After a brief time in the Emirates lounge, it was time to board our flight from Singapore on to Dubai. The classic Emirates first class experience is on the A380 plane, though our plane was “only” a 777. Emirates actually does fly an A380 from Singapore to Dubai, but only on the flight that leaves Singapore at 9 p.m. (and arrives in Dubai at 1 a.m.). That timing didn’t work out for our schedule, so we decided to fly the 10:10 a.m. departure and “only” fly Emirates First Class on the 777

For this flight, you actually go through a security screening AGAIN at the gate (I assume this is fairly normal in some airports but it was the first time I had personally gone through it. That took a very short time except that Carolyn brought some scissors for knitting (oh yeah she knows how to PAR-TAY!) and they made her get them out of her carryon and then sign an exception log.

After a very short time at the gate, it was time to board our Emirates First Class flight. We were in seats (suites?) 1A and 1D – this was my first time being in the prototypical “1A” seat, flying Trevor from Tagging Miles style

I think this is the first time I’ve been riding @tmount style in seat 1a!

A photo posted by Points With a Crew (@pointswithacrew) on Mar 14, 2016 at 4:24am PDT

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We quickly made our way to our seats, since, you know, in Row 1, they’re right there 😀

There were only 4 first class passengers on this flight, so the flight attendant offered us the choice to move back into Row 2 into the middle seats (similar to where we were configured on our outbound flight on Japan Airlines first, but we opted to stay where we were. The purser also came by to introduce herself, and the crew offered a pre-flight drink. I tell you, when you don’t drink alcohol, some of the “magic” of first class is kind of lost 🙂

After takeoff, she came by with some olives and feta cheese which was QUITE tasty

All the Emirates A380s and some of the 777s have wi-fi inflight, but unfortunately, this was not one of the 777s that was wi-fi equipped. Still, there was a MUCH larger selection of in-flight entertainment than either of my 2 Japan Airlines flights or our Cathay Pacific flight on the outbound leg of this trip. They even had several episodes of Studio C!!!!

I enjoyed watching some good ol Scott Sterling and Captain Literally. The IFE was significantly better than my Japan Airlines first class flight – on this flight there were HUNDREDS of movies to choose from, whereas on my JAL flight from Chicago, I’d say there were only in the tens of movies (unless I missed a menu option or something)

Again, this is a daytime flight, which means that it’s a bit awkward. SIN-DXB is about a 7 and a half hour flight but you lose 4 hours from flying westward. After a bit of relaxing, I ordered my lunch

I had the chicken starter and the cod fillet

and then a (warm!) brownie and ice cream for dessert

After lunch, I decided to take a little bit of a nap, so I changed into my pajamas

and asked the flight attendant to switch my seat into “bed mode”

I was actually able to sleep pretty well (as opposed to the tossing and turning I did on my Japan Airlines first class flight) – I ended up sleeping for about 2 hours, which was a nice nap considering I had woken up at 2 a.m. Dubai time that morning (6 a.m. Singapore time to make a 10 a.m. flight). After I woke up, I kept watching my movie and they brought out a cheese tray which was super good. I was already full really, but when has that ever stopped me from eating more cheese?!? :-). By this time there was only an hour or so left in the flight, and we made our descent into Dubai

Definitely the best flight I’ve been on… so far!

Singapore / Dubai 2016

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12 Comments

Susan on March 16, 2016 at 1:49 pm

“only in the tens of movies”

I believe the word you are looking for is “scores” (as in 4 score and seven years), or maybe “dozens” 🙂

It looks like a comfortable looking seat!
- Bob on May 16, 2016 at 1:51 pm
  
  Except scores are twenties are tens are tens. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “tens”.
Ganz on March 16, 2016 at 2:18 pm

“when you don’t drink alcohol, some of the “magic” of first class is kind of lost” — any further thoughts on this? I do not drink alcohol nor my wife; wondering if we should spend extra miles to Asia for F instead of J.
- pointswithacrew on March 16, 2016 at 2:20 pm
  
  I’ve got another post coming up on this but I don’t drink alcohol, coffee or tea and it seemed like that’s all they kept offering me. I’m sure they kept looking at us weird when we kept ordering Diet Coke and 7-Up… 🙂
  - pointster on March 17, 2016 at 10:38 am
    
    There’s a certain other luxury travel blogger who gets seriously offended if the fruit juice isn’t freshly squeezed. Maybe she could guide you to the airlines with the best non-boozy options. 🙂
  - Susan on March 18, 2016 at 7:32 am
    
    I don’t drink alcohol, tea, or coffee either. As long as you keep me topped up with diet coke, I’m a happy camper.
Duke787 on March 16, 2016 at 8:27 pm

At least you got a 77W! I was on the inbound flight (EK352) 5 days earlier and we were on a 773 with the old SkyCruiser seats and that flight is a redeye!
Farhan on March 17, 2016 at 12:50 pm

Great pics – hope you have enjoyed your trip. Seat 1A – that’s dream for me
lopere on March 17, 2016 at 1:40 pm

Why do you have a blog focused on traveling with your family when all the trips you’ve taken recently have been without your children?

Stay focused Dan.
- pointswithacrew on March 17, 2016 at 5:47 pm
  
  I do believe it’s important to travel as a family as well as having time to travel with just your spouse. And while it is true that this last trip was just Carolyn and I, maybe you missed how we all just got back from Disney World a few weeks ago?
Terence on April 19, 2016 at 6:32 am

appreciate the nice pix and report…though i hope the headline can be less sensationalistic…please be mindful of the huge number of people who do not have had a chance to travel on business class, let alone first class…especially folks in Asia where miles accrual from credit cards are far less generous than in the US
- pointswithacrew on April 19, 2016 at 7:27 am
  
  Thanks for the feedback. The headline was supposed to be a joke that it was a “miserable” experience because I didn’t “get to” shower on a plane 🙂