Well after all these years of EK coming to Australian/NZ market, and heard great things about EK. I have finally flown EK last Thursday.

Normally I avoided EK as they are not part of OW or *A which I cannot really collect points for either QF/CX or SQ. They also stopped allowing point accumulation at DJ. I normally fly NZ for Trans-Tasman and Pacific Services. But for my trip with my better half and parent in-laws to NZ from SYD, when I quoted AKL-SYD, EK costs the same as NZ seat+bag option. Whilst I am BD*G and has access to NZ lounge, express check-in/luggage, we decided to try EK413 AKL-SYD Y for my EK trial, especially that I have never tried A380 before.

And boy, weren't we (including my hard to please in-laws) all impressed! Comfortable and spacious Y seats (we were on 48G/H/J/K), delicious Y airline food (very eatable and large salmon fillet), fantastic ICE which is multi-language offering (great for my Chinese in-laws!!!!) which works really well (and does not crash!!). The A380 took off and flew so quietly that all of us did not even realised it (we were all watching movies on ICE). Even the toilet, the stairs to F/J level looks beautifully finished. Also even when it is in A380, they divided the Y into small section so that we felt that we are in a small cosy cabin with dedicated service.

The flight was only 3.5 hours and in a way we wanted to stay in the air much longer, even though it is a Y (and I have flown a number of J services for the last two years).

The only thing that I need to figure out is whether ICE supports Chinese so that my in-laws can navigate ICE themselves if they fly EK again. My only other small gripe (not on EK) is that it departed from AKL at Gate 16 which is MILES AWAY from all the other gates. Probably because they are the only A380 compliant gates at AKL.

I would definitely try to fly them again, even in Y. I wonder what it is like to fly in EK J/F on A380 or their 777s?! (started collecting Skyward points, had 3700 of them but surely miles away from getting J award) Maybe I need to sign up the Citibank EK Platinum Credit Card to collect points ....