First class vs Business class
 

It is on my bucket list to do a first class flight somewhere one day. I've been lucky enough to get an upgrade to business on a flight AKL-SYD on the A380 It was great, loved every minute of it.

But my question is, is it really worth the extra money to fly in first class. Have done a couple of long haul biz flights on NZ and SQ and it is without a doubt a much nicer way to travel. To be honest though, I'm hard pressed to justify the cost from economy to business most of the time. Having said that, I just dont think I could fly Air NZ economy long haul again, hence my next trip is with emirates.

Not sure why you're asking (or what you're asking, for that matter). Seems you've already decided to fly first, if it's on your bucket list. As for "is it worth it, I doubt comments here convince you to take it off the bucket list. They"ll probably just confirm what you've already decided. Book it.


Update... Just upgraded myself to F (cash) on CPT-DXB-AKL flights...

^^

It's all relative to what you can afford. For me suites are far better than business class on ek but then they are expensive.

Depending on the route it's worth it!

If you are booking F at least book it on a A380 so that you can have the full F experience . You also don't have to worry about getting the old style seats either.

This is true.

Get the shower time in. :p

The Emirates A380 suite, is a must do. I'm not sure how much longer it will be viable to put a shower in a non-private plane for.

Personally I can't see many more in the future due to the cost to transport the water around and also the amount of space the shower rooms take up.

It seems to be working for Emirates though, they offer a slightly smaller First Class cabin than their key competitors, but offer the shower. Personally I think the Suite is large enough and like the shower, however I would like to try the double bed on Singapore Airlines if you travel with a partner in the middle cabins ;-)

I've also had some of the best wine in Emirates First (think the LHR route especially).

Don't think your plans for the mile high club would work though.Isn't the privacy screen on SQ similar to EK.:D

The shower room is plenty big enough.... ;)

And 'officially' has a max occupancy of 2 pax ;)

Haha!

:D

I just booked for me and my wife first class flights with EK (FRA-DXB-PER-DXB-FRA) end of September/end of October.
Hence, it seemed to me also a bargain. (Euro 4.700 for one person for the 4 flight segments).
It will be our first time in first class with EK. (Have had some upgrades from Biz to First with LH in the past).
I will let you know our experiences.

I disagree with this - except for the shower, the F product on the 777 is much nicer.

The differentiator between F and J is not just the hard product, but the soft product. And so, whether it is worth it, depends on the value you get out of it - ie if the service is fantastic it will seem more worth it than if the cabin is full and service is terrible.

One of my most memorable EK flights was from MEL-DXB as the only passenger in F, and a couple of years flying EK F for the first time to MLE, when the service was very good.

But yea, on its best day, EK F is miles ahead of EK J, and the price difference is not always what you would think it is.

€4700 for F for this itinerary is a steal. I've seen J fares which are higher than this. Usually this sells for over 7-8k euros in F

is it Companion Fare?
But still 4700EUR is cheaper, the lowest I've seen is 5300EUR per person.
I've also seen J for 3650EUR.

No. normal fare published on the emirates website.
But it was just a one week promotion. After that price was again 8k.

I will look forward to reading of your experiences. Bon voyage!

I've done a few F trips in the suited up 77W and J in the 380 and most recently on EK 201 to JFK. I must say that I do prefer J class and that may seem odd but I like the fact that it's not so secluded and you can talk with other passengers.

I reckon EK 201 which I took on 30/8 was loaded with EK crew in J class headed to NY to work the US open! some fine looking girls but should they really be getting seats paying customers are requesting?

Finally, I manged to give you some feedback.

Chauffeur service to/from airport
This is a great complientary service. Enjoyed it not to stand in the queue in perth to grab a taxi.
Only odd thing was, that in FRA we were picked up by a Mercedes S-class, but the trunk is so small, it could not fit two normal sized suitcases and 2 bord cases. One of the suitcase was put on the back seat...... IN Perth it was a VW Phaeton and all lugguage could be fit in the trunk.

Lounges
Offer of drinks and food in the lounges at FRA and PER was just great. There was one dish of everything (fish, meat, chicken, vegetarien, etc).
We were also told, that they will renew the lounges in FRA next year, as it looks a little bit "old fashioned" (typical arabien wood interior decor), but still everything was in good shape and proper.

First class lounge in DXB was quite an experience. The restaurant is a la carte or buffet. We choose a la carte, since wanted to enjoy the service. Food was excellent. We both had the fillet and this was by far one of the best and tender I had ever.

