Charles,
I've only flown Emirates once, but that was easily the best service I've ever received by an airline from arrival at airport until we were off Emirates. This was in October, 2016 for our trip to Serapa. I'll give you the rundown of our experience.
1) Alaska Air Phoenix/Seattle
We had to fly from Phoenix to Seattle on Alaska Air. Alaska Air was fine, but they do not have a firearms transfer agreement with Emirates even though they are a partner airline. So we had to retrieve our baggage in Seattle and re-check at normal check-in counter outside of secure area. I had to stress this to the Alaska Air folks in Phoenix to NOT try and check our luggage all the way through. You'll need to allow time for this if this is the case for your flight to JFK. And on the inbound flight as well. On the inbound we were really cutting it close to make our Seattle to Phx flight.
2) Emirates and Firearms Prior to Departure
Go here:
https://www.emirates.com/us/english...firearms-weapons-and-ammunition-in-my-baggage
Look for the "complete the firearms form" link in the second bullet. But that page explains everything. Once you submit the form and other documentation via the website, you'll almost immediately get back an email acknowledging they've received your information. But this is the one spot that was a bit stressful. They've only acknowledged you've submitted the form, you don't have approval as yet. And it's a bit difficult to track down who you should talk to about it. I submitted mine 29 days before departure and perhaps they were in no hurry, but it was a 2-3 weeks before I got the approval. This maybe is one spot where
@Red Leg's advice to use an agent comes in handy. They would know and can take care of this issue for you.
3) Emirates and Firearms at the Airports
This is one spot I was extremely impressed with Emirates. At Seattle on the way out, there was an Emirates employee there at check-in aware of a passenger traveling with firearms ready and waiting for me to show up. They saw me coming with my firearms case and initiated the process confirming who I was first. They knew their procedure inside and out. No ding dong wondering what to do or wigging out that they or I were doing something wrong. Friendly, courteous and professional. We were checked back in in no time and on our way and I was confident they were on it.
In Dubai on the way out and back. When we were making our connection on the way out at the gate when they scanned my ticket, they wouldn't allow me to initially board. The lady there politely asked me to wait and picked the phone to make a call. A few moments and I mean shortly she hung up and said everything was fine. She explained that she saw I was traveling with firearms and wanted to ensure that all of our luggage was on the plane before I got on. I was quite impressed knowing that when we got to Joburg so would our luggage including the rifle case.
On our inbound leg, it was basically the same. I didn't have anyone stop me at the gate for the Dubai/Seattle connection. But we had been at the airport for some 9 hours and thus I believe the system had been updated to show my luggage was where it was supposed to be.
4) On board
Service on board was fantastic. You're treated even in coach as a human instead of cargo. Food choices are a bit different with middle Eastern fare included. That was okay with me, I enjoy trying new foods. The food actually was good and by far, more than you can eat.
Now regarding time between connections. On the outbound, this 90 minute time you mentioned might be cutting it close. I think Emirates would get your luggage to your next plane in time, but you on the other hand might have a challenge. The airport in Dubai is extremely large and busy 24/7. On our flight back home, when we landed in Dubai, there were no available gates for the plane to park at. So, they had us depart on the tarmac. We then boarded a bus and took about a 15 minute ride to get to a spot where we could then enter the terminal. Now like it seems to be the standard practice at other international airports, you have to redo the security procedure. I would say by the time we were back on the air side of security was about an hour from the time we landed. If we had had a 90 minute time limit to make it to our next gate, I'd guess we'd have made it but with very little time to spare.
Again
@Red Leg's advice to use an agent I think is worthwhile. As noted you get a great fare through Emirates. If it's a little less great using an agent who is in the know and can save you from any pitfalls along the way on a trip to Zambia, I think it's worth it.
To follow up on item 1 above. When we arrived in Seattle, we had to of course go through immigration and customs. An Emirates employee was waiting with our firearms case at customs. Got through that fine. But for some reason the Emirates employee did not want to allow us to take possession of the firearms at this point. Instead we had to go up to baggage claim where another Emirates employee brought us the case. This probably added another 5-10 minutes to the deal. 5-10 minutes that could have made the difference of making/not making our Seattle/Phx flight.
but may be worth while with what appears to be only a few options with layover times/days of travel.
