Review of Emirates flight from Toronto to Dubai in Economy

Emirates - Summer 2023

Welcome to the Emirates Summer 2023 Series! It's been a while since I've published a trip report, but I'm back! I plan to publish the next few reports frequently and they will be dominated by Emirates. I simply love the airline, and while there are some drawbacks which I will mention in this trip report and future ones, on average I find them to be one the best ways to traverse the skies. I will make sure to write these reports in a chronological order making it simple to follow and enjoyable to read! 

Booking

This itinerary was booked as part of a roundtrip to Delhi. The exact routing was MSP-YYZ-DXB-DEL and the return was booked as DEL-DXB-ORD-MSP. Often you'll notice Emirates fares out of San Francisco and Los Angeles are sub $1000 to Delhi and the Indian subcontinent in general. If you have a place to stay or don't mind booking a hotel, this is actually a great way to fly if you can get yourself to SFO or LAX. EWR and JFK also merit a mention here, as does Miami. The reason I recommend keeping a days gap is just to avoid the unfortunate situation where you end up missing a flight because of a delay from the domestic flight. 

I booked this ticket directly on Emirates' website. This particular routing costed me about $1689. You will notice this is a significant time detour compared to say Delta and KLM via Amsterdam or Delta and Air France via Paris and while that is true, I don't mind it personally. Approximately, the comparison is 20 hours or so via DL/AF/KL and 27h via EK. This is not a bad tradeoff considering the comfort in each case in my opinion. I will leave the final judgement up to you. 

One quirk I'd like to mention here is the option to take a carry on along with a backpack with you on your outbound flight to a destination in India, but having to choose either a carry on or backpack on the flight back. This is important to note since you will be charged for an extra piece if you violate this rule out of India where fare rules state one piece of hand luggage. 

Toronto Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Canada

I arrived at Toronto on Air Canada flight 8716. Unfortunately, this was extremely early in the morning and being bleary eyed I will admit I did not click enough pictures to make a full flight report. We made our approach to a gloomy Toronto at approximately 8:45am in the morning. This being a 6:10am departure from Minneapolis wasn't exactly pleasant. I did have to start my morning with donuts and coffee! (as I do with most mornings minus the donut) 

I had a 5h 20m layover at Toronto before my Emirates flight to Dubai. Now the inbound flight from Dubai is usually delayed on this route but considering the 5 hour turnaround time, it was not a matter of concern. Nevertheless, I made sure to check the Flight Information Display System at Toronto quickly. Not that it meant much, at 9:34am, the inbound flight hadn't even landed. This kind of on time performance from Air Canada did surprise though. Perhaps the massive delays and lack of on time performance is a winter only phenomenon because of the snow? Please let me know! 

Our aircraft has arrived from Dubai! (apologies for the grainy picture) 

I do apologize for not clicking more photos of Toronto Pearson Terminal 1. Allow me to summarize it for you. It is quite a nice place to hang out and relax before your flight. The art installations and large windows certainly help give it an airy and elegant feeling. That being said, I can see how getting from one end to the other of the Terminal can be a bit of an issue. It's certainly no marathon like Frankfurt, Paris or most infamously Istanbul, but its no cakewalk! Restaurants are somewhat alright, this could be an important consideration if you haven't had anything to eat before this particular flight. Something I've noticed is that Emirates definitely takes their time and serves the first meal about 1.5 hours into a long haul flight. 

Soon, a torrential downpour began and our A380 was being pelted with raindrops at the gate. Emirates always uses gate E73 at Toronto Pearson. 

Boarding

I had to exchange the Air Canada codeshare boarding pass I was provided with at Minneapolis, for a set of Emirates branded boarding passes to Dubai and onwards to Delhi. This was a little confusing, considering the PNR number hadn't changed. And I wasn't the only passenger who had to go through with this. I'd like to note this caused no delays since it was carried out well before boarding time. 

Our A380 registration A6-EON was delivered new to EK in September 2015. At the time it was configured in the standard 14 First, 76 Business and 401/399 in Economy. As of March 2025, it has been updated to the latest EK cabin with 14 First, 76 Business, 56 Premium Economy and 322 in Economy. 

At around 1:15pm, boarding began in the usual fashion with First, Business and passengers who required special assistance.  As mentioned above, this route features an older A380, one without the Premium Economy cabin (my trip from SFO to DXB will feature this variant!). Finally, it was time for folks in economy to board! 

Once onboard, I made my way to my seat 75A. A friend of mine who was travelling with me was booked into 75B but as we would soon find out, 75C was unoccupied which meant we could stretch out and relax with a seat between us! 

The Emirates A380 economy seat even on the older generation of A380s is simply exquisite in terms of comfort. The headrest provided is excellent and can be moved in a bunch of directions. The half-folding option tray table is a nice gesture as is the cup holder. The IFE screen while slightly lower resolution than the newer variants like the Panasonic eX3, is perfectly acceptable. ICE entertainment is of course almost unparalleled in the number of movies it offers. 

