I'm not a great 'world traveller', but one of the few journeys I've made in my time was indeed Heathrow to Dubai on KLM (via Amsterdam) in January 2001, in order to stay with my brother-in-law who was working in Sharjah. Four recollections:

1. The cabin crew were all female, blonde and tall. I had my work cut out constantly trying to avert my eyes!
2. I can't tell you how cold it was at Schiphol airport! Accordingly the wings of the plane that would take us from there to Dubai (with us already on board) had to be de-iced with this wheeled contraption that looked like something out of 'Thunderbirds'. The runway also had to be de-iced. The captain cheerily informed us of these developments.
3. All that stuff about blood clots on flights was out there at the time. Consequently there was a constant parade of elderly passengers in compression socks walking round and round the plane for what seemed like the whole (night) flight. It was the stuff of nightmares - the same gormless-looking people walking past your seat every two minutes or so for hours and hours. They continually got in the way of the cabin crew (not that I noticed, because I was looking away) and woe betide you if you got the timing of your trip to the toilet wrong!
4. On the flight home from Dubai to Amsterdam, the woman sitting behind us had the most horrible, annoying, misbehaving young child you could possibly imagine. There was lots of head-shaking and tutting - and the occasional frustrated outburst - as the boy disturbed the peace for the whole flight. At one point, Mrs YT turned round and shouted at him as he, once again, kicked the back of her seat numerous times. The mother did nothing to control him, until the descent had started when completely out of the blue, she gave him a slap! Some people cheered, and a man a few seats away shouted out "about time!". However, one of the aforementioned blonde lovelies immediately marched over to the woman and said (imagine English with a Dutch accent) "I have to inform you that under de Dutch law, it is an offence to beat de children. If you do this again, you will be arrested". Nobody actually booed, but you could sense the disappointment in the air!

Palace since 19 August 1972. Palace 1 (Tony Taylor) Liverpool 1 (Emlyn Hughes)