Review of Emirates flight from Dubai to London in First

UAE

EK - Emirates

Flight taken on 21 June 2024
EK15
08:02 08h 28m 13:30
Class First
Seat 2K
YGeorgeW
5,718 · 109 · 0 · 37

First Trip to Middle East


This is the second leg of my roundabout journey from Cairo to London (booked as one ticket).  I originally booked this into business class as First wasn't available, but upgraded to First on miles when availability opened up 2 days before departure.  I wouldn't advise on a June (or summer in general) visit to Dubai–the heat index hit 120 degrees Fahrenheit when I was there.  


Flight routing


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Dubai International Airport (DXB)


When I got to DXB early morning, I headed straight for the first class check-in area . . . which was massive.


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Seriously, the first and business class check-in just goes on forever.  Then everyone (premium cabin or otherwise) has to line up for the tram to take you to Concourse A.


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Once in, it's easy enough to find the directions to the business and first class lounges (since they're each an entire floor of the concourse).


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Emirates First Class Lounge (Concourse A)


Honestly, because of the size of this place, it felt a little bit like checking into a hotel.


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Immediately after check-in, you see more duty free shops.  Have I taken a wrong turn?  No, that's just how big this "lounge" is.


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Here's a handy map that shows you the scale of this place.


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My gate would be A13, so I'm just flagging this gate-adjacent seating area for later.





There are a variety of seating arrangements and different shops throughout the lounge, including its own duty-free wine shop.  I didn't notice anyone stationed at what I presume are the concierge desks when I walked by, maybe it was too early.  Note that complimentary shoe shine is also available (more on that later).





Here's a business room setup.  Importantly, Emirates places coffee machines throughout all of these rooms.





There is also a play room for those with young children.


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Here is the spa for reference–passengers get a complimentary 15-minute treatment.  I was pressed for time and didn't stop to check how long of a wait it would have been.  Also, as you can see from the picture, a large family had just rolled up to book their appointments.


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There's also quite rooms for those trying to get a little rest, I didn't go in.


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Bathrooms are gender neutral and well apportioned.


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Combs and toothbrush sets are available in the bathrooms (so you don't need to get a shower room).


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My main priority in the less than an hour I had in the lounge was to check out the restaurant.  There are two of these restaurants and they are identical as far as I can tell.


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I was welcomed in and shown to an empty table.


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You can see the gate area from the restaurant.


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The main reason I rushed to the restaurant was so I could check out what wines were available.  These tend to be hit or miss in the first class lounge because the higher end wines are based on what the leftover bottles from the first class flights area.

Note that champagne in the first class lounges aren't that great–it's usually just some variety of offerings from Moet.  The white wines also I'm not quite sure about–didn't see anything nice while I was browsing.  It's the red wines to focus on in the lounge.  Now sometimes the wines have been left open for a bit too long or out in the lounge with light exposure, but for the big French, Italian, or Californian reds that you'll find dominating Emirates' cellar, these can be slow ox'ed for quite some time so it's often in decent shape.  The first stand was already promising, a 2006 Cos d'Estournel.  Bibi Graetz's Testmatta is also no slouch, but not quite the same level.


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Here we go, a bottle of 2012 Opus One would be the highlight of my 6:30am breakfast.  Opus One is reasonably good Napa wine despite my aversion to the region (but I would not recommend anyone pay its premium for a bottle, you can get better Bordeauxs for cheaper).


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Even though I was just having a light breakfast, a bread tray was promptly brought out.


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I started with the 2012 Opus One.


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Here is the breakfast menu:





I had an order of the Chibab with sausages and sauteed mushrooms.  It was nothing fancy, but hit the spot.


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I also tried a glass of the 2006 Cos d'Estournel.  While older Cos is great, more modern bottles like this one have not lived up to its former style (much of that is intentional and just a matter of different preferences).


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One kind of crazy thing I was not aware of the lounge having was a shoe shining service.  There are a few shoe shining stations around the lounge, but someone actively walks around the restaurant area and offers to shine your shoes while you eat.  You're given slippers (the same as onboard) to wear while you wait.


