If you’re traveling in first class, Emirates will now send someone to your home to check you in at no extra cost. That probably sounds kind of awesome, and kind of like an April Fools’ joke.
Continue reading: Emirates Adds First Class Home Check-In: Cool Or Silly?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
If I'm not wrong, this has been a thing in the UAE for a while (Since 2018 for emirates, and since the start of the pandemic for Etihad), Etihad has home check-in too, with all passengers being eligible, the caveat being everyone has to pay for it.
https://www.etihad.com/en-ae/manage/check-in/home-check-in
https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/emirates-introduces-home-check-in-in-dubai/
They also have a land and leave program where you can clear immigration and skip baggage claim and the bags will be delivered to you later. This is offered by Dubz, which is a Dnata company. The parent company of Dnata being Emirates itself.
As someone who often travels with their kids, I'd definitely use this service. Anything to make the process easier/smoother and allow us to get to the airport a bit later is a win in my book. During our last Dubai trip (a few months ago) having to drop off the rental car at the airport with 8 suitcases, 3 kids and a swarm of people, I would have paid a hefty price for this service. We were in J on Qatar so unfortunately was not an option.
Lucky, we need a trip report where you fly to DXB to test out "home" check-in. 🙂
I love walking past the things others queue for. I can see myself using this service, if I ever decided to check a bag.
Why don't they kill 2 birds with one stone and just make the chauffeur that picks you up to takes you to the airport also your check-in person? They arrive to take you to the airport, check all your documents, give you your boarding passes, and then take you and your luggage to the airport and once you get to the airport your luggage is taken away for you and you just go directly to security, no need to have 2 different services come to you ahead of time, especially in a place as inefficient as the UAE, it seems like it would be herding cats waiting for your check-in person to arrive on time and then later your chauffeur, too much of a hassle.
Is it just me - for the past 7 days Emirates’ site and app have been throwing up a technical error every time I try to look up award availability?!?
I can certainly see the value in something like this. Maybe you have a late day flight and have to check out of your hotel. Sure most hotels will store your luggage for you, but that requires a trip back to your hotel. With CX Hong Kong I was able to check my luggage in while in the city and then go tour the city all day without having to waste time heading back to the hotel to collect my luggage before going to airport.
Another scenario I ran into specifically with Emirates. I was flying F out of Dubai and got to the airport too early. The people at the counter wouldn't check me in and said I had to wait for the counter for that particular flight to open up and I had to sit in the waiting area next to the check in instead of heading to the lounge.
So while this is hardly an essential service I do see benefits.
Very good points. It's useful to those who see the need and have the circumstances. They do exist. And not silly at all in this case.
Well, until a blogger tries to do this and requests that the bags be checked through on four connections on separate carriers and with separate tickets, lol.
This is useless for most people.
Now if they will drive me straight to my plane with a short few minute stop to get through security and immigration at a private dedicated facility. That I'm going to pay for.
Have a car on tarmac waiting upon arrival and drive straight to my hotel (short detour to customs and immigration of course), that I'm going to pay for.
Give a true private jet ground experience, I don't mind sharing the plane.
Just what the doctor ordered. When travelling as a family we always seem to have 11 pieces of checked luggage. This truly makes the process so much easier.
This is certainly over the top, but I would use it. Now, I'm in the "family with two small kids" camp. So if an airline offers to come collect my bags (and travel stroller) at my home and I just head to the airport with carry on and the fam, sign me up. Now if only they could get all my stuff home for me at the end.
with all the other options available this is the dumbest thing ever.
why wouldn't they check in your bags this way as well? having "home check in" only to have to schlep bags to the airport is dumb.
This is what I love about EK: They always think outside the box and strive to exceed your expectations! That's what a real First Class should be after all! I frequently fly EK First and will definitely use this service on my future trips. Keep being the best in the sky, EK!
Many people using this service will probably have many bags, which may not fit into the trunk of one of the chauffeur sedans EK uses. Like many people in the comments have shown, many of the circumstances people would use this service for involves having many bags to check in.
If you read it, home check in includes the staff taking the bags ahead of the customer.
In fact this isn’t a first : American , BA and Swiss offer it to everyone from
London albeit at a fee https://airportr.com/en/
I don't think I would ever want to announce to my neighborhood that I'm leaving the country EK first class.
I have a policy of not checking in until I have reached the airport .... just in cases (with apologies to Love Actually).
I find it hilarious how everyone here just looks for ways to tear any idea apart. This is ultimately why US airlines offer such a terrible passenger experience in combination with the obsession with costs.
"I don't think I would ever want to announce to my neighborhood that I'm leaving the country EK first class."
You already do when the EK CD car in Dubai turns up and says "Emirates First Class" on the side. Also, you are probably leaving from a high-end area in Dubai, not from downtown Detroit.
"with all the other options available this is the dumbest thing ever.
why wouldn't they check in your bags this way as well? having "home check in" only to have to schlep bags to the airport is dumb."
Ermm, they do check in your bags, did you actually read this?
"Why don't they kill 2 birds with one stone and just make the chauffeur that picks you up to takes you to the airport also your check-in person?"
Because then Emirates would have to train 1,000 drivers in Dubai as check-in agents, get them whatever security clearance is required etc, rather than just being able to hire cheap drivers?
I could imagine for someone with staff and/or a PA this could be good because they will basically handle the process. It take something out of their boss's hands and into their own which is basically their lob description.
Just tried to book it and apparently this service is not available to fly to USA for some reason.
We just took EK in J from Nairobi to SFO with kids on Sunday. Chauffeur Drive took us home to Lake Tahoe with kids in an Escalade and with our 12 bags. So nice to have everything taken care of all the way home on a three hour drive I didn’t have to do. Bags dropped inside our house.