Flying with Emirates - Tips?

[Dan Collins]

Hi All,

The fiancé and I are heading to Egypt next month and while I thought we were flying with Etihad (flown with them before, no probs there) the travel company have let me know that for a little more money we can go with Emirates instead and cut down our 10+ hr stopover in Abu Dhabi to about 2-3 hrs in Dubai. No problem with any of that, particularly since I'll finally get to fly an A380 somewhere as well!

But I was after some info, reviews etc from people who've flown with Emirates. I always hear good stuff about them (it'll be good to do a comparison against Etihad).

Is there any way to guarantee a window seat for us? Should I join up to Skywards for preferential seating? It doesn't look like we'll be bored on the flight with the range of IFE available etc. I've seen how the seats look, but are they comfortable?

What are the best seats for photo/videography on the A380?

Any other tips and tricks would be great :)

Cheers,

Dan

[Greg McDonald]

I flew Emirates A380 back from Auckland to Sydney last year and they were great. Admittedly it's only a short flight but the service was excellent and we still got served a five course meal in economy in the short time we were with them. We had our IFE system fail in the area we were sitting but they rebooted it fairly quickly.
You don't have to join skywards to manage your seat request...you can do it from the website after you've made the booking. Then again, why wouldn't you join up and pick up the frequent flyer miles? You do however have to fly four legs with emirates before they'll issue you with a card...otherwise they just issue you with a number to use for bookings.

[Danny Rizk]

My one tip would be to enjoy the best airline in the world! ;)

[Stephen Brown]

One of the Best to fly with, you won't be disappointed.

[Rod Sloan]

Yup..ditto to all above comments.
Flew SYD - AKL - SYD in biz a few years back and could not fault them at all.

Enjoy your trip and Emirates experience. Tell us about it when you get back :)

[Anthony T]

Flight tips as above.

Transitting Dubai for two or three hours? Head for the exit as the Emirates terminals aren't that great.

The customs/immigration guys won't hassle you, you get a UAE stamp in your passport and get to stretch your legs in the fresh (?) air, whilst having a smoke (if that is your vice) and witnessing the fun at the taxi rank. :D

The smoking room in T2 is gross, don't even go there, as a smoker i opened the door and even I was disgusted. Smoking is permitted in the Irish pub, but the beer is expensive at 42 dhm's.

Anthony T

[Sarmad Al-Khozaie]

Hi Dan,

I am a frequent flyer with 102,547 miles to burn with EK, I guarantee you will not be disappointed with the service and entertainment, Airline is great all around, you will get the odd 1 or 2 cranky flight attendants but who isn't.

Regards,
Sarmad.

[Michael Arentz]

If you have your EK booking number from your travel agent, you should be able to log into the Emirates website months in advance and select your preferred seat allocation. I did so a few months in advance when I flew to Europe last year and come e-checkin time, my preferred seat was allocated to me. I can highly recommend getting this done somehow as it was a godsend for a tall person like me, I was able to snag the window seat in the row immediately behind an emergency exit on the A380, there are only two seats in front of this and the window seat I chose has no seat in front. Maximum leg room. You'll see what I'm on about if you look at a seat map.

[Darren Butterworth]

Guys - I really want to take my son on an A380, so think maybe a quick EK SYD-AKL-SYD trip would be perfect.

I don't care what day of the week or when, but would like to grab a reasonably sparse flight if possible.

My son Sam has CP but can walk around without his wheelchair once on board and I'd like to make the flight truly about him.

Do you have any ideas of cost or if a special is coming up (any time in the next few months)? I've searched the EK site, but can't seem to match a flight with a date at a good price.

Thanks

[Nils Kenny]

Well at the Moment you would be looking at around 422.80 Return plus any fees.

[Dan Collins]

Thanks to everyone for their feedback on their Emirates experiences. It really provides a lot of confidence in what to expect when NO ONE has reported any problems with the airline :) Will be looking forward to this trip, the flights, the comparison against Etihad and of course my first flight aboard an A380 :cool:

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good economy row to sit on for views outside? As some of you might know I like to do my bit of video capture on my flights (though a 9:10pm departure from Sydney probably isn't going to show much :() Preferably somewhere where the wing doesn't dominate the view (in front or behind would be better I'm guessing?)

We'll be staying in Dubai on the way back from our trip as well - been eyeing off this destination for quite some time so it'll be awesome to see it all for real.

Cheers all!

Dan

[Nathan Long]

Dan,

You should be aware that if you're wider than the norm, then you may find the EK 777 experience a little cosy...

