Emirates First Class - Sydney to Auckland return on the A380
Feb 13, 2012, 10:26 am
#61
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Nice updates matthandy. I remembered how much I love being on the water after spending the afternoon on the harbour in Sydney. That trip on the 'big boat' looks like fun.
I am looking forward to you return flight post.
I am looking forward to you return flight post.
Feb 26, 2012, 5:11 am
#65
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Feb 26, 2012, 5:17 am
#66
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I had planned to finish it off today. I'm about half way through. But, to be honest, drinks at the Shangri-la was much more fun.
Thanks for everything, hope that you enjoy the rest of your time in Sydney and I look forward to reading the rest of your TR.
Mar 10, 2012, 12:09 am
#67
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Boarding
The departure area was quite pleasant, really open, with lots of comfortable seating. It looked like a really nice area to wait and almost made the lounge look a bit dark and dinghy. Lots of colourful carpets and seating had been used to create light and open spaces for people to relax in. It was certainly a far cry from crowded rows of seats stuffed into a small departure area (LHR T3 anyone?).
Departure Area
Boarding hadn’t yet been called but I decided to wander to the gate anyway. I wanted to make sure that I would be first on-board to get some photos.
Making my way to the gate I passed the large windows that looked out onto the apron and was able to see one of the two Emirates 777 aircraft that fly to Australia.
The walk to gate 16 was rather long. It seems that Emirates use the same gate each time. It took a good 10 minutes or so to actually reach the gate area, and that was with a brisk walk. The gate area was very open and good views of the aircraft were offered. The aircraft for tonight was a newer aircraft than on the outbound, A6-EDO and was delivered to Emirates in November 2010. As I was to find out, this meant that there were slightly different features on-board.
Emirates 777-300ER to Brisbane or Melbourne
Slight size difference! A380 and 737 to Sydney
A6-EDO
As I arrived at the gate it was clear that boarding had not yet started and there were lots of people milling about. At about 6pm there was an announcement to say that boarding would start soon and sure enough at 6.05pm First, Business and frequent flyer elites were invited to board. Two air bridges are used in Auckland, one connected to the top deck for First and Business, the other on the lower deck for economy.
Auckland to Sydney – Emirates First Class
Flight: EK412
Carrier: Emirates
Aircraft: Airbus A380-800 – A6-EDO
Scheduled Departure Time: 18:40
Duration: 3h 25m
Scheduled Arrival Time: 20:05
Travel Class: First
Seat: 3A (seat plan)
I was almost the first First passenger to approach the gate and after my boarding pass was scanned I made my way up the air bridge to door 1ML. I was greeted at the door by one of the crew and then passed on to another member of the crew to be shown to my seat, 3A. Upon entering the First Class cabin I noticed immediately that the décor was different. The cabin looked a lot more classy and modern, with more lighting and different wall panels. It felt more like First Class.
A Newer First Class cabin
View from the centre seats
View from 3A
The male crew member to my seat and offered me a drink, Champagne of course. I started to sort out all of my things, including making sure that the precious bottle of Dom Perignon was safely strapped in!
The actual suite didn’t seem much different to that of the previous flight though, and although wide and spacious, the ergonomics had not been improved so reaching around for things was a little difficult. Being a left handed, I think that I prefer sitting on the A side, as everything was located on the left, including the mini-bar and wireless seat controller. I didn’t really like the position of row 3 though, I felt very much near the back of the cabin. I think that I prefer row 2 as it feels more open, since you can see forward to the spa area without much effort.
The male crew member arrived with an empty glass, which would be shortly filled with Champagne.
Overview of 3A
Overview of 3A
View from 3A
Safely stowed
Shortly after a female crew member came around to fill up my glass. But wait, what is this, Moét?? I stopped her before she’d even started to pour it and asked what had happened to the Dom. Apparently, that is only served after take-off. Odd, perhaps it is due to the extra duty that has to be paid whilst on the ground. If she hadn’t bought the bottle over (which was a nice touch actually) she might have got away with it! Still, it was still nice to be sipping away whilst everyone else was boarding.
Various crew members passed through the cabin to offer slippers, eye shades and magazines and newspapers. At this point a family boarded, with a few children uh oh. This wasn’t an issue at all actually as they were the most well behaved children you are ever likely to see. The family occupied the rear row of the cabin and could no longer be seen or heard!
The offending Moét (ok, so it wasn’t that bad)
Yucky weather
At 18.30, the crew came around to offer dates and Arabic coffee, a sure sign that we would be pushing back soon. I don’t like either so I politely declined. Sure enough, the Captain came on the PA system to announce that we’d be pushing back on time, in approximately 10 minutes time. The flight time was expected to be 2 hours and 51 minutes.
