Emirates A380-800 business class Los Angeles to Dubai

Emirates A380-800 business class Los Angeles to Dubai

I’m not the kind of guy who thinks very highly of himself on a day-to-day basis, and as a matter fact I spend a lot of time beating myself up for not being as giving and selfless as I aspire to be. Of course I feel like I am a very kind and generous person, but there’s always room for improvement, right?

Unfortunately, days like today are detrimental towards my progress to becoming a perfect saint. You see, when I’m at LAX walking from terminal 7 over to the Tom Bradley to catch a ride on an Emirates A380 in business class, it’s hard not to look down on everybody else and chuckle at each and every one of them knowing that I’m totally going to be having a much better flight then they will today.

These feelings are especially strong when walking past the United Express baggage drop and looking at all the faces of those poor souls on their way to somewhere infinitely less exciting than Dubai. “Have fun in Fresno you guys! I’ll be thinking of you as I’m putting my seat into it’s lie-flat position a few hours from now somewhere over the Northwest Territories!”

EK216
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Dubai, UAE (DXB)
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Aircraft: A380-861
Registration: A6-EOG
Duration: 14 hours 50 minutes
Seat: 15D (business class)

emirates a380 illustration by norebbo
Emirates A380-800 “Year of Zayed 2018” (A6-EOG) side view illustration by norebbo.com. It used to be that I got all giddy when finding out that I’d be flying on an aircraft with a special livery, but it’s a lot less exciting now that I’m illustrating super-high detail side profile illustrations of each aircraft I fly on. Some of these special liveries (like this one) are really hard to recreate.
LAX-DXB polar route
The route from LAX to DXB this evening. Up and over the North Pole!

And I’m so nerdy that I even created a video for this flight as well (with a soundtrack courtesy of Epidemic Sound, of course):

I originally booked this entire itinerary in economy class, but Emirates offered me a discounted upgrade to business class when I was checking in online. I grabbed it in a way which was borderline irresponsible for someone who had just quit his job and has no steady source of income at the moment.

I justified it as a business expense, and at the time of this writing I still think it was the right decision. After all, can you really call yourself an airline-focused travel blogger if you haven’t reviewed Emirates A380 business class?

Tom Bradley international terminal LAX
There’s no better feeling in all the world then having the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) in your sights. It’s by far my favorite place to kick off a huge international adventure!
Emirates LAX
Oh hell yes. I was still feeling a bit (ok, a lot) smug and I was so tempted to stand underneath this sign, point to it with a grin, and let everyone passing by know that I was flying Emirates A380 business class today.
Tom Bradley international departures
Welcome to the Tom Bradley International Terminal. And while I feel a bit uncreative for using the same caption that I used in my Asiana A380 business class review for this same pic, I’m going to say it anyway because there’s nothing more appropriate: “Yeah baby!”
 LAX international departures
If they’d let me, I would totally move in here and call this place home. I’ve got a lot of love for LAX!
Emirates business class check in LAX
Looks like there’s one more row underneath “Skywards Gold / Silver” available for another label called something like “El-cheapo Last-Minute Upgrades“ (which is the only reason why I was fortunate enough to stand in this line today).

Despite already having my boarding pass and seat assignment, I decided to stand in line at the Emirates check in counter just to see if they could wrangle a window seat for me.

There were none available when I checked in, but I was crossing my fingers that something had opened up in between the time when I left the house this morning and now. Long story short, they didn’t have anything for me, so I had to stick with my original aisle seat reservation which was 15D. Oh well. You can’t win them all.

LAX international terminal security lines
No, Emirates business class passengers don’t get any special treatment when it comes to expediting the security process. You’ll have to mingle with the masses just as if you were flying on one of those dull United Express flights to Fresno.
 LAX international departures hall
I fondly remember when this upper level used to be a food court – it was where I used to refuel whenever I came to the TBIT for aviation photography. Those were the days…

One of the downsides of those discounted (El-cheapo) business class upgrades is the fact that they are ineligible for lounge access. Emirates has a lounge here at LAX that I was looking forward to trying out, and then there’s also the Star Alliance business class lounge which is nice as well. However, not having lounge access didn’t phase me at all because I was very much looking forward to trying my new Priority Pass membership to the very first time – a huge perk which came with my American Express Platinum card.

