NickRivas

Hey everyone, quick question. Planning a trip to VIE-Auckland. For the return I have the option of either a stopover in DOH flying the 17 hour flight with Qatar’s Qsuite or stopover in Dubai on Emirates A380 F. Is first class on Emirates that much better than Qsuite/business would be on Qatar? If we were comparing J to J then for sure QR. But for F on Emirates, aside from the soft product (caviar, DP champagne, better food, Hennessy, F lounge in Dubai, etc) which isn’t that huge of a convincing factor for me, the big perk I see is the Emirates A380 shower. Food on QR J is on demand like EK first, and I can go without caviar or DP. For a 17 hour flight the shower seems a big advantage. Any experiences? I’ve flown the A380 on EK before but on J. I know the shower times are limite but how strict are they on allowing you to time your shower? I’d like one half way/ish during the long flight.

thijsseh

You can book the shower at whatever time you want. As there are two showers and 14 suites, of which most use the shower say from 2 hours before landing, getting a booking mid flight should be no problem. They’ll come and ask you for your preferred time very early in the flight, sometimes even before takeoff. Officially you get 20 minutes in the ‘shower spa’ (of which you get 5 minutes water, which you can switch on and off), but they won’t come and kick you out after those 20 minutes, especially if there is no-one waiting (which should be the case mid flight). The water is timed though (there is an indication in the shower to show you how much is left). I have never let it run out, so not sure what actually happens when you get to zero and still have a head full of shampoo….

SilverChris

There's no comparison, really. QSuites might be a very good J product, but it's still J. And with QR there's always that ever-present risk of being swapped to a non-QSuite aircraft.

Ever wondered why they keep bottles of Evian at the forward bar display?

HaleiwaFlyer

I would chose Emirates F; much more personalized service and soft/hard product elevated beyond Q Suites. F vs a really good J.

I feel the service in Q Suites is starting to have a rushed service; especially during crew rest, mid flight.

NYC1

No-brainer — EK F. For most, the only real factor would be price, which you’re not referring to, so I have to assume that’s not part of the equation.

NickRivas

we used miles for the way over, but oddly enough the way back seems to be equal price on EK one way (half the price) of what it would be round trip. So definitely considering the extra cost in F over QR J

Dorowilson

S.R

Not even a question, EK F 100%.
While Q suites is a great J product, it’s not comparable at all to most F products.

Will08

How much extra is it going to cost you to fly EK F over the q suite. Flying EK F is the obvious answer but you don’t seem bothered by many of the perks you’ll get from being in F. Is this coming down to how much you want to pay to have a 5 minute shower?

NickRivas

For the way back QR is around $4400 in J one way. EK first is $6000.
Again, we weren’t planning on booking a one way with $ but unlike QR, the price for EK is exactly half what the round trip would be (usually a one way is considerably more than half the price of a round trip).
Another negative I see is that I earn most of my miles on OW, so QR would be better for that too. I have no status with EK so the miles earned there would be useless.

Will08

I think you have your answer there… the only other thing I would have considered is a380 vs 777 but AKL flights are normally a350 arnt they on QR?

NickRivas

yep a350-1000

NYC1

OK. Only you can determine whether the cost gap ($1600 + miles earned on QR credited to whatever OW program you use + value of status miles/points/whatever earned in that OW program) is "worth" it. I would choose EK, but that is me.

S.R

I recently took 2 longhaul Q suites flights (1 on a A351 and another on 77L). FWIW, the A350 suite was much more comfortable.

SFO777

EK First in a heartbeat.