Emirates Business Class to Jo'burg

Emirates 765
DXB-JNB
777-300ER
2:40P-8:50P (sked)
2:40P-8:35P (actual)
October 3, 2013
Seat 2A for Mrs. SFO777
Seat 7A yes, 7A pour moi

The EK partnership is a work in progress and that leads to less than desirable options. Take today. While I found 2 First Class seats from JFK-DXB, there was only one First Class seat available from DXB-JNB. Despite daily monitoring for the past month, nothing opened on our date. And in the past two weeks, EK closed the door on any DXB-JNB award seats this week. Even the OpUp gods were not smiling on me today. In spite of two unsold F seats, linked PNRs and my Gold status, I got the distinct impression that EK wishes the AS partnership would just go away. "Oh you paid with miles" is not the response that is likely to get you anywhere near the OpUp list. So Mrs. SFO gets F and I have to slum it in J.

On the other hand, prior to push, the purser and at least two other FAs acknowledged me by name and my Gold status, welcomed me back and thanked me for my loyalty. Apparently they didn't know that my Gold was status matched or that I was on an AS award ticket.

Mrs. SFO also popped back to see how life was in the slums, looked around with a horrid "yikes" expression, told me she loved me and scurried back to First as fast as she could trying not to pick up any germs. Indeed, I earned points today. And of course, despite promises to take pics, she slept the entire time and decided not to take pics.

It's only 8 hours, how bad can Business Class be, right? After being spoiled by the more spacious F suite and service, this takes getting used to. But once you get used to the limitations and tight fit, it was survivable. If I had to fly J regularly, no way it would be on Emirates and their 2-3-2 configuration.

I opted for Coke Light and water only on this flight. In spite of an interesting menu, I wasn't very hungry and just had a salad and prawn machbous, which was so-so. The dessert tasted like cardboard. I've had better meals on AA mid-con flights. But our FA was great, kept topping my water and Coke Lights.

FWIW, the menu..

And wine list...

IFE worked for the first couple of hours and then crapped out, defaulting to BBC news on the slightest turbulence, then seemingly at random, and then permanently for the last four hours.

Ugh, I don't need to see another Emirates Business Class seat for a long time.