Friday 26th July
Today we flew to Dubai (7 hour flight) on board the huge A380 plane. For once, we got good seats in the front row where the baby cots usually go - apparently there aren't many babies on this flight. About 2 rows back there was a very loud Scotsman complaining that he had not got the seats he had booked. I know that's not news to any seasoned traveller, but this fellow clearly felt he was entitled to extra legroom seats. He was, after all, 6'5" tall but he was being most belligerent and insisted that he have the seats he booked and paid for - dear reader, please note that he did not pay any more than any of the rest of us for his extra leg room seats, so it really is the luck of the draw. Anyway, 2 kind young ladies offered up their front of plane seats (where there is enough room to lie down!!!!!!) but our fellow was not content with that offer as he was travelling with his mother and teenage daughter and he wanted all three of them to be seated together. So he refused the offer of extra leg room seats and proceeded to explain that, "as an aircraft engineer, he knows that it is illegal to force someone to sit in a seat that is too small" and then he refused to do up his seatbelt because "by law they are unable to take off until all of the passengers have buckled up". This argy bargy carried on for a good 30 minutes, during which time we were asked to surrender our seats to the miserable git (I suppose you can tell my mood at this stage). Alex said he would not swap because he has bad varicose veins, but anyway the guy wants three seats not one - did I mention that the rest of his family did not seem to be having problems with their seats, just this angry dude. A lady in our row got so annoyed at the hold up she volunteered her seat but he was having none of it because he wants three seats in the extra leg room row for his Jolly Green Giant self and his two Lilliputian companions. In the end, they did not eject him from the plane, for refusing to comply with the seat belt requirement, but they convinced him that they would let all three of them move after take-off - and might I say this took considerable persuasion on the part of the ship's purser, she basically promised her first born to this guy. And eventually we took off.... and Alex and I were asked to move to the two front row seats with extra room to sleep on the floor if desired (vacated by 2 kind ladies who were rewarded for their trouble with a visit upstairs to the business class lounge). The other lady in our row ended up moving too - I felt sorry for here because she had a dicky knee and shouldn't have had to surrender her seat when there were others who were better candidates. Anyway.... we had a good flight in the end but I have never experienced such a troublesome passenger on a flight before and it was quite something. Oh, and I completely forgot to mention that we were offered two return tickets London/Dubai if we changed out flight to 2pm this afternoon. We declined the offer because it means we would arrive in Dubai at midnight. That'll teach us!
So here I am in our room in the Arabian Courtyard Hotel, Dubai
The Arabic decor is very apparent
Alex contemplating how to deal with 33 degree night time minimum temps with >80% humidity
Looking forward to boiling my lid off in 43 degree heat tomorrow.
FOOTNOTE: when we landed in Dubai we noticed that the complaining Scotsman's mother was being transported everywhere via wheelchair, but she was quite able bodied when she boarded the flight. Now, either she sustained an injury sitting in our original seats or this was some kind of ploy. Crikey!!!
