Vittoria gasped in shock as she was greeted with red roses. Emirates / Instagram
Vittoria gasped in shock as she was greeted with red roses. Emirates / Instagram
Vittoria gasped in shock as she was greeted with red roses. Emirates / Instagram
Vittoria gasped in shock as she was greeted with red roses. Emirates / Instagram

Watch: The romantic surprise proposal aboard an Emirates flight


Sophie Prideaux
  • English
  • Arabic

Love was well and truly in the air on-board a recent Emirates flight from Dubai to Rome, thanks to a grand in-flight proposal.

Passenger Stefano, with the help of his fellow travellers, secretly decorated the economy-class cabin with roses and hearts, to surprise his air hostess girlfriend Vittoria.

The entire proposal was captured on video, which has since gone viral after it was posted online by Emirates.

Other passengers were in on the surprise, holding up pictures of Stefano's face and handing out roses. Emirates / Instagram
Other passengers were in on the surprise, holding up pictures of Stefano's face and handing out roses. Emirates / Instagram

Vittoria is seen opening the curtains and covering her mouth in shock, before being handed a rose and spotting passengers wearing cut-out masks of Stefano’s face.

Stefano was waiting for Vittoria in the cabin crew area, where he got down on one knee and presented Vittoria with a diamond ring.

Vittoria gasped in shock as she was greeted with red roses. Emirates / Instagram
Vittoria gasped in shock as she was greeted with red roses. Emirates / Instagram

To the joy of everyone on-board the flight, she accepted the proposal. “Love is in the air(plane),” Emirates wrote on its social media channels. “Watch our customer Stefano surprise his girlfriend and Emirates’ cabin crew member Vittoria with a romantic inflight proposal, with some help from our cabin crew and passengers.”

Stefan surprised his girlfriend Vittoria with an inflight proposal. Emirates / Instagram
Stefan surprised his girlfriend Vittoria with an inflight proposal. Emirates / Instagram

The video has had more than one million views, with people around the world sending the couple their congratulations.

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Why it pays to compare

A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.

Route 1: bank transfer

The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.

Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount

Total received: €4,670.30 

Route 2: online platform

The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.

Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction

Total received: €4,756

The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.