Emirates: Business Class

Even though we are extremely brand-loyal, and as much as we love our Delta Skymiles, I nearly choked at the price of a Delta flight from Paris to Dubai when we were planning for this trip. I reluctantly checked other airlines and strangely enough, Emirates was by far the cheapest. Amy raved about what an amazing airline they were, so we booked our first non-Delta flight in over 10 years.

As we were sitting at the gate prior to boarding, they called us up to the front desk. By some crazy stroke of insane luck, we were randomly selected for an upgrade to business class!! And the flight was so incredible that it deserved its own blog post.

At first, we were SO excited to have seats that converted into beds, so that we'd actually get to sleep on the flight. It was about a six hour red-eye flight, so we figured we could get some decent sleep and be ready to go once we landed in Dubai.

loved the reclining options!

Ha! Well, that didn't exactly happen. We were like little kids on Christmas morning checking out all our goods! Everyone has their own (massive) personal TV with hundreds of options for movies, games, TV shows, etc. It came with a remote control, which seemed a bit ridiculous until I reclined and it actually came in handy ;)  The remote can also be used as a phone, so of course Bo and I called each other whenever we wanted to talk. They also gave us noise-cancelling headphones, so in our defense, we couldn't exactly hear each other when we tried talking, and there was so much space between us that we couldn't just poke the other one to get their attention. Besides, we kinda liked talking on the phone just because we could.

one of the TV channels (blurrily) showed the gate outside until we took off

The console even had a plug adapter and a USB port - so convenient. Underneath the TV, there was a nice footrest area, which also opened up as storage box to keep your shoes. I bring socks with me when I fly anyway, but they provided socks for us as well! They seriously think of everything to make your flight comfortable.

sure beats the heck out of our "roomy" exit row seats on Delta!

decorative flowers above my TV

no such thing as a drink cart - all of this right at my chair!

At that point, I was already blown away by Emirates. And then Bo pointed out the side screen that controlled our massaging chairs.

best flight feature EVER

And it just kept getting better...seriously, it was unreal. Once we were finally settled in and (somewhat) calmed down from our excitement, they served us 2001 Veuve Clicquot! I didn't finish my glass before take off, so I was really sad when they took it away. But as soon as we were up in the air, they came back with more. And more...and more. I finally had to tell them to stop serving me, because I was afraid we would show up in Dubai at 6am, not only tired but drunk! First world problems, for sure.

Then came the dinner and wine menus. Whaa??

The options were pretty darn good, especially for airplane food - I had tuna and Bo got duck. And a requisite cheese plate. And Godiva chocolates for dessert. No airplane meal will ever compare. We were officially spoiled!

There was also a lounge and bar area in the back of the plane which blew my mind, as I was just trying to find a restroom. It would have been great if we were on an afternoon/evening flight and not a red-eye. Wish I had gotten a picture of it!

With about two hours left in the flight, we finally went to sleep. Emirates also provided an eye mask, a pillow, and a blanket. I loved that they gave us these stickers to put on your chair, letting them know when they could wake you up - so smart.

obviously we stayed awake for dinner, so I used the "do not disturb"...until landing, anyway :)

As we approached our landing, they came around and woke us up. Everyone got a small cosmetic bag filled with all the necessities. Bo liked his so much that he has replaced his old dop kit with it.

It was a double decker plane, so we were on a separate level and didn't even get to see the coach section, but I have heard great things about it as well. There is also a first class section, which is even nicer than business class if you can imagine that (for example, you get a shower...). I have to say, well done, Emirates! We sure wish they had a hub in Atlanta. It was by far the best flight of our lives. And unless we win the lottery, we will never pay for business class out of our own pockets - so we enjoyed every minute of it. We even got to go through a special immigration line at the airport, picked up our bags, and met up with Amy & John who kindly picked us up. And then we were off to explore Dubai! Stay tuned :)