Fernweh

Hi all,

First time in this forum - sorry if this question has been asked before, I tried using the Search function but couldn't find anything there. My fiance and I have booked our honeymoon to Cambodia and Vietnam this autumn, and we'll be flying with Emirates (Economy saver tickets). This will be the first time we've flown with them, and in fact it will be my fiance's first ever long haul flight.

I'd like to select our seats for the flights in advance, because check-in will open at the exact time that we're having our wedding ceremony so we won't be able to select them then. I also like the idea of the twin seats so that we get a bit of privacy. However, my fiance is balking at the cost - GLA-DXB is £40 per seat for a twin seat (Boeing 777-300ER), and DXB-BKK is £60 per seat for a twin seat (Airbus A380-800). (BKK-REP doesn't have seat selection available because it's Bangkok airways.) That would mean an extra £200 for the seats, and we're already slightly over budget on the honeymoon, so I can understand his concerns.

The twin seats on the Airbus A380 would mean that we get to sit upstairs, so I'm tempted to insist that we book those - but for the Boeing 777, are they worth the extra cost? Or would we be fine with the regular seats? We'll definitely want to sleep on the A380 flight as that's overnight, but the Boeing 777 flight leaves in the afternoon, getting us into DXB at midnight, so we might not need to get any sleep on that flight.

Thanks in advance for your advice, and if you need more information to be able to help, just ask.

simons1

Personally I would say it's a complete waste of money. If you can get 2 seats together I would save the money to spend on honeymoon.

chris19992

I can't speak for the A380 twin seats but on the 777 they are further from the window, so if you did need sleep and/or like to lean your pillow against the wall it can be difficult.

That's £200 each way which is not an insignificant amount, you could always chance your luck that they will still be there when OLCI opens and there would be no need to pay.

DYKWIA

Go for the twin seats upstairs on the A380. Well worth it in my opinion. I wouldn't bother on the B777.

skywardhunter

Just went through this for the first time as I get free seats as Gold. Flying with my mother on Monday on separate tickets and she's in a special and no status so at exactly T-48 checked her in and all seats had been assigned prior to OLCI, the only 2 seats together happened to be twins so happy to have snagged them, but point being that even at T-48 seat selection will be limited. Upper deck A380 definitely nice

daisymay2

We've travelled on the upper deck economy twice and booked to return from Mauritius in March MRU-DXB at a cost of £25.00 pp now they've introduced charges for silver skywards which we thought reasonable. We booked those 2 months ago.

However I just booked economy flights for April and the charge has now rocketed to £60.00 pp.........why EK?
For three legs for 2 people that's £360 if my maths are right.

Upper deck is certainly much better than the lower deck IME. We used to prebook the 2 seaters on the 777 when we used to fly the 777 and they were free for status pax but IMO they aren't worth paying for.

Fernweh

Thanks for your replies everyone. I think I'll go for it with the twin seats on the A380, but just reserve the regular seats on the B777 - they're only £20 each so not as bad. I don't want to just chance it at online check-in, because we probably won't be able to check in online until 24 hours before the flights, so everyone else will have had a 24 hour head-start on us. The actual seats may not matter so much, but I do want us to be able to sit together.

skywardhunter

Same Route? Prices are different on every route

daisymay2

Yes, same route and still silver. That's more than a 100 per cent increase.

thunderlounge

My best advice for this situation:


Tell him you’ll be married then, and £200 is the least of his worries.





Oh, and good choice to go ahead with the seat selection in this case.

DatBoi

My best advice : get an upgrade to J, it will be worth it trust me - especially from a comfort point of view.

DYKWIA

The OP has already said they are over budget, and that £200 is likely to be too pricey, so how on earth does your comment help?

Fernweh

Thanks again guys. Yes, as much as I'd love to, flying in J just isn't an option for us sadly - I suspect the "we're on our honeymoon, please give us an upgrade" line only works in the movies. Our budget for the entire honeymoon is £5k, and according to Google Flights our flights are currently going for about £2500 each in J...

Still, I'm putting as many wedding and honeymoon costs as possible onto my BAPP credit card, and it should be enough for us to get a 2-4-1 voucher - so we should get to try BA J soon. Probably not quite as good as Emirates J, but it's a start.

sydtogla

Have you considered sticking your wedding costs on an Amex Gold credit card? They offer possibly the most handsome mileage bonuses in the UK at the moment and can easily be transferred to EK. If you and your Mrs got one and met the minimum spends, you would end up with 20k miles each. That would be a good dent towards a J upgrade between GLA and DXB (39,000/30,000 usually).

Fernweh

Thanks for the suggestion, sydtogla (just one small correction - I'm the Mrs here. ). I've just checked the Emirates website though, and according to their calculator it would be 57500 miles each to upgrade an Economy Saver ticket to J on that route - I think we'd struggle to get that many before October, even with the sign-up bonus from the Amex Gold! We also need to be careful about applying for too many credit cards at the moment, as we're hoping to move to a larger apartment after the wedding and will need a new mortgage.

I'm sure we'll be fine in economy, I've always been in economy when I've flown long-haul in the past and I've survived ok.