[This article was originally posted in June 2016]

Continuing my trip review from my first class around the world trip earlier this year, it’s time to give my Emirates A380 first class review of our Dubai to New York Emirates flight.

(SEE ALSO: Upgrading to first class – the best 80 cents* I ever spent!)

After we figured out the problem where we arrived too early to Dubai International Airport and weren’t able to check in, and several hours in (both of) the completely over the top Emirates First Class lounge in Dubai, it was time to board our Emirates A380 plane to go from Dubai to New York.

Emirates A380 first class DXB to JFK boarding and cabin

It was about 2 a.m. local time when we started boarding the plane.  Because our Emirates A380 first class flight from Dubai to New York was flying out of Concourse B, we didn’t get to board directly from the Emirates first class lounge, so we had to (gasp!) walk down to the terminal and board from there :-).  This was actually the first time I had flown on an A380 flight, so I snapped a picture of the double decker plane from the jetbridge

Once we boarded on the upper level, we were quickly escorted to our seats, 2E and 2K, which are the middle two seats

You can notice my sweet TravelingDad.com shirt :-).  The Emirates A380 first class cabin is configured in a 1-2-1 format, so if you’re traveling together, IMO you definitely want the middle 2 seats.  If you are by yourself and can’t get one of the outside seats, there is a retractable barrier that can separate the 2 middle seats.  We generally left it down but put the barrier up when we were sleeping.

You’ll also notice that this was the shirt that launched one of my most angrily commented on articles ever – Should you dress up in first class?

Here’s a look at the Emirates A380 first class cabin – there are 5 rows I believe, and business class is to the rear of the upper level

To the front of the first class cabin, there are stairs that go down to the lower level of the A380 plane

On the other side of the business class cabins to the rear of the plane on the upper level of the A380, there is an onboard bar (because of course there is!)

Given that Emirates is owned by a Muslim country, I’m actually somewhat surprised that there aren’t more (any) non-alcoholic options available.  I mean they had juices and pop, but I would have appreciated something “fancy” like a sparkling cider or other non-alcoholic champagne equivalent.

Emirates A380 first class review Dubai to New York food

Although it was late (early?) and I had plenty of food in the Emirates First Class lounge, I started off the flight with a meal because hey that’s the thing you do when you’re flying first class! 🙂

After the meal, I had the flight attendant turn down the suite and make the bed and slept.  The flat bed is huge on these long flights as I was able to sleep soundly for nearly 6 hours.

For breakfast I went with the scrambled eggs

They were a little runny, but still tasty and came with a cinnamon roll

Emirates A380 first class review Dubai to New York shower

Of course what everyone really wants to know is about the Emirates A380 first class shower and how it works.  When we flew from Singapore to Dubai on Emirates First Class, it was one of the flights that is “only” on the 777 so it didn’t have an onboard shower.

(SEE ALSO: Help! I’m “stuck” in Emirates First class on ONLY a 777!!!)

On the A380, the flight attendant came around near the beginning of the flight to take shower reservations.  You sign up for 15 minute reservations, depending on how long the flight is and how full the first class cabin is.  In our case, I signed up for a shower reservation later in the day after I woke up.

I made my way with my amenity kit into the shower.  I didn’t get a shot of the whole bathroom (which was extensive), but here’s a shot of the shower.

You can see the red / yellow / green water timer.  While you have more or less an unlimited time in the shower suite (within reason, I’m sure), you only have 5 minutes of water on a Emirates A380 first class flight, which is counted down with the timer.  You are able to start and stop the water as much as you want, which I ended up doing. At 4 minutes (so with 1 minute left), the water turns off to give you a “warning” that your water is about to run out.  I actually had a bit of panic at that point, since I still had shampoo in my hair and was not nearly ready yet!

All clean!

Even though the flight is a little over 13 hours, when you sleep for half of it and eat for the other half, it goes by pretty quick!  Before I knew it, we had landed at JFK airport in New York City (at about 8:30 a.m.) and it was time to start facing the “real world” again…

We used 100,000 Alaska Airlines miles per person for a one way Emirates First Class ticket from Singapore to Dubai (stopover) to New York City.  Unfortunately, shortly after we flew our flight, Alaska gutted their award chart (with no notice!), so it would now take 180,000 miles to fly this same flight.

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