Off to the Emirates!

Rita is off to the Emirates, trying out Emirates Air's new non-stop service from Seattle to Dubai. She is traveling with a group of travel agents to help them understand the region better and provide better service to their clients when booking vacations in the Emirates and Oman. Below is her first post on this tour from late yesterday afternoon.

Today is the day that I am flying out of Seattle on the direct Emirate flight that started on the 1st of March, 2012. I was told that the first flight on the 1st was sold out, and actually oversold.

I got to the airport and checked in, all went very smoothly. They had a lot of new agents that are being trained by Swiss Air reservation crews, very strict on the size and weight of the luggage and especially the carry on for now. They make everyone put their carry on bags into a bin to see if they will fit, or if they will have to be checked in. The staff is very friendly and they seemed very excited about the new route. I talked to a number of the Emirates Air employees and they are hoping that this will be as big as the Los Angeles and San Francisco routes for them. They are also thinking that this will probably be in demand by the corporate travelers and also for people going into India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, more so than other parts of the Middle East since the connections are long and may require an overnight stay in Dubai.

I am in their lounge right now typing this out and it is similar to other airline lounges in the US. They have all the drinks you want from soft drinks, coffee tea and alcoholic products, and fruits, cheese and crackers, cookies etc. The lounge in SeaTac is at Gate 9 in the "S"concourse. It is being staffed by Club International. The lounge today is pretty empty as they said that the flight was light today. I think the full flight on the first day was all the people wanting to take the inaugural flight.

Looking forward to the trip to Dubai and Oman, but still not sure how I will be after 14.5 hours flying all at one time without stopovers - even in business class or first it will be hard.

More to come after I arrive in Dubai.