Emirates First Class A380 - 25 Hours Cairo to New York

can you believe this is an airplane it's an emirates a380 and this is first class no airline has done more with the airbus a380 super jumbo the biggest commercial jet in the sky than emirates but does it still live up to the hype we spent 25 hours traveling halfway around the planet putting the world's most over the top first class to the test this is first class as only emirates can do it the finest champagne your personal bed in the sky a shower on the plane a lounge as big as an airport join us for two incredible flights onboard the world's biggest airplane a visit to one of the world's best lounges and one of the most magnificent aviation experiences available today hello jet setters i'm jeb brooks from greenergrass.com right now i'm in cairo it's time to head back to jfk in new york i'm traveling with emirates and not one but two a380s and in first class i mean this is going to be pretty epic let's get started traveling the 8 352 miles between these two cities will take some time especially because we're backtracking to dubai we also intentionally scheduled a layover of nearly eight hours to take full advantage of as much as we could in dubai there were shorter options but we wanted to make this last as long as possible plus our long trip the 13 hours to new york will be entirely in daylight maximizing the a380 first class experience this is the final leg of our newlywed world tour after all so we had to do it right back in cairo emirates offers a nearly ten thousand square foot lounge many of the airlines outstations have lounges like this one but none can compare with the one you'll see when we get to dubai now if you're looking for a glass of champagne to toast your upcoming a380 journey out of cairo you'll have to wait until you're on board as nice as this lounge is it lacks two things views of the ramp and alcohol with boarding time approaching we headed that way you ready to board this bird i really don't want our honeymoon to be over but this is one way to get home emirates first class won't suck will it oh can i say that i don't think i'm supposed to say that sorry i'll delete that the massive size of the airbus a380 means tons of passenger conveniences but it also spells trouble for airports special taxiways runways and gates had to be built to accommodate the super jumbo cairo has two gates capable of serving a380s because emirates first class cabin is upstairs on their a380s we headed up an escalator to a gate area reserved for passengers sitting on the upper deck of the airplane and now we wait let's take just a second to get familiar with the layout of the a380 there's several versions out there but the one we'll spend most of our time on has 399 economy seats on the lower floor [Music] upstairs there's a bar at the back and there's 76 business class seats covering most of the top floor but at the very front the very front you'll find 14 first class seats so let's go check them out after a short walk down the jet bridge we were inside the stuff of dreams now i've seen this cabin hundreds of times in youtube videos and thousands of times in pictures but to actually see it in person it was next level [Music] is it gaudy yeah you bet is it ostentatious sure it is is it over the top without a doubt but were we impressed 110 [Music] we sat in the middle seats for this shorter three-hour leg over dubai i recommend not raising the partition between the two seats if you're sitting next to your new wife the a380 is a special plane and these seats have a lot going on we'll explore them in more depth on the next longer daytime flight to new york once you get moving flight time to dubai is just under three hours it's going to take us over sinai and then we're just going to live across saudi and come over and drop down [Music] there's nothing else in commercial aviation quite like taking off in an a380 it offers such a smooth transition to the sky and i hope every aviation enthusiast gets to have this experience at least once the tray table which is roughly the size of a volkswagen is sturdy our short flight time meant we did not get the amenities like pajamas and slippers we'll see on the next flight but it also did not mean emirates skimped on the menu by the way all of the menus including the lounge menu are available at greenergrass.com menus i went for the broccoli soup which i followed with a chicken machboos both were tasty but again this was a short practically a regional flight so before we knew it we were on our final approach into dubai where one of the greatest lounges on the planet was calling our name when we stepped onto the jet bridge an emirates employee was waiting for us with our names on a side we were whisked onto a golf cart and taken directly to security we then had a short walk to the lounge is travel back you tell me [Music] it was time for emirates first class lounge despite the late hour we were way too amped up to just go to bed so we decided to share some food and have a night cap [Music] i had a sushi appetizer and i forgot to get footage so here's the empty plate of sushi sushi in a burger in the dubai airport airport time eat whatever you want whatever you want the sushi and burger were good but we'd hit a wall and the nap rooms were full so we spent about 150 on a room at the transit hotel upstairs it was worth it we were pooped okay so it's uh 3 20 in the morning and we're calling it so this is the transit hotel in dubai these post security hotels are incredibly useful to weary travelers like us i wish there were more in the us i'm a little groggy and sleepy and weirdo i guess that was how long were we asleep three hours three hours of sleep and uh we've been delayed by uh by about an hour but uh that's okay so we're up we're gonna go get some coffee i hope right oh okay we're gonna go get some coffee probably in a lounge and uh try to reacclimate