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The only Priority Pass lounge here in the Tom Bradley International Terminal at the moment just happens to be one of the best actually: the Korean Air (KAL) lounge. This is a lounge that I’ve been very much wanting to try for a long time, as I’ve heard rave reviews about it from nearly everybody who has reviewed it. And it only seems fitting that I would get to access it on the same day that I would also get to try Emirates A380 business class. Exciting!

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Unfortunately, I tend to be a little bit disorganized at times, especially on busy travel days such as this. Guess what I forgot? That’s right – my damn Priority Pass card. The kind ladies at the KAL lounge seemed sympathetic to my plight, but they were strict as school marm’s and they weren’t going to let me in without that little piece of plastic with my name on it. Dang. That meant that I’d have to slum it out in the main terminal instead (with all the people I laughed at earlier who were headed to Fresno on United Express).

SANspotter selfie LAX
You know how when you do something embarrassing, and then you try to act all cool afterwords thinking that it didn’t bother you (but it really did)? That’s what this pic is all about. No lounge access for me today!

Hanging out in the brand new Tom Bradley International Terminal isn’t so bad actually, and I found a nice quiet spot to sit and relax with a tiny little bento of $16 sushi while I waited for the flight to board. It gave me a lot of time to sit and think about how I shouldn’t be spending $16 on tiny meals when I don’t have any money coming in at the moment.

British Airways A380 LAX
There are certainly worse airports to be forced to hang out and kill time in. There’s so much cool activity here at LAX!
Tom Bradley international terminal redesign
It’s amazing to think that less than five years ago this was one of the worst airport terminals in the entire world. The architects did an absolutely amazing job with the redesign of the Tom Bradley International Terminal! Two big thumbs up from SANspotter (actually, I think it was just one since I was still scarfing down that $16 sushi).
Emirates A380 LAX
Enough talk about architecture. I’d like to introduce you to the subject of today’s trip report, which just so happens to be this big and beautiful A380 – with what looks like to be a special livery…
 Emirates year of zayed 2018 A380
That’s my ride to Dubai! After I took this picture I couldn’t help but to raise my hand and wave back.

Gate number 148 was ours for the flight to Dubai this afternoon, and I’ve got to say that it’s a weird one with no real place to stand in line and wait to board. It’s kind of tucked away in the corner, and it just seemed like a total free-for-all when they called for the start of the boarding process and people seemed generally confused and needed a lot of help to figure out where to stand.

Gate 148 LAX
Gate 148. The only gate in the joint without an actual gate it seems. Where the heck are we supposed to board the airplane?
Emirates business class boarding pass
There’s no time to think about the logistics of boarding an airplane when you’ve got to get a picture of your boarding pass and passport for the trip report.
Boarding emirates A380 flight
The last few moments of trying to mentally prepare myself for an obnoxiously over-the-top business class experience.

I’ve read enough Emirates A380 business class reviews to know exactly what to expect even before stepping on board, and once I was there it was just like being home. It looked really nice of course, but I’ve seen it a million times before which made it seem not so impressive unfortunately.

That was a total bummer, because the Emirates business class experience is all about being hit over the head with borderline tacky ridiculousness, and I wasn’t getting any of that vibe in my first few moments. It looked pretty cool though. A bit over-the-top, yes, but still a very nice looking business class product.

