My wife Lita and I had the amazing good fortune to secure first class tickets on Emirates Air from Seattle to Dubai, leaving this month. Why is that wonderful? Because first class tickets cost $26,100 per person
round trip and we are getting them free through our frequent flier miles. 

On top of that, this is not like most other airlines. The tickets include a complimentary chauffeur driven pickup at home to SeaTac airport. When we arrive a chauffeur driven Mercedes will also take us from the airport to our hotel,

At the airport, our tickets include complementary Fast Track vouchers  to help speed us through the airport security  and  to our gate. The airline features first class airport lounges that are an experience in
themselves. They include complimentary gourmet buffets, meals, fresh juice bars, spas, massage and beauty treatment and vintage wines. 

First class consists of private suites equipped with a personal mini bar and it's own vanity table, meal and wardrobe. The seats convert  into a fully flat bed with mattress. There are showers available on board.

The suites feature a touchscreen TV offering hundreds of movies, TV programs and music from around the world. If you want to see the first class suites go to You Tube where people have posted videos of their experiences in the first class section of Emirates Air. 

Our final destination isn't Dubai, but we are spending a few days there. Dubai is a city in the United Arab Emirates. It is located on the Southeast coast of the Persian Golf with a population of some two million people. Arabic is the national language, although English is a second language. The official state religion is Islam.  

There are many things to see in Dubai. The Buri Al Arab(Tower of the Arabs)  has been  called a seven star luxury hotel. It cost $650 million to construct and has sixty floors reaching over 1000 feet high. It is on an artificial island. 

The world's largest natural flower garden in the world is located in Dubai. The worlds tallest building, Burj Kahalifa is also located here with an observation deck on the 124th floor of the building. Palm Island is the man made island  in the shape of a palm tree. The Dubai Marina is the largest man made marina in  the world. At the base  of the Burj Kahalifa is  the Dubai Mall and Dubai Fountain. The mall is enormous with  many activities including an indoor skating rink, aquarium and underwater zoo. The Mall of the Emirates has the famous Ski Dubai, the only indoor ski resort in the region. 

From Dubai we travel on to Cape Town, South Africa and after a few days from there to Botswana and our final destination. We are on our way to take a photo safari. This will be our fourth safari. I'll  share more about the rest of our plans later.