SO COOL: I Just Flew In An Old Emirates First Class Seat On An Unmarked A340

Ben, this is what I love about you being an aviation geek! Just admit all those new business class seats are plain boring.. This old A340 let your inner 13 yo boy out!

That's awesome! I was tempted to take Azores Airlines from OAK to Lisbon but wound up finding a great deal for biz class on AA/BA instead. Thanks for reviewing.

I'm booked on this plane YUL-PDL one week from today. Really looking forward to it! Thanks for the tip on asking for first class seats at check-in. I wondered if they would just leave those empty or if they'd be available to biz passengers.

Correction: flying next Thursday. It's a once per week flight.

How cool!

Having spotted this aircraft on the tarmac quite a few times, I'd definitely love to fly it!

They kept the A340 and A330-200 because lease to own wasn't over yet. When it was eventually over in 2016 then for the airline didn't make sense to keep them and refurbish because being old machines running costs were pretty high. So for as much as they hated to keep the old airbuses they had little choice. And I few them several times in both J and Y class (once in F) and honestly the first class compared to the top one didn't make sense. None of the seats would become flat except for the First of A340 but I never got lucky to test it.

If you could turn back time... Which airline does the lead FA use to spend time home?

Was there any in-flight entertainment or was it switched off?

@ Toronto_flyer -- It was switched off.

That's a neat experience.

The article says "cool" eleventyseven times (a thesaurus might suggest some alternative words). After the barrage of the cool-word, I am still not sure what is cool.

Did they proactively offer bread?

I flew that aircraft when they where flying for Norwegian a few years ago. Had a former first class seat and got a good value for the seat I payed 500 usd for from JFK to OSL.
A nice and historical first class seat 🙂

@Chuck Lesker

-A quick CTRL F shows 4 times. Cool reply, though. Bored much?

Sometimes, I just picture you sitting in a hotel room and giggling while writing the jokes in your articles!

This is awesome, what a life those FAs must live, truly citizens of all over the world!

@Lucky can you write a trip report on Makkah? It would be cool since it is one of most visited Middle East attraction,

@Jaa - only Muslims can visit the city of Mecca.

@Varun Susarla how can they tell? Just learn some basics on Quran on your way to Saudi then u can say yourself a Muslim..,

But if they figure out... Ben will be executed by firing squad or hung.

@Varun Susarla oops, I almost forget, Saudia is not much better from North Korea...

Maybe I've seen too many movies, but If I saw my departing aircraft as an unmarked white plane with no logos, I'd back away slowly.

No, I'm not paranoid.... wait, what was that noise???

It's even more interesting to note, that even as late as 2011, (I actually think 2012 though), that Emirate operated the A330-200 (same config as the A343 you flew on), the 777-300ER (either new or old) (suites or the SkyCruiser first) and the A380-861 between Dubai and Manchester, all on their 3 times daily schedule. It's really weird to see the stark contrast of products operated to the same city at different times.m Now the same flight is operated by the A380 (2-class (used to be the 3 class or 77W)(3 Class)), the A380 (3 class) and the 777-300ER (New 3 Class). It's quite interesting actually, but the service was still great. In Economy, though they didn't have ICE, they had Emirates TV&Radio which was not even on demand but just looped shows and movies! First and Business had IceOnDemand which was similar to the IceDigitalWidescreen system but at a 4:3 ratio on the older low res screens. Wow, this post was such a throwback!! I just wish these aircraft were just reconfigured and used on Emirates' regional routes like Doha (before the political downfall), Muscat and Bahrain etc.

Good times!! Btw, it was amazing to see the A343/A332 product once again! Love this post Ben!

It's even more interesting to note, that even as late as 2011, (I actually think 2012 though), that Emirates operated the A330-200 (same config as the A343 you flew on), the 777-300ER (either new or old) (suites or the SkyCruiser first) and the A380-861 between Dubai and Manchester, all on their 3 times daily schedule. It's really weird to see the stark contrast of products operated to the same city at different times. Now the same flights (EK17/18 EK19/20 EK21/22) are operated by the A380 (2-class (it used to be the 3 class A380 or 3 Class 77W(New))), the A380 (3 class) and the 777-300ER (New 3 Class). It's quite interesting actually, but the service was still great. In Economy, though they didn't have ICE, they had Emirates TV&Radio which was not even on demand but just looped shows and movies! First and Business had IceOnDemand which was similar to the IceDigitalWidescreen system but at a 4:3 ratio on the older low res screens. Wow, this post was such a throwback!! I just wish these aircraft were just reconfigured and used on Emirates' regional routes like Doha (before the political downfall), Muscat and Bahrain etc.

Good times!! Btw, it was amazing to see the A343/A332 product once again! Love this post, Ben! (Sorry, I was a little bit tipy while writing this, currently on Emirates A380!!)

@Ask- In some Muslim countries, the passport has your religion on it.

All this proves that Finnair is very cheap, as when they use a Hi Fly A340, which they do a lot, they provide the dingiest-looking and furbished one which evokes more Pre-1990's Aeroflot than Emirates. Putting it quite simply, nothing works, at least in Business Class where the number of "quasi -Inop" seats is far above the percentage which works well. That means in no way that the inop seats are not assigned.

They could of course use an ex- Emirates one and give the First Class seats to Elite Oneworld members but they probably would have to pay more for the bird's wet lease.

I was just looking at routes between Stockholm and Nice, France and it looks like Norwegian is using a HiFly A340 - wonder if it's an old Emirates one. They seem to be using it between Stockholm and Nice, Malaga, Rome, and Barcelona. The business class seats can be chosen for "free" if you buy a LowFare+ ticket or one of the options that allows for seat selection.

Just flew on this same old Emirates A340 from Sydney to Auckland as Air New Zealand is currently leasing it from Hi Fly (I am assuming it is the same one). Life jackets used for demo did even still have Emirates written on it!
It is crazy to think about how first class and business class seats have evolved in less than 20 years.
Thanks for this review as I was searching for some info on the life of this aircraft.

Interesting... I just found out I will be taking Hifly A340 from Auckland to Sydney soon. I originally booked on Air NZ, but they are leasing some planes while the 787-9's get some maintenance . I wonder what Air NZ Premium Economy equates to on a Hifly configured aircraft. I could either get lucky and end up in Business Class, or unlucky and end up in Economy.
How does it compare to Air NZ Michael? Does the plane feel old?

HiFly planes are flapping Air New Zealand customers across the Tasman at the moment while 787-9s are grounded. Wonder if either of these was yours (from http://thenzsource.com/):

Feb 19, 2018

Hi Fly Malta A340-300 9H-FOX operated the following services on lease to Air New Zealand today:

NZ101 Auckland – Sydney
NZ102 Sydney – Auckland
NZ105 Auckland – Sydney
NZ108 Sydney – Auckland.

Hi Fly Malta A340-300 9H-SUN Operates for Air New Zealand.
Feb 19, 2018

Hi Fly Malta A340-300 9H-SUN operated the NZ175/NZ176 Auckland – Perth rotation today on lease to Air New Zealand.

My first ever business class flight was on an Emirates A330-200 with the same cabin as the A340-300. The best flight of my life. I would be happier to fly this plane than the latest Emirates first class because this product won't be around for much longer.