I recently had the pleasure of flying on Emirates’ brand new premium economy product between London Heathrow and Dubai. Located at the front of the Airbus A380, this new cabin is yet to be offered for sale, but is already attracting a lot of attention. Here are my thoughts on the cabin and seat.
Getting onboard with premium economy
Emirates began taking delivery of the Airbus A380 complete with the new premium economy product almost a year ago. While the premium economy cabin is a new venture for the Dubai-based airline, it’s still not a product that is available to buy. So far, the airline has been testing it out, getting feedback and building up the number of aircraft in its fleet with the cabin installed, ahead of offering it for sale in June next year.
But for a few lucky flyers, the cabin is open for business. It’s located in rows 33 – 40 on the aircraft’s lower deck, with two seats by each window and four across in the middle. When I booked, these seats were not available to select, but it seems that Emirates is upgrading some of its more frequent flyers and special guests.
Boarding in groups at London Heathrow saw an early call for my group. Boarding was via the front door of the aircraft, which facilitated a tantalizing peek up the stairs as I entered the cabin.
Immediately upon boarding, the cabin really looked and felt very special. Emirates has retained some of the elements of the business class cabin that would have otherwise been located here, including the motorized window blinds and the wood-style paneling on the sidewalls. Offsetting this is miles of cream leather, giving the cabin a very private jet-type appearance.
The seat
All in, the cabin boasts 56 premium economy seats in a 2-4-2 layout. The pairs of seats by the windows are the most desirable, and the very front pairs (row 33) have even more legroom thanks to the bulkhead in front.
Emirates has clad the seats in what it describes as ‘stain-resistant leather.’ It’s beautifully finished with intricate stitching and makes for a very ‘wow’ moment when you step onboard.
For comfort, the seats recline around five inches or so. This is not an electric function like you’d expect in business, but a manual button push and throw your weight back sort of affair – a bit like the old lazyboy recliners at home. There’s a footrest under the seat in front, which can be adjusted up and down, and a calf support cushion that raises and lowers via a button and some wriggling.
For neck support, there’s a six-way adjustable headrest. It can be raised or lowered to suit the passengers’ height, and has wings that can fold out to provide somewhere to lean your head onto.
Legroom is ample, and the seats are wider too. There are plenty of overhead bins for all, and also lots of room under the seat in front for handbags and small backpacks… unless you’re in row 33.
Between the pairs of seats is a little wood veneered side table, big enough to pop your coffee on if you don’t want to get the tray table out. For meals and working, the tray table is located in the central armrest, and is a wood veneered bifold table that slides back and forth, providing plenty of accommodation.
IFE is Emirates’ well-known ICE system with larger screens that you’d find in economy. The screens tilt from the bottom so that if the person in front is reclined, you can still establish a decent viewing angle. Headphones are located in a small compartment between the seats in front, and there is USB charging from the IFE monitor. However, there is only one AC plug point per two passengers, located in between the seats.
The service
As premium economy is not on sale yet, the service was the same as you’d expect in regular economy. The airline provided a blanket and cushion to every passenger at their seat, as well as headphones and a little COVID pack, containing hand sanitizer and a mask.
The meal service took a little while to get started owning to turbulence on the first part of the journey. However, about an hour and a half in, the main meal was served. It was all very good as you’d expect from Emirates, but once the premium economy product goes fully on sale, you can expect an upgraded menu to be found in this cabin.
Regardless of how you feel about premium economy, Emirates has undoubtedly hit the nail on the head in terms of the appearance of this cabin. Being at the front of the A380, it feels very private, exclusive almost, and has the typical Emirates fine-tuning that gives it the wow factor. However, it’s not completely without its faults.
Could do better?
The biggest issue for me was that the passengers in the row in front of me were keen to sleep. They reclined their seats fully as soon as they were allowed to, which wasn’t a massive issue but did make my personal space feel a bit cramped. The worst part was, with both seats reclined, there was no way to get out of my window seat to use the bathroom. I managed in the end by stepping onto the seat next to me and performing a graceful leap into the aisle (I’m kidding, I landed like a drunk elephant), which worked, but is not an ideal situation.
The next problem with my very reclined co-passengers came at the meal service. Those guys had decided rest was more important than food, and intended to sleep through the dinner. But unfortunately, with the seats reclined, it’s impossible to get your tray table out of the armrest. It just doesn’t work. So, to my horror, the cabin crew had to tap my sleepy neighbor on the shoulder and ask them to put their seat upright.
There were some other minor niggles with the cabin; nothing deal-breaking, but things that could have been better. The tray table is incredibly heavy, and requires some strength to extract it from the armrest. I managed, but I wonder how a less able person would cope. To put it back, the rather enthusiastic sprung lid has to be held up while the tray is folded and lowered, which is kind of awkward. As such, most passengers were just dropping their trays into the cavity with a nerve-jangling thud.
The calf rest is very comfortable, but was rather stiff – perhaps because it’s so new? And if the footrest is lowered when the calf rest goes up, you can end up trapping your ankles between the two. And the single AC outlet was not a problem for me because I was lucky to have an empty seat adjacent, but had two laptop users wished to power up, it could have been inconvenient.
My final quibble (sorry!) was with the aforementioned ‘stain resistant’ cream leather. My aircraft, A6-EVN, arrived in Dubai on Christmas eve 2020. With less than a year of usage under its belt, I felt the seats had already started to pick up some dye from passengers’ clothing and were looking a bit grubby. Not a big deal for me, but imagine how they’ll look in five years’ time.
The verdict
It might sound like I’ve spent a lot of this review complaining about the premium economy product, so let’s put things straight. Did I get some sleep? Yes. Was I comfortable and happy? Yes. Would I pick it again? Absolutely.
The product was not perfect, but it’s important to remember what the product is here. It is not a business class product, and is unlikely to be sold at anything like the cost of the business class on the A380. It’s economy, but a little bit better. Emirates hasn’t revealed the pricing of the cabin, but I would expect an uplift of around 20 – 25% for these seats over the price of standard economy.
Taking everything into account, this level of investment is well worth it for the extra space, extra privacy and upgraded comfort you get in PE. Add a new menu on top of this, and possibly other extras such as seat selection, amenity kits and extra baggage, and you’ve got a winning product. Sure, some things could be better, but Emirates is treading a fine line between maintaining cabin density to keep the cost down and giving passengers something worth paying for.
Personally, I can’t wait to fly Emirates’ premium economy again, and look forward to it rolling out on many more aircraft in the years to come.
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