Emirates A380 to Dubai, the DXB F Lounge, and a glimpse of Islamabad

[yflyer]

Emirates F Lounge

I made my way to the Emirates F Lounge, one floor above the main departure area of T3 Concourse A.



After a quick scan of my boarding pass, I was welcomed into the main lounge.

At that point, I experienced a moment of disorientation. Beyond the grand entrance to the lounge, the doorway led...back to the terminal concourse. Where was the lounge?

It turns out the entire level of the terminal is the F lounge, which has facilities spread out across that whole level of T3 Concourse A, with two mirror images of lounge facilities to the left and right of the lounge entrance. What a concept! This was a terminal concourse built to handle the A380, with 18 A380-ready gates, and direct gate access from the F and J Lounges. This lounge has only been open for a year, since January 2013.



With this lounge layout, you had direct, private, access to the departure gates direct from the lounge, which meant you could linger in the lounge right up to boarding time, then stroll to a private entrance to your gate and take the elevator right down to the departure gate itself for boarding.

While SQ has "The Private Room", Emirates in effect has "The Private Terminal"...it was not busy at all when I was there. Perhaps it did get busy at certain times of the day, but not on both the occasions I visited in the evening. The atmosphere was one of space, serenity and elegance.

[yflyer]

Almost everyone arriving on this flight seemed to be heading somewhere else.





In T3, Emirates seems to have worked out a fairly efficient system for moving and sorting out large numbers of pax. There were no real bottlenecks or chokepoints and everyone seemed to head where they needed to go without too much confusion.





Complimentary baby strollers...



After clearing security, I found myself in the main shopping area, still bustling at 1am in the morning.



Camel milk chocolate anyone?

[yflyer]

The external cameras gave pax a great view of the approach into DXB...



The view out the window...



I loved the front camera view of the runway as we landed...



We landed smoothly for an on-time arrival in DXB Terminal 3.



This is a massive terminal, a very long tube-like terminal with a cavernous interior.



And alongside, a row of gleaming A380's.



Emirates uses the Engine Alliance GP7200 engines on the A380, not the Rolls Royce Trent engines that SQ uses.

[yflyer]

Another view of the rear section of the plane. I maintain that if a flight is not full, and you are travelling Y, then the rear section of the plane is the place to be (applies to SQ too) as the odds of getting a row of empty seats to yourself are far higher than if you were seated in front (or in the small upper deck Y section on SQ).



Fairly good Y cabin ambience, and a sense of spaciousness that only an A380 could give you, but nothing unique compared to other airlines's A380's. I thought that SQ's Y cabin felt even more elegant and spacious.



Overall, I found this my experience on this A380 flight in Y to be very good -- about comparable to SQ's A380 Y offering, with superior IFE on Emirates, although in many respects (the seat, the cabin ambience, and the catering for example) I found SQ to be preferable. Cabin service was fine (they always make a big deal at the start about the cabin crew onboard coming from x countries and speaking y languages) but SQ cabin crew remain more polished and professional, and have that X factor about them which you don't see on any other airline. So for both hard product and soft product, SQ was still ahead by a hair judging from this flight.

But this was on aircraft A6-EDA, an early build A380. My return flight DXB-SIN would be on A6-EEF, a one year old A380 delivered in May 2013, with a new cabin product in Y. Would this be sufficient to tip the scales in favour of Emirates? More on this when I reach the DXB-SIN sector...

[yflyer]

Dinner service started with a round of beverages...



Menu cards were handed out...





Two choice of main, and a nice selection of beverages...but why the exhorbitant charge for champagne? QF offers complimentary sparking wine, and AF offers champagne gratis in Y.



I ordered the Hungarian Chicken. It was a substantial portion, and quite tasty.







Apart from the starter and main, there was a also a pack of biscuits and dips, which I thought was a nice touch.

[yflyer]

There was also OnAir inflight wifi available at additional charge.

