From the Emirates First Class Lounge, there are gates within the lounge to the upper deck of the A380s, really cool and appreciated!
From the lounge we took the elevator down to the level of the plane's upper deck.
Then some security theater to check bags and onward to the party!
Our whale ready to take us to SFO. While it's not a pretty plane, it's by far my favorite with the best passenger experience hands down.
Like my flight from CMB the night before, the crew was incredibly friendly and escorted each pax to their suite.
The famous EK F 380 cabin! Again, it doesn't look as gaudy in real life, but definitely more bling during the day than at night.
It's actually a big F cabin with 14-suites, but luckily once you're in your suite you can't see anyone else. The cabin being on the upper deck is smaller than the one on the 77W.
I chose Suite 2K based on what I saw and was available.
My suite for an all too short 16-hours.
The famous shot of the EK setup with snack basket, mirror and screen.
This is the extent you can see into an adjacent suite with the doors open.
There's a facial products kit, I took it home for MsFlamingo.
Then the first glass of champagne with Dom 2009 on the ground, the good stuff would be once we were airborne.
There we go, also I appreciate Emirates uses mostly full size wine glasses unlike other airlines who use smaller wine glasses.
Instead of Bose, they distribute B&W headphones, they were fine, but not as good as Bose.
Then they distributed amenity "kits". Really it was more like a giant goodie bag starting with the high quality tote bag.
Inside nice Bvgari amenity kit and PJs.
Now THIS is an amenity kit with everything you could ever want.
Also EK just won the best airplane slippers, not only did they have multiple sizes to fit everyone, but they were solid, and incredibly comfy.
Before we pushed back, I had to use the bathroom and see the famous bathroom/showers.
There it is, the famous shower, couldn't wait to try it.
Between the forward bathrooms was a nice waterfall, so crazy awesome!
Back at my suite, the date and Arabic coffee were just as good as I remembered.
Unfortunately shortly after the gates were disconnected (also how awesome is that camera angle?) we had to wait for a slot for takeoff. Luckily this is about as good of a place as possible to wait.
The crew distributed menus, the wine list was pretty great, unfortunately this month they didn't also have Les Forts for the Bordeaux, instead replaced with Clos du Marquis which is a fine wine, but Les Forts.
P2, super excited to try it!
1963 Graham's, also couldn't wait to try it.
Then the cocktails and food menu.
Some good options for breakfast and mains.
We finally got clearance to push and head for takeoff.
So, so cool to see that many 380s.
Hello there 77W.
A royal family cutting the line to takeoff.
Eventually it was our turn.
A long takeoff roll with the high temperatures, but we were on our way.
I absolutely LOVE the A380, it's by far the best passenger experience, even over the 787. It's significantly quieter at every point of flight (consistently 5dB) than a 787 at equivalent points of flight and locations in the aircraft (yes I measured it).
Now airborne, let the party begin with 2000 Dom P2! The P2 is fantastic with lemon peel and meringue nose with a chalky, brioche, crisp fruit body and finish. Fantastic!
What a beauty. Also I appreciate anytime airlines have intermediate window shades, I like them a lot more than either just standard window shades or dimming windows on the Dreamliner because they allow better light into the cabin without the glare.
A neighbor went to bed instantly and closed her suite off.
Time for breakfast, a beautiful bread basket, orange juice and P2.
I went with the salmon Benedict, but customized it over rosti (basically hash browns).
The eggs cooked perfectly, easily the best airplane breakfast I've ever had, and in fact one of the best breakfast dishes I've had anywhere.
After breakfast I watched TV and enjoyed the privacy of my suite.
Sorry shaky picture of the business class cabin behind First on the way to the rearward bar.
The bar is awesome, it's a great way to meet interesting people and makes any flight fly by.
We hit some turbulence and they had us take seats on the benches around the outside of the bar.
Then we were back up, checking out the progress.
After a Manhattan, time to head back up to the pointy end and check out the self service first class bar.
What an awesome selection starting with the Paradis, Tesseron Lot 29 and great whiskeys.
While I was checking out the bar and changing into PJs, I asked for turn down service. A nice and thick mattress pad and duvet were extremely comfortable.