Emirates A380 business class cabin
The feeling of finally standing in the middle of an Emirates A380 business class cabin was somewhat anticlimactic unfortunately. I’ve seen so many pics of this over the years, which made this experience seem a lot less exciting than I was hoping for. The best way I can describe the feeling is like seeing boobies for the first time. Boys spend their teenage years oogling at them on the Internet and in magazines – which causes them to become boobie experts at a very young age, which in turn totally takes the surprise and excitement of seeing them in real life for the very first time.
Emirates a 380 business class wood materials
I just want to know is whether or not that is actually wood. The sensible part of me says “no freaking way”, but this is an airline based out of Dubai so I guess it wouldn’t surprise me if it actually is real. And you’re still thinking about the boobies comment aren’t you?
Emirates A380 business class detail
This is definitely an acquired taste. It looks great of course, and I have to give it credit for being one of the most unique looking business class products around. Well, you did see woodgrain in my JetSuiteX review, but…it just wasn’t the same.
Seat 15D emirates A380 business class
Zooming out a little bit to show you the entirety of seat 15D – which was mine for this 15 hour flight to Dubai. There’s a bad pun in there somewhere with the whole 15/15 thing, I just know it, but I just couldn’t find it in time. I’ve too many other pics to post instead of focusing all my mental energy on this one comment!
Emirates A380 business class review
Check out the size of that video screen! I’m still not sure what to think about the sqigglies on the wall, but otherwise I think this looks pretty sharp. That being said, do be sure to check out my Qatar Airways vs Emirates comparison to see how over the top this is. Qatar Airways does business class better, IMHO.
Emirates business class pillows and blankets
Ready and waiting on every seat is a large pillow, duvet, and a pair of noise canceling headphones. Part of me was expecting gold bars and bottles of Dom Perignon, but maybe that stuff comes later…
Emirates A380 business class leg room
Keep those knees tucked in, because these aisle seats are directly in the path of oncoming carts and people. If you want total privacy in  Emirates A380 business class, you’ll need to get a window seat or one in the middle interior sections.
Emirates A380 business class seat privacy
A bit of a wider angle showing you how un-private these aisle seats really are. Pick your nose at your own risk. Everyone’s going to see you do it!
Emirates A380 business class staggered layout
This is a staggered layout – which means that not all window seats are against the windows and completely private. AvGeeks who like to record takeoffs and landings take note!
Emirates A380 business class cabin
The view looking the other direction. The most impressive thing about this pic is that there aren’t any other passengers in it, which blows my mind considering this flight was completely full.
Emirates business class drinks at seat
In case you get thirsty during this evening’s flight, there are drinks ready and waiting at every seat.
SANspotter selfie Emirates business class
It took every bit of strength I had not to blurt out “so when do we eat?” as the flight attendant was taking this pic for me.

Champagne, orange juice, and apple juice were distributed on trays during the boarding process, and I was slightly bummed that they weren’t offering any water. Hey – you should know how I feel about drinking water on airplanes by now, so you can’t loathe me too much for craving water as a pre-deaprture drink. It’s a SANspotter tradition!

Emirates business class pre-departure drink
Pre-departure orange juice. Sadly, there were no gold flakes in it.

Menus and the wine list came next, which occupied my time for a while. I wanted to make sure that this Emirates business class experience was going to be the best it could possibly be for me, so the dinner choice had to be perfect and I just couldn’t make any mistakes. I mean, hey – I honestly don’t know when it’ll be when I’ll get to try Emirates business class again, so I had to get it right the first time!

Emirates business class wine list
The wine list. #pinkiesup
Emirates business class menu
I didn’t care about the wine list so much, but this menu has all my attention. Clicking on the pic will take you to a much larger version that you can drool over for hours.
Emirates business class amenity kit
Oh – and before we get too far, now is probably a pretty good time to check out the amenity kit.
Emirates business class amenity kit contents
No gold bars or Dom in here either. What the hell?
Emirates business class noise canceling headphones
Kind of a cheap presentation for the noise canceling headphones, IMHO. Perhaps the gold bars I’ve been expecting will fall out as I open the package?
Bare feet in business class
Flying business class isn’t always classy, folks. That dude needs to put some socks on like ASAP.