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EK15


Around 7:15am I headed to the "gate" area, though boarding for first class did not begin until 8 minutes later.

My ride to London was on A6-EEK, a 10-years old Airbus A380.


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I was welcomed on board and shown to my seat by Kata, the FA responsible for my side.  


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Having gone over the seat in detail in my previous report, I won't belabor the point here and will let the pictures speak for themselves.





This time I did actually take the notebook and pen–it's a good pen!


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I just had a glass of water for my PDB.


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Same slippers as before–just as comfortable as before as well.


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The same Bowers & Wilkins headphones as before–I tried this on this flight: comfort and sound were both excellent.


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When offered a date, why not?


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Arabic coffee as well:


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We pushed back at 8:02am.


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Maya, the purser, stopped by before takeoff to introduce herself.  From the announcement, there were 18 flight attendants on this crew, speaking 17 different languages.


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We took off at 8:28am and I quickly closed the blinds to get ready for a nap.


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After the seatbelt sign was turned off, I went to change into pajamas (which I didn't get to last flight) and asked for my bed to be made.  I also asked Kata if she could wake me 2 hours after takeoff to shower (I timed it this way so I could adjust to British time).


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My bed was ready for me when I returned (she left it in a reclined position so I could decide whether to go to sleep right away or watch a movie).


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Here's what it looks like with the doors closed.  It's quite a seamless open/close.


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It felt like I had just closed my eyes when Kata woke me up.  She offered to let me sleep in more and move the shower time, but I needed to wake up so I could adjust to a different time zone.  Here's what front bar looks like when it's fully set up.


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The same spacious shower "spa" as before: one picture is from towards the end of the flight when the attendants had stopped restacking the towel pyramid.





Once again, I get to enjoy the novelty of showering at several miles in the sky.  The same scented toiletries are offered as before.  I don't imagine these change much.  I did get a wider angle picture of the shower itself this time (last picture of the below gallery).





I returned to my seat to watch Ridley Scott's Napoleon.  Don't waste your time, it was not good.


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Instead of fresh fruit, I was offered a cup of ginger tea this time.


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Maya also stopped by to offer a separate movie snack menu.  I don't think this menu was available on the Cairo flight.


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I decided to skip the movie snacks and check out the bar, which I didn't really get to last flight.  It was busy, but not too busy–mostly a few expat British folks who lived in Dubai returning home to see family.  No one from first class came to the back while I was there.


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On the previous flight, the bar had a table, but this version of the bar had just a curved bench.  Not sure which I prefer.


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There are snacks on offer at the bar, as well as a menu you can order from.


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Another look at the bar:


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I asked Harriet, the bartender FA, if I could have Dom in the back.  After a quick call to the galley to confirm I was a first class passenger, Maya brought the 2013 Dom Perignon to the back and I enjoyed several glasses while chatting.


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I snagged a few pieces of chocolate.  It's not that bad of a pairing, Dom with chocolate.  Champagne goes well with everything.


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I also asked for a Polaroid as a memento of my first two flights with Emirates.  Harriet happily obliged.


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After chatting in the back for a while and downing several glasses of Dom, I returned to my seat and asked Maya if I could have my lunch then.   Here's the menu: you'll notice it's a bit more substantial than the Cairo flight, with more options, a full on cheese board, and the movie snacks we saw earlier.





The drinks menu was also a bit larger, though in my opinion not as good as the previous flight.





To pair with the caviar course, I opted for the 2014 Louis Latour Chevalier-Montrachet "Les Demoiselles."  This is a small plot that is mostly classified within the larger Chevalier-Montrachet vineyard.  I believe Louis Latour and Louis Jadot are the only owners of the Grand Cru Les Demoiselles site.  This wine was good, but not great–it's a perfect example of producer over everything else in Burgundy.  2014 was probably the best white Burgundy vintage in the last 20 years and despite that, Louis Latour's "Les Demoiselles", which is supposed to be a little better than the regular Chevalier, performed worse than the 2011 Bouchard Chevalier I had on my last flight.  It also seemed a bit advanced for its age–perhaps signs of premox.  In any case, it's certainly a first-world problem: I'm happy to have gotten Chevalier Montrachets on consecutive flights.


