Emirates Restarts Flights To Hong Kong And Breaks Record For Onboard Coronavirus Cases

June 24, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ 2 Comments

It’s been been a tough few months for aviation, as the situation in Europe and East Asia gradually starts improving whereas the situation in the Middle East/South Asia and the Americas continues to deteriorate. My heart goes out to those who have been affected by the coronavirus – if that’s you, I wish that you and your family well, and feel free to reach out if you have any travel-related needs (I’ll most likely redirect you to my most trusted external resources, though, since there’s not much I know how to do).

Emirates had a particularly tough time as the UAE had closed their borders from March 25th until recently. The country plans to reopen tourism soon in order to boost their economy, but for now they’ve allowed UAE residents to return and depart, with mandatory testing upon arrival. The country reopens to tourists on July 7th this year.

Emirates Boeing 777 Hong Kong Airport

Unfortunately their return to Hong Kong was a bit of a rough one. In place of two A380 direct flights on top of a 777, they now operate a single 777 flight between Dubai and Hong Kong, and the flight may have just broken the record for the most coronavirus cases contracted onboard for any international flight in the world.

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Review: Emirates A380 Business Class Dubai to London

October 31, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Emirates Lounge Hong Kong
Emirates 777 Business Class Hong Kong to Dubai
Emirates Business Lounge Dubai Concourse C
Emirates Business Lounge Dubai Concourse B
Emirates Business Lounge Dubai Concourse A
Emirates A380 Business Class Dubai to London

With all the glamour that Emirates’ A380 has boasted over the past decade, I knew I had to try it out at some point. Emirates introduced their A380 in 2008, and it started the innovation of inflight amenities such as onboard showers and bars that we see on quite a few different airlines today. Over time, though, the actual hard product on Emirates’ A380 became slightly less competitive, especially as it competed with newer revolutionary products such as Qatar Airways’ QSuite, so I was curious how it would fare in the grand scheme of things in 2019.

Now, I need to note that my flight experience was hindered by a purser who accused me of taking photos that were against the rules (he had the rules mixed up, and I’m still trying to sort things out with Emirates to see how this never happens to other airline bloggers out there). I’ll obviously mention it in the report below, though I’m going to strive to make this report as objective as possible, as my experience – prior to my interaction with the purser, of course – was stellar.

Anyway, my Emirates A380 experience began at the boarding gate B17, where boarding started at around 2:10 PM. It’s worth mentioning that as a business class passenger I could board this flight through a separate entrance for premium passengers, right outside the lounge – however, boarding starts a few minutes later for the upper deck, so boarding from the main gate area afforded me a couple of extra minutes to photograph Emirates’ beautiful A380 cabin.

Emirates Airbus A380 Dubai Airport

I was one of the first onboard the Emirates A380, and boarded through the lower deck.

Continue reading “Review: Emirates A380 Business Class Dubai to London” →

Review: Emirates Business Lounge Dubai Concourse A

October 24, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Emirates has multiple lounges in Dubai Airport’s Terminal 3, but going in I knew that their lounge at Concourse A would be the largest by far. I made my way onto the train that connects Concourse B/C and Concourse A, and found myself in the grand atrium where connecting passengers landing at Concourse A are screened.

Concourse A Dubai Airport

The entrance to the lounge is located by where the airtrain lets off, smack in the middle of the concourse.

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Review: Emirates Business Lounge Dubai Concourse B

October 15, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Emirates has four lounges for business class passengers in Dubai Airport’s Terminal 3 – two massive lounges in Concourse A and B, a smaller one in Concourse C, and a tiny one further into concourse C. After visiting Emirates’ lounge in concourse C, I headed towards Concourse B, where my flight would be departing.

Emirates’ Concourse B lounge is situated near gate B16. It’s one floor above the main deck (and spans the length of half the terminal, with the other half occupied by the first class lounge) though you can board your aircraft from select B-gates, including B17, where our flight would be departing. I was welcomed by a friendly lounge attendant, and told that there wouldn’t be any boarding announcements for my flight.

Since the lounge was recently touched up, the furniture and furnishings were quite modern. Near the entrance was a circular area with lots of seating.

Emirates Business Class Lounge Dubai Concourse B

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Review: Emirates Business Lounge Dubai Concourse C

October 4, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Our flight landed at gate C17, which was in Dubai Airport’s Concourse C. Emirates features lounges in all concourses in Terminal 3, so I decided to check out the lounge in Concourse C first, as it was right next to the transfer area.

The lounge is situated near gate C11. Dubai Airport’s Concourse C is relatively quieter than Concourse A and Concourse B, as you have to walk through Concourse B to get there (so it’s not the ideal place for duty free shops).

Dubai Airport Concourse C

The lounge itself is located right across the First Class lounge, and it’s actually quite big. I was visiting the lounge in the middle of the day, and it was really empty. It featured two levels, with the lower level featuring mostly of a food spread and armchair-style seating, and more varieties of seating on the upper deck.

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Review: Emirates 777 Business Class Hong Kong to Dubai

September 26, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

I’d originally booked myself onto the Emirates A380 from Hong Kong straight through to London Gatwick, though unfortunately anxiety about upcoming protest situations compelled us to change our flight to an earlier one, since traffic was less likely to be affected at this time of day. This was a pricey switch, and I’ve written about it here. Fortunately, though, I’d once listed Emirates’ 777 business class product as one of the most underwhelming products I’d been dying to try, so I was glad to have the opportunity to do so.