You'll also find on the seat a plush pillow, blanket as well as an amenity kit. This contains socks, toothpaste and some moisturizer.

A comment I've heard often is that the A380 windows are so tiny that the view is often not the greatest, I agree, and it does make taking pictures a little more challenging. However, I do like what EK has done with the wooden finish around it. 

Pushback, Taxi and Takeoff

Boarding was completed on time and the doors were shut. The captain introduced himself on the PA system and clarified that our flight time would be 11 hours and 40 minutes this afternoon. Our route would take us over Halifax in Nova Scotia, the Atlantic Ocean, near Greenland and over the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Romania, Turkey Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia before entering the UAE. We pushed back from the gate and taxied across the wet tarmac to our runway. At about 3pm, we lined up and lifted off into the grey skies above Toronto. 

We cleared the weather and started cruising over Canada, heading in the general direction of Montreal. The seatbelt sign was turned off after about 30 minutes or so after we reached cruising altitude. The crew prepared to begin the meal service in about an hour or so. 

Lunch

Two choices were offered for lunch, being chicken and vegetarian. The chicken meal consisted of steamed rice, chicken in a tomato gravy along with green string beans. This was accompanied with a packet of roasted crisps, a bottle of water, dinner bun, butter, cream cheese, crackers, a salad with pomegranate as well as a piece of cake on top of a blueberry sauce. I washed all this down with a coke. This was a fairly extensive meal and the tray was completely packed! (Maybe they should consider larger trays?! that's a nitpick however). Notably, metal cutlery along with salt, pepper and wet wipes was provided which is always appreciated. 

The chicken was tender and juicy, the tomato gravy complemented it extremely well. The salad was refreshing and the dessert was simply decadent. Emirates catering never fails to deliver an excellent experience in the skies. (We'll soon find out they have breakfast down to a science as well, a notoriously hard meal to master). 

Middle of the Flight

The trays were cleared, and the cabin lights were dimmed to allow passengers to get some sleep. As we crossed the Atlantic Ocean, the sun started setting on our A380. Having had about 3 cups of coffee on this day, I was clearly in no shape to get some much needed sleep. Therefore, I decided to go on a movie marathon covering Black Adam and a couple of other Marvel movies. 

About halfway through the flight, drinks and a margherita pizza were offered. This is fairly standard on EK and the pizza usually never disappoints. I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep after this service and awoke the cabin lights being slowly brought up using the ambient mood lighting. I love this feature and it provides such a gentle transition for the passengers. 

Breakfast

We were about 2.5 hours from arriving in Dubai and thus the crew began preparations to serve breakfast, part of which was using the mood lighting to wake up passengers. Soon they came around to offer choices for breakfast which were an omelette with sausages and potatoes or paneer bhurji (which is also offered on KLM!). Paneer Bhurji is great by the way, if you get a chance to try it make sure you do! I went with the omelette, this was accompanied with preserve, granola bar, muffin, bottle of water, butter, a fruit bowl and an outlier of sorts. The outlier being a bowl of tomato, carrot, cucumber and cheese. I assume this is usually some sort of yoghurt but maybe they ran out and replaced it with something from lunch service. I went for a coffee and orange juice to accompany this. 

Breakfast was an enjoyable meal and this definitely dispells the ghosts of any soggy airplane omelettes. It is always nice to see an airline nail the basics and still manage to go above and beyond (Ahem Delta I'm looking at you). Trays were cleared in a timely fashion and the crew prepared the cabin for our descent into Dubai. 

Descent and Landing in Dubai

The captain informed us of an on time arrival in Dubai. He also informed us about the blazing heat at this time. That of course, was not a surprise, being that it was May. 

Soon we made our approach over the Dubai Desert. 

After lining up with the runway, the pilots executed an excellent landing by A380 standards and we made our way to the gate. 

Disembarking

We reached the gate and disembarking was carried out in an orderly fashion. It was time to say goodbye the A380 for a while. (But fear not, i had the chance to fly SQ's A380 to Singapore and back to Delhi, which will get it's own reports!) 

Dubai Layover

I have about 4 hours to spend at DXB before my onward flight to New Delhi, India. I will mention the details of my Dubai layover in the Dubai to Delhi trip report which will be available soon! I have my gripes with the systems implemented at London and Paris where you have to go through security on an outbound flight to India, and this requirement exists at Dubai too, but it is completed with an unparalleled level of efficiency. If only all transits were this painless! 

Thank you so much for reading this flight report! I hope to bring a lot of EK, SQ, AF and of course more DL, KLM trip reports in the near future. I do apologize for the size of the images in this trip report. Fly safe! 

- KL872