Emirates 354
Dubai (DXB) – Singapore (SIN)
Tuesday, November 18
Depart: 3:15AM
Arrive: 2:40PM
Duration: 7hr25min
Aircraft: Airbus A380
Seat: 2E (First Class)
Upon boarding through the upper deck jet bridge, we turned left into the first class cabin. At the door we were greeted by the Egyptian purser, who handed us off to one of the first class flight attendants.
Emirates A380 first class aisle
Emirates A380 first class cabin
Emirates A380 first class cabin
Here’s a fun fact, off the bat. Have you ever noticed the little black “patch” on the back of the first class bulkhead? Yep, that’s a camera!
Emirates A380 first class camera
We had assigned seats 2E & 2F. As soon as I settled into 2E, Helga, one of the first class flight attendants, introduced herself and explained that she would be working my aisle. She was beyond gorgeous, and had one of the most mysteriously adorable accents I’ve ever heard. As it turns out she’s a Peruvian Australian, which I don’t think is an accent I’ve ever heard before.
She was actually an SFS (Senior Flight Stewardess), so it was the first time in years she had worked first class (in terms of Emirates seniority, you have economy crew, then business class crew, then first class crew, then SFS, who supervise economy and business, and then purser).
We boarded fairly late in the boarding process, and of the total of 14 suites, six were already occupied. There was a young Emirati couple, two guys from somewhere in Europe traveling together, and then two solo travelers.
Emirates A380 first class cabin
I won’t talk too much about the suite since I covered it pretty extensively in my report about the Los Angeles to Dubai flight.
Emirates A380 first class, seat 2E
Emirates A380 first class minibar
Emirates A380 first class vanity mirror
Emirates A380 first class snack basket
Once settled in I was offered a pre-departure beverage. I ordered some champagne. While Emirates serves Dom in the air, they only serve Moet on the ground.
Emirates A380 first class champagne
That was quickly followed by hot towels and then Arabic coffee and dates.
Emirates A380 first class Arabic coffee and dates
As the departure time approached, there seemed to be some drama with the Emirati couple seated in front of us. A maintenance person boarded the aircraft, and seemed to leave the plane a few minutes later quite frustrated.
At that point the purser, Ahmed, came up to my dad and I and explained the situation. Apparently one of their seats was broken. He said something along the lines of “I hate to even ask this, and no pressure at all, but the couple in front of you is traveling on their honeymoon, and one of the seats is completely broken. Is there any way you would consider maybe taking two seats by the window so they can sit together?”
He asked in a tactful manner so I wasn’t at all opposed to the question. And ultimately we didn’t mind switching. We took 1A & 2A so they could sit together. Unfortunately they were complete douchebags about it. You’d think they would say “thanks” or acknowledge that we moved, but they pretended like nothing happened, and took our seats before we could even remove all our belongings. Oh well.
Shortly thereafter the purser came up to us and said “so what’s your favorite drink?” I figured I knew where that was going. We’d have a second bottle of Dom to go, eh? 😉
1A is a really private seat since the center seats only start a bit further back in the cabin. Instead, the seat overlooks the stairs and showers.
Emirates A380 first class, seat 1A
Emirates A380 staircase
Once settled into our new seats we were also offered landing cards for Singapore, amenity kits, pajamas, and tote bags, available exclusively on the A380.
Emirates A380 first class tote bag
Emirates A380 first class tote bag & amenities
Singapore landing card
Shortly before departure time the captain came on the PA. He was Kenyan (I know this because I was fascinated by the accent, so asked one of the crew what nationality the captain was), and had one of the most soothing, upbeat, and professional announcements I’ve ever heard… especially for 3AM! He informed us our flying time was 6hr50min and that our cruising altitude would be 39,000 feet.
Emirates A380 tail camera
We pushed back right on schedule and taxied to runway 30R. While the taxi itself was quick, there was quite a queue for takeoff. After not moving for about 10 minutes, the captain came on the PA to make an announcement which made me chuckle — “I apologize for the delay, but it’s rush hour here, so congestion is pretty common this time of night. We’re number five for takeoff, and should be airborne in less than 10 minutes.” There aren’t many places in the world where 3:30AM is rush hour!
We ended up taking off at 4AM, with a very quick takeoff roll.
Taking off Dubai Airport
Airshow between Dubai and Singapore
Airshow between Dubai and Singapore
As we climbed out the purser made the typical welcome aboard announcement, informing us that our crew was from 19 countries and spoke 15 languages. Shortly thereafter the purser came up to me to bring me a bottle of Dom in a duty free bag to make up for having to switch seats.
I was wide awake at this point, though my dad was starting to doze off. Rather than having him sleep in the upright position, I woke him up so that the crew could make his bed. I’m happy he agreed to it, because he’s usually quite stubborn and insists on sleeping in the upright position, which negates the value of first class, in my opinion. 😉
Emirates first class suite controls
With his bed made and him sound asleep, it was time to have some fun!