Hot towels came next, and from there I switched over to the live external camera on the very large video screen to watch our departure out of LAX. I’m normally a window seat guy for long international flights like this, but I’ve got to say that having a very large video screen with multiple camera views to the outside world was really nice and made sitting in an aisle seat not so bad actually.

t could’ve been a fake 3-D animation for all I cared, but just having that visual connection to the outside world when you’re sitting at the center of a huge aircraft like this helps a ton.

Emirates A380 external camera
Who needs a window seat when you’ve got a view like this on the video screen in front of you? I like to refer to it as the “seagull cam” – because it’s high enough resolution that you can actually see the look of absolute fear in the eyes of those seagulls when they realize there’s a big A380 coming straight at them at 200mph.
Emirates business class handheld tablet
It’s also entirely possible to control the video system with the handheld tablets that are at every seat. Even better, you can use it as a secondary screen to watch two different things at once. And even better than that, I’m betting that if you’re sharp enough, you could use it to hack into the cockpit and see how your pilots act under pressure by throwing “engine failure” warnings at them. It’s good to keep them on their toes during long and boring flights like this!
Emirates A380 safety video
I was wishing that I had a window seat again when the safety video automatically started playing and totally ruined my view to the outside world.
Emirates A380 business class experience
We haven’t even taken off yet and I’m already playing with the gadgets. It’s a guy thing.
 Emirates A380 business class interior
A quick look around the cabin as we taxi out to 25R. And I still don’t know what to think about those squiggles on the wall.
Emirates A380 departure LAX
To prevent you from being bored out of your mind and never wanting to come back to sanspotter.com again, I’ve hand-selected three pictures of the departure sequence for your viewing pleasure. This brief compilation represents the entirety of our departure out of LAX today, and I figured three pics of the same thing ought to cover it. The faster you finish looking at these pics, the faster we can get to the good stuff!

The flight attendants started coming around with drink and dinner orders within 10 minutes of takeoff, and I thought it was interesting that they were using what looked like their own personal mobile phones to take orders.

I don’t know if they were supplied by Emirates or not, but each flight attendant had their own personal pink and/or frilly case on it which seemed to imply that it was indeed their own personal device. That struck me as being a little bit odd – and perhaps a bit out of character in such a prestigious airline product such as this. Or maybe I’m just too old and crusty to understand.

Emirates A380 business class mood lighting
Red LED mood lighting: engage! In-flight service is infinitely better when there’s mood lighting to go along with it.
Emirates A380 business class in flight map
I’ve got to keep an eye on the map to make sure the pilots don’t get lost. Hey, I’ve played flight simulator once and I’m a total pro at this!

Cabin crew professionalism spiraled downhill faster and with more vigor than an industrial-strength toilet when the flight attendant approached me to take my dinner order. She looked at me, holding her pink and frilly-cased mobile device at the ready, and just waited for me to say something. There was no greeting, or instructions on how to order off the menu. She was simply staring at me blankly expecting me to tell her what I wanted for dinner.

Because I had no idea what she was asking for, I assumed that she was only interested in what I wanted for the entrée. In all of my international business class experience over the years, all of the appetizers are usually included, and it’s typically only the entrée that needs to be chosen. Seems logical to think that was what she was asking for, right? I chose the Chicken Madras, and she still stood there looking at me looking like “and…?” after I declared that as my dinner choice.

I finally had to ask her if there was something else that I should pick off the menu, and she simply said “sure, pick whatever you want.” That was even more confusing to me, because I thought she was implying it was ok to have another entrée as well. I ended up replying with “I’ll just have chicken…and a glass of the merlot to go with it please.” Little did I know that she took that way too literally.

Emirates business class pre-meal snack
Okay. Why did she serve me the merlot with the pre-meal snack? It was supposed to come with the meal! That flight attendant and I were completely out of sync so far, and it had me looking for the reset button.