A few minutes later the seat belt sign is illuminated and we prepared for push back. At this point, the male crew member serving me ceremoniously whipped away my unfinished Moét! Err, hang on, I wasn’t finished with that. It was replaced with a glass of pure silk, the Dom Perignon 2002! He mentioned that this is what I had really wanted. Apparently, the doors were closed, so the Dom had been popped open. Bliss.
Hot towels were handed out and then we started our pushback. I was still savouring the Dom, and was pretty happy at this point. I could tell that it was going to be a good flight.
Yum, yum, yum, the Dom Perignon 2002
Air NZ special liveried A320
The view from 3A as we taxi out
Lining up on the runway
Video – An overview of Suite 3A The taxi was quite long as we seemed to crawl to the runway at 10mph. It took us almost 20 minutes. We took off at 19.05 and, like with all A380 take offs, it was almost a non-event as it seemed so slow and quiet. Soon we had punched through the clouds, the seat belt sign went off and sunshine filled the cabin.
I took the opportunity to take a quick dash to the loo as the Champagne had caught up with me.
The purser made his initial announcements, there were 16 languages spoken on-board the flight today (I wonder what the record is?). The purser then made his way into the First Class cabin to greet each passenger, hand out the menu and then take a drinks order. More Champagne for me please, plus some water.
I then started to explore the seat a little bit. Yes, I had sat in the Emirates First Class seat before, but as this was my second flight, I felt more comfortable with it all, as I was already familiar. I wanted to start by finding out if there was a foot rest, something that I didn’t discover on the flight over. The wireless remote control was positioned in a station next to my seat. It controls all aspects of the suite including the seat, the lighting, the IFE and the sliding doors.
There was a foot rest. In fact, the seat could do quite a few things actually, it was very flexible. I was soon able to recline into a comfortable position and put my feet up. I even discovered that the seat can be moved backwards and forwards, which meant reaching my Champagne glass was much easier! As well as the flexible control system, there were also three buttons for preset positions for dining, sleeping and for take-off and landing.
Mar 10, 2012, 12:10 am
#68
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The large First Class seat
Preset buttons
The wireless controller
Ahh, that’s better
The leather bound menu
Video – Video of the cabin In Flight Service
As I got myself settled in, my 2nd glass of Dom Perignon arrived. The bottle was presented and ceremoniously poured, thanks very much! The male FA serving my side then came back to take my dinner order. Below is the dinner menu on this leg.
DP2 Glass Number 2
Dinner
Dessert and Coffee
I chose the seafood medley to start, the soup and then the beef.
At this point I decided to take a look at the on-board Wi-Fi. This is provided by ‘On-Air’ and was announced by the purser during our climb. It is simple to use. All you do is turn on your Wi-Fi enabled device (my iPhone in this case) and then when you open up the browser and navigate to a site you are directed to the pricing page. The service has two plans available, 5mb of access for $7.50 (USD) or 25mb of access for $15.00, and crucially, you can start and stop the service as you need it so that you don’t accidentally use up your bandwidth. I decided to go with the $7.50 plan as I wanted to post a few photos on Facebook and send a few messages to people to show off! In the end, I did go over my 5mb limit, but it only cost me about $10.50 in total and On-Air send you a nice little summary and receipt to your nominated email address at the end of your flight. I found the system reasonably fast and very well thought out, warning me that I was about to go over my paid limit for example and giving me the option to cut off the service at that point if I chose to do so. One change that I think that Emirates should implement is to provide a free allowance for First Class passengers (and maybe Business too) and I was a little surprised that this wasn’t the case.
On-Air Wi-Fi information card
Pricing plans
After doing a bit of Facebook posting and surfing it was time for dinner. My table was laid at around 19.50, with the male FA placing white linen over the table before returning with my starter, the seafood medley. This was presented on a tray, but was a different presentation to that in Business Class, and served on different crockery (I found this out based on a similar trip that I ended up doing only a few weeks later, but in J).
He then fetched the bottle of Dom Perignon to top up what would be my third glass at this point, followed by the bread basket. Having taken a roll I realised that there was no bread knife, in fact, the cutlery was very limited. The crew member spotted this and returned with a bread knife for me. Everything was done with a smile, but the service certainly wasn’t as good as it was on the flight over.
Cruising
Seafood medley
Keep it coming
The starter was very good actually, and I finished it quickly. This was quickly replaced with the soup with an offer of some more bread, which I declined. The soup was ok, but it didn’t really have a quality taste to it. I’ve had soup on BA previously, in First, and found it just as good if not better than I’ve had on the ground. This tasted a little bit like it had come out of a can, rather than being freshly prepared. Still, it was ok.