[Michael Arentz]

I can recommend 81A or 81K (see http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Emirates_Airlines/Emirates_Airlines_Airbus_A380.php), I've had the pleasure of 81K before. Lots of leg room and the view is not obstructed by the wing.

[Dan Collins]

Cheers Michael... all 'those' seats were taken already when I looked into my booking. Obviously the seat of choice!

For the moment, on the outgoing flight I think we're in Row 78 (A,B) and on the way back I managed to put us up towards the front in Row 46 or 48 I think. I'm guessing it's not often you get up the front :)

Looks like the Dubai-Cairo leg will be a B77W now instead of an A332 and it seems there are Economy seats in front of the wing on that plane too...

Thanks everyone again for their input - and the SkyTrax site was interesting with the reviews of Emirates non-A380 aircraft.

Cheers,

Dan

[Joe Frampton]

Just got back tonight on the Emirates A340-500 from Auckland to Brisbane - what a big smooth bird! (never been on this type before) Not a bump all the way, hot towels & menus, fabulous meal and drinks, superb ICE worked all the way... Overall just damn professional in every way, no singing, no dancing, no jokes... And the way they treated all the kids in our cabin with the backpacks and everything... And this sector was still cheaper than ANY other airline this afternoon. I only wished I was going on to Dubai! Oh well... Sigh, back to work tomorrow.

[Peter JB]

I flew Emirates from MEL to KUL and return in the last 2 weeks, my experience was much the same. One criticism is the way they handled a family of 3 kids plus their parents - or didn't. Kids were seated (or should I say standing) in the middle seats. They spent most of the flight standing on the seats, jumping around and being general nuisances. Mum and dad basically ignored them and I would say deliberately most of the time. I felt so sorry for the pax sitting in the row in front, having their seat kicked and generally bumped quite often throughout the flight. Never once did they complain (which I thought odd but maybe they were being just too accepting) and never once did the flight attendants do anything, specially when it was obvious what was going on. The FA's simply laughed and smiled along with the kids. If it was me there would have been an incident or 2 on that flight as I would not have tolerated it at all.

When disembarking we noticed the absolute pig sty they left behind on the floor - absolutely disgusting and we were amazed the parents let them do it.

That is my only criticism of Emirates - oh and the seats are odd, my wife stands about 168cm and when seated, her feet could not touch the floor! There were no footrests (I believe there used to be) so that made the trip uncomfortable.

Otherwise an awesome plane to fly in.

[Gareth Forwood]

For those interested, I just got an email today advertising a 6 day sale Emirates is having on SYD-AKL - $198 one way, $380 rtn. You can access it from the Emirates homepage.

[Montague S]

Just flew EK for the first time from Australia to Europe, flights were fine and the service excellent, 777lr to Sydney is not the best option, only 5 toilets in economy so its not good when the que builds.

Dubai has changed a lot since I was there last, not for the good I might add..i suspect trouble on the economic horizon in years to come.

Anyway, great airline and I will gladly use them again.

[Dan Collins]

Hi All,

Had a great experience with Emirates from here to Cairo and back. The A380 was the pick of the bunch for me. It was quiet, a bit more spacious in the cabin and in the economy seats and I guess I might've just been a little excited over my first A380 flight.

We had a B777-300ER from Dubai to Cairo where I found the seat was a bit narrower and legroom wasn't as good.

Returning to Dubai we had a B777-200ER, my fiancé and I sat at the back with the coupled seats and I found these were decently comfortable, and even included fold out trays from the armrest.

Our return flight to Sydney was A380 again, we had to wait an hour or so at the gate in DXB due to a huge tailwind. Our flight was swift, in about 11-12 hours with a decent 300+kmh tailwind!

Service on board was great. All staff were helpful, particularly on the return leg and they looked like they enjoyed what they did.

In-flight entertainment is second to none. The best I've experienced in my recent travels with endless things to watch, listen or play with.

To mirror my experience though, some people from our Egypt tour flew back earlier aboard a B77L and had some problems and delays out of Dubai due to technical issues and weren't kept informed of what was happening.

Very happy with my experience though and would fly them again. Also great that Velocity members can get points on Emirates flights :)

Cheers!

Dan

[Dan Collins]

For anyone interested, I've started posting up a trip report at another forum with photos from my Emirates experience and throughout my tour of Egypt and Dubai...

http://www.400scalehangar.net/forums/showthread.php?t=47346

Cheers,

Dan