Thinking of Flying Emirates
 

Hello All,

I am planning on heading out to Dubai to visit family this next few months. I was looking at a few airlines and Emirates was one of the options. THe Travel rep at Amex said they are the best and had the 2 for 1 deal going. I was looking at British Airways and was thinking of flying with them in Biz class. My question is, who is a better airline in business class, BA or Emirates? I never flew any of them.

Thanks.

BA have the better hard product - i.e. sleeper seats in C - but EK win hands down on the "frills" in my opinion.

Because the BA C cabins are so large (up to 70 seats) I feel it misses out on some of the exclusivity than premium products really should carry and you're just a number.

In my experience of EK, the crew seem to appreciate the fact that you've paid that bit more to fly up front (upgrades aren't easy to get like they are on US carriers) and look after you accordingly.

The food on EK whips BA's offerings - think 5 courses, maybe 3 options to start, 4 or 5 for the main etc. No question about "cheese OR dessert" - they expect you to have both! No pre-wrapped peanuts with drinks - think a few canapes on a proper plate (you get the idea).

EK have great amenity kits. They give you a limo at each end (for most airports, even on discounted fares). The EK lounge at DXB is way better than the BA terraces at Heathrow.

I'm assuming you'd be flying JFK-DXB nonstop which means you get the best planes (the EK A330's are a bit of a squash up front) but if EK have good fares, I'd say go with them!

Adding on to the original question. Any opinions on DXB-CDG in F? Seems that the 777 fleet is in the midst of a refit. What kind of seat / service should I expect on this route? [Didn't see anything about it specifically in the "sticky" topic on IFE / New J/F seats]. Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi,

After flying with BA instead of EK this summer for my DXB-LHR run, I was able to make a good comparison between the two.

British Airways

~Consistent Product (all planes have NCW bed except for maybe a few 767s)
~Great FLAT bed
~Lounge in London is excellent. Ground service is mediocre (London T4 is a nightmare) Lounge in Dubai was also quite good.
~Service was acceptable
~IFE / Food was weak
~Stingy FF program, unless you are flying F/J (which you are) I would credit with Asia Miles if you don't need status.

Emirates

~Inconsistent product in F/J (345 is much better than 772/77W which are much better than 330/310/343/773)
~Not flat bed, although good pitch on the 345/772/77W
~Excellent lounge in Dubai and on ground service in general. However, lounges in other cities aren't great (namely LHR) the JFK lounge is excellent.
~Excellent service
~Good FF program (150% bonus for J vs 125% on many other airlines)
~EXCELLENT IFE on 345/772/77W Good IFE on other planes (still better than BA on older planes)
~Food is always outstanding.
~Less stressful experience



Between the 2, if you are looking for comfort, I would go with BA, no doubt. However, I think the EK product is slightly better than the BA overall product.

Cheers

Hey,

DXB-CDG (at least the daily flight) is operated by a 777-200 which has been refitted with ICE and the new First Class flat beds.

New First Class on Boeing 777-200

Cheers

Thanks once again for sharing your wealth of EK knowledge. That is what I was hoping for.

I flew with family from JFK to DXB on Emirates business. The service is excellent and will definitily use them again.

No problem.

Just to reconfirm, EK73/74 are on a Boeing 777-200 which has been reconfigured, whereas EK75/76 are on 330's which have not been reconfigured with ICE and the new First Class

Cheers

Having just done JNB/DXB/SIN and back in F here's my 2c worth.

Unless you get the refitted F, EK's F cabin is simply not up to current best standards. Not even up to the best J standards. I would rather have the BA or SA J seat than what EK offers in its old F cabin. On the 77W the new seat is very novel - but frankly also a bit wierd. I mean why have that mini bar with a random selection of tins and bottles (Starbucks Frappucino, Pepsi, Evian water...) when the galley has excellent fresh juices and cocktails (alcoholic or not), cappucino, wine etc.? I suspect that this innovation will go the way of the Studebaker that was touted as "the first car with an aeroplane nose!" - an interesting design detour destined for rapid oblivion.