so let's head down there and get this day started [Music] we made the short commute to the lounge and headed straight to the a la carte restaurant where we figured we had the most direct and fastest access to caffeine with the benefit of sunlight three hours of sleep and especially that espresso the true glory of this lounge shined through utterly incredible it has practically everything [Music] we've been in dubai airport for about seven hours now impressions thoughts lounge uh rating well i reserve the lounge rating for the jeb score so nice try first class passengers can also receive a 15-minute treatment in the spa the lounge we didn't take advantage of that but you certainly could this is such an impressive airline so i just overheard a manager uh speaking yesterday in this lounge they had four african presidents in here so they had to handle the vip you know presence of four presidents that's incredible emirates i bet if you're a president you get an escort or two when it comes time for boarding but we were on our own no problem though so how cool is this we're gonna be boarding from just right over there like almost from the lounge right from the uh from the same level this is really cool boarding u.s bound flights from dubai requires some additional security screening which slowed us down a bit but we still managed to board in plenty of time that was about a 30 second walk from the lounge to the gate [Music] is it just me or don't you wish more jet bridges had windows but there is a pretty massive trade-off these spaces are tough to keep cool even without glass these views come at a cost of course the interior of this a380 was the same we'd seen the night before but it really seemed to shine in the daylight there's so much to take in here in emirates first class and we'll have time to explore it all before we get to new york 13 hours from now shortly before departure flight attendants asked us when we'd like to make our 30-minute shower spa reservations it's still crazy to think that's something you can do on a plane but it is here i book mine up for about an hour before landing emirates is largely a long-haul airline and their fleet matches those requirements that triple 7 right there is an important part of the airline but it's the a380s like this one that serve as the flagship it's not hard to make the argument that the a380 wouldn't even exist without emirates the airline has ordered 123 of them the next biggest operator singapore only ordered 24. and this first class experience we're about to embark on is an important part of the image that emirates wants to convey to the world so let's see whether it lives up to the promise but first let's get in the sky [Music] the seat is not only large but also very well designed for long haul travel everything is readily accessible it's really kind of like a cocoon it's hard not to feel comfortable in here i was particularly impressed with the size and clarity of the screen it was well designed for the space there's also a touch screen right here that allows you to control pretty much everything but the best part of course is the view there's room in front of the seat to store carry-on bags including the one the flight attendant gave us to hold all the amenities you're gonna get in this flight there's a drawer here that contains a writing pad and pen a vanity mirror with creams and perfumes and all kinds of stuff there's more storage down here there are also plenty of buttons to call flight attendants adjust the seat or even open up your personal mini bar there's a universal plug and a usb a charger here there's more storage and buttons here there's a life vest which hopefully goes unused in addition to that larger screen there's also this smaller handheld remote of course the doors closed and they provide a lot of privacy but not as much as you get on emirates newer first class on their triple sevens i'll link to my video about that in the description below you won't go hungry on emirates first class as a harbinger of things to come here's a snack basket the first of many look if you're in first class you shouldn't have to fuss with closing a window shade when the job can be handled by a button and you're not going to leave emirates first class empty-handed you'll get a set of pajamas there's also this very luxurious amenity kit which is filled with even more concoctions and elixirs oh and here's a closer look at what was in that desk i went to visit suzanne who i'm sorry to say found a couple of problems with her seat this piece was loose and her touchscreen controller wasn't working but a flight attendant brought a new one around really quickly and it worked just fine she changed into her pajamas which she said were quite comfortable a little while later i decided to order some more breakfast the menu for this trip was 15 pages long including the extensive wine list again if you'd like to see it all head over to greenergrass.com menus i had the eggless vegetable frittata which was okay there was not a lot of flavor to it but i guess that's to be expected with something called eggless the fruit was really good though the internet was blazing fast we'd been running for a while on adrenaline airline food and sheer willpower so as we flew over iran it was time to attempt a nap the bed is massive suzanne had no trouble falling asleep i gave it a test too i had plenty of room despite being shall we say larger than suzanne but i couldn't sleep i just had way too much adrenaline so i watched the world go by and thanks to this ife the time passed almost too quickly it has maps and cameras and entertainment it offers plenty of choices a massive screen and it's easy to use it's absolutely class leading after a few hours i decided it was time for a snack so i asked for the beef poke bowl it was great it was a really nice light but filling snack also something a little different something you