The past couple of years hasn't been kind to Emirates. It's downgraded it's onboard meals, started offering paid access to lounges, and cut routes. However, with Emirates increasing the number of flights it has from the UK to Dubai yet again, it's time to revisit Emirates once more, and find out just how good the airline is in Economy class.
The lux-traveller team used to love Emirates. High quality, it used to have one of the best economy class cabins, and service.
That was before the cuts.
So, to check out the service, its time for a trip report from London Heathrow to Singapore via Dubai. In economy.
The early afternoon departure of Emirates EK1 from London to Dubai is at a great time, allowing for a decent mid-morning arrival at Heathrow, and then a leisurely lounge lunch before boarding.
Of course, Emirates Economy is normally barred from the lounge, but Gold Frequent Flyers get access.
It's well worth while attaining status for just this perk. There is a great free bar, and amazing food, all complementary.
The Emirates London Heathrow Lounge was a revelation when it first opened, both for it's size, and facilities. It's still pretty good today, and open all day, every day.
A particular favourite is the food section, where you can select small neatly made up plates: far nicer than buffet in the LHR Terminal 3 British Airways lounge, and preferable to the waiter service, but with large meals, in the LHR Qantas lounge.
The lounge was pretty empty with lots of places to sit, in large squashy leather armchairs, with a great walk up bar.
I'm surprised that Emirates now offers paid access to it's lounges.
However, none of the frequent Try-It-Ons I heard at reception took up the offer at US$100 (£80) per person.
- Emirates London Heathrow Lounge review from from our sister site loungeindex.
Economy boarding was downstairs at the gate, and with about half an hour to go before boarding started, I went outside the lounge for a wander, and then queued at the gate.
It was only after 20 minutes of standing in line did the desk agent say 'oh, you could have boarded through the lounge', and I found out that Emirates has direct lounge to aircraft boarding.
Sigh. We all miss out on some perks sometimes.
Indeed, the boarding scene was quite chaotic. People were already queuing two hours before departure. Getting everyone on board an A380 is always crazy, and there were lot of people desperate to get on the aircraft. Oddly, Emirates now charges for seat assignments in Economy, and quite a lot too. So there were a lot of separated families bartering to be able to sit together. One family of five was split over the five economy cabins.
In the seat were a pair of Emirates headphones, a thick blanket, and a pillow; marginally above what other airlines offer to Dubai. Plus there are notification stickers that guide the cabin crew on your sleeping preferences for the flight.
Shortly before pushback, the flight crew came down the aisles handing out menus and welcoming Gold and Platinum members.
I was curious as to how the cutbacks Emirates has introduced would play out in the air. True, Emirates hasn't gone to the massive belt-tightening level of Etihad, but it's delaying delivery of aircraft, charging for seat assignments and wifi, doubling the price of Champagne, axing special seafood meals in economy, and most crucially, and headline turning, completely scrapping the Emirates hot towel service in economy.
Oh, and the two meal services have now become one on routes to Heathrow.
Emirates A380 economy class seat
I tried several different seats on my four Emirates A380 flights. All were similar, with 32 inches of pitch, and a great, adjustable headrest. Some aircraft have a second handset which doubles as a screen. Some, do not.
Of course they were surrounded by the usual Emirates cabins, which has much Dubai bling about it, especially the faux wood around the windows, which is both unique and smacks a little of a 1990 Austin Montego. But there you go.
On Emirates you can pre-book seats, but it's pricey, and indeed there is a complicated chart of the Emirates pre-book seat cost.
The Emirates pre-book seat cost varies wildly by which type of ticket you have, and the seat. On most fares (called Saver) you pay to book any seat, and the most basic seats are 10GBP (15AUD) per person per flight. However Preferred seats (the front cabin, where you get served first) come in at 65GBP (120AUD) while exit rows are 155GBP (270AUD). So a family of four could pay £1,200 for exit row seats to fly to Australia.
Thankfully, I did pre-book, in the most forward seats in the front cabin, at the window. This is not only the quietest part of the aircraft, but also in theory the most private.
Alas even Qantas Platinum One have to pay for seat assignments in the exit row, but I wanted some more space, and the legroom was amazing, even if during the flight a lot of passengers tended to mill around in this area, and stand infront of you. Of course, at the front there is limitless legroom, and in general it is much better to be here.
