Earlier this year my parents took our entire family on an unforgettable trip to South America. The trip began in Atlanta where we all met before flying overnight to Rio De Janeiro. As a thank you present to my parents for the trip I decided to buy a bottle of Dom Perignon with Delta SkyMiles in the Atlanta SkyClub. Ok fine, I selfishly did that to write a blog post about it.
On that trip I had one goal in mind. My goal was to step away from documenting travel experiences and just enjoy the trip. I didn’t want to spend the vacation taking pictures of airplane seats or tourist attractions and taking notes in my phone. Instead, I wanted to truly enjoy the trip with my family. While I definitely had fun and tried to step away, I simply couldn’t avoid documenting a few things along the way.
Specifically, there was no way I was going to not document our very odd flight from Rio to Buenos Aires. I say the flight was odd because we somehow ended up booking one of Emirates’ 5th freedom flights. Because this was such a unique opportunity I simply had to blog about it.
Boarding Our Emirates 5th Freedom Flight From Rio To Buenos Aires
First of all, what makes this flight special is that it’s a 5th freedom flight. That means the Emirates flight originates in Dubai, makes a stop in Rio (GIG), and continues on to Buenos Aires. However, thanks to the 5th freedom passengers can buy flights from Dubai to Buenos Aires, Dubai to Rio, or Rio to Buenos Aires. In this case, we purchased tickets from Rio to Buenos Aires.
We arrived to Rio De Janeiro airport (GIG) about 3 hours before our scheduled departure. Once we arrived we checked into our flight at the ticket counter and proceeded through security and customs. Both security and customs took no time at all and before we knew it we were in the main terminal. After wasting a few hours wondering the various lounges of GIG it was time to head to our gate. When we arrived to our gate the stunning 777-300ER which had just made the 14 hour trip from Dubai was waiting for us.
The gate area was mostly empty as we were among the few passengers that boarding the flight.
As we arrived at the L2 boarding door the incredibly friendly cabin crew directed us to our seats.
As we were joining several passengers en route from Dubai the cabin was already full and overhead bin space was limited. After a few minutes of searching I finally found a place to put my (apparently oversized) roll-aboard.
Emirates 777-300ER Economy Class Seat
When checking into our flight the check-in agent asked if we would like to switch to an unoccupied exit row. We graciously accepted. For our relatively short flight to Buenos Aires my brother, sister, and I were seated in row 37, seats ABC. The exit row offers nearly unlimited legroom, but is missing a window and the seats are narrower than the already narrow 17″ economy seats. I’ll admit, these seats were a pretty tight squeeze. For the flight I opted for the middle seat which was thankfully between my siblings rather than two complete strangers.
Also notable, row 37 faces a crew jump-seat. Some may find this seat uncomfortable for that reason, but I personally always enjoy hearing about crewlife.
As I mentioned the exit row seats are a bit more narrow than a traditional economy class seat thanks to the foldable armrest tray tables. The tray tables, once unfolded, were an extremely odd shape which I can only assume is to save a little weight.
As you can see in the above photo, the economy class seats come with a stowable handheld IFE remote. The remote is also a screen which can be used to display the forward facing camera or moving map.
Each seat also comes with a massive in-flight entertainment screen, but in the exit row these screens must be stowed for taxi, takeoff, and landing. Likewise, right before takeoff a crew-member instructed us to stow our handsets.
As you can see, in the exit row, the handset is stowed in a very awkward position next to your leg.
Emirates 777-300ER Economy Meal Service
Although the flight from Rio to Buenos Aires was only about 3 hours a full meal was offered to Economy Class passengers. Prior to the meal service the flight attendants stopped by our seats and distributed the in-flight dining menu. The menu featured both English and Arabic pages.
inside the menu passengers could chose between two main courses, either Chicken or Fish. Personally I find it wasteful when airlines distribute menus in economy with limited choices, but admittedly it does give the whole experience a more premium feel.
Although we had dinner plans in Buenos Aires upon landing I figured I must try the in-flight mean, you know, for the blog, sorry parents.
For my entree I opted for the chicken with mushroom sauce. When my meal arrived the chicken entree was added to a tray which also included a salad with chicken, cheese and crackers, a pre-packaged roll, a small cup of water, and dessert.
