First off was an opportunity to watch a World Cup football game in Russia, which was to be followed by a Mercedes-Benz drive in Luxembourg and Saarland and finally a visit with BMW to South Carolina. The first two trips worked out perfectly and there was a two-day gap between Europe and the US and I had initially planned to visit Stuttgart and the Mercedes and Porsche museums (again, but I love them). As originally planned my routing was -
DEL - SVO - FRA - LUX - MUC - STR - LIS - EWR - GSP - EWR - DEL
So other than my flights between Newark and Greenville I would not repeat a sector. This was between June 16 and June 30. The problem with three hosts, multiple airlines and the insane fact that Europe - US business class tickets cost more than India - US Business Class tickets weirdly meant that I'd actually have to fly back to India instead of visiting Stuttgart and fly back out to the US after 48 hours. The fact is while I'm an #avgeek my body isn't getting much younger and the time-zone changes were going to be murderous.
And then I saw my flights, and their times. This was going to be painful. We had switched from Aeroflot to Emirates to travel to Moscow which might be nicer in Business Class makes a five and a bit hour flight into eight hours of flying time with a three hour layover. Don't get me wrong, I like EK but their layovers are rarely worthwhile, three hours even in the lovely business lounge is rather painful, although this time it would hurt less since it was at lunchtime and not midnight.
Final routing.
DEL - DXB - DME EK June 16
DME - FRA - LUX LH June 19
LUX - CDG - DEL LG/AF June 22
I'm leaving the US trip out for now, I'll post the UA83 and UA82 experience though.
Three airline PNR’s three different mileage cards. No wonder I don't hold status anywhere! Well, I do but I keep thinking what would have happened if I could have consolidated my miles! And the Moscow - Luxembourg leg was in Economy, argh!
Anyhow, enough of my rant. I should and I do consider myself very fortunate to be able to fly around the world mostly for free and do fun things. I mean I was about to go watch a FIFA world cup match live in a stadium, that is something knocked off the bucket list! Yeah! As you learn I'd knock something else off the bucket list soon enough.
EK 511
16 June 2018
DEL - DXB
Boeing 777-300ER A6-EPD
Seat 9F
Not much to say about this flight. EK’s lounge in Delhi T3 is one of the better ones at the airport, albeit a very bright one. When I got my ticket a couple of weeks in advance there were no window seats open and given that this is a commuter flight effectively, there was much exciting. I finished off several episodes of Blue Planet II, not really wanting to start a movie and while my initial choice of the mixed grill ran out the Chicken with Morels was decent. Another travelling colleague told me that the Mixed Grill was awful.
Emirates Lounge in DEL is at the end of a long corridor
Decent selection, too early to drink though
Spicy cashews (EK special) and a Breakfast Martini
The best thing about EK's handheld controller is that you can watch something completely different
Lunch... okay. I've had better on Emirates themselves
Good cheeseboard
The flight was thoroughly uneventful otherwise, service was good albeit not stellar. This flight is particularly popular as it is the late morning departure from Delhi at 1100 hours arriving at Dubai by 1235, usually earlier, other than my group most passengers on the flight were Dubai-boujd . We landed in Dubai slightly ahead of schedule and discovered that fortunately our next flight left from the same concourse we arrived on, Concourse A which was very lucky although I was travelling light when it came to hand luggage. That said, I was hoping for the B Concourse since that lounge has the new Costa Coffee.
Some of my travelling companions and me went to the lounge upstairs and for a while watched the France - Australia game including both controversial VAR penalties. I also went to have a smoke and while smoking area deliberately had not switched on the game, it was far nicer than the rest of the lounge in my opinion. Eventually it was time to board EK131 to Moscow Domodedovo which was from gate A9 one of the furthered the gates in the concourse but upstairs the journey was fast enough even with my pit-stop for ice-cream.
Global hub or what?
It was French TV incidentally
EK 131
16 June 2018
DXB - DME
Airbus A380-800 A6-EEN
Seat 25K moved to 3E and finally 2K
So when I went to the upstairs gate and my boarding pass was scanned I heard that distinctive beep that comes with the red light. Now that could mean something bad or usually something good. It was most good indeed, I had been upgraded to Emirates First. Now I've flown a lot of business class but this was literally a first so what if I was giving up my window.
At the door I was welcomed by Veronica from Mexico, and shown my suite and when she brought me my Dom Perignon 2009 I casually mentioned to her whether a window suite was available. Indeed there was and I promptly shifted to 2K.
