Review of Emirates flight from New York to Dubai in Economy

Hello and welcome back to this round of flight reports!
This set of reports will cover my trip to Southern Africa.
Here's the routing (strikethroughs will be explained soon):

6/30/16 7/1/16 - EK204, JFK-DXB, A380, Economy (You are Here)
7/1/16 7/2/16 - EK775, DXB-DUR, B777-300ER, Economy (Here)
7/21/16 - EK764, JNB-DXB, B777-300ER, Economy + Tourist Bonus (Here)
7/22/16 - EK201, DXB-JFK, A380, Economy (Here)

A bit of trip and booking background: As suggested by my username (Daniel00), I was born in 2000, hence, I'm 16 years old. At this stage of life, summer is awful if you don't find things to occupy yourself with. After some research, I found this trip - a group of 16 kids from 7 US states, as well as 4 other countries, travel with 2 trip leaders through South Africa, Swaziland, and Mozambique, doing community service as well as lots of 'adventure tourism'. It was an absolutely phenomenal trip, and I'll make sure to include lots of pictures from it in part three. In terms of flights, the tour company suggested that I fly South African (JFK-JNB, JNB-DUR, JNB-JFK), but after some research, I decided I wasn't too keen on spending 16 hours on an SA 346. With some more research, I discovered my itinerary. Yes - it added a lot of extra travel time, but it gave me my first opportunity at flying Emirates, plus it was about $300 cheaper ($1,564 vs $1,845).
A quick note about times on this report - all times are New York time until touchdown in Dubai when times switch to Dubai time.
Unfortunately, this trip did not start off very well. I left for the airport early to beat the rush hour traffic and arrived at the airport around 7:50 am. The view from the short-term parking lot.

When in doubt - look for the yellow signs!

Surprisingly, the check in line was already heaving, but with my luck, there were only about 5 people in the 'online check in' line, compared to the 100s in the standard economy line.

Here's where things went bad. When I got to the counter, the agent asked how old I was and if I was traveling alone. She did some deliberating and typing in the computer and then asked to see my consent to travel form, which I had. She looked it over and then asked for my birth certificate. My parents were standing right there, and I gave them a terrified look. I didn't know I had to have not only my birth certificate but the original copy. Apparently, it's a new law to enter South Africa that you need a birth certificate to enter if you are a minor traveling alone. She told me I couldn't leave without it, and considering that it's a 3+ hour round trip back to my house, there was no way to make it. I was then redirected to the ticketing desk to try and sort things out. The lady there was able to cancel the outbound leg of my trip but said I needed to call Emirates to rebook. After only 15 minutes on the phone, I had rebooked myself on the same itinerary for the next day for a whopping $614.
The situation really sucked, but everyone I interacted with at Emirates was super professional and handled everything extremely well.
The next morning was a whole lot of deja vu - leaving at the same time, driving the same route to the airport, and even parking in the same aisle as the day before. Hm - this looks familiar…

Wow…haven't been here recently…

Back in the check-in line, which was significantly longer than the day before. I even saw the lady who had attempted to check me in the day before.

I went through the same exact process as the day before, and with all of my documents, my check-in agent got up and went to discuss with someone higher up the ladder than her. I watched nervously, as another person joined their conversation, and another, and then another. My agent finally walked back, smiled, and said: "you're leaving today" (I had explained the situation to her). Phew. The entire check-in process took 25 minutes.
After saying my final goodbye to my parents, I went to the security line. There were no more than 20 people in front of me, and yet, it still took 15 minutes. Now I'm starting to see why people are complaining about the TSA…
I was into the terminal at 8:40, and the flight wasn't scheduled to board until 10:20, so I had a decent amount of time to kill.
Lounges at T4.

The big window directly after security (I spy Emirates!).

I followed the signs for the A gates (the non-Delta area of T4), passing lots of fancy shops on the way.

FIDS.

This is the majority of the length of the A pier. I believe there are only 8 gates.

My gate was A6, and the plane of the day was A6-EDO, delivered to Emirates 6.5 years ago.

Also out the window were an AI 77W, a VS 346, and a CZ 77W.

Seating near the gate.

I set off on an adventure to find breakfast, but the only three breakfast places that were open were McDonald's, Peets Coffee and Tea, or Dunkin Donuts. Not wanting to feel disgusting on the flight, I went for the next best option - noodles!

