Emirates Business Class A380 - DXB to ZRH
Departing from the Downtown Palace in Dubai the king sent us on our way in a truly royal manner: Emirates Business Class, where the service already starts from your doorstep all the way through via the grand Business lounge (rather terminal) at DXB, the great A380 product and ending at your home with the chauffeur service. I know, it sounds like advertisement, but rest assured that I am not contracted by Emirates and paid for the flight myself. I was just happy with their wholesome service offering. Read below to find out why!
The previous leg of this journey is reviewed in this post: Emirates Business Class B777 - SEZ to DXB
Ready to be taken care of by Emirates
We booked our chauffeur drives early before our vacation and everything went just fine. The booking process for this was very easy via the EK website from the “Manage Booking” section.
BMW series 5 for Business Class passengers
Lounge - DXB Emirates Terminal 3
The driver dropped us off at DXB Emirates Terminal 3 at the entrance for Business and First Class passengers. Since there is a huge check-in hall reserved for premium customers of Emirates, there was no line for us at all and we were on our way to the lounge area after a few minutes.
Spanning the length of the whole concourse on top of the “normal people’s area”, a map is definitely helpful for this monstrous lounge.
12 minutes walking to cross the whole loung
And this is only the lounge in concourse A. Is your flight departing from B you’ll have something similar to this (I think half the size of this). And in C there is only a small room.
This sign covers most of the lounge’s features
Modern way to charge your phone is on offer as well as …
…old school charging stations
Food and beverages were of good enough quality to not want to eat an airport restaurant
Norwegian designer water? check (unusual in an airport lounge, actually)
Enough seating at the time of our flight
Room for prayers
A whole section on one end of the lounge was closed…
…I wonder why, because there was no renovation work or anything in the closed area.
The same set of eye shades that are handed out on board
I entered one of the smoker lounges, which are designed like an English pub, and was greeted by happy bartenders who were making jokes with each other. This happiness directly swept over to me when I approached the bar to order Champagne - as I always say: when your employees are happy your customers will notice that.
Near our gate we entered our A380 directly from the lounge. This feature is one of the best of this Business Class lounge and adds to the seamless experience.
The Cabin
The cabin was as expected. I already reviewed this A380 Business seat in this post. Service was again warm and efficient.
One of three ways to control the shades
Those little buttons below the window also control the shades (the third way is by software on the pad or main screen)
Has anyone ever tried the HDMI port?
Dining
After a Veuve Clicquot for starters, I was looking forward to my chosen lunch menu.
Kir Royal as a second aperitif
The dishes were well prepared and quite tasty. Starting with the halibut carpaccio…
…and continuing with the chicken baharat and it was really good complete with a glass of Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc.
The Bar
No A380 EK Biz flight without stopping by the bar.
Campari O
And some light entertainment with one of my favourite shows.
On-board wifi ran pretty well on this flight. It’s fun to check flightradar while on a plane.
Summary
| Airline |  |
|---|---|
| Class | Business Class (Saver) |
| Flight No. | EK 085 |
| Route | DXB - ZRH (6:45 hours) |
| Price | ZRH-DXB-SEZ -> To-flights were ECO and both return-legs Business from ZRH: CHF 2876 (~ 2900 USD) |
| Good |
|
| Bad |
|
| CT Points | 95 |
One word describes the Emirates Business Class best: seamless.
All the features added to the flight experience are there to reduce waiting time, travel time and to make those times as comfortable as possible.
Starting with the chauffeur service, the separate check-in terminal, the lounge with its access to the plane without standing in the economy line and ending with the chauffeur drive home.
Admittedly, the lounge is only this great in Dubai and you usually don’t have this at other airports when flying Emirates. I also read elsewhere that this lounge is packed at certain times - when we were there on a Sunday afternoon it was basically empty.
