Last week I went from Amsterdam to Dubai with the Emirates 777-300 in Business Class. The business class cabin of the Emirates 777-300 looks more like a Premium Economy cabin with its 2-3-2 configuration. But despite that, how’s the actual seat? How’s the food? Will you get a nice amenity kit? Is the service OK? Please continue to read and find out whether Emirates 777-300 Business Class is worth it.
Lounge Access
The Emirates Business Class experience doesn’t start very good this Saturday morning. I originally bought the cheapest Economy ticket to Dubai, but when I checked in online, I saw I could upgrade to Business Class for a reasonable amount. Very happy with my upgrade I looked at the boarding pass after check-in and found out that it stated ‘lounge access excluded’. This was a very nasty surprise! It wasn’t mentioned anywhere when I purchased the upgrade, that lounge access wouldn’t be included. At least Emirates should make this clear when you are deciding whether an upgrade is worth it. It would be even better if Emirates would give you the choice whether or not to include lounge access.
Let’s see if flying with the Emirates 777-300 in the Business Class cabin provides a better experience.
Emirates 777-300 Business Class Cabin
You could be easily mistaken that you’ve entered a Premium Economy cabin instead of a Business Class cabin when boarding the plane. A 2-3-2 Business Class configuration is a configuration you seldom see these days. But this is still the most common Business Class configuration that Emirates is using. Emirates uses more Boeing 777’s than A380’s, and these are currently the only 2 planes Emirates is using. Emirates will start to upgrade their Boeing 777 Business Class cabins this year, but for now, this 2-3-2 configuration is still the most common Emirates Business Class cabin.
If you manage to avoid the middle seat, and manage to get a window seat on row 6 or 8 (which are the front rows), the 2-3-2 configuration isn’t too bad though. When you have a front row window seat, you don’t need to climb over your passenger and there is a middle section between the seats which can be moved upwards to provide a bit more privacy.
Seats
There is a bigger issue with the seats though; in a lie-flat position, the seats won’t go completely flat! There is still a bit of an angle. And on top of that, the seat isn’t very long. I cannot completely stretch out and need to put my feet on top of a part that sticks out at the end of the seat (or I need to bend my legs). Not good and it reminds me of the old KLM Business Class seats I regularly flew 10-20 years ago. We called these seats slides… I didn’t expect to have the same ‘slide’ experience in an Emirates Business Class seat in 2024! Shocking!
Meals
Will Emirates redeem itself with the meal service? There is a choice of 3 appetizers and 3 main courses.
A few weeks prior to this flight, I flew with Etihad in Business Class. That flight really exceeded my expectations (see a link to that review at the end of this review). During that flight I tried out the Arabic Mezze appetizer and I really enjoyed that dish. So I decided to try the same dish with Emirates. Unfortunately, the Emirates experience with the Arabic Mezze was not so good. The bread was incredibly dry and overall the dish didn’t taste as sparkling and fresh as the Etihad Arabic Mezze. Luckily, there was the main dish to look forward to; rice with shrimps. But also with the main dish, the dish was really dry and tasteless. Only in the middle part of the dish, there were the spices and saus which made the dish come alive. That was just for the middle part of the dish though. I’m not sure what went wrong with these 2 dishes. It just seemed it wasn’t prepared properly and the dish was ‘dried out’. This was a real pity since both dishes did have the potential.
A desert was offered, which was OK, and later during the flight an ice cream was handed out.
Other notable mentions
I do need to mention that the service during this flight was excellent. Crew was very friendly and this in my experience with all the Gulf carriers I flew in the past couple of months.
Emirates doesn’t really provide an amenity kit on this flight. This flight is more than 6 hours and I would expect a proper amenity kit. However, only slippers and an eye mask are provided. I think this is really disappointing especially since Emirates is (was?) famous for their Bvlgari Amenity set? No such luck on this flight.
Conclusion
Besides the service provided by the friendly crew, flying with Emirates 777-300 Business Class was a pretty disappointing experience. This started with the fact that no lounge access was provided with an upgraded ticket. The food was disappointing, the seat was below par, and no amenity kit was provided.
There are a lot of other European and Asian Airlines which provide a much better Business Class experience. In my opinion, Etihad provides currently the best Business Class experience, especially when flying out of Abu Dhabi.
I would only consider flying Emirates 777-300 Business Class again, if I would be able to purchase the ticket for the price of a competitive Premium Economy ticket!
Please review my Youtube video on my Emirates 777-300 Business Class experience and don’t forget to like & subscribe if you like the video!
Also check out my review with Etihad Business Class from Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam. For me the current Business Class benchmark!
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