I was offered the opportunity to upgrade my Brisbane to Auckland flight from economy to Business Class so I jumped at it.
Only a 3 hr flight to Auckland so I couldn’t make the most of the fold down seat/bed (it goes compleltely flat), but all the othe benefits made it awesome. Emirates have only recenty (within the last couple of months) added a daily flight from Brisbane to Auckland (it is an extension of their Dubai to Brisbane service). And they are flying this route with the brand new A380-800 – a twin deck Jumbo which (I believe) is the biggest commercial airliner currently operating.
The “fun” actually starts in the Emirates lounge – a luxurious lounge area with free wifi, free tea/coffee, free buffet meals, free booze (yes even at 7 o’clock in the morning if you want to – I didn’t), and you board directly to the upper deck via a private gangway. The only issue with the lounge is that it is a loooong walk from security – Gate 75 is the furthest I think.
Business and First class is located on the upper deck – with economy (cattle) class taking up the full lower deck. There are onl a dozen or so first class “seats” – they are actually individual “pods” – and about 40 or so to the upper deck with ybusiness class… which are also individual seats (you dont have to share you space with anyone else – taking up the space of approximately 4-6 economy seats…
The Business Class Pod consists of your own mini bar, a large TV, a Tablet and a handheld device – each of whch can be used to display movies, live flights cameras (3 to choose from), and a vareity of other entertainment… You can plugin and charge laptops or other devices, and the ehadphones are fancy noise cancelling ones.
The food was excellent (with a choice of 4 mains from the menu) and you get real china crockery and full size cutlery.
All in all it was a very enjoyable trip – and I actually found myself a little disappointed it was over so fast.