20 minutes later, the flight attendants started coming through the aisles once again delivering the appetizers to everyone around me. One by one, each and every person sitting around me got their appetizers – but they weren’t even paying attention to me at all. At first I thought it was because I was a low life on a cheap upgrade who didn’t even have cardboard status on Emirates, but I realized what had happened when that same flight attendant who took my dinner order came by and put down the chicken entrée in front of me – skipping the appetizer altogether.

What the hell? I guess I should have chosen an appetizer when she took my order initially, but I had no way of knowing that because she didn’t tell me that was what I needed to do. At first I was a little bit irritated about her sub par presentation and communication skills (English was her primary language by the way), but I easily let it go considering that it’s never healthy to eat too much on airplane anyway and I certainly didn’t need that appetizer. Bon appétit.

Emirates business class dinner main course
Wait, what? Where’s my appetizer? Apparently the flight attendant thought that I didn’t want one and that I was only interested in the entrée. Au contraire! Oh well. This is the Chicken Madras by the way. Very tasty, but a bit too spicy for this gringo.
sanspotter selfie emirates business class
Feelings of sorrow as I realized that my much-anticipated Emirates business class meal service was not living up to my expectations.

By the time I was finishing my meal, I was starting to wonder if I should’ve ordered dessert as well. I mean, of all the flights I’ve ever been on, I’ve never had to order dessert with the initial meal order. This was bizarre.

Thankfully, the flight attendant asked me if she took my dessert order as she was clearing my tray, relieving me from the awkwardness bringing it up myself. I told her that no, as a matter of fact she didn’t take my order (in a nice way of course), and she seemed somewhat apologetic and promised to bring me a cheese plate.

So yeah – that was probably the worst meal service I’ve ever experienced in international business class. The food was decent of course, but the presentation and interaction with the flight attendant was just downright weird.

emirates business class cheese plate
The after dinner cheese plate. It was pretty good as far as cheese plates go, but whoever invented blue cheese needs to have a stern  talking to. The stuff is completely inedible!

The guy next to me slept through the entire meal service, and ultimately it was his window shades which were the only ones left open in the entire cabin. With all that bright sunshine coming in, it was getting annoying and I asked a flight attendant if she wouldn’t mind closing them. She had no issues with it, and reached over to his tablet and pressed a button to make the screens close automatically. Problem solved!

Another round of hot towels came by 30 minutes later, and as I sat there wiping my hands, I was still thinking about how cool it would have been to have a window seat so that I could play with those fancy window shade controls.

sleeping emirates business class
Dude! You missed the meal service! He was probably dreaming of a huge business class meal…
watching shark tank in business class
Now that I’m self employed and trying to forge my own way in the world, it was only fitting that I watched about 3 hours of Shark Tank on this flight.
emirates business class chocolate
As I sat there contemplating my strategy for getting on Shark Tank, the flight attendants came by with a little surprise…
emirates business class chocolate
Chocolate! In an effort to make this one of the most comprehensive Emirates A380 business class reviews ever, I’d like to inform you that I ate the dark one first. And to make sure that you don’t think I’m giving you completely irrelevant information, I’m not going to tell you which one I liked best.
emirates a380 outside camera view
Checking up on the pilots to make sure they are keeping her straight and level. Looking good guys!

Before getting some sleep, I wanted to go back to the rear of the aircraft and check out that world-famous Emirates A380 lounge. Unfortunately, the flight attendant who was manning the bar was the same one who served me dinner, so it was a dry and awkward interaction. Even though she seemed cold and not very talkative, I asked her if I could take a picture of the bar (wincing a bit as I did it).

