Emirates business class review – A380 from Dubai to London

This is our review of Emirates business class on a refurbished A380.

Emirates is in the midst of a massive program to refurbish its workhorse A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft which represent the backbone of its long haul fleet.

Starting in 2021, the project has so far seen 22 of 110 A380s refurbished, whilst the first refurbished Boeing 777 will arrive this summer. For the A380, Emirates has retained the existing staggered 1-2-1 seating configuration but updated it with new finishes, fabrics and technology.

I was keen to see what Emirates had to offer on its flagship aircraft. Amongst the general public, Emirates enjoys a stellar reputation. Would my experience live up to it?

Emirates provided my return flight to Dubai for review purposes. It did not pay for my accommodation or incidental expenses.

Emirates seat selection and app

I again want to draw attention to the digital experience on Emirates, which is very good.

Seat selection (which is free) was a breeze thanks to the integrated 3D cabin renders you can explore during the process, letting you pick the exact seat you’d like.

I was also able to preview the menu and wine list on my flight, as well as pre-order the main course of my main meal.

Emirates chauffeur drive

Emirates is one of the few remaining airlines to offer a complimentary transfer service for premium customers. In order to qualify, you need to have a confirmed reservation in:

• First Class
• Business Class with a Saver, Flex or Flex Plus fare

It is not available if you’ve booked a Basic Business Class fare. Redemption tickets are also excluded, sadly.

The chauffeur drive service applies at both ends of your journey. This includes getting to your departure airport (in my case Dubai) as well as on arrival (London Heathrow).

There are, of course, some restrictions to the service. In London there is an upper limit of 70 driven miles, although you can pay for more. In Dubai, there is no mileage restriction so long as you stay within the United Arab Emirates.

It was easy to make my chauffeur bookings on the Emirates website, although it hasn’t updated its list of recognised hotels since St Regis Dubai The Palm opened and I had to enter the address manually. You need to book at least 12 hours before your flight.

In Dubai, my driver arrived approximately 10 minutes before my scheduled booking. As I was ready early I headed straight down. Business class customers get a BMW 5 Series Touring car:

The inside was smart with tan leather seats. There were two USB-C charging points:

Emirates business class check-in at Dubai

My driver automatically dropped me off in the dedicated first class / business class drop-off area of Dubai International Airport Terminal 3, which is used exclusively by Emirates.

I was expecting an impressive entrance for premium customers, similar to what Turkish Airlines offers in Istanbul and Qatar Airways has in Doha. Sadly the Emirates premium ground experience is underwhelming.

There is very little to mark this out as a premium departure experience. It feels just like the rest of the terminal.

It doesn’t help that the layout is confusing. It is effectively a huge, long corridor with check-in desks on the left and security at the very far end, some 300 metres away. First Class is first, followed by business class. These were busy although fortunately I only had to wait a few minutes to be seen:

Security at least was pretty quick and efficient. My flight to London was departing from Concourse A, which requires a quick jump in the air train once you have cleared security. The trains are very regular, departing every 1-2 minutes.

Concourse A is home to one of two Emirates business class lounges (the other is in Concourse B). You can read my review of the Emirates business class lounge in Concourse A here. One of the attractions is that it offers direct boarding to all 24 gates in the concourse.

Onboard Emirates A380 business class

One of the unique features of Concourse A at Dubai International Airport Terminal 3 is that every single gate can be boarded directly from the first and business class lounges.

When it is time to board the gates are opened by the lounge staff. At least some of the gates are now equipped with biometric boarding which only require your boarding pass to be scanned. You then head down a bank of escalators to the jet bridges – there are three of them for an A380.

The business class cabin on Emirates’ refurbished A380s is truly vast, with 76 seats. These are located on the upper deck, behind First Class, and are split into two: a massive forward cabin with 14 rows and a much smaller four-row rear cabin. The sheer size of the cabin does make it feel slightly impersonal and dormitory-like.

The cabin features a staggered 1-2-1 layout, with seats alternating between aisle side and window/internal side. Even rows are closer to the window whilst odd rows are closer to the aisle.

I was in the big forward cabin, in seat 19J.

As I mentioned above, the seat remains unchanged but it has undergone a comprehensive refurbishment with new finishes. Burl walnut and gold trim is out, to be replaced with more typical high gloss walnut veneer and cream leather upholstery. It doesn’t look quite as modern as the premium economy seat downstairs but it remains uniquely Emirates.

Most seats get two windows, and Emirates has specced the cabin with electronic window shades featuring both blackout and sheer blinds that can be individually controlled. I like the sheer blinds because it lets some light in without the blinding brightness of direct sun.

The seat is forward facing – no angles here. The console table contains the foot coffin for the passenger behind. There are some unique features here, including the large hand-held tablet that you can use to control all the functions of your seat or watch films and TV on:

Behind this is a small open storage shelf, underneath which you’ll find your own personal mini bar stocked with two bottles of Evian water, a bottle of sparkling Perrier water, a can of 7-Up and Pepsi, as well as a glass.