Once I was finished with the soup, it was taken away and additional cutlery was then provided. The main was then delivered, and oh dear, it didn’t look too good. It was rather overcooked and it was obvious that the veggies had been zapped within an inch of their life. I did wonder whether the dish had been sitting in the galley for a while as the sauce and congealed slightly. Not great at all. The beef itself was ok, but quite tough due to the overcooking.
My table was then completely cleared and top ups of Champagne and water were offered but I just accepted the water. Shortly after the ‘trio of desserts’ was presented which included a chocolate pudding, a meringue dish and a crčme caramel, which were delicious. I quite liked the presentation of this, and discovered after the flight that it had actually come straight from Business Class.
Potato and leek soup
Sad looking main
Yummy desserts
I finished dinner at about 20.30 and everything was cleared away. I had about an hour before we were due to start our descent so decided to head to the bar to enjoy the views out of the window.
The bar was pretty empty from a passenger point of view but there were lots of crew going back and forth. It seems like the Business Class service was still in full swing. I asked the crew member on duty for a Baileys, which was promptly prepared. I sat down and just enjoyed the total novelty of being in a bar at 38,00ft! I’ve done it a few times before, but I always find it quite special
A couple entered the bar area and the lady commented on my lack of shoes and how her boyfriend is exactly the same. I always take my shoes off when on-board and I certainly don’t have any issues with wandering about the cabin in that state.
Shortly after a man entered the bar, and the couple left. He barked an order for a red wine at the crew member behind the bar and I remember thinking that this guy was quite rude. What is it with people when they get on to an aircraft, all manners go out of the window? Anyway, for whatever reason, I guess because I was the only other person in the bar area, he ended up sitting next to me and we had a bit of a chat. He was saying how impressed he was with the whole experience in Business on this aircraft, asking me how I found it in a rather arrogant/boasting manner. I took great joy in pointing out to him that actually I was in First Class, and yes, I had flown on this aircraft many times before. That seemed to shut him up.
Mar 10, 2012, 12:11 am
#69
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Bar seats
View of the bar area from my seat
View of the bar area from my seat
View out of the window from my seat
Video – Overview of the bar At this point we hit some turbulence and the seat belt sign went and for the first time, I got to use the seat belts in the bar. Unfortunately, this meant that I was stuck next to the aforementioned chap. Luckily, it didn’t last for long and as soon as the sign went off I jumped up and headed back First Class.
There were a couple of things that I hadn’t really explored with the suite on the flight over and I had a few minutes before we started our descent. I wanted to try out the seat in bed mode, with the doors closed. Using the remote control I was able to drop the seat right now, including lowering the arm rests and also operate the doors into the closed position.
The suite was very private in this mode. The bed was very comfortable and wide, definitely the widest bed that I’ve used before. I could imagine that with the mattress cover and blanket, one would be able to sleep very comfortably indeed. There is a downside to this though. At this point, the crew came around handing out landing cards, including the Express Path cards for arrivals. However, with my doors closed, they skipped me, much to my peril (I’d found that out later).
I now also better understood the point of the mini-bar. I was quite enjoying taking a little snooze and watching a movie, but I really wanted some water as well. Rather than put my seat back upright and then open the doors and then call the crew, I could just grab a bottle of water from the mini-bar, easy and quick.
In bed mode
The mini-bar
Arrival
We started our descent at 21.30 NZ time (19.30 Sydney time) and the Captain came on to tell us that we’d be landing at about 19.50.
Before the seat belt sign came on I took a last visit to the toilet, noting the nice view outside and then returning to my seat to pack everything away.
We made a normal approach but it was clear from the angle of the aircraft that this was going to be a cross-wind landing. We actually came down very hard and it was a bit of a shock. Here’s a tip, watch out of the window instead of the tail cam!
First Class toilet
Nice view
Descent
Almost down
Lining up on the stand
We taxied around to the International terminal and were on stand at about 19.55 Sydney time. As the seat belt sign went off, everyone jumped up and waited to get off. It was clear at this point that we’d have to wait a few minutes for the air bridges to be attached so I went to the front of the cabin to get a photo of the ‘bar’ area in the First Class cabin.
There was a female crew member near the spa area and she offered to take my photo on the stairs, which was nice of her. She went right down the stairs to the economy section to get a good angle and several people stuck their head around the side to see who she was photographing. I think that they were a little disappointed that it was just me!
First Class bar area
On stand
First Class passengers were able to dis-embark at 20.00 and I made my way towards immigration. I didn’t have an Express Path card, but I thought that it would be ok. I joined the normal queue, thinking about whether I could have just chanced it in the Express queue. This was a big mistake. Although the queue wasn’t that long, there were only three desks open. I got very annoyed with the whole thing. An A380 had just arrived, followed by a Thai plane and Singapore Airlines flight too. So what’s that, 1000 people? 3 desks? You guys are having a laugh! To top it all off, they had 2 desks for the Express Path lane and no-one manning the crew lane so all of the crew were ushered over to jump in front of the passengers, slowing the process down even more (I have nothing against the crew, it was the immigration agents that I was annoyed with).