The look on her face told me that it was a request that she’s heard many times before, because she didn’t even say anything and just told me to stand behind the bar and she’d take my picture for me. That was totally not what I was asking (because I wasn’t looking for a dorky picture of myself standing behind the bar), but her and I had been having major miscommunications for the entire flight so far so I just did what she said and pretended to look like I was having fun.

sanspotter selfie emirates a380 bar
Oh god. I guess it’s not too embarrassing considering that a picture like this is pretty much mandatory for any legitimate Emirates A380 business class review.
Emirates a380 lavatory
At least the bathroom was nearby and I was able to duck in away from everyone else and recover from the shame of the last pic. It’s a nice lavatory though, don’t you think?
Emirates a380 business class lavatory
An obnoxious amount of gold plating is badly needed in here to offset all that marbled wood.
Emirates a380 lavatory window
The best view from a bathroom anywhere!
Emirates a380 business class interior
Fully recovered from the shame of posing like a goofball at the bar, I’m ready to test the sleeping capabilities of the Emirates A380 business class seat. Though, as you’ve already seen, I’m pretty sure that the guy across the aisle from me in 15A would give these seats  very high marks.
Flying from Los Angeles to Dubai
And I’ll bet that you thought that we were over the North Pole by now (at least). We’ve got a long way to go yet!
Stars in ceiling emirates a380
Twinkling stars in the ceiling to help lull me to sleep. Actually, all I could really think about was how many of those little stars there actually are up there. Somebody at Airbus in Toulouse knows for sure, and I’ve got to find out!

Somehow I managed to get seven solid hours of deep sleep after returning to my seat, despite the fact that there was a mega-huge snorer nearby. But there always is, isn’t there? My Asiana business class flight from LAX to ICN a couple years ago featured one of the most annoying snorers that I’ve ever heard, with my recent Lufthansa flight from San Diego to Frankfurt coming in a close second place.

I wouldn’t mind a snoring seatmate so much if I could do that myself. I can only imagine the bliss of sleeping like a baby on long flights! Come to think of it, the best I ever slept on a flight was from Hong Kong to Chicago in United 777-200 BusinessFirst, so I do have it in me. That was pretty good sleep (10 hours!), but most of the time I’m just tossing and turning for the most part.

Flying over north pole
Up and over the top of the globe!
 Flying over Russia
Fast forward another four or five hours, and we’re crossing our way across Russia. I could only hope that our big A380 was throwing a massive contrail for all those Russian AvGeeks to admire from below.
Pierier water emirates business class
I don’t know what it was about the Russian airspace that made me so dang thirsty, but I was slamming back that Perrier sparkling water like it was…well…water. Expensive stuff tastes better when it’s free!

Waking up over Russia with about four hours of flying time remaining meant that I missed the mid flight snack entirely – which kind of bummed me out a little since I was still hungry from the abbreviated meal service earlier on. And despite still feeling quite sleepy, I decided the proper thing was to stay awake for the rest of the journey since it would be evening when we landed in Dubai and I needed to have enough energy depleted by then so that I would be able to sleep that night.

Dark emirates A380 cabin
A glow of 10,000 suns emanating from behind that curtain. What the hell is going on up there? Well, that IS first class, so whatever was happening was probably really good.

The lights came on with approximately two hours to go, and the flight attendants started coming through the aisles with medium warm towels. And wouldn’t you know it? The same flight attendant that I had been having very weird interactions with on this flight so far was serving me once again. Normally there are crew changes for flights of this length, but I guess they were working the entire leg. Perhaps that’s why she was so salty?

SANspotter selfie Emirates A380 business class
I’m not quite exactly sure what I’m doing in this picture, but it wouldn’t surprise me if I was practicing very assertive hand gestures which would help drive the point home that I want everything on the menu for the breakfast service. I’m not making the same mistake twice! Oh – and the guy back there behind me looks mad about something, so perhaps he was still stewing over a crappy dinner service as well.
Flying over the Middle East
OK, here we go into a new part of the world but I’ve never been before. All you wanderlusters out there know exactly how great (and butt-clenching scary) of a feeling this is!
Emirates A380 purple mood lighting
Discotastic mood lighting for the breakfast service. I hope it makes my omelette look purple!

