This time I get to travel to
Abu Dhabi for an overseas workshop and the cheapest airline (to
Dubai) was
Emirates.
Abu Dhabi is about a 2 hour drive from the
Dubai Airport, and while
Emirates does not fly directly into the
Abu Dhabi Airport, it does provide a free shuttle service to the bus airport/interchange in
Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately, the waiting time for the shuttle was too long: I arrive at about 1 in afternoon but the complimentary shuttle departs for
Abu Dhabi (bus airport/interchange) at 7 in the evening. So I opted to just fly straight into
Dubai and than catch a taxi to the hotel.
From the
Emirates website it costs
S$651.20 from
Singapore to
Dubai, while the company’s travel agent charged
S$678.20 + S$7 for a booking fee. How is it more economically and cheaper using the travel agent still baffles me… But anyways… The average pricing from
Singapore to
Abu Dhabi costs an average of
S$651-$1,000++ depending on the airline that you take, most of which have stopovers.
Although Emirates is a full serviced flight, when booking the tickets, the promotional/cheapest tickets do not enable you to select your desired seats until you check in. If you want to book your seats prior to checking in, you would have to pay extra. A normal seat costs about S$35 (extra) per seat per way, while the better seats cost more. However, choosing your seat is ‘free’ when you check-in online 48 hours before your flight commences. Other than that, entertainment and food are included in the ticket price, which is not too bad.
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| Checking-in online is straight forward, all you need to do is enter your reference and last name and viola, you are brought to the page where you can check-n and select your seat. |
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| The plane configuration for economy was 3-4-3. |
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| The plane looked to be about 85% full and it was relatively new. |
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| As with most long haul flights, a pillow and blanket were provided. The pillow was pretty standard and blankets were pretty standard and kept me warm and comfy (enough) throughout the flight. |
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| Seating capacity was adequate with sufficient leg room. |
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| Before takeoff, wet towels were handed out. |
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| Up into the air we go! |
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| Further into the flight, another view of the sky. |
The entertainment system, called
ICE, is pretty updated and had plenty of movies and dramas to keep me entertained throughout the flight. The touchscreen was intuitive enough and not as laggy as
Malaysia Airlines. It was a pleasure to use as I scrolled though the list of movies and dramas that were available.
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| Given the long flight was not a red-eye one, I managed to catch at least 3 movies – “Finding Dory”, “Frozen” and “The Boss”. |
Interesting Fact: ICE can be played from the moment you board the plane until you land so you don’t have to wait until reaching cruising altitude or get switched off half way through your favorite program 15min before landing. However, make sure to bring your own headset because the crew will start collecting the headsets about 30 minutes before landing
Lunch was served an hour or so into the flight. The appetizer was smoked chicken served with mushroom salad, while the main course was a choice between fish or chicken, and dessert was dutch apple pie. The food was alright, nothing to rave about but edible. Well, mainly the main and dessert were edible. As for the appetizer, other than the smoked chicken, the mushroom which were served along with it were a salty experience. It seemed like the chef was feeling very generous that day and added a whole bag of salt to the mushrooms. 😅
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| I had the fish, which I had to wait for (about 5 minutes) as all the stewardess had in her tray were chicken. |
About an hour towards the destination, the captain announced that the plane was approaching our destination and preparations are made for the descent. It was also at this point that some snacks were handed out, each different (i.e. shortcake biscuits, pies etc...). Service was attentive (enough) and prompt (as could be).
Peering out the window, what greeted us was the sandy desert, a sign that we were nearing our destination.
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| Mountains and sand. |
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| A more desert landscape. |
Soon, the plane arrived safely at
Dubai Airport,
Terminal 3 (a terminal that is solely for
Emirates flights!). After alighting the plane, I made my way to immigration and collect the luggage. It was a pretty quiet afternoon, the terminal was not crowded and quite empty.
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| Dubai Airport Terminal 3: a quiet walk on the way to immigration and luggage collection. |
The walk to immigration was straight forward (just follow the signs) and a good 15-20 minute stroll, of course if you wanted to walk faster you might make it there under 10 minutes or so.
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| Walking through the almost empty terminal. |
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| Almost there. |
If the terminal was quiet, than immigration section was even more quiet! There were more counters open than there were passengers to use them. The
Dubai immigration officers are the most
stern bored nonchalant I have come across, or it must have been a very slow day, some were even yawning as they stamped passports.
Tip: If you don't want to have any "tsk tsk" and/or eyes-rolled 👀 at you with impatience, make sure that you remove any passport covers to let the immigration officer have a clear view of your passport/nationality.
Once immigration was cleared and luggage collected, I went on to get the local SIM card and caught a taxi to my hotel in
Abu Dhabi -
Park Inn by Radisson Abu Dhabi Yas Island.
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