The recline is pretty good too, and seemed to be better than average. Even though I did take some of my flights in daytime, one by one everyone reclined their seats. It was fascinating to watch, as the person at the front tips their seat back, and then domino fashion, everyone behind them follows suit.
Emirates A380 economy class IFE seatback TV
Emirates has seatback TV screens that would have seemed enormous a few years back, and are still pretty large, fast, quick, high resolution, and with a handset control that doubles as a second screen showing a map.
Emirates IFE is called ICE, and there is an OK selection of films and TV to watch. In fact if I'm being exact, there are over 500 choices - but so many of them were second rate, poor US TV series for example.
There was little British TV, and a grand total of one British and one Australian film. Compared to 20 from China, and dozens of pretty much unknown US boxed sets. At least there is BBC World, live.
The headphones look great, but the sound I had on every flight was only so-so: maybe we're used to much more definition now, so I was forced to resort to using my own.
There are power sockets. Alas the window seats only have one USB port, while other seats have two and a 120 volts mains power socket, which take UK / Hong Kong plugs without an adaptor.
There is wifi on Emirates. Emirates recently changed their wifi pricing. Previously, pretty much everyone got internet for a nominal sum, and it was painfully slow. Now, however, it's quite expensive ($9.99 for 150MB and $15.99 for 500MB) so few people seemed to be using it. But that made no difference to the speed, which staggered up from useless to just about OK for email.
Emirates A380 economy class meals
Emirates has recently changed it's meal service, and now only offers one meal on flights up to seven hours, instead of two. And you've guessed it, at 6 hours 50 minutes, that means only one meal from London to Dubai.
I assumed that would mean there would at least be a drinks service early on, but Emirates seemed to have cut back on that too. There was nothing for the first two hours of the flight, but then the trolley slowly started coming down the aisles. Thankfully, at the front, I was served first.
There was a choice of wine - red, or white and came in the most basic of plastic cups. And that's about it. The old Emirates Italian bread style savoury biscuits have been cut, but on request there are packets of tiny pretzels. Sigh, more cuts.
I selected the main meal of chicken in yoghurt curry, with basmnari rice and red peppers. The other option was beef. both came with a sweetcorn salad.
An hour later, the meals arrived. I enjoyed the food and its strong flavors and thought the size was reasonable for a six hour flight. A good touch is the metal cutlery in economy.
The trays were cleared about an hour later, with another offer of drinks, and that was it: we were pretty much then left alone for the rest of the flight.
It was dark, and getting on for Midnight, as we landed at Dubai.
Emirates Dubai to Singapore
Thankfully, no bus gates this time, but I was in the wrong terminal, so I had to go through security, take an lift down to a transit train, change concourses and do some significant walking before I made it to the A-gates. Terminal 3 is large, and most aircraft are A380s, making for a massive crush in places.
Thankfully I could get to the lounge again, and my stop over was just over three hours. I headed to the lounge. Every terminal at Dubai has Emirates Lounges, which again can be accessed by Gold status Frequent Flyers.
The Emirates Business Class lounge in Terminal 3 at the Concourse 1, A gates, holds the record for the largest Business Class lounge anywhere on the planet. It has a full sit down restaurant plus a buffet, with a dedicated Asian food section for food, plus middle eastern and western. It is almost a destination in itself!
- Here is a full Emirates Dubai Lounge review from our sister site loungeindex.
Soon enough boarding was called and I was very grateful for that classic Emirates touch, of boarding from the lounge, just descending in the lift, and I was welcomed aboard by the crew.
There were a blanket, pillow, and headphones were once again waiting at each seat. Boarding was relatively quick and we were on our way within 20 minutes. Again, we had an on-time departure.
Once in the air, everyone went to sleep since it was now 3am. Which seemed light a very sensible idea.
Amazingly, because this flight was just over seven hours, there were two meals, so the first half of the flight was spent handing out small ham rolls.
Beer was just Heineken.
Then after two hours of sleep, breakfast was served, waking everyone up. Emirates sure isn't logical when it comes to meal service.
For Breakfast I went for the full Asian experience, and tried the stir fry chicken noodles, with hot chilli pepper sauce.
I can honestly say it was the hottest meal I've had on an airline in my life, and gives a new meaning to 'wake up'.
