Trip Report: Emirates First Class San Francisco to Dubai
2. Emirates Lounge at SFO
3. Emirates First Class San Francisco to Dubai
4. Conrad Dubai
5. Old Dubai, Ski Dubai, and At the Top
6. Emirates Terminal B First Class Lounge at DXB
7. Emirates First Class Dubai to Mahe, Seychelles
8. Four Seasons Seychelles
9. Air Seychelles Economy Class Mahe to Praslin
10. Raffles Praslin Seychelles
11. Island Hopping – La Digue
12. Island Hopping – Praslin, Cousine, Curieuse, St. Pierre
13. Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort and Spa
14. Emirates Business Class Mahe, Seychelles to Dubai
15. 7-Star Luxury at the Burj Al Arab
16. British Airways Lounge at DXB
17. Cathay Pacific Business Class Dubai to Los Angeles via Hong Kong
18. 2014 BAcon Conference in Las Vegas + Mandalay Bay Hotel
19. American Express Centurion Lounge at LAS
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Say what you will about Emirates – one thing they know how to do is the First Class experience. After enjoying our time eating and relaxing in the lounge, we were able to board directly from there.From there, two jetways were in use, with one specifically reserved for First Class passengers. That’s right, there was an entire jetway reserved just for the 6 of us, while all 300+ Business Class and Economy passengers used the other. And just in case one of those Business Class passengers got frisky and tried to jump over to the other jetway, there was a gate agent standing there to turn them away.We boarded very early, much to my wife’s chagrin, so we had the entire First Class cabin to ourselves for the next 15-20 minutes. The first time we flew Emirates First Class was last year on an ex-CMB ticket with the routing CMB-DXB-LHR. It was my first time flying “Bling Air” and the DXB-LHR segment was even on the A380 so I could experience the glorious 4-minute shower. During those flights I was in a complete honeymoon state, so everything was viewed through rose-colored glasses. Emirates could simply do no wrong in my eyes.
Fast forward a year later, and on to my 2nd experience with Emirates First Class. The honeymoon phase was over, and I could now be a more discerning critic.
First thoughts upon boarding? The color scheme actually didn’t seem that gaudy. Maybe I was just used to it or knew what to expect, but the “blingyness” of the cabin with its color scheme and gold trims on top of gold trims just wasn’t as loud as I seemed to recall.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the First Class Suite product, which is one of the sexiest that you’ll find in the market today. Since our last flight on Emirates we’ve flown Cathay Pacific and Korean Air First Class, and all my wife and I could think about during those trips was how much we missed the Emirates Suite.
The suites feel extremely spacious, with plenty of storage for luggage and bags, as well as cubbies for other small items. There is a mini-bar with drinks and a snack basket, although I wonder what the utilization of these actually are. Between my 3 flights on Emirates I’ve only taken the bottle of water out of the mini-bar and a pack of mints from the snack basket.
There is a large 27” TV, and the ICE in-flight entertainment system contains over a thousand on-demand movies and TV shows. The seat and IFE can be controlled through a hand-held tablet, and there is a small remote control in the armrest. There are 2 reading lights and another light inside a lamp next to the IFE screen. Most importantly, there are 2 air-conditioning nozzles that can be controlled which were my saving grace while trying to sleep as the cabin was kept hotter than I would have liked.
And of course, what’s not to love about a sliding door that can shut off the rest of the world, and really create a sense of privacy.
Our last trip had flight segments of just 4 hours and 8 hours, so with an ultra long-haul flight of 15 hours we’d really get a sense for the product. But with all the gold trims and technological bells and whistles, my main takeway about the trip? The seat is really not that comfortable.
Believe me, it’s all relative and I’m not complaining about getting to fly in First Class, but relative to some of my other experiences I just didn’t feel that at ease – I think it all boils down to seat width.
Now, I’m fully willing to admit that perhaps I’ve grown since my last trip. No, not as a person, but physically. And as someone who is now into their 30’s you can guess if that growth was horizontal or vertical. But Seatguru confirms my suspicions, here’s how the seat width stacks up against other notable international First Class products:
- Emirates: 20.5″ for 777-300ER, 23.0″ for A380
- Air France: 24.0″
- American Airlines: 30.0″
- Asiana: 25.5″
- Cathay Pacific: 36.0″
- Etihad: 29.5″
- Korean Air: 26.5″
- Lufthansa (non-seat and bed): 31.5″
- Singapore Airlines: 35.0″
- Thai Airlines: 26.5″
- United Airlines: 22.0″
So unless I’m crazy here and there’s some quirk in how Emirates seat width is being reported, it has the smallest width of all the First Class products listed above, even worse than United! And believe me, when you’re sitting in the same place for 15 hours, every little bit really does matter.
