My First Flight on Emirates

Once again one of my top clients needed me in Dubai. But this time there was a time issue, the booking was for the day after Remembrance Sunday and I play a big part in a local event to commemorate this. Therefore, to get to training on a Monday morning, I needed to fly overnight on a Sunday night. This meant flying business class so I could sleep enough to work the next day.

The only airline that had any good deals on this was Emirates, and since I had already hit gold on my BA status, I thought why not try something different?

Ticketing

It was a Monday to Friday job and, with the constraints mentioned above, meant I was flying out overnight on a Sunday. Return could have been overnight on the Friday, or on a Saturday day flight. I opted for the latter as the budget meant I wouldn’t be getting business class on the way home.

I started searching within OneWorld of course, BA and Qatar, but both were pretty pricey. I then opened my search to all airlines and an interesting offer came up from Emirates. Flying out in Business class and home in Economy had a good deal on it. There was only one catch, the outbound was from London Stansted, not my usual Heathrow. But the deal was too good to miss, so I booked.

I was delighted to discover that Emirates still offer a chauffeur service to its business and first-class customers, so now I had a nice car picking me up. Half the pain of Stansted is getting there, (I never knew how they got away with calling it a London airport when it’s over 30 miles out of London).

Outbound

I was picked up on time by the Addison Lee Executive car, a nice Mercedes, and was then hurtling towards Stansted Airport. I’ve not been to Stansted for many years, I used to fly with Air Berlin from there to Germany as it was the only direct flight to Paderborn, where I used to work.  A little later I flew Ryanair a few times to Bergamo, also for work, again because it was direct. However, this was long before I was flying regularly or had even discovered what frequent flyer status was. It’s about 10 years since I last used the airport and all I remember is long queues and lack of seating. So no fond memories of this airport.

This time I was flying with a major international airline, in Business class, so I was hoping for a better experience, and I was not disappointed.

To start, Emirates had their own check-in area, clearly specially built, looking very stylish compared to the rest of the check-in desks. There were separate queues for First, Business and Economy, with nobody queuing, so I checked in. From there I headed to security, past the hundreds of Ryanair check-in desks, to find the Fast Track Lane. It was quiet there and I passed straight through to find you get fed into the normal security area, just skipping a big chunk of the queue line. Typical of a more holiday-based airport there were plenty of people who didn’t know what to do and some very fed-up staff almost yelling at them to take tablets out and no they couldn’t take their drink through. I managed to get myself through pretty quick, once I’d educated a few people that if you don’t put the empty trays in front of you back in the machine then your tray won’t come through. After that I started the very long and winding walk through duty free, shops and restaurants. If you look at the map…

https://www.stanstedairport.com/at-the-airport/at-the-terminal/

…you’ll see how ridiculous this is, very much designed to get you to buy something before you leave. The good news is that there is a short cut for people who are allowed to use Fast-Track, to cut straight to the lounge. I would have done this, but I was curious about the long way, so I went for a walk.

The Lounge

Emirates don’t exactly have their own lounge here, they are inside a normal “pay-for-entry” public lounge. Upon arrival I was rather abruptly asked if I had a reservation, I said no but quickly thrust my business class boarding pass in the lady’s face before I was told to go away. She directed me downstairs to the lounge entrance. When I got downstairs there were people paying for their reserved entry, but someone senior looking (well he had an iPad so I assumed he was senior) spotted my boarding pass and asked if I was an Emirates customer. When I said yes he ushered me past the waiting people, scanned my pass and guided me in. There was a buffet of hot and cold food and a bar where you could order drinks. He then led me through to the other end of the lounge where there was a roped off area and a sign for Emirates. This area was empty when I arrived and hidden around a corner were some snacks and an ice bucket with white and rose wine, and of course champagne. I found a nice high-backed armchair and settled in. 

The lounge gradually got busier, but never crowded, I’d say about 20 people, but there was easily seating for 40. I enjoyed some champagne, with cheese and biscuits. Later I ventured out to the main areas to find some hot food and had some very nice (surprisingly good) cottage pie. When it came time to head to the gate I wondered out and caught the transit to the remote terminal where Emirates had their gate. Their timing was good, and they started boarding on time to the minute. They boarded all First and Business class passengers first, taking us down a separate air bridge to the front of the aircraft.

Outbound flight

This flight was on a 777-300ER, in the old configuration, so not promising to be the best business class flight I’ve ever had. The seats were in a 2-3-2 configuration, as I had a window seat it meant I had someone next to me, who I would have to step over to get out if I needed to. The seat itself was a good size with plenty of toys to play with. A large screen in front of you, a handset, with screen to control the main screen. And if that wasn’t enough there was a tablet you could pick up and use, either to watch films on or do anything you could do on the main screen, even whilst a film was playing on the main screen. There were 3 windows next to me, all with motorised blinds. And everything was trimmed with the signature wood effect that Emirates seem to like so much.

I picked a film and settled in to wait for boarding to complete. I was offered champagne and a hot towel before take-off. After take-off I took a look at the menu and wine list, both were impressive, but I had picked this flight to sleep and I already had a bottle of water, so I settled down.

After short while they came around with sleeping matts for our chairs and let them fit mine. There was a blanket and a pillow as well. The amenity kit was also impressive. I’ve never seen one with a razor, shaving foam and a deodorant. There were, however, no ear plugs, but some were delivered as soon as I asked. And they were the good ones as well, they really blocked the sound well.

