Emirates A380 Business Class HKG-BKK

Background

Despite my sometimes questionably fierce loyalty to the oneworld alliance, there are occasions where I find myself “sleeping with the enemy”.  Those little moments of weakness typically happen when I’m traipsing around southeast Asia and get the urge for a little change of scenery.  This area of the globe is filled with one of my favorite airline quirks – fifth freedom flights.  With a multitude of unique airlines offering relatively cheap, short flights between major cities within southeast Asia, a fantastic opportunity arises for interested travelers to book tickets on carriers they normally wouldn’t have an opportunity to fly on.

This was the case for yours truly a few months back when I found myself flying into Hong Kong (HKG) on a cheap ticket I’d purchased.  While HKG is an amazing, dynamic city to spend a few days in, over the years I’ve ended up spending quite a bit of time there.

Prior to departing on this trip I hopped on to the internet and started looking at some inexpensive options out of HKG.  Lo and behold, Emirates (EK) was offering very reasonably priced flights to Bangkok (BKK) on their A380 in business class.  While EK isn’t a member of the oneworld alliance and there is no opportunity for me to credit the flight back toward my AAdvantage account, the chance to fly on a carrier like EK in business class on their much lauded A380 product was too good to pass up, especially at the price point I saw before me.

Before I knew it I had whipped my credit card out and booked myself a one way flight from HKG – BKK on an airline I had heard quite a bit of chatter about but never actually flown.

Check-In

Having landed the night before from Tokyo on a Japan Airlines flight in economy and catching a much needed night of sleep, accessing the airport was a rather simple five minute walk from the lobby of the attached Regal Airport Hotel.

Luckily I arrived just as the EK agents were opening their stations for check-in.  I had feared that there might be a substantial line of passengers waiting to check-in for the flight, but it all proved to be unfounded as I was one of the very first passengers to check-in for the flight through the designated business class lane.  The agent was efficient though a bit cold.  She smiled while asking me where I was headed and tagging my luggage, but I couldn’t help but feel like she was going through the motions a bit.  Regardless, I had the golden ticket to EK’s business class cabin in my hand, so the tepid reception I’d received was quickly forgotten.

As I headed toward the security checkpoint I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief that I had booked a business class ticket as I looked back and saw that a large line had already formed for the economy class check-in, many of whom seemed to have packed their entire house for the trip.

Lounge

The lounge is located at the top of an escalator near the United and Thai Royal Silk lounges. Checking in was a breeze and the agent was much more friendly than her counterpart who provided me with my boarding pass.  I was welcomed into the facility with a big smile and told to enjoy myself.  My first thoughts upon entering the lounge?  I was struck by how small it was.

EK has such a reputation for extravagence that I suppose I was destined to be disappointed by the lounge, regardless of how nicely appointed the space was.  No bedazzled belly dancer throwing fistfuls of Cuban cigars from a trapeze bar?  No edible liquid gold fountain to dip my cheesecake squares into? No team of muscular men to transport me to my private suite on a golden litter while svelte Russian supermodels throw rose petals in the air?  WHERE’S THE GRANDEUR!?

Back in reality, my overall assessment of EK’s HKG lounge is that the space is adequate but rather lackluster.  The pictures above pretty much show the entirety of the space.  After leaving the check-in desk you make your way through a short hallway and enter the space shown.  To your right is an area designed for lounging while having a conversation, watching television, or working on your computer.  Chairs arranged around low coffee tables are the name of the game.  To the left is a dining area with a hot food buffet and a beverage bar set up against the wall.  There are also a few islands positioned off the wall featuring cold food and desserts.  In front of the food and beverage area is an open space with dining tables and chairs.  At the edge of the lounge overlooking the departure area below was a countertop with chairs, and this is where I settled in.

As I hinted at above, the size of the lounge was adequate for the amount of passengers that seemed to be on this particular flight, but hardly spacious.  As I would later learn, my flight to BKK was very lightly booked in business class, so I can only imagine the lounge with a few dozen more passengers.  It’s clear that a fully loaded A380 could cause the lounge to become overcrowded and quite uncomfortable.  The furniture and decorations around the lounge were in good shape and very clean, though there was hardly anything that stood out in the lounge as distinct or particularly appealing on an aesthetic level.

Feeling a bit of hunger, I hopped over to the food and beverage area to survey the offerings.  I started to browse the offerings and pulled out my iPhone to snap a few photos when a very polite and apologetic member of staff dashed up to me and told me that photography was not permitted.  As a certified goodie two-shoes, I obliged the request and put my phone away.  I did get a little rebellious just prior to boarding and snapped a few pictures, hence the rather low quality, blurry pictures of the lounge you see above.

