Page 41 - Explore Magazine Autumn 2017

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FLIGHT REVIEW

Hong Kong to Auckland
AIRLINE The plane: Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-900
By Lilia Petrova, helloworld

Flight time: 10hr 50m
UPDATE Class: Business Class. The cabin has a 1-2-1
configuration.
Airline lounge: There are five Business Class
lounges located around Hong Kong Airport.
Lovely décor, good selection of food and
drinks, relaxing atmosphere.
Emirates launches interactive amenity kit for Economy Class Seats: Very comfortable and spacious. Plenty of
legroom and fully flat bed. It was easy to adjust
Emirates now offer travellers in Economy Class the world’s first interactive amenity the seat and you can retreat at the touch of a
kit. The stylish kits for passengers on long-haul services utilise augmented reality button for more privacy.
(AR) technology to unlock immersive content on mobile devices.
The food: Excellent. The service started with
The kits come in six designs inspired by six regions in Emirates’ global refreshing beverages followed by lunch shortly
network: Australasia, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Far after take-off. Options included pork spare ribs,
East. They are given to Economy Class passengers on Emirates’ daily non-stop beef short rib steak, yellow halibut curry and
Auckland-Dubai flight, as well as travellers who start out from Auckland on rigatoni. Cheese and fruit were also on offer with
the airline’s daily A380 services via Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and then New York cheese cake and jelly to finish.
non-stop to Dubai.
Beverages available included Champagne,
The kits include all the necessities for additional comfort on long-haul flights white and red wine (with New Zealand choices
including an eye mask, ear plugs, toothbrush and toothpaste, and socks. available), port, whiskies, Cognac, beer and more.
The multipurpose kits are made of Neoprene – a water resistant fabric – and
designed to be reused after the flight. Entertainment: I was blown away by the
variety of amazing movie choices and TV shows,
By downloading the Blippar mobile phone app, and using it to scan the kits, not just brand-new but old classics too. The
customers can unlock a world of entertainment on their mobile devices. system is touch-screen and extremely easy to
Emirates partnered with Blippar, the world’s leading AR and visual discovery use. Comfortable, noise-cancelling headphones
platform, to create exclusive content including activities and health tips for a were a bonus.
more comfortable and relaxing travel experience.
The facilities: WiFi was available onboard
More broadly, the Blippar app is a Visual Browser, which enables customers to and was easy to connect. There are three price
discover more about the world around them. Customers can point at thousands plans: one hour for US$9.95, US$12.95 for flights
of objects already recognised by Blippar to get additional information on of six hours and under, and US$19.95 for flights
those items. The content explains the object, the context and other useful longer than six hours.
and interesting facts and is sourced from Blippar’s knowledge graph called
Blipparsphere. Would I fly again?: Yes. Absolutely!

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