The breakfast service was really quick actually, which was a good thing because I was getting very excited about arriving in the Middle East for the very first time in my life, and I couldn’t wait to get off this airplane and start exploring. Well, the exploration wouldn’t start until the next day, but still – just being in a completely new place for the very first time is an exciting feeling all it’s own and I was totally ready for it.

Emirates business class breakfast
Dang it. Despite the purple mood lighting, the omelette is still hopelessly yellow.
SANspotter selfie Emirates A380 breakfast
SANspotter pro travel tip: always practice good manners and put the napkin in your lap before you eat. Not because it’s the proper thing to do when eating in a fancy place, but because arriving in a world class airport with food stains down the front your clothes is really embarrassing.

The descent into Dubai came exactly 7 minutes after the breakfast trays were cleared (is that a completely nerdy stat or what?), and my eyes were glued to that video screen in front of me as we dropped into the Martian-like landscape that is the United Arab Emirates. And again, as much as I would have preferred being in a window seat, that high resolution video screen with those cameras to the outside world was super cool and I felt like I was seeing most everything that I wanted to see.

Emirates A380 flight experience
We are flying into one of the world’s most amazing landscapes, and he’s not interested in seeing any of it. Though, if he lives in Dubai and he’s familiar with the desert, I guess it kind of makes sense that sailboats and large bodies of water would be more interesting. I actually felt like tapping him on the shoulder and asking him if he’d like to swap seats. “Excuse me, but that sailboat video looks REALLY good on my video screen and you just GOTTA see it…”
Flying into Dubai
As a sheltered American who has been fed with bad information about this part of the world by all of our news media for my entire life  (“All Muslins are terrorists!”), I was starting to get really excited about seeing the Middle East with my own eyes for the very first time.
Flying into Dubai view
This is the point where I started feeling like tapping that guy on the shoulder again. Look at that view!
Rate this Emirates flight
Less than 30 seconds after we landed, this screen popped up on the video entertainment system. I was generally happy with the flight – other than those weird interactions with a certain flight attendant who shall remain nameless. I really wanted to smash that frowny face, but with no way to explain why, I went with the half-smile.
Emirates A380 arrival in Dubai
Aaaaand were here! 15 hours is a long time to be in an airplane, so yeah – I was ready to scoot.
a6-eog Emirates A380 Dubai
It’s crazy to think that in just a few hours this airplane is going be back up in the air and headed off to some other far corner of the world. What’s even more crazy is that this isn’t the last of it I’m going to see over the next few days. Our paths are going to cross yet again very soon…

So there you have it! My very first experience on Emirates, and I wish I could tell you that it was the most amazing flight that I’ve ever had and that I cannot wait to do it again. While the feeling to do it again is quite strong, I’ve got to be honest when I say that I found the service on this flight to be overall mediocre and nowhere near on the same level as an Asian airline such as Asiana or JAL.

I will admit that part of the disappointment is completely my fault, because I hadn’t been paying too much attention to Emirates business class reviews lately, and it turns out that that complaints about mediocre service has been a common theme from others as well. Emirates business class is not necessarily known as being the gold standard when it comes to onboard service, which is something that I didn’t know before going into this flight.

Is it worth avoiding all together? Oh hell no. The Emirates A380 business class hard product is fantastic (though it’s borderline over-the-top and gaudy), which to some is the most important element of a long haul business class experience. And I have to be fair when I say that the entire crew wasn’t all that bad actually – they just weren’t up to the standard that I had been expecting them to live up to in my mind.

If anything, this experience has made me come to realize that I will probably think a little bit more highly of the people standing in line at the United Express check-in counter at LAX when I’m on my way to another Emirates business class flight in the future. Emirates is nice, but nowhere near nice enough to justify looking down on mere mortals on their way to Fresno on a CRJ-200.

Comments (4)

  1. Tim

    July 12, 2018
    • SANspotter

      July 13, 2018
  2. Joss

    March 24, 2019
    • SANspotter

      March 24, 2019

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