Travel Time Again. Thank you Emirates

Fillet steak and prawns in Joburg
The main reason that I started this blog was to record my travel experiences. Well, here I am on another trip! I have stopped over briefly in New York and I continue on to my the final destination of the first leg of my trip, Ecuador. There are two reasons that I have ended up in New York when flying from South Africa to South America. It is a bit "around the houses", but here I am. The first reason is my loyalty to Emirates Airlines. I always try to fly with Emirates and keep my Skywards rewards miles high. In a previous post I discussed the advantages of sticking to one airline as much as possible, and Emirates has a great network. You can get just about anywhere in the world from Dubai! The other reason that I am sleeping over in the Big Apple is that there was a 4 hour stop-over at JFK airport between a connecting flight to Quito in Ecuador. I have travelled to the USA a few times and on some occasions, the lines to get through boarder control have been very long. When transiting through the USA, you need to go through boarder control, pick up your luggage and recheck it. If you buy your plane tickets on-line, you will not know this very important point until you are refused boarding in the country you start from, because you do not have a USA visa to transit in the USA. That would not be a good start to any trip! Anyway, after talking with my trusty travel agent - Jessica -( jessica.cameron@travelcounsellors.co.za - see my post on making use of a travel agent for more details), we decided that the 4 hours might not be enough time, so sleep over. I would have made the connecting flight with about 3 hours to spear, but who knew. When you are Gold with Emirates, they also check your bag in with a business class tag (even if you are not flying busness class), so your case comes out sooner - just another nice little touch that Emirates  does for their loyal customers. So my bag was out very quickly. There is a new system in place for people with visas who have made use of the visa before - in other words have visited the USA with their visa. It is a self help booth! You scan in your visa, get your finger prints done, take a photo, answer a few questions on the screen and you are done! Goes really quickly! You end up with a printed receipt, and then you join the line, which was moving really quickly, to the immigration officer who stamps your passport. The whole process took me about 10 mins and I took some of this time trying to work out how the machine works - a bit technologically challenged! Well done US boarder control! A great system.


In the lounge at Joburg
So back to the journey. At this stage I have Skywards Gold level. This allows me to use the business  class check in. It also allows me to use the Emirates lounge in Johannesburg. In fact I can use the lounges at the start of any leg of the journey. The louge in Johannesburg is one of Emirates best lounges. Really nice food, lots of space and good drinks. The champagne is Moët & Chandon. The red wine is Meerlist Rubicon. The food this time was a beautiful fillet steak with a nice prawn dish. A great way to start to a long flight.
My flight was on the airbus A380 800. What a beautify plane. There is much more space, even in cattle class ( that is economy class). I must say, I still get a kick out of the flying. I enjoy that part of trip. Yes, I know, it is long, but just sit back and enjoy it! By that time, everything has been done and there is nothing else you can do at home or at work, so sit back and enjoy! I sit back and put on my headphones and select my favourite music (Iron Maiden) and get ready to listen to my taking off  theme song - yes theme song. This is the Iron Maiden song called "Coming Home". It is about, believe it or not, flying on a plane. There are words in the song "when I feel the engines roar". Well, my mission is to be exactly at that part of the song when we feel the engines roar. Anyone who has ever taken off, no matter the size of the plane, would have felt the pilot opening up the throttle of the engines when he (or she) gets the go ahead to take off. I still get goosebumps when I get it right (not the taking off, but getting to the part of the Iron Maiden song as we feel the engins roar!) I get it right most times. Boy I fly too often!
My theme song on the ICE challenge
After a 3 hour stop in Dubai, and my ncustomary shower in the lounge in Dubai ( you can use the lounges in Dubai once you get to Skywards Silver) it was time to board my very long flight to New York. It is a 14 hour flight! The very attractive ground staff lady at the entrance to the boarding area, took my boarding pass, smiled at me and said the words everyone longs to hear - you have been upgraded. Well done Emirates- pick a really long flight and give me an upgrade! Much appreciated. Business class on the Boeing 777 is very nice, but we were flying on the A380! Business class on the A380 is great. You have your own compartment! And of course there is also the bar on A380. It is going to be a good flight!
Scallops and lobster at 30000feet
One of the choices for dinner was a seafood dish, with scallops, prawns and lobster (yes lobster). Scallops are very difficult to cook correctly. Well,  Emirates servescallops at 30000 feet which were perfectly cooked!
I even manged to get a few hours sleep. The put a matrass onto your seat as well and the seat does compleltly flat. All too soon it was time to land.
Breakfast is served!
My little seat on teh A380.
The cold in New York really hit me as soon as I got off the plane. It was a crisp - 9C! The snow which closed the airport down last week was gone. Just piles of very dirt snow still lying around. I had taken my warmest jacket with me, but waiting for the shuttle bus, I nearly froze! I am staying in Courtyard by Marriott hotel close to JFK airport. After two days of flying and the bitter cold weather, I decided not to go into Manhattan. My wife (and I) really loves New York, so rather wait till I can bring her again. It is also not my first time to New York, so the very cold weather kept me in.
View from my hotel room

I am starting to get quite excited about my trip to the Galapagos! Go and see what Charles Darwin saw when he came up with his theory of evolution. Can't wait. Next part of my journey is the flight from New York to Quito. I have got a very nice travel App, called TripCase. You put in all your travel details and the App lets you know if there have been any changes in the flights. I have just been notified that my flight today has been delayed by an hour. So a bit more time to finish this post!
Dinner in New York. Steak and Chips and A Sam Adems beer - nice

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