They had warned me at check-in that this aircraft was not the newest type and the seats were not fully flat beds. They do go flat, but at a slight angle as your feet go under the person in front of you. I’ll be honest, it was not the most comfortable bed to sleep in, but I could lie on my side, tuck my knees up a bit and I did get to sleep. I had requested not to be woken, so they let me sleep until a few minutes before the seat belt sign came on. I woke and before long we were descending into Dubai.

Arriving in Dubai

The taxi was quick, but the walk to passport control was very long. Almost 20 minutes of walking before we finally arrived in the passport control hall. Luckily, I spotted a sign for First and Business class pointing to a roped off area, there was a lady in front, I showed her my boarding pass, and she let me through. Passport control here only took a few minutes as I don’t think many people in business class spotted the queue line! I then headed through and my bag was on the belt already. Just after customs there’s two signs, one for exit and one for Emirates Chauffeur pick up. Naturally I followed the latter and was led into what looked like a small airline check-in area. Again, split into First and Business, I headed to a desk, handed in my boarding pass and was given a ticket. I was told to head straight outside, where there was a whole fleet of BMW’s waiting. I handed my ticket to someone who ushered me straight into the nearest car, and I was off to my hotel. All very easy.

Return home from Dubai

My return flight was going to be on an A380, direct to Heathrow in Premium Economy. I had upgraded myself at my own cost as it wasn’t too expensive.

First to check in, no chauffeurs this time, so I took an Uber back to DXB. I clocked on the way in the separate building and drop off areas for business and first class, not me this time. I arrived in the economy check in hall and what a hall. This place was huge. It had well over 10 check-in areas, each one consisting of 20 or so check-in desks. This place was massive. I checked a map and there was of course a Premium Economy check-in area, so I headed there, it was right at the back, so actually a bit of a walk. But it was right by the entrance to the security area.

There was significantly less queue at this area, and I was checked in in good time. I then headed to security, through the automated passport control and through to airside, ready for my flight.

This would be the first occasion in a very long time that I had flown long haul without any lounge access. I had planned for this, not arriving too early at the airport so I didn’t have hours and hours to kill. I took my time and wondered over to the building where my flight was going from. There wasn’t a lot there, a huge duty-free shop full of alcohol and chocolate and a couple of restaurants. I opted for walking around, stretching my legs and getting my steps in for the day. When it came time to board, they opened the gate quite early, allowing plenty of time to load the A380. They had a separate queue line for premium economy, so I headed there, went straight down and they called premium economy as soon as I got there, so straight on to boarding.

The flight

This is a flight I’d been looking forward to for some time, Emirates have been making a big deal of their very new premium economy product, claiming it’s a step above others.

The Seat

By far the most comfortable premium economy seat I’ve ever sat in. The soft cream leather combined with a comfy padded seat was very comfortable. It felt like I had more space than usual PE seats on other airlines. On the Emirates A380 premium economy is at the very front of the lower deck, so there’s the big staircase to the upper deck right in the middle. They have their first and business upstairs and economy behind us. But since we were at the front in a small cabin it did feel very exclusive, especially since we boarded through our own airbridge with economy going in the next one behind us.

There was plenty of pockets to store things around me and a huge IFE screen. The window blinds here where also motorised with light reducing shades and black out blinds coming down after. I had recline option with a very good recline and a separate control to bring a padded section up under my legs. The headphone jack was in a sensible place, unlike BA where you keep knocking it with your legs and there was a universal power socket below. The screen had USB A and C outlets and another headphone socket. And I particularly liked that it had hard keys for volume and play/pause. So many times I’ve been scrabbling around with a touch screen to find the pause button when crew come over, it’s nice to have a button always there.

The ICE system (their in flight entertainment) was also exceptionally good with loads to watch.

The flight and catering

I was given sparkling wine and nuts before take off, (take note BA) and I had an empty seat next to me, so used their table to spread out.

For my main meal I had a pasta salad starter, curry as a main and profiterols as dessert. It came with bread, butter and cheese & biscuits. It was all very tasty. Metal cutlery and your own salt and pepper shakers, I’ve had far worse than this on some top airlines in business class!

The service was excellent and I really enjoyed the food.

I watched a few films, remember this was a day flight, took the off nap when I wanted to and it was soon time for the second meal service.

The second service was afternoon tea, with a selection of sandwiches and a scone with jam and cream. I was very pleased to see it was proper Cornish Rodda’s cream, my grandfather worked in the factory so I’m particularly attached to that brand!

All too soon we were descending into London.

Bottom line

Yes, the seat on the old 777 in business class was not the greatest seat in the world, but the service more than made-up for it. Not to mention the free taxi pick up and drop off either end of the trip, for that alone I’d seriously consider paying more for business class on Emirates, than I would with other premium airlines who don’t offer this service.

The premium economy trip, by far, blew me away, I’m not even sure I’d bother with business class on a shorter day flight again, given how comfortable this seat was. And the service was exceptional, easily business class standard.

One day I’ll get to try business class out of Heathrow where I hear you can board straight from the lounge, and of course at the other end in Dubai where you have your dedicated check in terminal.

But if you are flying Emirates and you’re stuck in premium economy, I don’t think you’re going to be disappointed.

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