EK373 BKK-DXB

January 12th, 2022

Posts in this series:

Getting Ready - Thailand Pass and Singapore Airlines Saga

Review - Intercontinental Boston

Review - Japan Airlines Business Class B787-9 Boston to Tokyo Narita

Review - Japan Airlines Business Class B787-8 Tokyo Narita to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi

Review - The Athenee Bangkok, A Luxury Collection Hotel

Review - Le Méridien Chiang Mai

Review - Renaissance Koh Samui Resort & Spa

Review - The Ritz-Carlton Koh Samui

Review - Emirates Business Class A380 Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to Dubai

Check-in:

We arrived at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK) from Koh Samui and headed to the departures level. We quickly found the Emirates counters, as the airport was still mostly deserted. Security and immigration were a breeze, as you can imagine.

Once airside, most of the shops were either closed or under renovation.

Lounge:

Prior to the pandemic, Emirates operated its own lounge at BKK. That lounge was closed when we flew, so we were instead invited to the Turkish Airlines lounge. As soon as we walked in and saw how crowded it was, we decided to seek refuge elsewhere. BKK had a few PriorityPass lounges, and we settled in the Miracle Lounge, where we were more or less the only passengers.

I feel like for a contract lounge, the Miracle Lounge was pretty decent? It was clean, spacious and modern. There was an okay selection of food and drinks, plus a noodle station from where you could order. Granted this lounge would’ve felt much different were it at full capacity…

I’m keeping the lounge review short as Emirates reopened its own lounge a week after we took our flight, so this lounge wouldn’t be relevant for Emirates passengers going forward.

Soon it was time for us to head to the boarding gate. We walked past the area where we had to sit down and await for quarantine protocols arriving into Thailand. What a bizarre time we all lived in.

Boarding:

I was SOOO excited to unlock another A380 carrier. No matter how many times I’d flown on the gentle giant, boarding an A380 is still the biggest thrill in commercial aviation for me. How cool is it that when you walk down the jet bridge and it splits into 3??!!

Business class was housed on the upper deck of Emirates A380s, and we were flying one with the older interior. Honestly, I feel like Emirates was way ahead of its time when it comes to being Instagrammable. Like, these seats were around when they shot the second Sex and the City movie, and more than a decade later influencers are still posting about the in-seat minibar and onboard showers.

Upon boarding, I was taken aback (insert gay gasp gif) by how loud the music was playing in the cabin. It wasn’t even like soothing boarding music, but full on Alesso if I remember correctly. I get that Dubai is nowadays an international party destination, but on a flight departing after 1AM???

While the seats were nothing inspirational, Emirates has such a halo effect as an airline that people were still snapping pictures left and right. And before you call me out, please recognize that your habibi does this for the greater good of the frequent flyer community and not for the vanity of one’s Instagram feed. Duh.

At the end of the day, these were just the common staggered seats with a few bells and whistles. There was also exterior cameras on the A380, and albeit of lower resolution, I still enjoyed watching it.

I don’t generally “unbox” airline amenity kits, given most of them are hardly worth mentioning. The Emirates one was better stocked than most others, with Bulgari products and pouch.

Also waiting at our seats were the menu and wine list for the flight, which read as follows:

Due to the pandemic, pre-departure drinks weren’t offered. But the crew did come around to greet passengers and even insisted we take some Polaroids pictures.

Inflight:

Once airborne, service largely resumed to pre-pandemic standards. On this short overnight flight, a proper dinner was served after take-off.

To start off meal service, we were offered a choice of apéritif. I ordered a cosmo, while my partner ordered a vodka martini. I absolutely am obsessed with how Emirates used real drinkware for cocktails. It’s a minute detail, but drinking martini out of a wine glass just ain’t hitting it the same way. Rather unfortunately the famous A380 bar was closed due to Omicron, which sure was a real shame.

A starter, salad and bread selection followed our meticulously crafted cocktails. Although everything was on a tray, I thought it was well presented. At this point I switched over to a glass of champagne, which was your average Moët brut.

For appetizers, I went for the salmon tataki with red radish, cucumber, roasted sesame seeds, furikake and soy ginger and lemon dressing. My partner had the traditional Arabic mezze with humus, muhammara, baba ghanouj, stuffed vine leaf and kalamata olives. Both dishes were excellent.

Moving on to main course, I selected the stir-fried vegetable noodles with prawns in a spicy seafood sauce, while my partner chose the Chinese-style braised chicken, which was served with steamed jasmine rice, choy sum and baby corn. The main courses were less stellar than the appetizers, but still very decent.

To conclude supper, we shared a cheese plate and a salted caramel cheesecake, served with an orange compôte.

Overall I thought the meal service was above average. The catering was solid. The crew were able to customize the timing for each passenger and progress through the courses as they were finished, so you never felt like you were part of an assembly line. While not the most over-the-top service out there, the FAs were friendly and hospitable.

We quickly reclined our seats for some shut-eye before arrival into Dubal, and the crew turned on the cute star night lighting in the cabin.

On Arrival:

I had a pleasant maiden voyage with Emirates in business class. The circumstances weren’t the most ideal, given we traveled during the height of Omicron when both the lounge and onboard bar were closed. I believe we will have an even better experience when things are back to normal, and I look forward to trying Emirates out again. Now, it is important to note though, that Emirates B777s have a terrible business class hard product. If I were to find myself on an Emirates B777, I’d undoubtedly change that itinerary to fly on Qatar or Etihad instead. Hell, maybe even Saudia.

Is Emirates A380 business class one of the best out there? No. But it certainly was fun. I guess I’m gonna have to do this again just to check out the bar…