Emirates First Class - Sydney to Auckland return on the A380


The First Class Shower Spa

Welcome!

Welcome to my 16th trip report.

Join me as I take a little taster flight on the Emirates A380, across the Tasman from Sydney to Auckland, spend a few days in the city and then fly back again, all in First Class.


This report features the following:

- The Emirates Lounge at Sydney Airport
- First Class suite on board the A380, Sydney to Auckland, including the bar and the shower suite
- A few days in Auckland, including a sail on an ex-Americas Cup racing yacht and a tour out to the West coast
- The Emirates Lounge at Auckland Airport
- First Class suite on board the A380, Auckland to Sydney


Background

Ok, so I have a list. A list of things that I want to do, aviation wise. I managed to do a couple of them last year, flying First class for the first time, and on BA, and in the nose of a 747 (3 things on the list), plus I flew to Longreach and toured a retired 747, inside and out. Another entry on the list is to fly Emirates in First class on the A380 which included of course, having a shower at 40,000 ft!

It is reasonably well known that the A380 that Emirates send to Sydney carries on to Auckland after stopping off for a few hours first. Rather than being an add-on connecting flight, it is treated as a separate flight in it's own right and can be booked, in all classes. Ok, so it's not exactly the longest flight in the world, but for those looking to 'try' some of the Emirates on-board products, it's the perfect opportunity. I have flown with Emirates before, and on the A380, but in business. I found the experience mixed, with the hard product (the seat) being very good, but the cabin crew downright rude on occasion.

Around November time I started looking at prices and dates. My company shuts down over Christmas, not returning until the 9th of January. This meant that I plenty of time to take a trip over to Auckland. Looking at the flight times (08.45 out and 18.40 back) I decided that I definitely wanted to fly back in First, but wasn't sure if it was worth spending the extra cash to fly out too. First class on a morning flight might not be the best use of my hard earned cash. After a bit of discussion on the Emirates forum, Dave Noble pointed out that the price difference from Business to First is mostly offset by the included chauffeur transfer with First which you don't get with Business. The price difference between the two was about $400. A return chauffeur trip to Sydney Airport from my apartment is about $250. When you factor in the chauffeur drive in Auckland too, travelling in First almost seems 'free', so I decided to book both legs as First.

Emirates allows you to choose your seat at the time of booking. There are 4 rows in a 1-2-1 layout located at the front of the upper deck on the A380. I quick PM to our wonderful Emirates forum moderator and trip writer extraordinaire eightblack and I'd picked 2K on the way out and 3A on the way back, based on his recommendations. I tried to go as far forward as possible, sticking with the window seats but avoiding row 1 as it is said to be narrower and has less windows than the other suites.

Then it was time to book the hotel. I'd previously flown to Auckland in September, before heading to Palmerston North on a business trip. However, I only spent 16 hours in Auckland itself. 8 of which were sleeping in a hotel, 6 at the office and 2 at the airport. It's fair to say that I didn't get to see the sights. So this trip gave me the opportunity to rectify that. I went ahead and booked 4 nights st the Crowne Plaza as the rate was very good and it is centrally located. I normally like to stay in Marriott hotels, however, in their wisdom, they have decided not to locate any hotels in the whole of New Zealand; so that wasn't an option.


Route

- Sydney T1 (International) (SYD) to Auckland International (AKL): Emirates (EK), First Class (F), Airbus A380-800
- Auckland International (AKL) to Sydney T1 (International) (SYD): Emirates (EK), First Class (F), Airbus A380-800


In case you don't know where Sydney and Auckland are, here's a map:



Sydney to Auckland on Emirates

Getting To The Airport

As I've previously mentioned, booking First class on Emirates entitles the passenger to a free chauffeur driven transfer from home to the airport. There is a mileage limit although I'm not sure what this is for Sydney. As I live close to the centre, I qualified. The car company phoned me up a few days before the flight and asked me to confirm the time that I'd like to be picked up. I'd previously entered my details in the 'manage my booking' section of the Emirates website. The flight departs at 08.45 in the morning, so I decided on a 6am pick up. That would probably give me over an hour in the lounge as I didn't expect that the airport would be too busy.