While the furniture and space failed to impress me, the food offerings were definitely a step above what I’ve seen in many other lounges.  The food on deck was a nice mix of Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern cuisine.  From the cold food island I ended up walking away with a tabbouleh salad, lo mein noodles, and a chickpea pattie topped with shrimp.

The noodles and the chickpea pattie were quite good.  It took a few bites into the tabbouleh salad for me to remember that I hate tabbouleh salad and had made an awful decision.  If one is a fan of that particular food product, you’re a fool, but I’m sure you’ll find it quite lovely.

I had much better luck with the hot food offerings.  I again walked away with a small trio of offerings – a chickpea pattie with harissa, curry chicken, and a stewed ginger beef.  All three offerings were flavorful and spiced correctly.  For those with a tempermental stomach rest assured that both the hariss and curry sauce where rather mild and friendly for Western palates.

One island near the food and beverage area was devoted entirely to desserts.  Normally I’d pole vault over slower lounge patrons on my way to the dessert buffet, but sadly EK seems to skew their offerings heavily in favor of chocolate lovers.  Considering my rocky relationship with chocolate and the hives it gives me, I decided to steer clear of the whole dessert buffet and sadly cannot give you any thoughts on the quality.  If it helps, they looked delicious.

Seat & IFE

Boarding was announced in the lounge and soon the great exodus of passengers started.  Luckily our flight was departing from a gate that was relatively close to the lounge, so the commute was short and sweet.

By the time I arrived at the gate boarding had already started.  There was a bit of a swarm of folks waiting to hop on this behemoth of a bird, but the HKG EK staff did a great job of keeping the priority lanes cleared for first and business class passengers.  My boarding pass was scanned and I was directed down the jetbridge where an EK flight attendant (FA) was waiting to greet me.  A quick smile, a hand gesture, and short walk later I was standing in front of the seat I’d occupy for our quick hop to BKK.  I looked around and took in the sight of the cabin, and marveled for a bit that I was on the second floor of a double decker airplane.  This wasn’t my first time on an A380, but the novelty has yet to wear off on me.

My first impression of the seat?  “How the hell do I get into this thing!?”

Let me elaborate….

EK’s business class cabin on the A380 is laid out in a 1-2-1 format, and I had selected a single seat over the wing since I’m a bit of a window-loving freak.  EK staggers each seat to provide additional space for each passenger, which is a format that has its positives and negatives .  For my seat (11K), this meant that my seat was very close to the window and my mini-bar/countertop space was closer to the aisle.  The seats directly in front and behind me had the opposite lay out – their seats were close to the aisle and their mini-bar/countertop space was closer to the window.

The picture below does an okay job (still blurry, I know) of showing the alternating mini-bar/seat lay out.  As you can see some rows have a seat that’s directly accessible to the aisle, but the row behind it has a mini-bar and tabletop space with the seat recessed into the middle of the plane.

This worked well for me because the set up at 11K allowed me to see out the window with little effort.  The difficult part about the seat was that the position of the mini-bar area on the aisle created a very narrow space within which you could manuever in and out of the seat.  Despite the narrow space, I was able to get into my seat just fine, but I can imagine an individual who was a bit heavier struggling quite a bit to squeeze in and out of the seat.

I’ve read a few other reports of travelers who’ve experience the EK product, and it seems many walk away with a sense that the hard product is a bit gaudy with all the polished wood and gold embellishments.  Perhaps that’s more apparent in the first class cabin, but I found the EK business cabin on the A380 to be quite nice and far from gaudy.

Despite the slight difficulty I experienced getting into the seat, I actually quite enjoyed the snug, enclosed feeling provided by the seat.  I could see some passengers feeling a bit claustrophobic in that environment, but it suited me just fine.  The color palette used around the cabin was pleasing to the eye, and the seats still appeared fresh and clean.  The gold accents were minimal in my opinion, and nothing about the product seemed extraordinarily garish or gaudy.

The seat did seem designed for someone a bit taller than me.  I’m 5’7″, give or take an inch, and struggled a bit when trying to sit comfortably in the seat and rest my feet on the area provided while parked at the gate.  Once we were in the air and I was able to move my seat in to other positions the problem disappeared.  The foot well was more than adequate for my feet, and I didn’t feel boxed in or constrained by the space.

The in-flight entertainment system (IFE) was quite impressive.  It certainly blew the tiny selection of television shows and movies I typically find on American Airlines out of the water.  The EK IFE system seemed to be much closer in quality to the Cathay Pacific system that I’m quite enamoured with.   A quick run through of the programming revealed a plethora of options – sitcoms, dramas, comedies, talk shows, sci-fi, fantasy, news programming, blockbuster hits, oldies, etc.  Programming was also offered in a variety of languages.  English, Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, and Hindi come to mind.  I ended up watching 80% of a Bollywood film over the course of my flight.