Quote:
Originally Posted by Puxlut
As some of you may know, I'm off to Africa in 2 weeks. After flying to San Fran on Westjet, we fly on an Emirates A380 for 15 hours and 40 minutes (yuk) and then have a 14 hour layover in Dubai (double yuk) and then an 8.5 hour flight on an Emirates 777 to Durban. Seeing as this has turned into an all around flying experience question thread:
a) How do you deal with one of the top ten longest flights in the world? I bought compression socks, a good neck pillow, have a book, ipad, my kids Nintendo DS and melatonin. I can't pre-select an exit row with Emirates.. the boarding agents are the ones that make that call is what I heard?
b)jet lag? I looked at Jet lag rooster and I'm not sure how I can prep my sleep cycles. Do I just set my goal as Dubai because it's only an hour time zone difference from Durban. Do I sleep in Durban on my layover? I get there at 7:30 pm. I heard there are night tours you can do in Dubai with all the connecting flights that go through there.... do I try and stay awake all the way through?
c)Any other hints/tips? I have Nexus, so it will (kind of) help me through the new terminal, but is useless everywhere else, right?
|
I live in the UAE and fly Emirates all the time. For a while I had my gold status which was fantastic. They definitely have the best rewards program!
Anyway, you seem to have the coping strategies covered. Just make sure you dress warm because it gets cold in there. Bring water, lip balm, maybe even some nasal spray to combat the dry air and I always bring antacid tablets because of the food. Emirates has pretty good food compared to most airlines though.
For choosing seats, they don't really have "exit rows", rather, they have bulkhead rows which have no seats in front of them. Usually those seats go to families with babies so there's room for a basinette. Choose an aisle seat for a long flight so you can get up at your own leisure instead of climbing over others or having to wake them up. You can also use the aisle to stretch your legs out.
I've flown Emirates Business a few times and it's simply awesome. Especially on the A380... the whole upper deck is business (and first) and includes a little bar at the back so you can get up and go hang out and have a few drinks. I've done the 16 hours from DXB to LAX in there and I was actually disappointed when landing time came. I didn't have enough time for everything I wanted to do haha.
But for economy, it's going to suck and just be prepared for that. But no matter how much it sucks during those 15 hours, it will be a distant memory once you land. It's always that way for me. I try to remind myself that over and over. Anyway Emirates entertainment system is the best out there so you can literally watch movies for the whole time. Personally I can't handle that much movie watching. But it's a great option.
Usually the flights aren't full and you'll see the musical chairs game start to get played before you even take off. Watch how the seasoned travelers start to eyeball certain seats and rows.
As for Dubai, a night tour sounds interesting. You should definitely get out and see the city. In the middle of the night it could seem pretty dead though... all the buildings' lights go out before midnight or so. It'll be hot, sure, but not so much at night. it goes down to the low 30's and can be pretty pleasant at night.
Nexus will do nothing for you in Dubai or elsewhere in the Eastern hemisphere. If you're flying business, you'll get to cut all sorts of lines, but it sounds like you won't have that benefit. Fortunately, DXB is pretty organized and efficient, especially the Emirates terminal (Terminal 3).
And he booked the Best Western in Dubai? Best Westerns in the UAE are basically budget hotels. Clearly he's trying to save some money, and understandably so since it's only a few hours. If it's the middle of the night, you might be feeling wide awake so go out exploring. Maybe you'll want the hotel room so you can regain your bearings and shower and brush your teeth.
For the jetlag thing, it depends on a lot of factors and I've tried a lot of different things to avoid it, I have yet to really succeed. One thing's for sure, I feel jetlag 10x worse going back west than I do coming this way. If you're like me, you won't feel too bad on this side. But when you go back home, it'll be brutal. It usually takes me about 10 days to recover from it. I've heard about a day for every hour of time zone differential... that seems to correlate.
Anyway if you have any questions about all that feel free to PM me! I know Dubai and the UAE very well.