I'd set my alarm for 5.15am, having done all of my packing the night before. Try as I might, I didn't manage to get to sleep until late, about 1am, so getting up when my alarm went off was tricky. In actual fact, I woke up at 5.45 realising that I'd shut off my alarm! I jolted out of bed, ran to the shower and was still in my towel when the driver called my apartment at 5.55! I told him that I'd be a few minutes. I managed to make it downstairs for 6am. I was greeted by the sight of a very plush and large Holden with a very friendly driver. We chatted about the New Year's Eve celebrations as we made our way over the bridge and towards the airport. The journey was good, only taking 25 minutes or so. The driver dropped me off outside the right door for the Emirates check in desks, in row E.



Heading over the Bridge


Check In

There was one First Class desk, a couple of Business Class desks and plenty of Economy desks. There was hardly anyone around, but as it would turn out, the First Class desk was busy. I stood around for a while, before being motioned over to the nearest Business Class desk by a rather grumpy agent. This is starting to be a pattern, as I wasn't able to use the First Class desk when I flew out of Sydney on BA last time either. Not that it matters.

The agent asked me loads of questions about my residency status in Australia, I guess, it was to ensure that I would be allowed to return to Sydney. It might explain why I was unable to check in online when I tried the day before too as I got a message indicating that my passport needed to be checked by an agent at the airport.

The grumpy agent went through the motions. She didn't really ask the usual questions like whether I had flown with them before and knew where the lounge was, questions that you might expect someone to ask a passenger who was flying First. Nope, I'd have to figure the lounge out for myself. What she did do though is give me an express lane pass to skip some of the queues at immigration and security.



Occupied First Class desk


Rather than head straight to security, I decided to check out the observation deck. I think that I had been up there once before, many years ago. It offers reasonably good views over the air field, although I didn't manage to witness any take offs whilst I was there. I'm sure that I will return to take some photos later in the year.



From the observation deck - A recently arrived Qantas 747


Security and Immigration

After leaving the observation deck (and having filled out my immigration card) I headed for the ‘Express Path’ entrance which is actually a separate door near to the normal immigration and security entrance.

A lady checked my immigration and express path card and ushered me to the front of the queue where a friendly officer checked my passport and waved me through. I very often find that the officers working on the ‘exit’ immigration are much more friendly than those working on the ‘arrivals’ desks. I’m not sure why, although this is perhaps it is a much easier task.

I made my way to the separate lanes for security and was through very quickly. My general observation of both immigration and security was that it was rather empty, with not many passengers departing on flights that morning.


The Lounge

So, next, it was off to the lounge. The last time that I flew out of Sydney when not travelling on either BA or Qantas was back in 2004, on Emirates, when I went backpacking around Australia as a student, consequently, I had no idea where any of the other lounges where. Apart from the main duty free and waiting area, there is an additional part of the airport located to the right when existing the main duty free shop. This is labelled as gates ’51-63’ and is where many of the non-Qantas departures are located.

I just so happened to look at my boarding pass and noticed that a map showing directions to the lounge had been stuck to the back. Here it is:



Map to the Emirates lounge


The walk to the lounge actually took quite a while, as the corridors were very long. There were however signs to help along the way. Once I got near the entrance I took the lift down a level to make my way into the lounge itself.




Entrance to the Emirates Lounge


I arrived at about 6.55am and as I presented my boarding pass, my name was ticked off the passenger list. The lady at the lounge entrance was very friendly and addressed me by name. She asked if I had used the lounge before and whether I would need Wi-Fi access.

Upon entering the lounge I wasn’t surprised to see that it was styled in the same manner as the London Emirate’s lounge (the only other Emirates lounge that I have visited outside Dubai). The styling is really not to my taste and it reminds me of something from the 80’s, with lots of beige leather and wood.