Flights
We loved the private suites. However, as in above thread, this is up to personal taste. My wife and myself enjoyed the privacy of the suites.
Service was also just superb.
You will be served as a starter a Dom Perignon Champagne from 2003 (Although I am not that much into champagne, I loved it). And the flight attendents really took care, that the glass was never empty! You have to stop them filling-up the glass.
Food was just great. compared to LH this is way better. (However, have no experience with any other airline.
What we liked about the private suites are the fact, that you can actually change clothes there. Also my wife liked it that she can wear the sleeping shirt without anyone else starring at here.
So all in all, food was great, private suites was great, drinks were great, service was great. ^

Therefore, we decided to stay a week in BBK over new years eve and booked again EK. :D.
We got again a good deal. 3.400 Euro per person in first for FRA-DXB-BKK-DXB-FRA (and the DXB-BKK leg is with an A380). This was a normal fare on the emirates website, only valid for about 2-3 days.

so, we definitely like the first class experience with EK.
My only concern is, that we get slowly used to this travel style and that is getting really expensive. :rolleyes:

Hope this helped.

Thanks for the trip report!

What is up with everyone getting these super cheap fares? :confused:
I'm flying DAC-DXB-EZE and back around Christmas and it's 7500 USD in J! :eek:

I guess, it depends also on the departing airport. Checked also the fares from ZRH (instead of FRA) and the fares were about 30% more expensive (despite the fact, that the DXB-BKK leg was the same.)

I am on the emirates mailing list (dont know, if this is because I flew first class already, or if it is the "normal" newsletter. There I got alerted about this 3 days special offer.)

Something I've never tried. ;)

I guess competition out of Europe and especially FRA is much tougher than out of DAC. But the difference is still pretty harsh.

There's a special offer newsletter that every Skywards members can get (or opt out of).

I'm flying EZE-PEK/HKT-EZE in J and fare was about 9900 per person. (But in argentina you have to pay 20% tax for every purchase in USD so i guess the real price was about 8.3k?) still, very expensive. Not to mention that by the time we booked it, the HKT-DXB part was in an old a340-300 (changed to a 777-300ER now).

I do agree that EK is extremely generous with alcohol. Even in Y its better than every other airline Ive been in. :D. Many of my early trips in EK in my 20's were a blur as I used to pass out after a few drinks. Obviously once you are older most people learn to control their alcohol intake.

Yes, a good reason why I prefer you fly J as well. :D

^:D

I'm the opposite, I never engage any of my fellow passengers in coversation, I'm a proper anti-social old git !

Me too, I can't be bothered generally.

I like F. Leave the Dom, close the door :)

The only time I've engaged in any sort of conversation is when traveling with our baby, when lots of folks just become curious and want to hold her.

And once with 678flyer a couple of months back...

Definitely first
 

Flying in first class was also on my bucket list + it had to be on an inaugural flight and last September, I got this fulfilled when Emirates started flying from Stockholm last September 4. It was the most unforgettable day of my life;) I was lucky they had promo fares. I flew business class BKK-DXB(upgraded) and the difference to first class was really obvious. Goodluck!

For more of my trip reports, pls click here

My partner just booked ARN to Per in business and SYD to ARN in First class for Feb 2014 and it was 32,000 sek, abt 4,900 USD after the 10% discount code he rcvd from his email. That's super cheap compared to other airlines :)

Just thought I would follow up on my experience of first vs business as I was lucky enough to have a first class flight AKL to SYD courtesy of my wonderful man!

I LOVED IT. Is it worth the extra $$$. Debatable. I think if you had unlimited funds and you were doing a long haul flight and suffer from terrible jet lag, yes. Wonderful. However, my fiance and I decided that actually we would both be just as happy in business class. Unfortunately J return to Europe next year is out of our financial reach so we'll be slumming it in Y! :) But we will have some very nice hotel stopovers!

Even though we were on a short flight on the A380, I did use the shower just so that I could say, I've had a shower at x no of feet! :) I could totally get used to the never ending glass of Dom Perignon. The service was fantastic. I was impressed by the food. I loved being picked up in the car from home and then at our destination. Fast tracked through immigration, from start to finish the whole experience was definitely what I would call "first class"!

It's funny really, because when we flew business earlier this year to Melbourne, we thought that was pretty swish, so when we flew first this time and then wandered back through Business to the bar, all of a sudden it looked quite ordinary. hahaha, it really will be a comedown for me next year wont it!

I disagree ....... I think the most important part of travel - are the seats and the flat beds. The J on the A380 is better than some of the older aircraft. The lounge area in J is phenomenal - where even the F pax come down to socialize and mingle.

The Showers, albeit unique and great are overkill ........ The mini-bar with the warm drinks unnecessary when you have the awesome EK crew to hand out just about anything you need!

I tend to think of the showers as a marketing tool, as only Emirates' has them. When I tried the shower I was slightly unnerved by having only 5 minutes' water (the allocated 30 minutes in the "spa" was fine, tho'). On my next flight I may give it a miss.

I love the shower, I've used it coming into DXB - saves me having a shower when I get in and I sleep better that night. Can't put a price on my sleep! :D

You cannot fault the Emirates Suites on the A380. There is a pretty good write up of the experience in the link here, although the turbulence meant no showers were used. :p

http://backpackerlee.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/105/

However, I am also a fan of EK's business class. I may get the chance to try it between SYD-AKL next year. They have a very good product, and it is much cheaper than the equivalent of EY or TK.