Home > Emirates > 2007 > Review

Taken 7 October 2007 from London, England (Heathrow Airport) - LHR to Bangalore - BLR

I flew from London to Bangalore via Dubai for the first time of my life in Business Class... Here are my impressions...

Emirates provide Chauffeur Drive to all Business and First Class passengers within a 50-mile radius from Heathrow so I could enjoy a ride in a very nice Volvo S70. Upon arrival on Terminal 3, I went for the check-in and managed to get boarding passes for the 2 flights straight away.

Suddenly, I realised that for the Dubai-Bangalore leg, I had been assigned seat 2A which meant that there might have been a slight chance for me to have been upgraded to First Class, but most probably that I would fly in a 2-classes airplane (Business Class at the front, Economy at the back, but no First)

But I didn’t want to get too happy about it until I found out while boarding the plane in Dubai.

As a premium class passenger, I was allowed to use the Fast Track Security Lane, which was great, except that at least 15 persons were in the queue before me … Such much for the Fast Track!

After having gone through a body check (I tend to make metal detectors beep every time …), I went straight to the Emirates Business Lounge which was stunning. Pretty big with virtually nobody there …

Lots of nice light brown sofas and tea tables with a self-service buffet on both side of the lounge with lots to eat and drink.

I’ve had a few glasses of a most fantastic Pouilly Fuisse which made me happy and jolly for the flight.

Managed to board directly from the lounge which meant no queue whatsoever.

A gorgeous Boeing 777-300ER was waiting for us. I had a nice window seat with a very nice seat pitch (60 inches) but not a lie-flat bed as hoped before… Emirates is in the process to reshuffling its fleet of 777-300ER with First Class Suites, lie-flat bed seats in Business and a brand new seat as well for Economy. 35 seconds after being seated I was offered a nice Taittinger glass of champagne to start!! The service is just amazing on Emirates; their reputation is much well deserved. They employ people from mostly all over the world. For instance, on that particular flight, the cabin crew could speak a total of 14 languages!!! Simply incredible!!

Emirates’ got the most fantastic IFE in the world called ICE with lots and lots of films to choose from and a massive 400 music channels. I’ve managed to go through all UK singles number one since 1952!!! It’s only fitted in some of their planes, but it’s really great stuff! Emirates are in the process of retrofitting the older planes with it. Very good move if you ask me!!

Food was amazing. Arabic mezze for starter with lots of different Arabic delicacies like houmous and a delicious veal dish for the main with a very nice Sancerre to go along. Dessert was a very nice pudding with orange and chocolate.

Arrived in Dubai around 6.30am local time. Flying over Dubai is an experience in itself … Just amazing to see this massive city coming out of the desert … I’ve even managed to see El Burhaj hotel on the coast.

The airport is quite big with a massive Duty Free area and incredibly good prices. Will definitely buy some stuff on my way back. For example, a carton of Winston cigarettes was around £4.50!!! (for 200 cigarettes …)

Not very impressed with the amount of people there though … Literally, people everywhere, talking loud and announcements every minute for departures in Arabic and in English, a very hectic place in fact …

But I had access to the Business Lounge so once again, I went straight there.

Not as nice and cosy than London’s one, but still pretty nice. It was fully packed when I got into the lounge, but at least I could smoke …

Had some breakfast and a much deserved cigarette after more than 10 hours without it … (bloody British airports where you can't smoke anywhere anymore)

I was stuck in Dubai Airport for more than 5 hours … Not the best part of the trip as I was totally shattered because I could only sleep for a few hours in the plane.

Eventually it was time to board, but it was slightly delayed as the plane had just gone out of maintenance and the engineers were running a bit late.

Finally the plane came … A nice A330-200 …

We eventually boarded and then I realised that I had definitely been upgraded to First Class!!! Couldn’t believe my eyes … I will never know why this happened, but I can tell you I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly!

Although it wasn’t the newest Emirates First Class, I was pretty impressed with the seat pitch. (86 inches) It was a flat bed also so I managed to get so more sleep …

Again, great food with a starter of lamb and a main of lobster and prawns with another beautiful Pouilly Fuisse …

Unfortunately the A330-200 hasn’t been upgraded with ICE IFE (and won’t be) so it was a bit a let down, but I was aware of that before flying … and it was First Class anyway!!

The service was once again on top of the world, I don’t know what they could do to improve it further more. As an example, with another 2 hours to go in the flight, I was trying to get some sleep. One of the Flight Attendants came to close the three window shades close to me to make the cabin darker for me to fall asleep quickly and more easily. I thought it was a very nice little touch which makes all the difference.

A fantastic experience all in all...