The ultimate Emirates seating guide
 

No posts here on FT or elsewhere seem to have gathered information about the best seats on Emirates flights. Therefore my vision is that we in this thread can share our experiences concerning the seats to get on Emirates flights. I will keep this first post updated with the latest contributions, hereby making it available for easy reference.

Updated 17. march 2005


Seating advice

B777-200 [18 First, 49 Business & 236 Economy seats]
F:

J:
Recommended: Row 9,10,11

Y:




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B777-200 [49 Business & 304 Economy Class seats]

J:
Reccommended: Row 2,3,4,5

Y:

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B777-300, [18 first, 42 Business & 320 Economy class seats]

F:

J:
Recommended: Row 9,10

Y:

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B777-300, [42/49?? Business & 385 Economy class seats]

J:
Recommended: Row 2,3,4,5,6.
Be Aware:
To be avoided:

Y:

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A340-300 [12 First, 42 Business & 213 Economy seats]
F:

J:
Reccommended: 7 A,B,D,F,J,K. 10 A,B,D,F,J,K. (all seats have a nice big seat pitch.
Be aware:
To be avoided: all E seats: 6,7,8,9,10,11, (middle seats in a row of 3 seats).

Y:
Recommended: Bulkhead row 16: 16A/16B - 16D/16E/16F/16G - 16J/16K
Recommended: Bulkhead row: 27D/27E/27F/27G
Recommended: Emergency exit row 27: 27A/27B - 27J/27K
Be aware: There is an equipment box for the IFE under every window seat (A/K) and every aisle seat in the middle row (D/G), which limits the foot room under seats in front of you.
To be avoided:
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A340-500 [12 First suites, 42 Business & 204 Economy seats]
F:
J:

Y:
Recommended: bulkhead: 15D/15E/15F and 16A/16B 16J/16K
Recommended: bulkhead: 23D/23E/23F
Recommended: Emergency exit seats: 24A/24B - 24J/24K.

Be aware: all window seats A/J and the middle seats E/F have an equipment box under the seat in front, which limits the foot room by 50%!
Be aware: seat 18A and 18J: instead of two windows there is only one. You can only look out, when the seat is fully reclined.

To be avoided: The rows behind bulkhead because of large equipment box under the seats in front: 16 E,F (16 D,G are better, you can stretch the feets out a little, because there are only 3 seats in front) and 17 A,B,D,G,J,K.
To be avoided: Same bad seats in the second cabin: 24 E,F and 25 A,B,D,G,J,K.
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Links:
Fleet information and seatmaps: http://www.emirates.com/miniSites/Ab...Home/index.asp
Good generel overview of Emirates: http://airreview.members.beeb.net/Emirates/index.htm

Notes:
According to emirates.com the b772 aircrafts are currently being updated to provide greater comfort and a new 500 channel (ICE) entertainment system.

Great idea - but lot of work to do!
 

Dear Mogensen:

you will need lot of information gathered by other Ek-flyers, to get all different seats and configurations of the EK fleet.
Because EK gives not this information (they know that their seats are below average), it is important to make the work ourselves.

I just returned from a flight to Melbourne. DUS-DXB and DXB-MEL in J-class, the return legs in Y-Class. The aircrafts used were an A340-300 and A340-500.
Let me start today with my report about the A340-300.
The giving informations are my own observations (yes, I took a measuring device with me - don't ask me, what my wife thought about this: she was looking for a seat away from me).

A340-300 Business Class:

Seating: 2-3-2
Seat pitch: 54" = 137 cm (the pitch of all bulkhead seats is around 50".).
Seat width: 18" = 46 cm
Seat recline: 11" = 28 cm (EK-information)
TV screen: 14" = 35,5 cm

My opinion:
Same business class seats like on the A330-200. Comfortable for day flights up to 8 hours. Not comfortable on night flights, when you like to find some sleep (too narrow, recline is not good enough).


A340-300 Economy class:

Seating: 2-4-2 (EK says they have 2-4-3 too - I never saw it and hope I never will).
Seat pitch: 31" = 79 cm
Seat width: 17,5" = 44,5 cm
Seat recline: 6" = 15 cm (EK-information)
TV-screen: 6" = 15 cm (EK says 6,5" = 16,5 cm).

My opinion:
I think the 340-300 seats are the most comfortable economy seats in the whole EK fleet (still nothing to write home about).
EK received their A340-300s from Singapore Airlines and I think in economy they only changed the cover of the seats to EK-colours. The IFE-system in the seats is different than on other Ek-aircrafts.

Best seats:
bulkhead row 16 and row 27 (exit seats in row 27 have lot of leg room). The problem: normaly you can not reserve bulkhead and exit row seats in advance.
Be aware:
There is an equipment box for the IFE under every window seat (A/K) and every aisle seat in the middle row (D/G), which limits the foot room under seats in front of you. But on this aircraft the box is much smaller than on other EK aircrafts, it takes only about 20% of the available room away.