A few minutes after we boarded, the flight attendants came by to introduce themselves, offered us Arabic coffee and dates, and distributed amenity kits and pajamas. The pajamas had a slightly different design and color than the ones we received last year, but were seemingly made from the same material. Overall, these pajamas are very comfortable and I didn’t waste any time before changing into them before take-off.
Shortly after take-off, meal service started. Emirates features an A la Carte-style menu, with breakfast, dinner, snack, and dessert options available at any given time. By my count, there were 33 food options available on flight. In theory, the A la Carte-style menu provides the most flexibility and choice since there are no set timings for meal service and no meal-specific limitations based on time of day. Just order what you want, whenever you want.
Emirates actually makes all of their menus available online and will show the exact menu you’ll be offered on your flight. At one point in time I had bookings to Dubai from Chicago, Seattle, and ultimately San Francisco, so I had checked the menus for each city and they appeared to be identical.
Consistent with our 2 flights last year, the First Class food aboard Emirates just wasn’t up to the standards we expected. Aside from the lamb, everything else was just OK, including the caviar service, shrimp and salmon appetizer, and other entrees. Oh, except for the Arabic Mezze, which was terrible. The hummus in particular was just plain awful – certainly worse than the gyro/falafel joint near my office, and even worse than the stuff we buy at Costco.
At the end of the day, Emirates A la Carte dining has opted for quantity/flexibility over quality. I can’t even begin to imagine how much food is wasted on a given flight, since with so many menu items available they must load at least a couple of everything. Instead of spending $X on catering and offering 33 options (I’m sure there are favorites, and some items that rarely get chosen), I’d rather see them spend the same amount of money and just offer half the number of items, and instead focusing on making each one better.
Service throughout the flight was attentive and effective, but not the warmest we’ve received. After the meal service, with the help of a couple glasses of Dom, I was able to pass out for a good 8-9 hours. The bedding used by Emirates wasn’t that great and the cabin was too hot, but as I mentioned before I was able to point both air conditioning nozzles directly on me which helped.
I woke up with about 3 hours to-go and ordered more food – not to contradict myself, but I did enjoy the flexibility of being able to choose from breakfast or dinner items since it would have been breakfast time back in SFO, but mid-afternoon in Dubai time.
As much as I like the seats, for someone like me who is a light sleeper and sleeps with ear plugs, sound pollution through the cabin was a big problem. From the noise perspective, the Emirates suites are terrible since both the mini-bar and sliding doors are operated with motors, so to the extent that others in the cabin are up and about, the whir of a motor can be constantly heard, which woke me up a a couple times.
After finishing up my 2nd meal, with a couple hours left I jumped on my laptop and got started on the trip report. Note that I wasn’t able to get my Macbook charger to fit into the power source at my seat, but luckily had enough juice to me to the end of the flight.
Overall, we had a really good flight on Emirates. The honeymoon-style high was gone, and when you peel back all the technological gadgets and gold trims, there is certainly some room for improvement. Will I be flying with Emirates again? Heck yeah. I still really like the product, and with Emirates’ quest for world domination, they have the widest route network, especially to the Middle East and Africa.
I completely agree with your comments about EK’s F-Class on-board food offerings…complete rubbish. On my flight from BKK-FRA I basically sent it all back. I also agree that the food in the lounges is very good and F and C passengers should stuff themselves there before boarding their flights. As for the Arabic Mezza, I too found it inedible, which is strange as this is the one thing you would thing a Middle Eastern airline would get right.
Jonnie – glad to hear that I’m not the only one who felt this way. Between the flashy advertising and the rave reviews from other bloggers, you’d think this was the best F product out there. In particular, they seem to love the food, which just boggles my mind!
I hear you. I posted on the FT thread asking if EK F was overrated that I felt that basically it was more akin to SQ or CK business class but with suites seating (and narrow seats they are). Their pricing reflects this as well (at least from my Bangkok station). I take EK for their aggressive C and F fares and their extensive worldwide network…not because it’s anywhere near the best.
BTW, you’re a great TR writer and I binge-read a half-dozen of your TRs in one nite!