As far as I’m concerned, Emirates’ first class product is the funnest in the sky. I’m not saying it’s necessarily the best, but there’s not a first class product in the world where I have more fun.
Emirates’ A380 first class cabin
Where else do you get to sip Dom Perignon while showering in a suite that has heated floors?
Emirates’ A380 first class shower suite
And then you can meander back to the bar for a few drinks.
Emirates’ A380 bar
Dom Perignon in Emirates first class
There might be more spacious first class products, but I just love Emirates first class. While I think you need to fly Emirates first class on a longhaul to truly experience it, Emirates also operates quite a few fifth freedom routes. One of those is from Bangkok to Hong Kong, which is certainly one of the most comfortable ways to fly between the two markets.
Emirates flies an A380 daily between the two cities, with the following schedule:
EK384 Bangkok to Hong Kong departing 2:00PM arriving 6:05PM
EK385 Hong Kong to Bangkok departing 9:50PM arriving 11:45PM
Up until now this flight has been operated by a three cabin A380, featuring first class. First class fares on the route are reasonable for what you get — they start at just $850 one-way, and in the past I’ve seen them even lower than that.
Is that cheap? No. But between the shower, Dom Perignon, etc., you can get your money’s worth. 😉
Anyway, the bad news is that as of October 1, 2017, Emirates will be operating a two cabin A380 between Hong Kong and Bangkok, meaning that they will no longer offer first class.
On the route will be a 615 seat A380, featuring 57 business class seats and 557 economy seats — this is the highest density A380 out there. It’s not terribly surprising to see this change, given that most planes flying from Dubai to Bangkok are two-cabin A380s, since it’s a fairly low yield and high demand route. So it was only a matter of time until the flight that continues to Hong Kong is also operated by that plane.
(Tip of the hat to Elgin H.)
Use of the newer 2-class 380s is widening. They are also used on one of our two DXB-BHX daily rotations full of cheapskate steerage pax like me. Also applies to the Manchester rotations, too, I believe. 7-hour flight to the Dubai hub to catch another EK flight.
I did the BKK-HKG-BKK round trip with my partner in 2011, and the r/t cost was sub-US $800 p/p.
At the time it was a great experience (I thought it was a novelty; I didn't use the shower because frankly I didn't need to/feel like it), but I've now been in several long/ultra-long haul legs in EK first and I have to say I'm a fan of theirs. And I've used the shower and LOVED it, esp. on the DXB-IAD leg where I can take a shower, have breakfast, and then land/go home.
Thank you, TheAirlineKid, for that info. on the remaining "bargain" routes to try EK F. Too bad the opportunity to try the shower is unlikely on Dubai-Kuwait City.
Lucky, what value would you place on a heated floor shower on a flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong? Put another way , if it wasn't included in the fare, would you pay $200 or $100 or $400 or $50, fist time novelty use aside.?
I am truly curious
You still got Dubai-Mumbai, Dubai-Kuwait, Melbourne-Auckland, Brisbane-Auckland, Sydney-Christschurch
Unlikely that you would get a shower on Dubai-Kuwait though.
@Bernardo I think a simple way to put it is: Demand is the number of people who want/need to fly that route, while yield is how much they're willing to pay for the ticket.
On top of that, they just swapped some of those 2-cabin A380 flights between Bangkok and Dubai with 777-300ER's. I'm booked on an award ticket in November that was supposed to be on an A380, but recently pulled up the reservation and saw the equipment change had occurred.
I am wondering why you typically assume Asian flights to be low yield versus US flights high yield? That is probably a very much outdated bias.
There is actually a lot of premium travel in Asia. And paid premium travel as opposed to free-riding premium cabins with credit card miles.
@Lucky what you mean when you say a market is high/low yield? I understand demand but not the yield part. And what markets are considere high/low demand and high/low yield?? Has this been talked about in a previous post?
WHEW, I thought this was going to say JAL was dropping EK as a partner!! Don't scare us like that, Ben :)
@RD — Thanks! Very helpful.
What do they do with the F showers on these 2 cabin planes? Or are these coming from Airbus configured like that?
@QR I still find Alaska's J class redemptions on ek to be reasonable from the US to India where I go and it's 82.5K miles which isn't bad. But for F class I use JAL mileage bank and I transfer points from SPG. for first class JAL MileageBank is definitely the best option. 20,000 miles in Emirates first class is only 150K miles. While Alaska charges the same price for EK first class, with JAL...
@QR I still find Alaska's J class redemptions on ek to be reasonable from the US to India where I go and it's 82.5K miles which isn't bad. But for F class I use JAL mileage bank and I transfer points from SPG. for first class JAL MileageBank is definitely the best option. 20,000 miles in Emirates first class is only 150K miles. While Alaska charges the same price for EK first class, with JAL you can fly a lot more distance in ek first class. 20,000 miles is a lot. So that's your best bet for EK f class.
*Funnest*
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The grammar nazi inside me died.
Now that Alaska has jacked up their Emirates redemptions, what would you (or commenters) say is the best way to redeem miles for Emirates First?
Are the EK A380s between Dubai and Kuwait City three-cabin versions, and is there even enough time to get in a five-minute shower on such a short flight?
Though you can still try them on the Auckland to Melbourne and Auckland to Brisbane and Sydney to Christchurch
Lucky which airline do you think haa the most attractive air hostesses?