Review of Qantas flight from Dubai to Melbourne in First

Welcome back!
My itinerary:
- Manila to Hong Kong with Cathay business
- Tokyo to New York with Japan Airlines first class
- New York to London with British Airways first class
- London to Melbourne with Qantas first class Part 1 (London to Dubai)
- London to Melbourne with Qantas first class Part 2 (Dubai to Melbourne) <<< You are here
Dubai to Melbourne
January 26 2016
Qantas QF10
1:15AM - 9:35PM
A380 First Class
Seat 2A
This is the last leg of my mini round the world first class trip.
This flight is rather uneventful because you depart at 1:15AM, there isn’t much offered since everyone just wants to go to sleep.
So I have to warn you that there aren’t many words in this report, mostly photos of the Emirates First Class lounge.
The lounge
This London to Melbourne Qantas flight has a very short connection (about 2 hours) in Dubai, so you don’t get much time to enjoy all the facilities since it takes 10 minutes to disembark, make your way through the terminal and find the lounge. And of course, boarding commences about 1 hour before the schedule flight. So in reality, you only get about 50 minutes in the lounge.
I found it was not enough time to have a shower, full service dinner and massage, so I chose to have a massage only and something quick to eat from the self service buffet.
I’m sure you have read about the Emirates First Class lounge in Dubai many times, but here is my feedback.

The lounge is very big but soulless and does not make great use of space. For example, the lounge stretches the entire airport terminal and there are plenty seats but no rooms to rest. So if you have a long transit, there is nowhere to book a room like Concorde Room in London, or Cathay Pacific’s Cabana in Hong Kong.
Apart from that, the lounge staff are very friendly and always looking to provide assistance. Because it is such a big lounge, it is also very quiet so I have a feeling that sometimes the staff would outnumber the number of passengers in the lounge.
The lounge is divided into several bars and a la carte dining areas as well as a cigar bar, but Emirates charges for cigars, so I didn’t use it.

Cigar bar

Emirates answer to sleeping rooms???

Emirates First Class passengers were eligible for a free 15 minutes massage.
There was a 10 minute wait before they found a masseuse for me.

I elected to have the head massage, and it was okay, nothing special really.
After the massage, I looked at my watch there wasn’t much time left. So I skipped the shower and went to the a la carte restaurant area.

Here is the menu.

I saw my travel companion was already there and he ordered a club sandwich but I didn’t have enough time to have a full service three courses dinner, so I just chose some items from the buffet.

Here is the buffet meals.

I had some balik salmon slices, basmati rice and chicken tandoori. The balik salmon was the highlight for sure! I wish I had more. But I was saving myself for the Qantas flight, which was a mistake because the onboard catering on Qantas First Class is very average.

It wasn’t long before boarding was announced. First class passengers board from the lounge at the designated gate, although Qantas Platinum members travelling in economy class can use this benefit too because they have access to the Emirates First Class lounge. Since we are flying to Australia, there was extra security check.

The flight
Boarding was very quick. Water was offered but I decline.
It was the same 12 passengers from my London to Dubai flight.
There were two meal services on this flight, supper and dinner.
Here is the menu. To be honest, the meal choices did not stand out. But I was very tired at this point, I think 6 weeks of travelling was catching up to me, so I declined more drinks.

I don’t know what was wrong with me, I was stuck between feeling very tired but I couldn’t sleep. So I decided to eat.
I ordered the Qantas signature steak sandwich with tomato and chilli relish. The sandwiched arrived and I was expecting some potato chips but nothing?!

So I asked the flight attendant if I could have a bag of chips.
“I’m sorry sir, we don’t offer potato chips in First Class because normally people don’t ask for me, let me check economy class,”
LOL How strange I thought, First class passengers don’t like chips? What is wrong with them?!! Haha
So I waited a few minutes and she returned with 1 packet of chips she found in economy class cart.
Ah much better! Sandwich and chips! The sandwich was tasty, meat is really tender and the relish was flavourful.

So when the cabin flight was switched off, I watched some TV shows and fell asleep.
When I woke up a few hours later, there was a blanket over me. But my blanket was still in the plastic bag and under my seat.
So during my sleep, a thoughtful crew member fetched another blanket and put it over me when I was sleeping. That was really lovely.
After waking up, I saw that we were four hours from landing, so a crew member asked me if I wanted dinner. I wasn’t very hungry but I decided to order something for the trip report.
I didn’t order the full three course dinner, just one main plate - Persian chicken fesenjan with walnuts, pomegranate, saffron carrots and rice pilaf.

What a mistake!
The dish was not tasty at all. The tangy sauce overpowering so it was like eating lemons, you couldn’t have more than small size bites. The potatoes were overcooked so it lost the crunch.
After I finish my meal, I spent the remaining 3 hours watching TV shows.