Beef pho and OJ for breakfast - that probably won't ever happen again! A bit pricey I might add, coming in at just under $11.

After breakfast, I did some planespotting with my iPhone because I didn't feel like getting out my DSLR which was buried deep in my backpack.
Two views of a CM 738 in a special livery.

Two VX A320s.

Two DL 752s and an AV A319 in Star Alliance livery.

An Avianca A319 in a special livery.

The CZ 77W had moved to a gate.

Various B6 planes and an HA A332.

My first ever sighting of an A359, this one belonging to QR.

An AR A332 with a DL A319 and a B6 A320.

CI Cargo 747-400F.

EY A380.

JL 788.

AI 77W getting some engine work done.

And finally, a 3V 77F.

And also some people spotting…not sure what this guy was doing.

My boarding documents for today. I like the map of DXB gates on the back of the boarding passes (and the fact that I got actual cardstock and not a receipt).

People began congregating in front of the boarding lanes around 10:00. An agent went on the PA system and announced that boarding had not started and that everyone should take a seat. Guess what happened?

Boarding began at 10:45 (25 minutes behind schedule), starting with people in wheelchairs, followed by families with children. I swear, half the plane must have been filled with kids. Group C economy was next, followed by First and Business, and then Groups D and E together.

Down the ramp…

And into the maze of (very dark) jetways.

Welcome aboard!

Here we are in seat 57A! The pitch and width were excellent. I was a bit disappointed not to have the nice newer Emirates monitors, but this would do.

Waiting on the seat was a pillow, blanket, and headphones.

Hey, wait a sec - why do the middle and aisle seats have AC power but my seat doesn't? :( USB would have to suffice.

This was my second time on an A380 (I took an LH flight back in '14 before I started writing flight reports). It's a phenomenal airplane, and I love almost everything about it. The one thing I can't stand is the windows. It's impossible to take pictures out of them, and I really don't understand the concept behind them.

'Refreshing towels' were distributed before we had even pushed back. (By taking 4 flights, I learned that) These are a standard on Emirates, and they're really nice and smell really good too!

The captain came on the PA and announced our flying time to be 11h45m. Emirates also makes it a point to display that they have a very international group of flight attendants. At the beginning of the flight, we were told that the crew came from 16 countries and spoke 16 different languages.
A6-EDO pushed back from gate A6 at 11:35, and began the taxi to runway 22R at 11:49. Some more iPhone spotting on the way.
VX A320

EY A380

EI B752

JJ B763 and DL B738

I also followed along with the tail camera as we went. This is such a great feature to have, even if the quality isn't spectacular.

Blasting down runway 22R at 12:03, we were in the air 43 minutes behind schedule.

After a bit of banking, we were headed north for our journey across the Atlantic.
Looking up, I noticed that the typical 'no smoking' sign had been replaced with a 'no cell phones' sign. This would be switched off once we were above 10,000 feet. Interesting.

Menus were distributed at 12:18. (I know - these pictures are sideways, but I can't change it for some reason)

I began investigating the ICE system a bit more while waiting for my meal (these pictures are from later in the flight, hence '6h50m to Dubai').

The meal cart came at 13:06, and I selected the chicken option. This is how it arrived.

I'm trying something new with this report. I'll be rating each aspect of the meal, giving the meal a total score, and then combining the score of all meals to arrive at the 'meal/catering' score at the end of this report.
I started off with the main - chicken, carrots, potatoes, green beans, and peas. It was not particularly visually pleasing. Everything was cooked properly, but there was ZERO flavor in any of this dish. 5/10

It was nice to have real cutlery in economy. +5 points for that

Next, I had the salad - pasta, feta cheese, peas, bell peppers. Like the main, it really had no flavor whatsoever. On top of that, it was stone cold, undercooked, and pretty much seemed like it had just come out of a freezer. 2/10

I then investigated the 'little bites' tray, as Emirates called it.