Overhead the "stars" on the ceiling were a nice touch.
After about 4-hours of solid sleep I woke up and while I could've easily fallen back asleep, figured it'd be a good time to have a meal service and go back to bed after that.
The crew changed my suite back into a seat as I refreshed and I got back to my seat with it set for the meal.
I started off with more P2 along with the consomme which was absolutely fantastic. It had a great chicken backbone, with fragrant lemongrass and some pulled chicken, I definitely need to try and recreate it at home.
So good!
Then onto the caviar, it was good, but Cathay's blinis are better. Two more glasses of P2 to go with the caviar were perfectly matched.
A trio of canapes, all tasty, but none out of this world.
Time to move onto the Clos du Marquis, a nice and good price to performance Bordeaux. It was great the crew had the bottle opened so the wine was open and ready to drink. The nose was barnyard and mushroom, the palate full bodied, dark berry fruit, some tertiary notes, integrated tannins and medium finish.
As I was eating lunch, beautiful views and somewhere out there, the north pole.
A bit later after we crossed the north pole.
None of the mains totally jumped out at me, plus I was pretty full, so I went with the ravioli. They hit the spot of being tasty and simple, really they complimented the wine quite well.
After taking my time with the meal, it was time to move onto the 1963 port and pistachio mousse. The dessert was great, tasty, not too sweet and lite. The port was amazing, it had deep caramel, some acid and a nice aged roundness.
After dessert, time to have a glass of Paradis to get ready for bed again.
The crew made my suite back up into a bed and I enjoyed the rest of the Paradis as I fell asleep.
Three hours later I woke up and about then it was time to take a shower at 40,000ft. I was so excited to give this a try, for an avgeek it's about the pinnacle of flying to be able to shower in the air. The bathrooms are absolutely top notch between the heated floors, every product you could imagine, and two bathroom attendants who clean the bathroom after each use.
Also needless to say they're absolutely huge, pictures don't do it justice.
Anything you could possibly want or need.
Each passenger gets 5-minutes of water to shower, but there's a button you can turn it off and on to maximize.
A quick pic of the water in action before I hopped in.
After a fantastically refreshing shower, I got dressed feeling incredibly refreshed and in the bathroom could see we were over Canada.
Between the showers they converted the first class bar into a spa/lounge with a waterfall, tea and faux candles.
It doesn't get better than this folks.
Back at my suite which had been converted back into a seat, a fresh fruit plate was waiting and they had me pegged with a bit more Paradis.
Time to start drying myself out and went with more consomme and water from here on out.
I headed back to the bar to chat some more with the super friendly crew, here's a better picture of the business class cabin.
After about an hour or two chatting with the hilarious and friendly purser and crew, it was time to get ready for our descent. Here's a picture from the rearward first class lav with great engine and wing views.
Back at my suite, more water and I stumbled across a great ramen documentary. Mmmm time for ramen when I land?
Starting our descent over Nor Cal.
And our descent into the Bay Area and turning over home at the Woodside marker.
Over the San Mateo bridge coming in for 28R.
There were definitely some strong cross winds and the pilots had to fight to keep us aligned.
Touchdown and some strong braking.
Interestingly, we taxied up runway 1L instead of a normal taxi way, I think it was to more easily pass traffic.
Passing a Korean 748.
And sadly into our gate where the party would end.
Some cool plane spotting at Terminal A.
And like that the quickest 16-hours flew by with an absolutely wonderful plan, crew and experience.
But we weren't done yet, after clearing customs, Emirates has chauffeur service for first and business class. It was incredibly efficient being escorted to the curbside.
A whole section on the arrival level is blocked just for Emirates premium cabin pax.
And like that, I was in my car service with a hilarious driver who also was a true sport, stopping in San Mateo for me to pickup ramen for MsFlamingo and myself on the way home.
Emirates first class was completely awesome, from the friendliest crew, to the great wines and food, to the amenities, shower and just overall start to finish experience - it's damn near impossible to be bored. While LX and AF F are super classy, this is just outright the most fun you could have on a plane. I can't wait to find an excuse to fly Emirates first again!
Trip links:
- Colombo
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