To London and Barcelona via DXB on EK/QF A380 Y

[yflyer]

It was down the elevator and straight onto the aerobridge for boarding on the upper deck of QF1.



It was good to be on a Qantas A380 again after a long while. I used to fly them a lot between SIN and Australia, and occasionally to London as well, and was always very happy with the overall experience flying Qantas.

Today, I was in the the small Y section in the rear of the upper deck, and so passed through the QF J and PY cabins before reaching the cosy Y cabin in the rear (even smaller than SQ’s mini Y cabin on the upper deck of the earlier SQ A380’s).

This is QF J on the A380 upper deck, configured 2-2-2.



These seats recline into full flat sleepers.





Pre-take off beverage service for J pax…




Next, was the Premium Economy (PY) cabin, in a spacious 2-3-2 layout.





And finally, the upper deck Y cabin, laid out 2-4-2. This was a much smaller Y cabin on the upper deck than on SQ.



The Qantas pillows in Y are very comfortable: large with soft fabric covers-- much more comfortable than the small EK pillows with non-fabric pillow cases.





Not a lot of overhead storage in this cabin, but the window seats had a very convenient side storage bin.

[yflyer]

There were quite a few flights were connecting at that hour. It was now 1:18am and my connecting flight, QF1, was departing at 2:25am.

QF1 would also be departing from Concourse A, the same concourse I arrived in, so the gate was close by.



Queues at the security checkpoint to head back to the airside part of the terminal were fairly lengthy, and slightly chaotic. There might have been a few delayed flights, as groups of passengers for flights that were about to depart were being directed to the head of the queue.

There was a dedicated priority queue for premium/F/J pax at the security lines, but that too took a few minutes to clear.

I don’t know if this was a typical transit experience in DXB, or just an example of bad luck, but this illustrates one of the challenges of running a massive transit hub like DXB: how to manage bunching of flight arrivals and surges in passenger traffic at a particular point in time.

I am sure they do a good job managing the flow of passengers overall, but in a megahub like DXB, there will probably always be rare moments of madness and the occasional “perfect storm” of travellers converging on a single security checkpoint all at the same time. In this case, the lines back to the airside area took no more than 15-20 minutes to clear, nothing too inconvenient, but even that kind of queuing time is not ideal.

Checkpoint queues, aside, the transit experience was quite smooth once you were airside again, especially if you had Emirates lounge access, and direct boarding of the aircraft from the lounge.

I did not have to change terminals or concourses on this occasion as my flights both landed and departed from Concourse A. On other occasions, I have had to take a peoplemover train from one concourse to another.

Once past security, you were in the airside shopping and dining area – bustling and crowded as usual despite it being past midnight.

I headed straight to the Emirates Business Class Lounge, which is the designated lounge for both QF and EK flights.



This is a large lounge, spanning the entire length of Concourse A, the dedicated A380 terminal.



Fuller coverage of the lounge will come later when I discuss my return leg BCN-DXB-SIN.

There wasn’t a lot of time to use the facilities in the lounge, but the one feature of this lounge was direct boarding from the lounge itself.



You literally proceeded to your gate in the lounge, had your boarding pass and passport checked…



…then headed to the elevator directly down to the aerobridge with no further checks required.



This enabled you to maximize time in the lounge, and also avoid any queues at the boarding gate, and I felt that this really enhanced the transit experience.

[yflyer]

There was also a snack pack with each meal…





The A380 lower deck is quite spacious, and even a full A380 does not feel overly crowded. This was the cabin ambience in the rear of the cabin…





I gambled on the flight being less than completely full, and chose a seat near the rear of the aircraft. Today the gamble paid off, and I had 3 Y seats to myself and I had a very good nap for the remainder of the flight, which landed close to 1am Dubai time, (Just before 5am Singapore time).



A very smooth touchdown in DXB…

[yflyer]

Today’s flight was operated by A6-EOB, a very new A380, delivered just months ago, in November 2014.



I boarded from the main deck. With Emirates, there is no Y cabin on the upper deck, so in Y what you have is an economy cabin, configured in a roomy 3-4-3 10 abreast configuration running the entire length of the lower deck, and split into several sections.



