I, for one, am normally of the opinion that the less said about an international flight, the better. They’re generally more grueling than sitting in a chair ought to be, a long, uncomfortable slog in tight proximity to 300 other people. But a couple of things made this direct Emirates flight from Seattle to Dubai stand out.
While it may be true that our flight was delayed by over an hour due to de-icing, we were still excited about how much space we had. Kelly and I each had our own row of three seats, one behind the other. Once the aircraft door had shut for good, we capitalized on our good fortune and Kelly reseated herself in the row in front of me. Fourteen hours with three seats to yourself? What a miracle! We were able to bed down over three seats each for 8 hours of sleep, and join each other in the same row for dinner and breakfast, with the middle tray table down between us. The food on Emirates is great by airline standards, with a meat or vegetarian option, dessert, and a selection of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks (not a given in these COVID restricted times).
Additionally, this was the first flight we’ve taken that flies directly over the north pole. We’re used to seeing a flight path that describes an arc on a map, but this one leaves Seattle and flies just about due north, over the pole, and then just about due south to Dubai. It was a night flight, so ordinarily I’d let you know that we saw nothing our of our windows, but we were treated to a special sight- the northern lights! If you ever get a chance to fly a night route over the pole in the winter, don’t forget to look out your window- you may see the shimmering, dancing, ghostly green glow of the solar wind interacting with our magnetosphere. It may be faint, or it may be brilliant, but it is without doubt one of the more beautiful, captivating events you can see from an airplane. We watched it for an hour, before settling in for sleep.
We left Seattle at 5:00 pm local time, and descended into Dubai at about 7:00 pm local, so we were able to see the city at night as we landed, but were deprived of all the interesting sights over Russia, Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea and Iran, because almost the entire flight was during the night. DXB is an efficient airport and there weren’t a lot of people there, so we breezed through rapidly, got into a cab, and for about $15 US headed for the Oberoi Hotel downtown. Doormen opened the cab for us and handled all the luggage as the liveried footman guided us to our personal check in desk. The hotel staff made the process of checking in seamless and quick, which was a true luxury after flying for 14 hours. Guided upstairs with an explanation of the hotel and its amenities, we entered to a spacious room with high ceilings, a large closet, and a huge glassy bathroom, with to die for views of the Burj Khalifa from the floor to ceiling windows. No matter how much sleep you get on an airplane, it’s never as restful as sleeping in a quiet comfortable bed. We washed the grime of travel off of us in the luxurious soaking tub, and tumbled into bed for a much needed rest.
[Brendan]
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