It is hard to imagine that there is anything that hasn’t already been written about Emirates First Class. It is one of those aspirational trip in the travel blog world because it is one of the best hard and soft products on one of the best airlines in the world. When I flew Emirates First Class LAX-DXB, I was excited. I had never flown international First before and figured this was a great place to start — I mean a shower and two bars in the sky? In the end I was of course blown away but the experience, but what really struck me flying Emirates First Class for 16 hours on the A380 was how quickly the time went and how rested I felt upon arrival.
If you would like to read about my booking of the flights, check out this post for the basics or this post for more in-depth reporting.
Emirates First Class LAX-DXB
Emirates First Class and Business Class takes up the entire upper deck of the A380 and loads separate from the Economy passengers. First Class passengers are located in the front of the upper deck and the business class takes up the rest. Upon entering I was showed to my suite (2K) by the attentive staff. Emirates First Class on the A380 is a 1-2-1 configuration that is staggered so that you don’t see directly in to the suite next to you. There are 4 window seats on each side (Seats A & K) and 3 rows of middle seats (Seats E & F) for a total of 14 seats in First. There were a total of 2 empty seats in First, 8 in Business, and about 100 in Economy.
The Emirates First Class suites are definitely over the top. There is no overhead storage in First but there is plenty of room in the suite for your carryon. There is a coat closet for each suite as well. The inflight entertainment system (known as ICE) includes a massive HD screen, iPad like tablet and handset. There are hundreds of movies and tv shows that you can start watching immediately. Next to the window is a mini bar that raises and lowers (although oddly it isn’t refrigerated) with non-alcoholic beverages. Directly under the screen is a vanity mirror with various lotion and calming products. Next to that was a snack basket. There is also a small drawer with stationary for all your letter writing needs.
The seat is comfortable and can be put into four preset positions or can be manually moved via the tablet after take off. At each suite is a large pillow, duvet and memory foam mattress pad for when you are ready to sleep.
As I settled in various staff came by to introduce themselves and bring me gifts. On a silver tray one attendant brought my pajamas, slippers, men’s amenity kit and a burlap bag to put them all in. Champagne was served. Food and drink menu were delivered. The head purser checked in. Spa staff came to explain the services and offer sign ups for the shower.
One thing I really liked about the amenity kit is that it comes with a full size toothbrush that is the same quality you would purchase in a drug store. Unlike other airline toothbrushes I have used where the bristles fall off or are flimsy, this allowed for a real good toothbrushing.
The pajamas were good quality and a comfortable fit although I ended up being a bit hot while I slept.
Soon we were closing the doors and taxing for take off. Like other large aircraft I have flown, I was amazed by how smooth the ride was and how slow it seemed we were going at take off.
When we had leveled out a bit the flight attendant came through to take food orders. All food was available on demand; there was no meal service per se. As I had already had food in the lounge, I wasn’t hungry, but how could I resist? I had the caviar plate to start, followed by the Arabic mezze platter and finally tortellini. I should have stopped after the mezzo platter. All was very good, but the tortellini was standard basic pasta. Menu photos at the end if you are into that.
Later I had the chocolate salted caramel cake which was fantastic. I don’t know how they had something of such good quality in the sky.
Just before landing I had breakfast (a little bit from three different plates); including delicious French Toast.
Of course throughout the flight the Dom Pèrignon flowed continuously.
While the service was so attentive that there really wasn’t a need to use the onboard bar; I still wanted to check it out because, well, it’s a bar on an airplane. There is one small, self serve bar at the front of Emirates First Class that isn’t necessary as all the beverages can be served to you anyway.
The real bar is at the back of the plane, behind Business Class. When I visited there were 3 other passengers (all ex-pats living in Dubai) and the friendly flight attendant, Alex, was on bar duty at the moment. I ended up spending an hour or so at the bar chatting with the characters. Alex ended up offering me a tour of the rest of the plane, which was very generous. He was a good humored guy; I don’t know how Emirates picks their staff but they do a good job of it.
After the tour (where one of the Economy flight attendants gave me a pack of Emirates playing cards), I slept a solid 6 hours on the bed that had been made up for me. It was quite comfortable with the memory foam topper.
There is wifi on the plane that is free for the first 10 MB, and a whopping $1 for the next 500 MB. It is slow but considering you have internet access over the north pole, it is still quite an engineering feat. For some reason the internet would cut out over certain countries; I assume the connection is via satellite so not sure why they would have to turn it off when in specific airspace.
I had my spa appointment (shower) scheduled for 2.5 hours before landing. It is hard to believe the size of the bathroom for an airplane; it is bigger than the bathroom in my home. There are two shower spas at the front of the plane (one on each side). Two staff attendants clean the spas between each passenger (even if the passenger is just using the toilet).
Before using the shower the staff goes over the various amenities and what to do in case of emergency (sit down on the toilet and hold on!). The floor is heated (which I turned off because the room was already warm). The shower has a 5 minute timer that shuts off after 4 minutes to warn you that your time is almost up.
Between a decent sleep and the refreshing shower, I was amazed at how good I felt after a 16 hour flight. Before de-planeing at DXB Alex arranged for me to visit the cockpit (sadly I didn’t get any photos). I was surprised at how small the cockpit was; however all the sleeping areas are mid plane so I suppose there isn’t a need for a large cockpit.
I was given a “fast pass” card so that I could speed through immigration. As my bag was tagged as “priority” I was quickly out of the airport and on to my hotel. I did stop by the chauffeur desk; however as I had booked through Alaska miles I was not eligible for the car service that Emirates provides to First and Business Class passengers.
Emirates Lounge LAX
Emirates First Class LAX-DXB
Park Hyatt Dubai
Emirates First Class Lounge DXB
Emirates First Class DXB-BKK
Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok
Cathay Pacific First Class BKK-HKG
Hyatt Regency TST Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific The Pier Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific HKG-LAX
SingleFlyer Round the World Trip
Emirates Lounge LAX
Emirates First Class LAX-DXB
Park Hyatt Dubai
Emirates First Class Lounge DXB
Emirates First Class DXB-BKK
Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok
Cathay Pacific First Class BKK-HKG
Hyatt Regency TST Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific The Pier Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific First Class HKG-LAX