However, the lounge looked to be well appointed, with lots of seating areas, located around a central dining area. The front of the lounge was bathed in sunlight, so I made my way over to one of the pairs of seats directly facing the window. The lounge wasn’t too busy at this point, but the dining area had a number of groups of people tucking into breakfast.



Looking into the lounge from near the entrance, seating on the left, dining on the right


Seating areas at the window


Dining area (it was too busy to get a better shot)


I sat down and then went to explore the food and drink options. As I have come to expect from Emirates lounges the range and quality of the food on offer was fantastic, certainly far better than many other lounges around the world that I have visited. There were two bars, one in the main dining area, the other at the far end of the lounge, near to the entrance.

The drinks on offer included a good range of spirits and mixers, three different red wines, two whites and two Champagne offerings. These were Veuve Cliquot NV and Moét Rosé NV. There was also an extensive selection of soft drinks including juices at the dining area bar. One thing that I like, that I wish more airlines would do, is that a card is presented along with the wines giving you a little information about each wine on offer.

On the food front was a very good selection of hot and cold items including a full breakfast (although no bacon of course) as well as omelettes made to order. There was a good selection of cereal, pastries, yoghurts, smoothies and fruit. I really cannot fault Emirates on the food front, the quality, presentation and selection is always top notch. Eating in the lounge is no compromise, it is entirely possible to have a full meal and not feel like you’ve just eaten ‘lounge food’.



The secondary bar area


Hot food items on display

I decided that it was a little early to tuck into the Champagne, straight at least, so I went for a Bucks Fizz/Mimosa with the Veuve Cliquot. I’m not sure how it would have worked with the rosé!

One thing to note about the lounge, it is a shared First and Business class lounge, there is no separate First class section. For Business class passengers this is certainly a bonus as you would expect that the facilities would be uplifted a little to cater for both groups of passengers. However, as a First class passenger, it feels a little bit like a downgrade. A smaller, quieter First class lounge would be very welcome. Someone on the Emirates forum may be able to correct me, but I believe that the only place where the lounges are split is in Dubai itself. At all other locations, they are shared.

I returned to my seat and sat in the sun, watching the early morning arrivals trundle by. This included a Singapore Airlines A380, a Korean Air 747 and a Virgin Australia 777 which parked up at the gate directly opposite to where I was sitting. It was so close that I was able to watch as the aircraft was turned around.

One very interesting thing, and related to my previous trip report was that as the 777 arrived and was secured, an engineer opened up a panel directly behind the nose gear and disappeared inside the aircraft. I assume that this is in fact the entrance to the avionics bay. A similar hatch exists on the 747 and the A380 too (if you know where to look).



Bucks Fizz in the morning sun – note the Emirates branded glassware


SQ A380 trundles past


Here comes a Virgin Australia 777


Disappearing into the avionics bay


Virgin Australia 777 livery


The lounge started to fill up and actually got very busy. By 8am, it was rather full indeed. Boarding was due to start 8.20am and so, rather than sit around, I decided to head out to find the gate and perhaps get a shot of the aircraft before boarding.


Verdict

The Emirates ground experience in Sydney was pretty good. The check in staff could be friendlier, although I don’t know what the First class service would have been like, since I ended up at a Business desk. The lounge is located quite a distance away from the main departure area, although the secondary area is much quieter, which is a bonus.

The lounge in Sydney is rather good, with the friendly service. The styling of the lounge is not to my taste. I much prefer the contemporary styling of the Qantas and BA lounges around the world. To me, the Emirates styling makes the lounge look very dated, and not at all classy, as it should be. I also do not like the fact that it is a shared lounge, with First and Business class passengers sharing the same facilities. However, this isn’t really a major point, but it does dilute the First class experience (more on that later).

On the positive side, the food and beverage selection was excellent, as expected, and this is probably the strongest feature of the lounge.

Overall, a pleasant place to spend an hour or so before the flight, but not particularly memorable when compared to other similarly positioned lounges.