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In any case, Maya set the table beautifully in preparation for the caviar course.


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Here's a blurry picture of the bread basket.


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A smaller serving of caviar than before, but that's fine, as I had eaten breakfast and also planned on eating more for lunch.  It was still a very healthy dollop and every bit as enjoyable.


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Next I had the seafood antipasti, which was simple, but good.


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For my main, I was planning on a meat dish again, so I switched to the 2013 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Le Pavillion.  It was a fantastic showing and a great example of Northern Rhone.  This was the wine of the flight.


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I had the lamb quzi with hashwa this flight.  It wasn't as good as the lamb dish I had last flight, but was decent.  The lamb was noticeably drier though.


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For science, even though I knew I probably wasn't going to enjoy it as much, I switched to the 2008 Chateau Valandraud for the cheese course.  It was a fairly boring right bank–as many of the estates are these days.  We have Michel Rolland to thank for that.


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It was a pretty diverse range of cheese–I did not track which ones I enjoyed and which ones I didn't, but at this point I was getting pretty full.


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To soldier on, I got a cup of cappuccino and the selection of pastries for dessert.  These were fantastic.


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At the end, another box of chocolate.


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I thought about trying the Hennessy Paradis but decided that I didn't want to actually get drunk–I had quite a lot to drink already between the different wines in the lounge and onboard.  This is really one of those situations where you do wish the flight was longer–like in the Jennifer Anniston ad.


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Soon enough, we landed at London Gatwick at 1:21pm local time and reached our gate 9 minutes later.


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Gatwick turned out to be easy enough to navigate and with the automated immigration gates, it was a breeze getting through to the train station.

Display all

Product ratings

Airline

Emirates 8.9

  • Cabin9.5 / 10
  • Cabin crew8.5 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi8.5 / 10
  • Meal/catering9.0 / 10
Lounge

Emirates Lounge - First (Gates A)8.1

  • Comfort7.0 / 10
  • Meal/catering9.0 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi7.5 / 10
  • Services9.0 / 10
Departure airport

Dubai - DXB8.9

  • Efficiency7.5 / 10
  • Access9.0 / 10
  • Services9.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness10.0 / 10
Arrival Airport

London - LGW6.9

  • Efficiency8.0 / 10
  • Access6.0 / 10
  • Services7.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness6.5 / 10

Conclusion

Lounge: Think of the Emirates First Class Lounge as a complimentary mall (though the duty free isn't free) and that about sums it up. The restaurant is a nice touch, but from what I understand the wine selection can be hit or miss depending on what leftover bottles are available. I didn't have enough time to explore other parts of the lounge and will have to do that on a future Emirates trip.

Cabin & Seat: Now having tried to sleep in the seat, it was quite comfortable for a nap. We'll have to test it a true long-haul flight at some point. WiFi was a little better than the last flight, but still pretty poor (worse than United's WiFi). Spending time with the IFE, it was less crisp of a screen than the previous flight, but still easy to use and had good visuals.

Service: Service was good but not great on this flight. Kata and Maya were perfectly nice FAs and accommodated all of my requests--though I got the sense that Maya was getting tired of me switching up the wines each course. You can't expect every crew to be outstanding (that's why it's outstanding), and both of them were perfectly nice and provided good service. That said, Harriet in the back was fantastic and I had a great time at the bar.

Meal & Catering: I thought catering was a bit worse despite having more options this time. Larger food menu, but courses were not as tasty. The wine list was the same, more options, but not as good (though the Ermitage was my favorite red wine between the two flights and the lounge).

Bottom Line: I'm glad I got to enjoy the flight more with a 7-hour flight rather than just a regional one, but it still left me wanting a true long-haul to experience everything. There was so much I didn't get to try still. Guess I'll just have to find a reason to fly through Dubai again.

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