don't usually see in an airline's menu which i think is a real plus thanks to the strength of the internet access on board i stayed in touch with many of you on the ground during this trip i was particularly grateful to those of you who tracked our progress using twitter or instagram but by this time i was ready to stretch my legs a little bit so i headed forward at the front of the cabin you'll naturally find even more snacks downstairs you get a sense of what the economy seating looks like [Music] soon suzanne woke up and we decided to head back to the bar which is located at the back of the upper deck i simply cannot believe this is on a plane but you ain't seen nothing yet the drinks on offer here are different than the ones in first class so when the flight attendants found out we were heading back here they offered to send some different drinks back for us we passed now someone will need to fact check me on this but i think emirates might offer more snacks per capita than any other airline there were even more back here [Music] is this the bar with the best view in the world anyway the a380s wings have a surface area of more than 9 000 square feet that's almost as big as the emirates lounge in cairo business class seating is between the bar and the first class cabin and business class on the emirates a380 looks really comfortable i can't wait to try it i have not done that yet [Music] several more hours passed and i watched some more movies and i was eventually ready for a big meal now because of the time i really don't know what i was having here i don't know if this was lunch or dinner but it didn't matter i knew it was going to be really good because caviar is always a great way to start any meal and what's wrong with following that with some meze always a highlight on any emirates flight call me crazy but when i saw the chicken brianna on the menu i got excited unfortunately when i ordered it they'd run out so i opted for the beef tenderloin now the last thing in the world i want to do here is complain this whole thing is completely crazy but in my quest for honesty it was a little more dry than i'd like but it's tough to get steak right on a plane and it's still steak on a plane suzanne also ordered the chicken biryani and got the salmon instead she said it was very fresh emirates first class offers dine on demand service which means we were served whenever we wanted whatever we wanted now each time it took no more than 20 minutes to get our food and i can't imagine how much work this is for the cabin crew ours were fantastic after linear dutch it was finally time for one of the most incredible things any aviation enthusiast can do i was taking a shower at 38 000 feet this has to be one of the most indulgent things anybody can do this bathroom is massive and beautifully appointed also i didn't know this the the floor it's heated the space at the front of the top floor of the a380 is a tough one to fill it's just an awkward geometry eddie had tried their residents other airlines and put lounges up here but emirates went over the top this is the largest bathroom on any commercial airplane each first class passenger gets up to 30 minutes in here and five minutes of water now both suzanne and i found it to be plenty of time in here is it necessary of course not but it was a new experience hopping off of a 13-hour flight feeling fresh and ready to go and as you leave would you believe it more snacks fresh fruit this time but sadly the experience was drawn to a close so that means it's time for the jeb score in this tongue-in-cheek rating system we'll look at the lounge the seats the food the in-flight entertainment and the service first the lounges were both impressive there's no doubt of course the lounge in dubai was better than the one in cairo which you'd expect but both were impressive these are the definition of five star lounges the seats are impressive too i have to say i prefer the fully enclosed suite on the triple sevens to this one this is just a little bit more ostentatious than that but this is roomy and comfortable seat guru notes that the seat i was in 4k is questionable because the proximity to the galley that might be bothersome but some passengers it was not to me i didn't even notice it really five stars here the food was abundant and tasty that said when i compare the food i had here with my recent air france la premiere flight it just wasn't quite as good i'm sorry not to have gotten my first choice for the main meal and some of the dishes weren't as flavorful as i would have liked that said there was still plenty of food and it was first class this is four stars the in-flight entertainment is some of the best in the world i was impressed with the screen the choices the ease of use five stars here finally the service it was exactly what you'd expect first class service to be present but not in your face in other words cabin crew was always there when i needed something but they didn't hover unnecessarily it was simply true first class service five stars so that leaves emirates a380 service from cairo to jfk via dubai with 24 out of a possible 25 stars almost perfect but not quite there as always what do you think let us know in the comments below and between now and the next time see in the sky

Channel: Jeb Brooks

Views: 2,361,441

Keywords: emirates first class, emirates a380, first class, airbus a380, emirates first class a380, a380 first class, emirates first class suite, emirates first class review, trip report, emirates first class food, emirates first class lounge dubai, emirates first class shower, emirates first class tour, trip report emirates, first class flight, first class trouble review, Emirates A380 First Class, Emirates Lounge Cairo, Emirates A380 Dubai to New York, first class emirates

Id: Sof5NoiGz5Q

Length: 20min 45sec (1245 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 11 2021