I arrived at gate 32 around 6:45 AM in anticipation of boarding at 7 AM. It was a beautiful day outside, which served as a nice backdrop for the 777 that would be taking us to Dubai.

Emirates Boeing 777 Hong Kong Airport

The crew were standing around the gate at this time, and they boarded the plane at around 6:55 AM. Unfortunately boarding was delayed a bit beyond that, and it finally started at 7:15 AM, fifteen minutes behind schedule.

Continue reading “Review: Emirates 777 Business Class Hong Kong to Dubai” →

Review: Emirates Lounge Hong Kong

September 24, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

This mini-trip report series will cover my experience traveling from Hong Kong to London Gatwick onboard an Emirates 777 and A380 in business class. I booked it as a one-way ticket for a hefty HK$22,960 – while I found a few throwaway tickets that could’ve halved the cost, I decided it wasn’t worth risking for my first flight to university. Sure enough, the insurance of a higher fare class paid off this time around, since we ended up changing our flights to avoid traveling to the airport during peak protest hours. My dad wasn’t so lucky – he had to pay a HK$16,000+ change fee to his ~HK$19,000 roundtrip ticket, bringing the total cost ticket in line with normal roundtrip business class fares seen on Cathay Pacific and British Airways between Hong Kong and London.

Emirates has a dedicated lounge in Hong Kong. Emirates business class passengers are also allowed into the amazing Qantas lounge, though unfortunately the Qantas lounge opens at 7:30 AM, which was too late for our 7 AM boarding time. So we made it into the Emirates lounge, and were pointed in by a friendly lounge attendant. The Emirates lounge is open from three hours before every Emirates flight, and accessible to Emirates business class passengers and Skywards silver, gold, and platinum members only.

Emirates Lounge Hong Kong Entrance

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I Was Lied To And Legally Threatened By An Emirates Purser

September 23, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday I flew from Dubai to London Gatwick on an Emirates A380. I was quite looking forward to the flight, as I’d wanted to try Emirates’ A380 business class product since it came out. From the title you’d assume I was hugely disappointed by the flight, but it was largely awesome, and most of the crew were so, so friendly. That being said, of course, there was one huge exception.

Emirates Airbus A380 Munich Airport (I’ll share why I didn’t share a photo of an Emirates A380 in Dubai Airport later)

Let me start off by saying that I’ve always been very cautious not to take pictures of crewmembers without their express permission on flights. Even when crewmembers intentionally get in my photo, most of the time I choose not to publish photos with crew in it, and always ask before I take my first photo whenever I’m onboard an airplane cabin. I know some other bloggers don’t ask, and it’s technically not required to ask on most airlines; though I’ve never gotten a “no” before upon asking (even on this flight), so it usually always works to my advantage.

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Coming Up Next – The Ticket I Feel Most Heartbroken About

September 5, 2019April 6, 2020 ~ Alvin ~ 3 Comments

While I’m trying my best to roll out my reviews (I’m fully aware that I’ve yet to complete my review set of a trip to Bangkok I did in February, though I’m prioritising flight reviews of newer airline products first), I’m also getting ready for my move to the UK. I’ll be getting an engineering degree at Imperial College, so will be based there for a few years, before deciding where to move onto next (yeah, so much for Young Travelers of “Hong Kong”, but…)

I had to get to the UK, and with no award space on any oneworld airline available for my dates, I decided to book a one-way ticket to London. Since my dad was travelling with me and he would be flying back, I focused on finding the cheapest ticket for him, as I knew my ticket wouldn’t be cheap either way. We ended up finding an Emirates ticket into London and out of Paris (where he needed to be), which had us on A380s on all four legs.

Emirates Airbus A380 Munich Airport

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5 Fifth-Freedom Flights From Hong Kong I’d Like To Try

October 17, 2018 ~ Alvin ~ 1 Comment

Sometimes airlines find profit in flying a plane to a certain destination via another, so to fulfil two low-demand destinations. These flights were instrumental to the economic viability of longhaul flights prior to the 80s, since planes didn’t have the range to fly ultra-longhaul. Nowadays, with profitable aircraft such as the A350 or 787, there’s much less need for fifth-freedom flights – which makes them all the more fun when you actually get to fly them.

Fifth-freedom flights these days are normally run when there’s insufficient demand for a flight to be run to a single destination, so airlines “tag” the flight onwards to sell the fifth-freedom segment as well (for example, Egyptair can’t justify the demand to operate a direct flight between Cairo to Hong Kong, so they route their twice-weekly flight via Bangkok to generate revenue between Bangkok and Hong Kong as well). Other airlines operate “novelty” fifth-freedom flights, where they’ve sustained a fifth-freedom flight for years and are unwilling to give it up despite the fact that a direct flight may be more viable. Emirates is a good example of that (continue reading to find out more).

Thai Airways’ flight between Hong Kong and Seoul allows the airline to compete on the Hong Kong to Seoul segment (this isn’t one of the more interesting fifth freedom routes out of Hong Kong in my opinion – I’d much rather fly Korean Air or Asiana business class, which is usually reasonably priced)

Believe it or not, I haven’t actually had the chance to fly any fifth-freedom routes. The closest I’ve gone to flying one is Singapore Airlines’ flight between Singapore and San Francisco via Hong Kong – however, I flew the Singapore to Hong Kong segment, whereas the Hong Kong to San Francisco segment would’ve been the fifth-freedom flight. So I thought I’d list a few of the fifth-freedom flights I’d like to try in the coming years.

Continue reading “5 Fifth-Freedom Flights From Hong Kong I’d Like To Try” →

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