I'll be having my choice of flying to Johannesburg on an Emirates A330 from Dubai in First Class or an SAA 747 through Bangkok. Which flight would be the most elegant. I didn't notice that Emirates had "beds" in First and SAA does. I need advice Emirates is an 8hr+ flight leaving in late morning and SAA is an 11 hr flight leaving in early afternoon. This is for pleasure. I like all the bells and whistles in the air. HELP!!

Antone

Emirates, no question.

Plus you get to go on a mini shopping trip in DXB.

But on the Emirates website the First Class seats don't recline into beds. Is the seat and service better than SAA? I flew on SAA about six years ago in FC and the bed,service, and food was superior.

It looks like the neverflysaa is down, but here's a cached copy from Google:

http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache...+fly+saa&hl=en

Thanks for the info but I'll be in First Class. I've flown them 4 times up front before in SAA and the seats and service surpassed any other carrier. My real question is can Emirates be as good if they don't have "beds." I question whether they can match SAA. That "hateSAA" website is talking about economy class. In many countries there is a great difference in classes on airplanes. I remember a few years back when the L1011 economy class was full on AirLanka and they kept the first class passengers so isolated (4 of us) that we never saw any of the other passengers until I took a walk after dinner. We weren't even allowed in the boarding lounge untill all of the economy passengers were onboard....They rolled out a red carpet--literally--for boarding and presented us with sterling silver card holders as gifts.
Antone

I would be curious as to whether Emirates serves alcoholic beverages.

They do. I flew them last month from Colombo to the Maldives and back.