Emirates A380 DXB-LHR

Flight Number: EK001
Wednesday 20th May 2009
A6-EDA
Airbus A380-800


My Boeing 777-300ER from Beijing to Dubai

I arrived at Dubai airport from Beijing at around 4:30am. Our Boeing 777-300ER from Beijing parked at a remote stand and we were bussed to Terminal 3. The journey took around 10 minutes during which time I spotted the Royal Jordanian A319 Oneworld colours, Biman Bangladesh A310 and Oman Air Boeing 737-800 in their new scheme.

Once inside the terminal, I passed through security and made my way upstairs to the departures level. As you go along the escalators you can hear water streaming down from the waterfall that is inside the terminal.

I made my way to the Emirates Business Class Lounge which is situated on the 4th Floor of the terminal. By the time I had arrived the lounge was relatively empty. There were various options for food. Pastries, English breakfast (Beans, Egg, Toast, hash browns etc.) or Asian style food.

I settled for a full English breakfast (minus the bacon of course). The food was reasonably good especially in comparison to the Air China First class lounge that I had used just five days before.

The Emirates lounge has free Wi-Fi as does the entire terminal. There are power points located all over the lounge to allow you to charge your laptop or mobile phone while you wait for your flight.

Our flight to London Heathrow would be operated by the Airbus A380-800. The whole reason I had decided to upgrade to Business.

I have flown on the A380 before, however that was in Economy on Singapore Airlines, so this was my chance to try out Emirates in Business Class. (Hopefully this means my next trip on the A380 will be First on QANTAS)

As a skywards member you can select your seats in advance and I checked a number of times to try and get a window seat however there were none available, so I had settled for seat 8D. However when I checked in online on Monday evening seat 25A had become available.

At Dubai Airport, premium passengers don't need to mix with economy passengers. Once on the lounge level passengers walk along to their gate a floor above the economy passengers. I made my way to gate 230. Once your boarding pass and passport are checked you take the elevator down to the second floor and straight onto the aircraft.

I noticed we would be travelling to London onboard A6-EDA. Onboard I was greeted by the cabin crew and made my way to my seat, located in the second to last row.

The business class seats on the Emirates A380 are staggered, with the every other row having an A seat. The seat wasn't very wide in comparison to Singapore Airlines Business Class onboard their A380 however once sat down the seat was more than comfortable enough.



Already on the seat were Pillows, Blankets and noise cancelling headphones. Cabin Crew then came around offering Champagne, Orange Juice, Apple Juice or water.



A slight delay in pushing back from the gate due to late passengers baggage being offloaded. We pushed back and taxied straight out onto the runway for takeoff.






AN-124 at Dubai Airport

As soon as the seatbelt signs were off, Cabin crew came around handing out menus and wine lists. They introduced themselves to passengers and called all passengers by their name.


Male Aminity Kit






Breakfast was served shortly after. The crew took orders from the passengers and then delivered them to each passenger by hand rather than using a trolley. After the table was laid, Bread and pastries were brought around along with tea and coffee. Shortly after fresh fruit- Melon, Pineapple, Kiwi and Grapes were served and then yogurt. You also had the choice of Cornflakes or Muesli.



As soon as passengers were finished the crew cleared away the table, leaving passengers free to sleep or enjoy the entertainment.

I decided to have a look at the bar/lounge situated at the back of the aircraft as it was quite. The purser introduced herself to me as Fay and asked if I would like her to take a picture of me behind the bar. I accepted and said she hoped I would show my friends how fun emirates are.


Flying over Kuwait

I made my way back to my seat and reclined, and checked out the music selection available on the ICE system. I have to say the ICE system is by far my favourite onboard entertainment system. It is so easy, fast and smooth to use.

Business Class onboard this flight was completely full and the crew said economy was the same. It seems the credit crunch is yet to hit Emirates passengers.

With four hours remaining I decided to try and sleep for a while so I didn't feel so tired upon arrival.

I was awakened by the lovely Wei Ming who asked would I be having lunch. I didn't feel that hungry so I just went for the Salad, the truffle ravioli and the chocolate tart.





All were delicious. Service was very good and as soon as I was finished Wei Ming cleared away the table and bought a small gold box of Godiva chocolates and placed on the table.

With around two hours remaining I sat back and watched Gran Torino on the ICE system.

Soon enough the captain came over the PA system and announced we would be starting our decent into London Heathrow. Cabin Crew passed through handing out landing cards and fast track immigration invites.

We landed at London Heathrow at around 12:25 and as we landed I saw the Qantas A380, parked at Terminal 4. We taxied past a CX B744 and straight into our gate at terminal 3.

The upper deck was allowed off first and we made our way to the immigration checkpoint. Luckily I had the fast track invite which allowed me to bypass the 100+ passenger queuing.

Baggage was already on the belt when I got down to baggage reclaim. I collected my bags and walked through the customs.

I had booked the Emirates Chauffeur Drive service, and walked over to the desk outside Terminal 3 arrivals. It seems this company is used by Emirates, Etihad and Virgin Atlantic.

About 15 passengers from my flight were queuing for this service and the line moved very quickly. You present your boarding pass and they assign you a drive who then takes you to the car. The company uses various Volvo models and I was chauffeured home in a Volvo XC90.

All in all, this Emirates business class service was amazing. I can’t wait for my next flight with them.

Please check out my other trip report: Air China PEK-TYN First Class which should be up soon.