2025 Emirates and commercial flights As a kid I occasionally flew in small airplanes with my uncle Kenneth, who was a private pilot and also a commercial pilot for Eastern then Northwest Airlines, when he wasn’t tending his farm and cattle and horses outside Newman, GA. My great uncle Dewey had also been a pilot, in addition to being a farmer. They had small 4-seater Cessnas and the like, the high wing type we would use in Civil Air Patrol to search for downed aircraft. I took flying lessons when I was 18 but couldn’t quite get the landings right 100% of the time. I had flown in many military flights, on cargo aircraft to the MIddle East via Japan, and from California to Asia with several stops on a cargo mission tour as crew when I was a flight surgeon. The C-5 and KC-10 were functional but not comfortable, with sleeping stations that were sort of rickety and loud, bunk beds stacked on one another in a very noisy cargo hold or tucked away in a crew area on the C-5. It wasn’t until much later that I took flights commercial oceanic flight, from San Francisco to Australia (for my 40th birthday), that I learned what a 14-hour flight feels like in a regular seat. I had baked some cookies for the crew, and they upgraded me to the exit row and offered first class pajamas and kit, but I didn’t feel comfortable donning them in the lower deck economy cabin. It’s tough on the body to travel for 10-15 hours on a transoceanic flight. Premium economy on Norwegian a couple of times (to Iceland and Stockholm, back when they flew out of Oakland) was nicer but didn’t lie flat. I suffered several days of jet lag after traveling economy SFO to Paris in 2013 because I couldn’t sleep well. The first lie-flat seat I had for an overseas trip was from SFO to Milan for a dermatology conference, using points for the first time to fly across the pond, in 2017. What a joy it was to not have the jet lag nearly as badly after getting a full night’s rest. What a privilege to fly at all in this way, from the food to the cocktails. For the past few years I’ve been trying to optimize my use of credit cards to get points for international air travel, putting most of my expenses on credit cards I pay off each month, hoping to get some good travel out of it. I’ve learned from colleagues and on-line that the credit card companies offer poor value for their points, and finding the right flight based on points value is half the battle. Searching frequently and being flexible with dates and even destinations helps. Usually the airlines offer better value, and one must transfer points from the credit card program to the airlines once you’ve found the flight you want and confirmed its availability. It’s a bit of a pain to navigate. I searched for weeks to find a good flight for a trip my college pal Sage and I were planning for our 50th birthday. Using one credit card program for one, and another for the return, I found business class flights from SFO to Singapore (via Dubai) on Emirates Airlines, and a return from Taipei on United, and Sage was able to make a similar flight on Emirates meeting in Dubai to travel on our second leg together.
The a380 800 series is super comfortable, and the business class is on the upper deck. The seats lie flat in a staggered configuration, and the screens are huge. There’s plenty of storage space, so it feels almost like your little nook in an RV. The service is attentive yet not intrusive. The meals were solid quality for air travel, with the white tablecloth and silverware treatment one gets in business class. I did wear the silky pajamas on offer, changing into them after having a cocktail in the bar and getting recommendations for Bangkok from a lovely flight attendant named Jess. i slept soundly in comfy PJs, melatonin on board, lying flat, eye mask and ear plugs in place, for nearly 8 hours. Then woke up refreshed, brushed teeth and washed face and applied deodorant, changed back into day clothes, and enjoyed banana and walnut crepes for breakfast. My goodness this is luxury. Of course, there’s always more, from the suites at the front of the plane (with showers!), to private jets some people enjoy. But this is truly enough.
The 777 on the second leg was definitely not as luxurious, but the seats still laid flat. And best of all I got to fly with my buddy Sage! It was a shorter flight, so the lack of a bar and no PJs didn’t bother us too much, since we slept a bit. Most importantly we won’t be absolutely dead when we arrive in Singapore, as we want to explore the Changi airport!