Also here is a personal reading light, a universal mains socket, two USB-A charging ports, an HDMI port (!) and an additional (third!) personal remote control device with screen.

A large sturdy tray table rotates out from the console table:

However, due to the way it slides into the console table it does make it hard to get in and out of your seat during the meal service.

There are personal air vents overhead:

Opposite is a large 18″ HD screen:

Underneath, of course, is your foot coffin. This was surprisingly deep, although not particularly high:

In-seat storage is where the seat falls short. The only other area is underneath the foot stool, which is where I put the blanket:

Those in window seats do have the large storage units running underneath the windows, but these are difficult to access unless you are in an even row and are used to stow the mattress pads. Centre pairs also miss out on these.

Everything else needs to be up in the overhead bins. To give the upper deck a bit more space, Emirates has only installed overhead bins in the centre of the cabin. This was fine: the low density of the business class cabin meant there was plenty of room for luggage, even after everyone had boarded.

The seat reclines to 6’7″ (200cm) long in bed mode. Cabin crew came round offering to put down the mattress pad. I requested this for after lunch for a short 20 minute nap:

There are no doors on these seats, although I would’ve liked some. With odd-numbered rows sitting so close to the aisle it would’ve been helpful to help block the coming and goings of passengers and crew. It also would’ve increased the sense of privacy, particularly when sleeping.

There are five business class lavatories on board: four at the rear and one at the front of the cabin. Two of the rear lavatories feature windows.

To my surprise, they also had cloth handtowels and fresh orchids.

Toiletries are by Voya and included both men and women’s eau de toilette.

Emirates business class amenities

Waiting at my seat was a pillow and plastic-wrapped blanket. Emirates seems to be behind the curve on removing single-use plastics from its aircraft, as the headphones were also in a plastic bag.

Rather stingily, Emirates only provides full amenity kits on flights over nine hours. For shorter (but still long haul) flights, such as this one, it provides slippers and eyemask in a small fabric bag:

I particularly liked the slippers, which had an elasticated edge which prevented them from slipping off my feet.

Dental kits and Voya-branded hand creams are also available in the bathrooms.

Emirates inflight entertainment and connectivity

Part of the refurbishment of the aircraft includes updating all the tech on board. In this case, it includes a new 18″ screen for watching content:

Emirates calls its entertainment system ‘ICE’ which is short for ‘Information, Communication, Entertainment’. In addition to a vast content library of 5,000+ different films, TV shows, albums and more it includes a huge amount of information about flights, connections, the aircraft and more. Of course, it also lets you view any one of the three cameras on board, including the iconic tailfin camera.

The sheer amount of content to choose from can be overwhelming, but without a doubt there is something for everyone. After watching the moving Past Lives I settled into something a little cheerier with a full boxset of Blackadder.

The supplied headphones are pretty average for business class. Unfortunately, there is no Bluetooth pairing so you won’t be able to connect your own wireless headphones.

Emirates onboard wifi

Emirates has recently introduced free wifi on board. If you’re a Skywards member – regardless of status – you’ll get free in-flight messaging regardless of cabin. This worked well for me for Whatsapp, but less well for Instagram messaging.

Multiple packages were available to upgrade, including a 30-minute package for $9.99 (poor value) or a full flight package for $16.99 (free if you’re Skywards Gold or Silver). Streaming is blocked for both.

I tested the full flight package and found it worked very well for light browsing, sending emails and social media.

Emirates A380 onboard bar

Undoubtedly one of the highlights of the Emirates A380 experience is the onboard bar. This horseshoe-shaped bar is located at the back of the business class cabin, between the rear two doors, and is accessible to both business class and First Class passengers.

The bar is set up after take-off and accessible for the duration of the flight, as long as the seatbelt signs are off.

Behind the bar you’ll see a rack of spirits including Henessey XO cognac, Chivas Regal 18 Year Aged whisky. The bar tenders will try to rustle up any drink you like.

There are two seating areas either side of the bar, as well as a variety of spots to stand and put your drinks down.

You’ll find a range of snacks and sandwiches available in the lounge throughout the flight, including a variety of good-looking sandwiches in crusty bread, fruit, cake and pastries such as baklava.

The crew will offer to take a photo of you standing behind it before you can even ask:

What is particularly good is that the bar offers a space to chat to the friendly crew whilst they serve drinks.

Emirates business class dining and service

Service on board started with a pre-departure drink with a choice of Veuve Cliquot champagne, orange juice or a signature mocktail made of hibiscus tea, grape juice and ginger:

You can even pick two if you ask!

There was a hot towel service after take off and the crew also distributed menus and wine lists.