Although I didn't buy the service, I did manage to connect to the login screen via wifi on my Macbook.

[yflyer]

Hot towels were offered prior to take off...



As a Platinum Frequent Flyer, I was also greeted and handed a Fast Track card for Dubai.



And then we were off...

It was a very clear night, and pax on the right of the plane were treated to great views of Singapore by night.



It was not a full flight, and the rear section of the plane was fairly empty. I had 3 Y seats to myself to sleep on. Joy!

[yflyer]

The IFE was very good. It was full AVOD, with a huge selection of programmes and information. SQ's IFE is great, but this managed to top it.









Although it was a touchscreen, a controller with display was also provided.



Headphones with the 2-pin connector.



In addition, it had 3 external camera views...

A tail camera...



A forward camera, still pointing at C23 while at Changi...



And of course a downward camera.

Each seatrest came with A/C power.

[yflyer]

Legroom was ok.



Each seat came with a soft blanket and a pillow.



The headrest was adjustable.



Comfort-wise, I found the seat ok. It was a wide seat at 10-abreast on the lower deck, but not especially comfortable when fully upright.

Things were better when reclined (recline was average), but overall I preferred the SQ A380 Y seat to the Emirates seat on this aircraft. The best A380 Y seat I have tried is still the QF A380 Y seat designed by Marc Newson. And just for comparison, this is what Air France offers.

[yflyer]

At the boarding gate, airport staff were already setting up temperature sensors, in order to begin screening pax arriving from the Middle East, a MERS hotspot.



My ride for today would be Emirates A380 registration A6-EDA. Emirates displays the registration as part of their flight information screen -- very handy. This plane was six years old, delivered in July 2008, which makes it one of the older A380's flying. At construction number 11, this was the 3rd A380 delivered to Emirates. At that point in time, SQ was still ahead with 5 birds...



Boarding took place on time...



First impressions...still fairly new on the inside, with decent ambience, although subjectively I felt that SQ's Y cabin felt brighter and more open.



The whole lower deck is Y, in conventional 3-4-3 layout.



The large section in the rear of the Emirates A380 is used for operational purposes/crew rest, and there are no seats there. This gave the rear of the plane a very different feel from SQ's A380.



There were window seats on either side of this enclosed section. These sections were not noisier than the other parts of the cabin, and even felt a little more private, although these seats may not appeal to some pax, simply because they were close to a wall. I was seated in this section, and I found the seats fine.

[yflyer]

Basic shower facilities were also available in the lounge, although this was a "self service" shower, rather than a shower area manned by counter staff.



Rattan basket of towels for pax to help themselves to.

[yflyer]

The catering in the lounge was superb.

If the catering was not as inspired as QF's lounge offerings overseen by Neil Perry, the EK dishes were of very high quality, very well presented, and far superior to what I saw in most other lounges in Changi (including the J section of the SQ Silver Kris Lounge).



Although I was flying Y, I could imagine that the starters on offer in the lounge were what they served as starters in the premium classes inflight...



Why settle for 3 sticks of satay onboard, when you can gorge yourself on dozens of sticks on the ground

[yflyer]

This was not a new lounge, and the decor could charitably be described as "classic", but at least it was spacious.



Good beverage selection, including decent champagne and wine...







They even have Singapore Sling on offer...

[yflyer]

My trip started in Changi T1, where I was scheduled to depart on EK355 SIN-DXB at 9.25pm.

This would be operated by an A380. There are multiple EK flights to Dubai, including some operated by EK's 77W. But EK's 77W's are 10 abreast in Y -- I try to avoid that config as a matter of principle...

I first headed to the Emirates Lounge, located at one end of T1, up an escalator from the departure gates.

[CarbonMan]

I flew once on EK's Y SIN-DXB-AMM. The former sector was flown on a 744. It was one of the most uncomfortable flights I have ever taken. If I recall correctly, it had a 3-5-3 config, and I was seated in dead centre. Looking forward to your TR on the 388.