Perhaps what surprised me most about the meal service was that each economy meal came with a full set of metal silverware.
This surprised me simply because of the cost associated with flying metal silverware around. Consider this, earlier this year United changed the material of their in-flight magazines. The change resulted in each magazine weighing one less ounce. The airline estimates that small change would save United $290,000 each year! Now consider the cost of carrying metal silverware for 304 economy seats which otherwise could be plastic.
With that, the meal was actually delicious. I can’t remember an economy class meal quite as good as this one. The salad, grilled chicken, and dessert were all fantastic.
Emirates 777-300ER Economy In-Flight Entertainment
Every economy seat comes complete with a large in-flight entertainment screen. Every screen is then completely loaded up with Emirates’ ICE (Information, Communication, Entertainment) system. ICE has several awesome features beyond your standard on-demand video options.
For starters the ICE system allows passengers to watch the forward facing camera of the aircraft from gate to gate. Well, unless your in an exit row and you have to stow your monitor.
Once airborne we were allowed to deploy the IFE monitor and watch on-demand content. My sister and I decided to watch “Get Out” together. On ICE you can sync your monitor to the one next to you so that two people can watch the same thing at the same time. I personally thought that option was brilliant.
After the movie I switched over to Live TV to catch up on the latest market news. That lasted for a few seconds until I got bored.
After that I opted to switch back to a motion picture.
The Emirates ICE system is very impressive. As far as In-Flight entertainment goes, only Qatar’s ORYX system comes close to Emirates’ ICE.
The only issue I ran into was that my touchscreen didn’t seem to be working. I could operate the screen via the handheld remote, but the controls weren’t exactly intuitive. I found it quite difficult to do very simple operations with the handset.
Emirates 777-300ER Economy Class Lavatory
Now, I know why most of you are here, and that’s obviously to see the pictures of a lavatory on an airplane. Normally, I’d say your wasting your time, but that is not the case on the Emirates 777-300ER.
There are two “styles” of lavatories on the aircraft. The first (forward) is the larger of the two and was my preferred option.
The first thing you see when you walk into the lavatory is the massive Ghaf Tree which adorns the wall of the lavatory. The Ghaf Tree is the national tree of the United Arab Emirates.
Below the Ghaf Tree is the lavatory toilet. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen an economy class lavatory as nice as this one.
To the right of the toilet was a large vanity, sink, and counter.
Again, this lavatory is more akin to what I expect from either business or first class. Also, the cabin crew do an excellent job of keeping the lavatory spotless in between uses.
The second lavatory wasn’t as big as the first, but was just as nice.
While the lavatory was more compact, the fixtures were just as attractive as those found in the larger forward lavatories.
The aft lavatories also came complete with premium hand care products.
Emirates 777-300ER Economy Connectivity
The Emirates 777-300ER we flew on came with Emirates “onair” WiFi. Connecting to the WiFi was painless and the cost of in-flight WiFi was very reasonable.
Economy passengers receive a free 20MB of WiFi which is good enough to open a webpage or two. I ran out of 20MG within a matter of minutes.
If you needed more data you could purchase up to 500MB for $16 USD which isn’t terrible. Also if you needed to plug in a large electronic device, each economy seat featured a (blurry) power outlet under the seat.
Final Thoughts
I was very impressed by my first ever flight on Emirates. While the 777-300ER features 10 across economy class seating, which is very tight, the seats weren’t actually that uncomfortable. The only issue came during meal time where it was extremely difficult to eat due to the restricted space.
Another minor issue with this particular flight was that most passengers were extremely grumpy. Keep in mind most of the other passengers had just completed a 14 hour flight from Dubai. They then sat on the ground for 1.5 hours before taking off on another 3 hour flight to Buenos Aires. I completely understand why people would be grumpy, but it didn’t make for a very pleasant experience when I was trying to find overhead bin space for my luggage.
Other than that, this flight was great. I’ve long wanted to fly with Emirates in economy and was excited to finally have the chance. That being said, I don’t look forward to every being on this particular aircraft for more than a few hours. If I ever had to take a 11+ hour flight with Emirates I hope to do so in either Business of First (with a shower).