The food and wine was uniformly excellent. I love the touches like the arabian coffee and dates pre take-off and the post prandial Godiva chockies. But altogether this was food of the highest order including the best salad I have ever eaten on a plane. (Everything from the torn bitter greens to the parmesan shavings seemed to have been prepared that minute.)

The IFE was certainly extensive. Especially in classical music which is my preferred way to pass the time - not least since you get excellent noise cancelling headsets. But for me the system wasn't as intuitive as some people have said. (Maybe I'm getting too old for the technology!) I must say though that those pre-recorded announcements to fasten your seat belts (in English and Arabic) are really loud and harsh.

The service was a tad patchy - ranging from the best purser ever to bland indifference and mild incompetence. There were some inconsistencies in standards, like allowing F pax to deplane first vs. letting you fight it out in the general free for all.

The lounge in DXB is great in many respects - but it is overdue for refurbishment. Apart form general tiredness of furnishings I notice that the showers are showing heavy mildew and the room airconditioner didn't work (when I eventually got a room). Outside DXB it irks me that EK don't use better quality F lounges. Even despite the codeshare with SA they use a very inferior lounge in JNB to SA's Baobab lounge. The lounge in SIN (Skyview Lounge?) was nicely airy but barely adequate in terms of beverages and food.

Ground handling by EK ranged from poor in JNB to fantastic at SIN. At DXB they have a separate entrance to the plane for F and J pax - but you can't get to it through the crush of Y pax on the air bridge, so it really loses its point. Also be warned that DXB has become a real nightmare due to congestion. Both my arrivals required lengthy busing to the terminal and long queues at transit security. I had ample connection time but it would have freaked me out if I'd had less than an hour and a half.

I wouldn't bother with EK in J unless you get the 2 for 1 deal. And then it's worth doing it in F since those prices are usually not that much more.

Thanks very much for your insight ^

Few comments:

The "minibar" innovation (also on the 345 by the way :) ) was rather controversial from the start, but EK decided that customers would rather have easy access to the simple things such as water / juice / soft drinks without having to call an FA. Think of it as "bottled water in the seat pocket in front of you" except more advanced :)

I agree, those announcements drive me crazy!

With regards to priority boarding and deplaning, these concepts don't really exist in the Middle East which is why it often does seem like a free for all. Hopefully EK will introduce these things as part of their service.

The EK business class is being refurbished right now (or it might be done) and the F class lounge will probably be refurbished after that.

Ahhh the infamous buses, I almost had a heart attack when I got off the aircraft in the summer and a bus was waiting - definately very annoying especially in the heat. Does anyone know when the new terminal will be done?

The minimum connection time in Dubai is a short 45 minutes. However, if you are making a popular connection, they will often hold the flight. Most flights from Europe arrive in Dubai close to midnight, so they often end up delaying EK604 to Karachi which is supposed to depart at 1:30am. They also often hold up EK606 to Karachi (Dep 1000) when EK6 from Heathrow is late (Arr 0915)

Cheers

Totally agree - particularly the Arabic one that sounds something like like "khabbardar ekhaddar!!" Certainly not soothing for nervous flyers!

Even though they drive me crazy, I love copying what they say. I can only read arabic not understand it, so it's quite a fun little challenge - try it next time :) You can even learn some arabic by matching the english and arabic announcements. Worst comes to worst - they headphones the give you are quite nice Plug them in to an MP3 player and you won't be disturbed.

Cheers

Maybe we should ask someone who speaks Arabic for a phonetic spelling in English of the Arabic announcement.

They should replace that scary guy with the voice of a woman, or stereotypically gay man. :eek:

Sadiqhassan - ^ this one really made me laugh. My wife does the same when we fly emirates, and this arabic "fasten your seatbelt" has become an internal joke in our house when something suddenly comes up. Somewhat charming that an airline retains something (arabian coffee, dates and the fasten seat belt in arabic) just as KLM gives out delft houses in J, and Malaysian have their famous satay.

Yesss, the seatbelt sign one is our favourite, all my friends think I'm nuts when I keep saying it :p