Words of the week - Flying

Hello from Australia.

Having spent 11 years living in South Africa and Dubai we're more than used to flying. Ether 12 hours direct from SA or 8 hrs to Dubai and 7 hours onto the UK. 

Child 3 moved out to Australia in 2017 and this is my 4th trip to visit him (3rd for Peter)

2019 My first trip was from Dubai and I broke the journey up with a stop over in Singapore for 2 hours. I got off the plane, stretched my legs, got a Starbucks, then boarded again with mostly the same passengers, back into the same seat onto Sydney. It was 2 x 7 hour flights. I flew back direct from Melbourne.

We used to joke that a 7 hour flight was short haul for us travelling between Dubai and the UK.

Covid stopped us visiting for 3 years, but I still made flights to and from the UK to Dubai

2022 My 2nd trip was 7 hours to Dubai. Peter came with me and we were now living in the UK. The usual stretch legs, Starbucks and then 14 hours onto Sydney. We had a couple of internal flights to travel to The Gold Coast and Sydney of 2-3 hours each. I flew home from Sydney and Peter returned 2 weeks later and spent a few nights in Dubai on his way back.

2023 Was a flight via Kuala Lumper which was 10 hours, 3 over stop over and yes, stretched legs and coffee, then 8 hours onto Sydney. We had more internal flights up to Cairns and Brisbane and flew home from Sydney via Kuala Lumpur Lumper where we stayed for 4 nights.

2025 We're back in Sydney, via 2 hours in Dubai and we've got 4 nights in Dubai on our way home. Another 7 hour and 14 hour flight. 

Emirates is our preferred airline, but often due to only being able to travel in the school holidays we've opted for other airlines as the price can differ between £1000-£2000 return for the two of us. We were silver members for many years with the airline and benefitted from using the lounge and early boarding, which we do miss being able to take advantage of.

We picked up the AirBus A380 in Dubai

There is so much more room in economy than other planes, so no need for any upgrades. We booked Premium economy with Virgin with our 11 hour flight to Vegas over Christmas and we really needed it. Emirates haven't compromised with economy. Our only issue with booking with Emirates to Dubai or Australia is making sure the code share isn't a Qantas plane, as it's a completely different flying experience.

I opted to have the gluten option on the flights. Usually I just don't eat the bread roll, crackers and cake, usually bringing my own. But I noticed this was a really heavy carb based meal flight. I actually wasn't impressed with any of my meals. They get served earlier than the rest of the cabin do, which also meant I had the tray for twice as long. I also didn't get to see what was I was going to have in advance and was served fish which I don't mind but it really doesn't reheat that well and was very rubbery.

The cakes and bread were really heavy with exceptionally long use by dates. It was also very fatty and sugary)

In theory the gluten free range looked promising

The reality not so good. I couldn't eat this.

I'll be popping some crackers, a cake and bread roll in my hand luggage for the return flight and just having a normal meal (chicken or beef).