The reason for the upgrade became obvious as a few Mexican fans walked past me up the stairs obviously upgraded from downstairs. One guy had been flying for 30-odd hours from Guadelajara to get to Moscow for the game so I guess he was thrilled. In fact four guys from my group including my close friend Sidharth from NDTV got upped along with two other people. There were no fare paying First Class passengers on this flight.
OMG!!! For me?
OK, so it isn't EK 215/216 but I'll take it
Life is better with friends!
The A380's forehead
The funny thing is that while I end up doing an Emirates flight every year - I've flown EK to FRA, LAX and BCN since the start of 2016, I don't have status with them. So I'm guessing the upgrade was random, but if there is anyone from Emirates reading this - thank you I really appreciate this.
So Sid and I were chatting with Veronica and I asked her whether the showers were working on the flight. She replied of course and asked whether either of us would like to try them, I just told her that was the seminal part of the Emirates First Class experience and while we really didn't need a shower as such, we were going to have a shower and both of us booked the first two post departure slots.
I caught a great video of the take-off as the plane rolled gently to the right giving great views of downtown Dubai and Sharjah. And soon after take-off, Veronica invited me to the shower and her colleague explained how the shower works and the fact that I had thirty minutes in the Spa and five minutes total under the shower.
Take-Off Video: https://youtu.be/hU-D4O3cAu8
Now, you must have read several TR’s of using a shower on Emirates’ A380’s but this is my view as a first-timer.
The shower and toilet are huge. This is bigger than many home toilets. Truly luxurious. The toiletries are high quality and while five minutes under a shower might not seem like much when you are thinking water conservation from the first minute, you do things that you might not at home or a hotel like switch the flow of water off while lathering up. Indeed even with a proper bath, shampoo and all I finished just as the minute warning went off. I was fully refreshed and the post-shower amuse-bouche was already waiting at my table when I reached. Veronica offered me the second excellent Dom Perignon on board the 2000 P2 and I was truly a happy camper.
Large loo!
Post shower refreshment
Caviar
More champagne and the caviar followed and Sid and I decided to make a run to the bar later but we ran back after our Martini because well, the first class alcohol selection was extraordinary. I chose to drink the Dalmore Alexander III 25-year old Single Malt, now truth be told again I'm not a huge fan of very old whiskies as they tend to draw in too much tannins and such from the wood. But bloody hell, this was good. I can drink a fair bit but lately I've been well behaved on flights but I was tipsy by the time we landed.
Lunch was the lamb shank which was excellent and the cheese board selection was brilliant, eight different and excellent cheeses. I had had the cheese board on the incoming flight from Delhi and well that four cheeses and I thought that was good. I was blown away by the entire Emirates First experience. If this was how my trip would start, it was going to be epic.
Lamb shanks - main
Quite a lot more cheesy choice than Business class
Pretty elaborate
Approaching Moscow
Russian Relics
Russian Relics built in the USA
Immigration into Russia was painfully slow and our first and my enduring impression of Moscow traffic was made on this trip. And every taxi driver we had told us that this was normal just with a few hundred more buses. We were staying at the Hyatt Regency Petrovsky Park near the Dynamo Stadium which was not one of the stadiums being used for the World Cup. The rooftop offered great views of the city and its location near the ring road made it popular with many teams in Russia as well. During our stay we met members of the Argentina, Mexico, Poland and Senegal teams there. By met I mean saw from a distance, but you know what I mean.
The day of the match we walked around central Moscow - while Red Square was cordoned off, we managed to take in St.Basil’s and the Kremlin and I even gave good ol’ Vlad a wave - which I hope he saw. Of course, I had decided to wear Indian colours in the midst of all this even wearing a flag, just because there was one with someone. So what if India isn’t in the Cup, Indian fans are there and I was surprised just how many people knew Sunil Chettri (our football captain) name! That was pretty cool.
I guess they just call it a 'Mule' in Moscow
Saying hi to Tsar Vlad!
Obligatory selfie at St. Basil's
They were out in force!
Red Square was cordoned off..
I’ll get to the match and the remainder of the Moscow visit shortly. Breaking this into parts because of ease.
Earlier TR's from 2017-18
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1393511
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1393639
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1378025
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1378853
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1375425
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1367143
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1366517
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1364639
And many more...