Multiple Qs ahead of long Emirates trip!
 

Hi, am flying with Emirates from Manchester to Auckland (via Melbourne), then back to Melbourne and then a week later back from Melbourne to Manchester. All legs are booked in J but I took advantage of the 'upgrade to First on one leg either way' deal (just £700!) to get a First suite on the longest Dubai-Melbourne and Melbourne-Dubai legs (both flights on A340-500).

Some questions:
1) how busy is the Melbourne-Auckland leg likely to be and what do you think my chances are of being able to keep my First seat from the 13hr leg on the short 3.5hr flight to/from Auckland? Do they make all passengers get off the plane in Melbourne before continuing on to Auckland?

2) if I fly out J from Manchester-Dubai and then have a 3hr wait in Dubai before continuing in F class, will I be OK to use the First Class Emirates lounge?

3) How easy is it to get hold of a First Class bedroom at Dubai - I will be arriving circa 7am and leaving circa 10am?

4) I have read on seatguru that the seat width on the A330-200 in J is just 18" (only 0.5" wider than Emirates economy and narrower than BA's World Traveller Plus). Is this right? If so, it sounds fairly poor, despite a ridiculous amount of leg room...

5) There seems to be loads of debate about ICE vs non-ICE equipped planes - what IFE system does a A330-200 have and what does this offer passengers?

6) Finally, how is Emirates making any money? My fare is GBP3,450 for Manchester-Dubai (J), Dubai-Melbourne (F), Melbourne-Auckland (J), Auckland-Melbourne (J), Melbourne-Dubai (F), Dubai-Manchester (J) with 6 x chauffeur trips thrown in (and including 80 miles one-way from my home to MAN)?!!!!

Sorry for a brain dump of questions but look forward to hearing your views - thanks in anticipation.

Hi and welcome to FT :)

Unless you are very influential at convcing the cabin crew to let you keep your seat (assuming it has not been re assigned to another passenger for the MEL-AKL route) or the J class cabin is oversold (unlikely) they will make you move. :(

The route is not that busy and rarely oversells.

Yes. On the way back, you will have to use the J class lounge though.
Hard, very hard. They tend to fill up really fast, and then you can put your name down, but the wait for a room tends to be up to 5 hours during peak periods (11pm-1am & 6am-10am)

Yes. It will feel funny. The seat is really narrow, but they have just recently removed some seats so the legroom is crazy. The seat hasn't been modified for this change, so the reclines of the legrest and the seatback are very poor. I would avoid the A330 if you can.


The IFE system on the A330 has around 20 channels of TV, lots of radio channels, and an in-seat tape player. It's basically like a mini VCR and you can choose from a list of movies to watch.

next time you are on a 777, go have a look at how many people they succesfully fit into their economy cabin :)

I think they make money by a combination of many things including

i) offering lots of seats
ii) price-discriminating well.

Cheers

Welcome to Flyer Talk Lumpster :)

MEL-AKL is typically not very full but it depends on season (summer is peak), day of week (business vs leisure travel), whether there is a sporting or other event on in MEL or AKL, any special promos, etc.

I doubt you'll be allowed to keep your seat, but you could get lucky.

Australian law requires all pax to disembark in Melbourne, and you'll need to go through security (but not immigration or customs on the way over) even in transit. As pax in J/F you will have access to Cathay Pacific's lounge which is okay but not too flash (QF and NZ are much better).

Actually your fare doesn't seem too low to me - I've seen much lower on EK.

Come to think of it - you're quite right, Kiwi Flyer. The published fare for MAN-AKL with DXB-MEL-AKL-MEL-DXB in F class is around £3900.00 in itself.

Cheers

Just done a similar trip myself, except I flew into CHC via SYD, but back from AKL via MEL. The SYD-CHC had 2 people in F, me and an old geezer who I think was moved there as he required virtually full time assistance from one of the cabin crew. On the way back, there were about 6 in F on the AKL-MEL leg.

I'm a big lard arse, and I've always felt pretty comfortable in the A330-200 seat. Always managed to get some sleep on the overnight flight.

You didn't say when your trip is booked for, but the A330-200 is being replaced by a B77W from 26/10/2006.

You other option is to take the day flight from MAN-DXB, and have a night in a hotel near the airport. I'd recommend this, as the 3 hour layover in DXB is at the busiest time, and even the F lounge is packed. I struggled to find a seat a few weeks ago.

The A330 has the older, non-ICE system. It's a rolling video, so no pausing FF/REW etc. There are about 12 film channels, plus TV and radio. Details of the movies for the month are on the Emirates website.

Cheers,
Rick

I think they actually provide "manual" AVOD in J on A332 using the VCRs: You fill
a form and request the films you want, and the F/A will deliver them to you. Btw
I was sitting in Y but this Fleet Introduction video is played throughout the cabin
before takeoff.

Cheers - great info. To be honest, still happy with the price I paid with Emirates as (1) it is the company footing the bill and (2) the MAN flight doesn't offer F class.....

Bit disappointing to hear about the likely difficulty in accessing lounge facilities in Dubai - bit naughty of Emirates to shout about how great they are when they apparently cannot get close to coping with demand.

Cheers

DXB is very crowded indeed and that is why they are building a new airport that will be able to handle a lot more passengers (and all those A380s they bought). Depending on when you arrive, it can actually be relatively quiet in EK's F lounge at DXB, but that usually doesn't last that long.