This aircraft had very comfortable Y seating. Emex rows had huge amounts of legroom (At additional cost). There were also several window seats one row behind the Emex row, which had no seat in front of it – highly desirable. Unfortunately all these were already booked when I tried to select them online.




IFE was the latest version of Emirates’ highly acclaimed ICE (Information, Communications, Entertainment) system. This was based on a touchscreen, very similar to SQ’s latest version on the 77WN, but easier to use, in my view.



I wonder why Emirates has a special movie category called Scary Movies…



Hot towels were distributed. These were as hot as SQ's towels.

Menus were presented.



You had a choice of two mains for dinner on this flight.







The chicken was tender, and the sauce more subtle, than I expected. The vegetables had good texture as well. A delicious dish.



A small chocolate square…



Wine and spirits were served in individual single-serve bottles.

[yflyer]

The dining options in the Qantas Lounge looked superb as well, but I had just eaten there not long ago, and so, for variety’s sake, I decided to head instead to the Emirates Business Lounge for something to eat.

The Emirates Lounge was unchanged since my last visit in 2014: Not the newest lounge, with “classic” rather than modern décor.



The Emirates Lounge had a decent self-service beverage selection, but this could not be compared to the full bar service in the Qantas Lounge.



The dining selection at the EK lounge was quite outstanding. Practically restaurant standard.



A wide range of cold starters…







…and a fairly wide, and substantial, selection of mains including roast lamb, satay, and a variety of Western and Asian selections.





Grilled fillet steak sandwiches…



And dessert…

[yflyer]

My trip started out 2 weeks ago, in the last week of February, with a check-in at Changi T1 for my outbound flight, EK355, SIN-DXB. This was an A380 service, with a 9pm departure time.

My ticket was issued by Qantas, with all flights operated by Emirates (QF codeshares) except QF1 DXB-LHR. At the EK check-in counter for this EK operated flight, I asked, “I am Qantas Gold, can I use the Qantas Lounge or do I need to use the Emirates Lounge”?

“You can use either one!”

Great! But which one? Easy decision to make: I would go to both

To start the lounge hop, I headed first to the Qantas Singapore Lounge, my favourite lounge in Changi Airport, for an artfully mixed martini at the full service bar…

[yflyer]

Just got back to Singapore last Saturday, after a trip to London and Barcelona.

I usually do flights to the UK/Europe nonstop. I’ve done this recently on SQ (On their new 77WN) and BA (On their 77W). I also did this previously on QF, when the Kangaroo still hopped over to Europe via SIN.

Non-stop is always more convenient than one-stop. With a late night departure out of SIN, I can usually get a huge amount of uninterrupted sleep, and some time for work or IFE as well before landing bright and early in Europe.

But I’ve always wondered what flying this route would be like if it included a stop in the Middle East, whether Dubai, or one of the newer hubs such as Doha or Abu Dhabi.

Flights on EK, or any of the other ME3 carriers, are usually a fair bit cheaper than a nonstop option on SQ. And if your journey includes an intra-Europe sector from a non-hub city in Europe before the non-stop sector to SIN, then a one-stop option via DXB looks attractive.

At the heart of this TR is a question: With nonstops being the most convenient way to get to UK and Europe from SIN, is there any reason at all to contemplate flying this route with a stop in one of the bases of the ME3 i.e. Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi?

I decided to find out for myself, and for this trip, I flew SIN-DXB on an Emirates A380 then connected to Qantas QF1, also an A380 service, on the DXB-LHR sector. After a short stay in London, I flew BA on the short sector from LGW to BCN (Covered here), spent a week in Barcelona, and then returned on Emirates, flying BCN-DXB-SIN in Y on EK’s A380.

My flight connections were through the dedicated A380 terminal at DXB, Concourse A, which meant that I got to enjoy the Emirates Business Class Lounge while in transit.

On the single Qantas sector on my trip, I also got to try out QF’s new “trayless” economy meal service while onboard QF1. At least one airline is doing something innovative in the back of the plane!

Would the body clock be messed up by having to wake up during the transit stop? What would the actual transit experience in DXB be like? Is there any sense at all doing this route in two legs rather than non stop?

Read on for one traveller’s experience!