-stewardess and she told me she’ll have a look. Alright, I’ll wait. Another hour passed and I turned on my little light on top and the first lady came back to ask me if I needed anything, and I asked her if there were magazines, and she told me that only Business Class people can have them, and they wouldn’t allow the cattle-class lot to have them. Haha she didn’t actually say that but you know what I mean.
She was really nice enough to offer me her own magazine though. Cheers J That, lifted my spirits a little.
Not at all impressed with Terminal 3, DXB, nor Emirates in general. Few weeks ago I was asked to do a candid interview in Dubai Mall on my thoughts of Terminal 3 by some TV Show. I guess they were trying to promote Terminal 3. I was being politea nd nice then. Thinking back I shouldn’t have bothered! Questions like ‘What did you think of Terminal 3 when you first arrived?’ ‘Are the personnels friendly?’ ‘Does it represent Dubai or what you expected of Dubai?’ Hmm.
I think if they really want people to have a good impression of Terminal 3 – they’ll have to do make more efforts to improve it. Start off with fixing the E-gate machines so that it actually works. And yes it’s been a few hours since lunch and the air-stewardess never came back to wipe all the ‘old stains’ that’s probably bacteria infested. Ergh, gross. I might as well take a budget airline next time.
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