I was so hacked off by this that I actually asked the immigration agent (when I got to a desk, some 50-55 minutes later) whether they were understaffed or something. Apparently, this was normal, hmm, I think not. I was so late that I got a call from my driver, wondering where on earth I was.
Anyway, I collected my bag and then went through quarantine (stopping for them to check my boots) and then met the driver.
To lift my spirits, it turned out that the car that had been provided (by Emirates) was actually a brand spanking new Audi A8 Long Wheel Base, which had to be the nicest car that I’ve ever been in! It even had dual air con controls in the back. That bought a smile to my face. The drive home was pretty quick and I arrived at about 21.30. I thanked the driver and then headed in to relax, and try to recover from all of the Champagne!
Verdict
This flight was certainly not as good as the flight was on the way over and I’d say that this was mostly because the crew were not as friendly. However, I got a bit more used to the seat and felt more comfortable with how everything worked. The Champagne of course, was fantastic, but it’s a shame that the food didn’t match the quality of the wine list. Still, I don’t feel like you are really getting a First Class experience on this short flight, even though everything is available to you (the suite, the showers, the bar etc.). It almost seems as the crew don’t believe that this to be a ‘proper’ flight and act accordingly.
As for the seat, there’s no denying that it’s feature packed and in both bed and seat mode it’s very comfortable and spacious, although the suite itself isn’t anything to write home about space wise, as there are better products out there. I don’t like the styling, as I have mentioned before, it’s not to my tastes. If everything was equal, I wouldn’t specifically choose to fly Emirates in First class if I had the option of something like the suites on Singapore Airlines or First class on the Qantas A380, but saying that, it was nice to experience what EK have to offer.
Previous Trip Reports
If you liked this report, you might also like to browse my previous reports:
- Dec 2011: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...ia-qantas.html
- Sept 2011: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...w-zealand.html
- June 2011: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...d-bangkok.html
- January 2011: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...r-qf-a380.html
- December 2010: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...tas-767-a.html
- November 2010: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...el-qantas.html
- September 2010: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...747-400-a.html
- May 2010: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...-business.html
- March 2010: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...a-wedding.html
- February 2010: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...eb-2010-a.html – :-: BA Board Trip Report of the Year 2010 :-:
- Nov–Dec 2009: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...y-pacific.html
- Feb 2009: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...d-lhr-jfk.html
- Nov 2008: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...rld-777-a.html
- Oct 2008: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...747-400-a.html
- Sept 2008 - My first TR: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...lub-world.html
The End
Mar 11, 2012, 11:30 am
#72
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Excellent stuff, matthandy ^
I think your TR might be the first I've read to include an image of the EK A380 First Class washroom, as opposed to the shower!
I agree with your comments in that it seems as though this is not a 'proper' first class flight. You seem to get the F hard product but J service standards (including the meals being presented on trays, which I find silly for F on a 3 hour flight).
I think I'd like to try EK F to see it for myself, but EK is below CX, SQ (77W), LX (new) and LH (new) on my list of first class products...
I think your TR might be the first I've read to include an image of the EK A380 First Class washroom, as opposed to the shower!
I agree with your comments in that it seems as though this is not a 'proper' first class flight. You seem to get the F hard product but J service standards (including the meals being presented on trays, which I find silly for F on a 3 hour flight).
I think I'd like to try EK F to see it for myself, but EK is below CX, SQ (77W), LX (new) and LH (new) on my list of first class products...
Mar 11, 2012, 11:45 am
#73
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Having experienced it, albeit on the short BKK-HKG segment, I would also rank the EK 380 First seat/suite below CX, SQ (77W) and new LH.
Mar 11, 2012, 12:11 pm
#74
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Portland, OR
Programs: DL FO, Hertz #1 Gold
Posts: 282
Glad to see that you're keeping busy with the trips and trip reports. For people that don't get to fly F/J that much, I'd probably gobble down that food without a second thought as to whether it was First Class worthy. I do agree though that veggies looked nuked and wilted.
I was almost expecting you to say that you saw the initial couple in front of you at the AKL First Class checkin!
I'd also be interested in a TR FAQ that can help some of us that don't snap photos at everything!
Looking forward to your next trip report
I was almost expecting you to say that you saw the initial couple in front of you at the AKL First Class checkin!
I'd also be interested in a TR FAQ that can help some of us that don't snap photos at everything!
Looking forward to your next trip report