First, I tried the Tomato and Piri Piri dip with the mini bruschetta. This was excellent - lots of flavor and good heat as well. I had never heard of Piri Piri before, but coincidently, it's super popular in South Africa and Mozambique! 5/5

Next was the "cream cheese" spread and crackers. Did it taste like cream cheese? No. Was it tasty? Sure, yeah, I guess. 3/5

Next is an economy tradition - struggle to spread frozen butter on a roll! In fairness, the roll was actually pretty good. 4/5

Next was dessert. Packaged desserts always have a really bad rep, and this dessert lived up to it. The taste really wasn't bad, but it was so watery and nasty that it was pretty much ruined. 5/10 for effort

To conclude the meal, there was chocolate, a towelette, and tic tacs. All of these were good, and I especially like the addition of tic tacs. 5/5

Oh, and I can't forget the mango juice! It was amazing. The best part of the meal by a long shot. 5/5

The destruction afterward.

Total meal score: 39/55. That doesn't sound so bad, but the three main aspects (salad, main, dessert) were all a big let down, only brought up by the small parts of the meal.
Looking outside after the meal.

Before going to sleep, I checked out the wifi options. Woowhee - that's cheap! I only ended up purchasing it on leg 4 of the trip, where I'll go into more detail about it.

I conked out for a while and woke up somewhere around here.

A nice sunset.

Since I knew I would be away for 3 weeks without internet, I decided to start handwriting this report.

It was snack time around 18:00.
The majority of the reports of Emirates in economy that I've read have featured 'Emirates Pizza', so I was excited to try for myself. It didn't taste bad, come to think of it, it really didn't taste like that much at all. Another let down :( 4/10

It was okay though - I had a glass of pineapple juice and it was amazing. 5/5

Total meal score: 9/15
I got up to stretch my legs after eating and walked up and down the cabin a few times.

I also made an attempt to get a load factor in economy. I counted the empty seats, and it appeared to be about 90% full.
Stairway to heaven.

I also checked out the bathroom.

I was pleasantly surprised to see some products inside.

Getting back to my seat, I realized I had never taken a picture of it and managed to snap a really blurry shot while doing some acrobatics to get in since all the seats in the row in front of me were reclined all the way.

There was an ad for an Emirates pen or something in the airshow, and I decided to find it in the shopping guide. Wow - what a great price!

I was bored and couldn't sleep, so I dug into the seat pocket to check out the contents. This is the only time I took pictures on the four flights, but it was exactly the same each time.

The sun was just beginning to come up.

Mood lighting also in full swing.

The third service commenced around 21:30 with a hot towel.

The meal tray was delivered at 22:15. I chose the scrambled eggs option.

The main - scrambled eggs, sausages, potato wedges, and beans - was mediocre. Following the trend, there wasn't a ton of flavor, but more so than the first meal service, and everything was cooked well too. 6/10

Next was some painfully stale fruit. 3/10

I was excited to have some OJ, but I only realized after I took a sip that it was concentrated and pretty disgusting. I chugged the rest of it and reverted straight to my trusty mango juice. 2/5 for OJ, 5/5 for mango.

I couldn't bring myself to try the croissant, as I wasn't particularly hungry and knew I had another flight's worth of food to eat as well.
Total meal score: 17/30
Combined meal scores: 65/100 (Believe it or not, I didn't make this out of 100 intentionally!) This was really disappointing, maybe it was because my expectations were so high, but still…
Before I wrap up this report with descent and landing, I want to include my final thoughts on the crew, IFE, and seat.
I mentioned this earlier, but I really think it's cool the Emirates strives to have an international crew. That being said, the majority of the FAs I interacted were quite cold, not smiling or looking at all like they were enjoying themselves. They were efficient and polite, but that's about as far as I'll go.
The IFE system was really phenomenal. It was very easy to understand and navigate. The selection of everything was excellent as well, and having live news headlines was a great feature. No, the quality of the screen was not the best, but the ICE system made up for it.
I also mentioned earlier that the pitch and width of the seat were great, which they were. Unfortunately, however, after 12 hours, I didn't think the physical seat was actually that comfortable. It was nice for the first few hours, but after that, I felt like I had sunken in, which became quite uncomfortable.
Now that that's out of the way…we began our descent into Dubai at 23:01.

Soon enough, we touched down on runway 30L at 7:37 local time, 13 minutes ahead of schedule.

We taxied towards the massive terminal 3, hooking up to an A gate at 7:48,

I'll leave off here, and detail my connection in the next report. I'm just now realizing that this report is really long, so if you made is this far - congrats!
Thanks so much for reading! Please leave a comment if you feel inclined - I love reading and responding to them.
Look out for parts 2-4 soon!
-Daniel