Comparing MAS and Emirates

I'm finally here! In cold, wintry England!

It actually isn't as cold as I thought it would be. Not yet, anyway. The first day I arrived was beautiful... it was dry and pleasant. It's 5am now on Sunday morning.

I didn't sleep much at all on the plane to Dubai and then on to here. I tell you, Emirates Airlines is good, but I'm not choosing it for my next long haul flight. Compared to Malaysia Airlines, the plane itself is slightly nicer, with bigger seats and more entertainment options (you can watch the outside of the plane via a forward view camera or a downwards camera!), BUT the whole experience of flying on Malaysia Airlines is better, because of their cabin crew.

On my first leg, it wasn't too bad, because it was a midnight flight and everything was dark and quiet. Only thing was that the flight attendants weren't as friendly as the MAS ones... but still alright. It was the second leg, from Dubai to Birmingham, that actually got me annoyed. See, usually, on MAS flights, no matter what time of day it is, if it's a long flight, they usually ask you to lower the shutters on the windows so that the inside of the plane is dark and people can have a rest. Emirates didn't do that. And because I didn't sleep from KL to Dubai, I was really hoping to catch up on that second leg... which I couldn't, because it was too bright, and because it was bright, everyone was up and about, walking and talking.

Secondly, during the night, when I pressed the button to call the flight attendant for some water, I waited for 10 minutes and no one came. They should patrol the aisles more often to see if people need anything, don't you think? On MAS, they definitely would've shown up. Also, on MAS, they regularly serve juice and water to passengers, so that you rarely have to request for drinks. But on Emirates, I always had to ask for water myself.

The feeling I get from MAS cabin crew is that they're part of a whole, but the Emirates cabin crew are like individual people who do different things. One example was when they were serving meals, and on MAS flights, they always ask you politely to raise your seat so that the people behind you can eat comfortably. On Emirates, one flight attendant asked the people on the left of the aisle to do so, but never looked on the right. So I thought, okay, maybe the right side is the responsibility of another attendant. But when our attendant came to give us our meals, he never asked us to raise her seats, so the woman in front of me left hers reclined during all the meals. Sure, the seats are bigger and all, but it's still less convenient to eat when the seat in front of you is reclined.

So, yeah, those are my opinions between the two airlines. Emirates = nice plane, but Malaysia Airlines = better flying experience.

It gets dark here by 5.30pm! How cool is that? Hehe...