Leg 4: CDG-DXB Emirates A380-800 (Business Class)

After a very pleasant evening in Paris the day of the big flight finally dawned. Whilst this was neither of our first flights on the A380, both of us having flown it to the UK and me having flown it on the short hop from Dubai to Jeddah, I can’t remember being this excited before a flight for a long time. That the better half was somewhat excited is some testament to the degree to which the A380 has entered into the general flying public’s consciousness as I’ve never previously known her to take anything other than a passing interest in our flights. As well as being my first flight upstairs on the A380, this was also going to be my first flight upstairs on any aircraft, with all my 747 flights also having been in the main cabin.

About 3 and a half hours before the flight, we received a call from reception to say that our driver had arrived and made our way down to meet him. After some confusion in reception with another couple who were also awaiting a driver from the company used by Emirates, we were led out so a gleaming silver Mercedes S Class. Incidentally, I have had really good luck with the quality of cars used for Emirates chauffeur service in continental Europe, having had the pleasure of rides in S Classes, 7 Series, an A8, and once even a Range Rover, in contrast with the UK where the cars are more executive than luxury.

After a 45 minute drive, the surprisingly chatty driver dropped us at the terminal, where the business and first check-in desks were just inside the door. With no queue we were on our way to immigration within minutes, and after being fast-tracked to the front of the queue by virtue of the queue dragon somehow knowing we were in Business (I’ve no idea how, I didn’t tell her and she didn’t look at the boarding passes) on our way to the lounge minutes later.

Despite the less than auspicious entrance, which involves descending 3 flights of what feel like service stairs, the Emirates lounge at CDG is a good space, with plenty of natural light despite being on the ground floor underneath of couple of air bridges. In spite of us being there long in advance of the flight (based on Emirates insistence that the chauffeur drive come a minimum of 3 and a half hours in advance), the lounge was already quite busy - probably due to to the same reasons. As we arrived, a lunch selection was being put out so I grabbed a pot of beef stew and some blue cheese to melt over this and retreated to enjoy this and catch up on reading the weeks news periodicals. At various junctures I helped myself to a refill of the champagne (which if I recall correctly was Pol Roger, and regardless was eminently drinkable) before deciding to sample a wee dram of Johnnie Walker Green, which I hadn’t tried before, prior to boarding.

During the course of the couple of hours spent in the lounge the A380 arrived at the gate directly adjacent to the lounge, which blocked out much of the natural light but was nonetheless an extremely impressive sight. Sitting watching it at close quarters you get some appreciation of the not-inconsiderable effort involved in turning the beast around. Boarding was called from the lounge about 20 minutes before scheduled departure so it was clear that we were going to depart slightly late. The boarding process was slight confused by a sign over the economy boarding line stating that it was for Zones C-F, which led some business and first passengers to interpret that this was the priority boarding line. This was quickly resolved however and we were soon on our way along the air-bridge to the top deck.

I was immediately struck upon boarding by how much more impressive than the business class offering on my previous EK flights this was, with the layout avoiding anyone having to suffer the dreaded middle seat. As I was flying with someone I had deliberately selected one of the adjoining seat pairs in the centre of the plane but if flying alone would certainly appreciate the additional privacy the layout provides to the rest of the seats in the cabin. Having stowed my shoes in the provided cubby-hole and donned some slippers, I had a couple of minutes to settle down before being presented with a glass of champagne. I’m not sure whether the attendant had clocked me as a bit of a lush or merely ran out of juice, but I don’t recall being offered anything other than the champagne at this stage. Boarding took significantly longer than one might hope, although it was clear that this was a full load (the lovely lady serving drinks at the bar later informed me that there were 2 empty seats in first, 1 in business, and about 10 downstairs).

Post take off, menus and wine lists were distributed (I did pick these up but have misplaced them in the mean time - if / when I locate I’ll type them up and insert) and drinks orders taken. About 15 minutes later I was presented with my requested G&T and a small plate of canapes, and my dinner order was taken. Having eaten well in the lounge I decided to keep it quite light and had a goose liver terrine (best thing I’ve eaten on a plane in a long time) followed by Caesar Salad with Chicken (pretty pants to be honest). Service was a bit hit and miss, with the speed of service on my side of the cabin significantly slower than on the better half's - her main was served and cleared before mine even arrived. The girl serving my side was lovely but more than a little ditzy, refilling the wine with the wrong type, forgetting to hand out bread, etc - she was charming enough that it didn’t really get my back up but it really was far from polished. I skipped dessert in lieu of some port and cheese and was impressed to be served a large selection of reasonably ripe cheeses on an Emirates signature cheese-board.

After a quick walk to the bar for a post prandial beverage, where I got talked into drinking a couple of shots with a rather jolly Korean gent, who had obviously had a few already, I decided that the novelty of an onboard bar was outweighed by the appeal of a comfortable seat. Back at the seat I settled down to watch a couple of episodes of a Ray Mears documentary in which he spends some time in the far north of Canada learning indigenous survival skills from the locals - he may look a bit genteel and tubby but I bet he would eat Bear Grylls for breakfast in a ‘survival off’. I had hoped to follow this with a trip back to the bar but had failed to factor in that the run from Paris is an hour or so shorter than my more regular London run so was caught out by the beginning of descent into Dubai.

After a few laps in holding we touched down somewhat enthusiastically in Dubai, arriving at the terminal about 30 minutes behind scheduled arrival time. Once in the terminal, for the third time in a row in my arrivals at T3, someone had forgotten to have the door into the terminal unlocked resulting in a 15 minute wait while someone who had a door pass that would open this was located. Once in the terminal we were at immigration and through the e-gate within minutes, only to find that no flight from Paris was listed on the baggage reclaim boards. I located a semi-official looking chap from Emirates and enquired as to which carousel our bags were coming off and was told I must be mistaken as to where I’d come from as no flights has recently arrived from Paris. After assuring him that this was not the case and him being asked the same question by about 5 others he was finally convinced to make a call and from this ascertained that Paris bags would be coming out on the belt advertised for the Moscow flight. With bags located and a quick trip to duty free completed we headed outside and were allocated a driver at the chauffeur drive desk and on our way home with no wait at all.

All things considered, I would certainly consider the hard product on the A380 as the best I have ever experienced - the seats and IFE are fantastic and I really like the layout of the business cabin. I think the bar is a bit of a gimmick and it’s never going to influence my choice of flight but it’s nonetheless good fun. Service was typical of Emirates of late in its lack of polish, I’m rarely actively irritated by the service on Emirates but its even more rarely that I’m impressed. Compared to my first run on the A380, where even in economy I thought the crew were impeccable, the service really was a bit of a disappointment.

Thanks to anyone who got this far in what on reflection is a bit of a wordy report - there are so many people on here that do great photo reports I have thus far stuck to my guns on keeping my reports verbal, if for nothing else than to keep a range of styles available. It's looking like it may be a while before I have a report worthy trip as the next few weeks are looking like being quite quiet and focussed on short hops around the gulf.