Emirates first class suite bed mode
Emirates first class suite bed mode
I browsed the entertainment selection. Emirates really does have the most extensive entertainment selection in the sky. Not only do they have a huge variety of TV shows, but they usually have the entire season, which is awesome.
Emirates ICE entertainment system
Emirates ICE entertainment system
Emirates ICE entertainment system
Emirates ICE entertainment system
I decided to watch the Season 5 episodes of The Mentalist that I hadn’t yet seen.
Emirates ICE entertainment system
Crazy enough, the sun came up pretty quickly, which I guess isn’t surprising when you take off at 4AM and fly east.
Emirates A380 nose camera
Emirates’ menus on their early morning departures are notoriously limited, but I guess that makes sense.
They have some dinner-like snacks, and then a more extensive breakfast menu. The menu read as follows:
I really wasn’t sure how to tackle this. It was 4:30AM, so if I were to have two snacks, should I have breakfast after takeoff and then lunch/dinner before landing, or lunch/dinner after takeoff and breakfast before landing? The former made more sense in terms of the local time in each city, but I was still feeling like it was late at night as opposed to early in the morning, so decided to have a lunch/dinner-snack first.
Helga explained the portions were small, so I ordered the vegetable pie and fried udon noodles with prawns. I stuck to champagne to drink, and was also offered some mixed nuts.
Emirates first class snack service
Emirates first class snack service
The food was perfectly edible. It was by no means gourmet, but was decent quality, at least. The meal was filling, and I was stuffed after having also eaten in the lounge.
Emirates first class snack service
Emirates first class snack service
After the snack I walked back to the bar for a moment. Virtually everyone in business class was asleep, and there was no one at the bar. On the plus side, the views out the window were gorgeous.
A380 sunrise view
After that it was shower time. I mean, what can I say? Showering on a plane is the coolest damn thing ever.
Emirates A380 shower suite
As is the norm, there was a fruit plate waiting at my seat upon my return.
Post-shower fruit plate
After the shower I headed back to the bar, where it was just me and about a dozen crew members.
Somehow we got to talking about Etihad, and I mentioned how they’ve run out of food in first class on two of my most recent flights. One of the flight attendants seemed to have some thoughts on that:
“Yeah, you’re not the first person I’ve heard that from.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, I read this blog from a guy that flies mostly first and business class, and he had the same thing happen.”
“Hmmm, just curious, which blog do you read?”
“It’s called One Mile…”
“Oh…”
Hah!
Eventually I mosied back to my seat and napped for about two hours. I woke up about 90 minutes out of Singapore. I woke up to the sound of a Polaroid camera, which at first made me think I was having a dream with flashbacks to 1994. But nope, instead the sound of that camera was actually the crew presenting my dad with a birthday cake and taking a picture of him with it!
Emirates birthday cake
After that they presented him with a cute card with his picture in it. Emirates is the only airline I know of that has an onboard Polaroid to take passenger pictures with. How cool is that?!
Emirates birthday card
Emirates birthday card
Emirates A380 nose camera
At that point I decided to order some breakfast. I wasn’t very hungry, so just ordered some granola and yogurt.
Emirates first class breakfast service
That was accompanied by a cappuccino, which had the Emirates logo on it.
Emirates first class cappuccino
The captain came on the PA about 30 minutes before landing, sounding every bit as chipper as he did when we left Dubai at 3AM, informing us of our expected arrival time.
Our descent into Singapore was a bit choppy due to some thick clouds.
Emirates A380 tail camera
Emirates A380 tail camera
View on approach into Singapore
View on approach into Singapore
View on approach into Singapore
However, we had a really smooth touchdown.
Emirates A380 tail camera on approach
Emirates A380 tail camera upon landing
View upon landing
From the runway it was about a 10 minute taxi to the gate, where we arrived at 2:55PM. That’s a bit behind schedule due to the delayed departure.
Emirates A380 tail camera taxiing
Emirates A380 tail camera taxiing
Emirates A380 tail camera taxiing
As we deplaned we bid farewell to the crew and had a lovely view of our plane — she’s even more beautiful in daylight than at night!
Emirates A380 upon arrival in Singapore
Emirates A380 upon arrival in Singapore
Immigration was quick, and once through there we quickly found our driver, who we had arranged through Emirates.
Emirates A380 first class bottom line
This was another fantastic flight on Emirates. You can’t beat the number of amenities they offer aboard. On this flight the service was also top notch.
I do find Emirates’ catering on their early morning flights to be pretty bad, especially given the number of passengers connecting from elsewhere in the world (in which case time of day is much less relevant).
Emirates really grew on me with this trip!
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