Soon enough we started our descent into Singapore.
On both my Emirates flights the cabin attendants started preparing for arrival about an hour before arrival by collecting headphones, pillows, and blankets, and requiring seats and tray tables to be upright and locked. This really hurts on a 3 hour overnight flight when you want to sleep, and again seems pointless. In particular, having my headphones taken away and my screen stowed is ridiculous.
Soon enough we were on the ground and made our way to the gate within just a few minutes.
Emirates A380 Singapore to Dubai
A short time later I did the return journey, from Singapore to London Heathrow, via Dubai, and headed to the Singapore Emirates Lounge. The Emirates lounge was surprised to see me without a boarding pass, but quickly printed one.
The Singapore Emirates Lounge is brand new, and shaped like a U, with a dining room at the far end. The same small plates, with small finger food and salads are as you'd find at any Emirates lounge,but the quality seemed better, and the hovering staff replaced them instantly as soon as they were gone.
The rest of the lounge was quiet and comfortable. There is a new twinkling fountain, just like British Airways used to have in their old style Terraces lounges, but which BA scrapped, mainly because it makes everyone run to the gents every 5 minutes.
- Singapore Emirates Lounge review from loungeindex.
On the return I was booked into the front emergency exit row seat of the A380.
I was less thrilled to discover there was no actual view unless I reclined my seat, but there you go.
Equally, most passengers tended to use this area as a place to stretch and walk around: again, not ideal at all if you planned to sleep, as I did.
The flight back was pretty much a reversal of arrival, with the difference being on the return I popped into the Concourse B gates lounge, which has a full Monet champagne bar.
However there are far more seats, but fewer toilets.
I've never been to a Business Class lounge, let alone one at a hub airport, where the toilet queue is 15 minutes deep.
- Here is a full Emirates Dubai B gates Lounge review from our sister site loungeindex.
Boarding back to London was again from the lounge, and swift.
And then there was a gentle seven hour flight back to London.
This was a daytime flight, but curiously everyone shut their window shades.
Thankfully, the wine flowed, with two trolley services, and a topup from the galley.
The bathrooms on the A380 are worthy of note - there are five at the front of the A380.
And all were very clean and new.
However, again, there was just one meal service, and two offers of drinks.
Breakfast this time was just an omelette.
And quickly, the flight landed, and within ten minutes I was through customs and immigration, and heading for the train.
Emirates A380 economy review
So, was it worth taking the 'long' route to Singapore, and trying the new, slimmed down, cut back, Emirates.
Why, yes, but only up to a point.
The Emirates A380 economy class seat is as good as it has always been. An inch more of pitch than most airlines really makes a difference, as does that lovely large TV screen ahead of you. Like everything about Emirates it's big, works well, and doesn't have a cheap feel.
But the cutbacks are certainly starting to bite: does it matter about no longer getting a hot towel? Of course not, but it added an element of class. The extra charges do matter though, from wifi pricing to seat booking costs - and those small pennies mount up to hundreds of pounds. As does the cutback in the inflight meal service. Sure, it's only a small snack that's gone en-route to Heathrow, and an extra drinks run, but really, is Emirates that desperate for extra revenue? The food was better than it looks though, and the one meal service there was still had quantity.
It was good to do this routes on the Emirates A380. Emirates Boeing 777s have notoriously narrow seats, and as Lux-traveller has reviewed, that makes even seven hours pretty tortuous.
I'd also hesitate to connect through Dubai Airport again if flying in the back of the bus without a frequent flyer card with status. The airport is too large and the stopovers too long to do so without lounge access. Sure, Emirates now offers lounge access to economy class passengers, but that can add an extra three hundred pounds to a trip. Worth it? Yes, the lounges are really good, some of the best in the business, but Emirates add ons are expensive, however you look at it. The perk of free seating assignments is good - I'm not sure I'd want to pay hundreds more for a pre-assigned seat.
So, in general, Emirates are pretty good. But always take the Airbus.
It's much more comfortable, and once at Heathrow, it was an easy ride into London on the Heathrow Express.
See the full Emirates A380 economy class London to Dubai to Singapore video:
Lux-traveller paid its own way for this Trip Report on Emirates economy class, and travelled incognito.
Emirates A380 economy class London to Dubai to Singapore
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