I flew Emirates from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai and Dubai to Tripoli.
Emirates certainly lives up to its reputation as a great airline. Nothing really to complain about, even though on the first leg I was given a seat in the very last row, next to the wall. My seat could still recline and I had enough space. If I have one little down, it would be that I don’t think I was ever given a choice on the meals, even when the menu said there were choices. I seemed to just be given a tray of stuff.
Seats: Comfort – good. They have the moveable headrests on each side and do recline. Blankets provided. Outstanding design feature (perhaps this should go under entertainment) is that the controller with all the buttons that is usually in the side of your seat in the armrest, here is in FRONT of you, under the screen. Duh! Why didn’t someone think of this before??? No more awkward manouvering!
Entertainment: Outstanding. Two thumbs up. Individual entertainment systems with touch screens and a plethora of choices for movies, music, TV, and even live cameras from the plane (cockpit view or also view from the bottom of the plane, it seems, just below the front wheel). Headphones worked well, I think. Overall, the best entertainment system I have ever seen on an airplane.
Oh, and the system starts right from the get-go, so you can start your movie even while waiting to taxi to the runway, and is on during takeoff and landing. Though do note that your show will be interrupted for the safety instruction video in Arabic and English (one after the other, so it is shown twice) and slightly later, a rather lengthy introduction to the Emirates entertainment system, also in both languages.
Food: Okay-lah. As I said, I wasn’t given choices, though there were fancy menus handed out every time. The food itself did seem more gourmet than the usual, but I quite like the normal stuff, actually, so this time it wasn’t too appetizing to me.
Service: They didn’t seem to be around all that much, but overall no complaints. They got the job done.
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Then I flew Afriqiyah Airways from Tripoli to N’djamena. This entailed a very long wait (basically the whole afternoon and evening) at Tripoli Airport, made about two hours longer by delays.
Tripoli Airport is pretty basic. When I got off the plane, I seemed to be the only transit passenger. I had to ask a few times to ascertain where I was supposed to be going in the immigration hall, as everyone else was being ushered into rows to go through immigration. The transit line ended up being basically putting your carry-on bag through a small machine and then going through into the transit lounge. It seemed to me I could have done that anyway by going out the door and round to the lounge, without going through the machine, but there you go. I was good and waited for the officer to come and switch it on and bring me through. Good thing they spoke enough English to understand “transit” and “N’djamena”, as I don’t speak Arabic.
Person at a counter behind windows told me to come back at 5 pm to get my boarding pass. It was about 1.30 pm then.
The lounge is basically a big room with rows of metal seats. Some are cushioned, some not. The seats mostly have handles so you can’t really stretch out. There were a couple of large tvs showing news in English (I think) and Arabic.
There is a cafe/restaurant. They take USD and I suppose Euros too. A bottle of water cost me $3. I think it would have been 3 Libyan dinars too. A large piece of pizza (the size of about half a small pizza) was also around $3.
There is a business class lounge with computers inside in another room.
There was also a small souvenir shop and a travel shop with bags, travel items, toys, etc with prices in Euros.
I had heard that the toilets are pretty dirty. Basically they are pretty wet, which for a Malaysian, is quite usual. They started out cleaner and got dirtier as more people came along. Nothing too revolting, though you don’t really want to go if you don’t have to. Good thing is there was one squatty stall, which I used. I don’t know how the seat toilets were. Unfortunately the squatty stall was quite dark.
Announcements were made in Arabic, sometimes with an additional one in English (for certain flights) or French. Around 4.30 pm, an announcement in French said that those going to such and such places could go get their boarding passes. One of the officers at the counter spoke English as well as French.
A host of planes scheduled to leave from 6 pm onwards were delayed. About 4 flights, I think. They all left within half an hour of each other, near midnight. You wait in the transit lounge until you are called to the gate. The announcement in Arabic and French comes on way before the large electronic sign, so it is best to listen out for your destination.
My flight was called around 11.30 pm, and then it was a short walk to the gate, machine check, short wait at the gate, across the tarmac, and the plane took off around midnight. I was so tired I slept through most of the flight. Small plane, 3 seats each side. Individual touch screens, a few choices in each category. Full meal served.
In N’djamena, down the staircase to a bus, and then to the terminal. Immigration cards are filled at the terminal. I had no trouble with immigration. After baggage collection, there’s a guy who takes your baggage tags (off your itinerary/boarding pass) and off your bags. I was not stopped at customs, though others were.
All in all, the wait at Tripoli was pretty grueling, partly because I was so tired already, and partly because it wasn’t all that comfortable. Dubai would have been a much more pleasant airport to wait in (or KLIA, for that matter!)
Bee Tales 