This is all information I gathered about the A340-300. May be someone else can comment about first class.
Next time I will give information about the A340-500.

Thanks Dusordua. I'll try to keep the post above updated with the "best seats" information, whilst leaving the other more general information in the posts.

I have a couple of EK flights coming up in feb/march so will try to add this information as soon as i get back.

Mogensen: "To be avoided" are not the right words, because in this case the equipment box is not so big like on the A330. Better use the words "Be aware".

it's been changed :) - thanks!

A340-500 Business Class:

Seating: 2-2-2
Seat pitch: 38" = 96 cm
Seat width: 20" = 51 cm
Seat recline: ? (no information, but for sure not flat enough)
TV screen: 14" = 35,5 cm

My opinion:
The seat is very "high tech" inside a shell, so the seat in front of you can not recline into you. All seat positions are handled with a hand held mode controller (same for the IFE). The seat has a very nice and effectiv massage system.
But the recline is poor. Because this aircraft serves ultra long flights, I wished to have something like a flat bed.
The seat pitch is poor. Large people will touch the shell in front with their feet. This makes the two seats on both window sides uncomfortable: the person in the window seat has to climb over the legs of the person in the aisle seat, if he/she leaves the seat.
Best seats are the two in the middle row: you can leave the seats to the left or right, without disturbing your neighbor.
Very good IFE-system (ICE) with 500 channels: over 50 TV channels, 350 radio and CD channels and more than 40 games. This makes a long flight short.

A340-500 Economy Class:

Seating: 2-4-2
Seat pitch: 31" = 78 cm
Seat width: 18,5" = 47 cm
Seat recline: ? (no information)
TV screen: 9" = 23 cm

My opinion:
The seat is good for "normal" flights, but for long range (13-15 hours) a seat pitch of 31" is unacceptable!

Good seats with lot of leg room: bulkhead 15 D,E,F and 16 A,B,J,K and 23 D,E,F and exit seats 24 A,B,J,K.

Bad seats: in the rows behind bulkhead because of large equipment box under the seats in front: 16 E,F (16 D,G are better, you can stretch the feets out a little, because there are only 3 seats in front) and 17 A,B,D,G,J,K.
Same bad seats in the second cabin: 24 E,F and 25 A,B,D,G,J,K.

Be aware: all window seats (A/J) and the middle seats E/F have an equipment box under the seat in front, which limits the foot room by 50%!

If you like to look out of the window, avoid seat 18 A and 18 J: instead of two windows there is only one. You can only look out, when the seat is fully reclined.

Very good IFE-system (ICE) with 500 channels: over 50 TV channels, 350 radio and CD channels and more than 40 games. This makes a long flight short.

-> dusordua

I have a A340-500 EK C flight coming up in the beginning of march, which seat would you suggest - the first row of C looks nice - would this be our best bet? And do you know the seat numbers for this row?

Kind regards
Mogensen

From what I saw on SYD-DXB first row 6B or 6J looked good. In the calm forward cabin and pitch not limited by the bulkhead (stretching into the F cabin hallway/curtain).

Thanks ngfan... Is row 6 the first row of C seats? I wonder how big the screen is, as i suppose this comes out under the seat?

Yes, according to the online booking seating chart row 6 is the first row in C. The video screen is an inseat version but I haven't seen it in use as that small cabin was only occupied by one (!) pax seated in 7K and staring at the seat shell in front of him. ;)

Here's a pic of seats 6A and C.

You can not get wrong choosing the bulkhead seat in the small or bigger cabin of business class.
Make reservation for a middle aisle seat, so you and your neighbour always can leave the seat to the left or right.
The tv-screen is about 15" - very good. It takes some time to learn how to handle the IFE.

If your 345 flight is in the beginning of march, when are you in Dubai?
I will leave for DXB on Feb. 28.

thanks ngfan and dusordua

I will give Emirates a call and request those seats. Unfortuantly I will just be transitting in DXB en route from CAI to ZRH, on hopefully the 10th march.

I was in C on the 777 or 332 I do not remember, which aircraft it was but the bulkhead seat actually felt quite cramped, as i could not stretch my legs out very far because of the wall in front of us. It does however on the images on airliners.net seem that there is a comfortable legroom in the bulkhead seats of the A345.

A330-200

You do not want the 2nd row in the ecomony cabin, 17. All seats have large equipment boxes underneath so there is no storage and not even room for your feet.

B777-300

Rows 47/48/49 AB JK are pairs on the side and have a little more room to the left and right of the seat.

HAVE YOU GONE MAD? THE SEAT PITCH OF EK'S BUSINESS CLASS SEATS ON THE A340-500 IS NOT 38'' BUT 60''.

Please stop shouting.

Many thanks :)