Have you ever enjoyed an experience that came at a big financial cost (>$5K) to you that you wish everyone had the means to experience? Like a first class long-haul flight on Emirates?
I once spent €1000 on strippers in Frankfurt…that was a good night!!
I flew Emirates First long haul for my wife’s 30th. Drank over 2 bottles of Dom Perignon and slept most of it. On the way home i enjoyed it more. Previously hadn’t seen the benefit of first over business but there is a big difference, depends mainly on airline though.
Ruined flying for me. I’m now incapable of flying economy for more than 4 hours. I recently flew from Newark to the UK on United in coach and I’ll never do it again.
Flew from JFK to Dublin on “British” operated by United and it was just horrible. Flew really British on the way back and was significantly better, I avoid United & Delta at all costs since then.
yeah I’ve always had good experiences with bri-ish airways
BA are pretty good. For me they’re probably at the top of the 2nd tier or airlines, the top tier being the Middle Eastern ones (Emirates, Qatar, Etihad) and Singaporean.
I’m flying Emirates first class in a couple months and am pretty stoked. Flying economy has already been ruined since I got to try Cathay Pacific in F as it’s all down hill from there. Go from having a 2 to 1 passenger to staff ratio and a young lovely flight attendant bringing you food and expensive bubbly and anything will suck by comparison after that…
Yeah the difference can be pretty big once you’ve experienced both on good carriers (so not any US airlines)
Is that the plane with the shower?
Yeah, on the A380. The Boeing 777s don’t have showers.
Yeah, I don’t particularly enjoy coach, but when I’m sitting better, I often wonder if somebody would give me, say, $4k just before boarding a transcontinental flight would I take steerage seat…
I’m not sure the jump from business to first is as big as the jump from economy to business. Dollar for dollar, business is the best bang for your buck when balancing comfort and luxury with your wallet. Economy: packed like sardines, and treated like scum ($1,200 roundtrip) Business: Sit back on a super-comfy massage chair (Etihad) while enjoying champagne and watching the commonfolk struggle through to economy ($4,000 roundtrip)
anyone join the mile high club yet?
^Pics or it didn’t happen.
^ well, that escalated quickly.
That’s why I’ll never fly first class willingly.
Well, after reading this thread, I’ve definitely decided on how I’m going to treat myself after I get my bonus.
So after reading this thread, I decided to double check my upcoming Emirates reservation and it seems they’ve changed the plane for my Texas-Dubai leg from an A380 to a 777. That means no shower. On the plus side, there are only 8 first class seats on the 777 vs. ~14 on the A380, so ought to be better service, I still have the A380 from Dubai to my end destination.
So… are you flying Emirates first class or getting double teamed by hookers? Inquiring minds want to know…
^^ Emirates changed the plane on the 2nd leg of the flight out. No 1st class so we were downgraded to business. No apology, just handed us new boarding passes without saying a word and we didn’t notice the downgrade until we’d walked away from the desk. They also gave us the shitest seats in the thing, old plane with 2-4-2 configuration and originally we were in the middle 2 of the 4 in the front row before we asked to move to a 2 at the back of the cabin, then they ran out of everything on the menu.
Long story short, they probably have one of the worst complaint handling processes you’re ever likely to experience. Basically just didn’t give a shit and wasted a lot of my time. Final compensation amount was £200 and some points which wouldn’t get you even a short economy flight.
Excellent luxury middle eastern product when things go right, terrible middle eastern service when things go wrong.
Since then I’ve flown Qatar where possible and they are so much better. Their business is like 1st, 1-2-1 configuration and really private seats.
There is a Texas-Dubai flight? How long is this mofo? Is there anyone on this flight who is NOT an oil tycoon?
Houston or Dallas to Dubai is about 15 hours. It’s a rough flight in economy, which I’ve done before. Sleep aid and free liquor is the main way to get through it, so I’m really looking forward to doing it at the front of the plane this time.
That seems about right. I’ve had to deal with Etihad customer service after a flight and it is absolute shit. Non flight customer service isn’t the Middle East airlines strong suit. I haven’t had a chance to fly Qatar yet.