My first international flight, over a decade ago now, took me through Dubai, UAE, on our journey to our final destination. This first leg internationally was 15 hours! I’m not sure why I had never flown internationally before, but I was excited and nervous about my first trip overseas.
As we boarded the Emirates plane in Houston, a double decker airbus, I was not prepared for what I experienced in the coach section. Our seats had massive amounts of legroom. I could stand completely upright between my seat and the one in front of me without touching either seat, and my head did not hit the overhead bins even when they were open! Maybe not too hard for the average height woman, but my husband had nearly the same experience at six-feet tall, except for when the bin was open.
After the plane pulled away from the gate, the flight attendants walked through the aisles with silver tone trays full of hot damp towels. Every passenger was handed one to freshen up prior to departing…EVERY passenger! I felt like a princess in first class. I couldn’t imagine how the passengers in business and the real first class were being treated! We learned not to expect this every time on their international flights, but still, it was amazing!
After freshening up, we were handed printed menus with options for our meals throughout the flight. Yes, actual menus with descriptions of the food and everything! We also were each provided with our own little travel kits — socks, eye mask, and a few other things to make the flight more comfortable.
Throughout the flight, the cabin transitioned from dark to light and back to dark every few hours. The ceiling of the cabin had little LED pin lights embedded which made me feel like I was sleeping under the stars. Okay, okay, not really, but it was a nice touch.
As we flew over the top of the world, I peeked out the window to see where in the world we were. I recall one point, I believe we were over Greenland, I opened the window cover to see this amazing view of a snowy white bumpy floor below. It was an amazing view. The stars also shown brightly; I wasn’t expecting this at all, but it was amazing to see.
Sleeping on this long flight wasn’t easy, but absolutely necessary as we had already traveled all day to Houston at the start of our trip. Our seats were roomy and reclined more than any other I had experienced, but I ended up in all sorts of contorted yoga-like pretzel poses throughout my nap attempts. My poor husband had to put up with me laying almost upside down at one point! No, I didn’t feel awkward from a social perspective; this was an eyeopener, anything for comfortable sleep! I also developed a willingness to spend the bucks to upgrade to Business Class should it ever be in budget!
When the lights came up in the cabin, and I mean a gentle brightening like dawn not a flick of a light switch, it was nearing time for something good…one of our meals. This flight outshines any other flight I’d ever taken for food, except for another Emirates flight where they served an actual, honest to goodness, birthday cake to my husband! We didn’t request it, so it was a pleasant surprise. Come on American based International flights…step up your game!
We’ve flown on Emirates a few times since then, and our other flights across the Atlantic each time have been good experiences. But this first flight was simply an amazing experience and makes me look forward to a time in the hopefully near future to do it again. Come on, second Covid-19 vaccine shot!
Happy Travels!
BewilderedBrownEyes 