Emirates offers a very impressive cocktail menu on board with 12 classics available. The airline is renowned for its vast wine cellar with over six million bottles laid down. Available on this flight were two reds including Les Pagodes de Cos 2011 red, a white wine and Chateau d’ESclans Rock Angel 2022 rose (which British Airways serves in First).

The service was, admittedly, very slow. A second drink order was taken early on but took almost two hours to arrive after the pre-departure drinks. I suppose I could’ve gone to the onboard bar at this point but it really shouldn’t take this long!

I ordered an espresso martini. Unfortunately, they had forgotten to load the Tia Maria so my lovely cabin crew had improvised with Amarula, which was just as nice. It came with either warm nuts or olives:

It took another hour for ‘lunch’ to be served (at this point it was already 6:30pm in Dubai). There were three starters to choose from:

• Roasted tomato soup with cheese straws
• Traditional Arabic mezze with tabouleh, taktouka, houmous, stuffed wine leaves and koussa kibbeh
• Roasted chicken sliced and served with puy lentil and tomato salad, crumbled feta and honey mustard dressing

I went for the local dish and ordered the Arabic mezze. This is also offered by Emirates’ two competitors and I wanted to see how it compared. It was served in a compartmentalised dish with flatbread and a salad on the side:

You can see that all the food has been freshly plated on board rather than just reheated, which is something I’m told Emirates has re-introduced. A trolley service has also returned in the hope of speeding up meal services and reducing the amount of walking crew have to do from the galley and back.

For the main course there were four options:

• Pan fried beef tenderloin served with thyme jus, roasted potato wedges and steamed asparagus
• Pan-seared chicken served with onion jus, mashed root vegetables, blanched yellow cauliflower, courgette and peppers
• Fish machbous kingfish marinated in Middle Eastern spices and served with aromatic rice garnished with roasted pine nuts
• Barbeque chicken sandwich with turkey rashers, Emmental and onion jam served with potato crisps and coleslaw

I’m not sure what’s on offer if you’re vegetarian, given all the options involve fish or meat.

My beef tenderloin was delivered as per my pre-order on the website:

Although the beef was well done it was still tender.

Between courses crew came round with wines to both top up or pour fresh wine, or you could request something else.

There were another four choices for dessert:

• Chocolate pecan cake served with dark chocolate sauce
• Yuzu green tea cake garnished with dark chocolate and citrus pearls
• Seasonal fruit
• Cheese board with Punchestown mature cheddar, Bergamo Blue and Pave de Chevre.

As a big fan of Yuzu I opted for the green tea cake, which was sublime and came with a little box of chocolates on the side:

After lunch the cabin lights were dimmed and electronic blinds lowered, although not locked.

About 90 minutes before landing a second service of light bites was offered with a choice of Afternoon tea with finger sandwiches, scones and a berry tartlet, Herbed gnocchi with cheese and tomato chutney or a lamb and rosemary pie.

I went for the afternoon tea with a glass of the Rock Angel rose:

This was followed by another hot towel before landing into Heathrow just as the sun was setting.

Emirates chauffeur drive at Heathrow

Due to the sheer volume of passengers, Emirates operates a dedicated pick up zone for Chauffeur Drive customers. It’s really easy to find as it is well sign-posted as you walk out from customs.

You basically keep walking in a straight line:

The current waiting area is being refurbished and will re-open in mid-June. In the meantime, simply head to the desk on the side to register yourself and then head outside. After a few minutes your name will be called by one of the Addison Lee drivers.

Conclusion

I enjoyed my flight in Emirates business class. It is always a pleasure to fly on the A380, particularly the upper deck, and the iconic Emirates bar is impressive. I would make more use of it if I wasn’t flying alone!

Whilst it’s not a new seat, the updated finishes have modernised the cabin whilst retaining its ostentatious character. The one thing I did miss was having a door, particularly as I was so close to the aisle.

The lack of a proper amenity kit on flights under nine hours is a sticking point, and does seem stingy given what its competitors offer.

The real issue, however, was the glacial pace of the food service. I didn’t mind it so much on this flight as it kept me occupied, but I can imagine it would be frustrating for anyone particularly hungry or desperate to get some rest. I’m not sure if this was simply due to new, unfamiliar procedures for the crew, the size of the cabin or some other issue but it clearly needs sorting. Four hours to finish the main meal from boarding simply isn’t acceptable.

On the other hand, the crew were faultless: always friendly and happy to fulfil requests or top up a drink no matter what they were doing. Good crew can make or break a flight and in this case they definitely delivered.

You can find out more on the Emirates website here.

---

How to earn Emirates Skywards miles from UK credit cards (September 2024)

Emirates Skywards does not have a UK credit card.  However, you can earn Emirates Skywards miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

Cards earning Membership Rewards points include:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 15,000 Emirates Skywards miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 30,000 Emirates Skywards miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 7,500 Emirates Skywards miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 4:3 into Emirates Skywards miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 0.75 Emirates Skywards miles. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it, with any airline.