ebonski

sorry its yet another airline question but you dont hear too much about the business classes .
my elderly parents are coming to see us and the family is going to chip in and see if we can buy them business class tickets as this will probably never happen again. i would have no hesitation in sending them with sinapore airlines but the tickets are twice the price. i know emirates are pretty good going by what gets said here but does anyone have any experience of what thay are like up the pointy end and whether they will be well looked after during their 2 hour transit.
many thanks guys .

louie

My aunt and elderly uncle (pushing 90) fly with Emirates from Gatwick to Sydney on average once a year as both their children and all their grandchildren live out there, in fact they flew out last week, probably for the last time as it's getting too much for uncle.

Limo from home to Gatwick, preferential treatment and full of praise. Emirates are currently doing business class return fares to Oz for £1,999. Go for it.

Make sure you or they join the Skywards rewards programme. If they are unlikely to repeat the trip, you can get some of the (many) points they will get for business class transferred to you.

The Johnstons

My mum & dad flew out business at Xmas and on their return were upgraded to 1st class. They couldn't speak highly enough about them. Limo was a bonus too! Go for it if you can afford it.
TJ

chilliman

I trvalled business with Emirates to Perth September last year.

It was fantastic, complimentaty limo service veru useful, speedy check in at seperate des, excellent lounge at Heathrow with seperate entry to plane & once I was on the plane - service & facilities were excellent!

All very well worth it in my opnion!?

Centurion

Emirates business isnt that bad nowadays, but check with the airline that they are booked on planes with flat beds. Some (most) Emirates planes are still using old style business seating, which frankly, if I were paying for the ticket I would be more than a little let down with, as even First Class on those planes is worst some some other business classes.

Singapore offer by far the best business product at the moment (using new A330-300 planes delivered a couple of months ago to BNE for example) and currently are offering a sale for bookings made before the 17th April (I think) although you can fly anytime up to the end of November. The price of a business fare is now $6500 LHR to Australia which is cheap to say the least by business class standards, as they normally demand $9-10k.

bcworld

Aircraft types to avoid on Emirates would be Airbus A330 & many of the 777-300s - the website does tell you the product available on specific flights though so as Centurion said look out for the latest business products if they are available on the special fares. The best aircraft are the 777-200LR, A380 & some of the newer 777-300ERs.

As for getting looked after on the stopover, well Dubai isn't well known for it's customer service and the Emirates lounges at DXB are notoriously busy although maybe the situation has improved a bit in the new terminal?

If the fares are as good as mentioned above, I wouldn't hesitate though, even if some sectors are on the older seat product.

Ruskee

Very comfortable. Good service but lost by baggage inward and outward.

billymacker

Do you have a link to where the price is 1999 pounds.

Thanks

bcworld

http://www.emirates.com/uk/english/d...ial_fares.aspx

...departures until 30 Jun 09, book by....TOMORROW!

billymacker

Thanks i use the emirates site already to book my flights but i fly october return april every year. was hoping to get it cheaper usually 2600-3500 pounds each.

ebonski

a huge thank you to all who replied. i was going to book them ex gatwick but after centurions and bc's tip off about the old seats ive changed it to heathrow. i will also look in getting their points as i dont think this trip will be repeated.
would you believe my folks dont want to travel up the front because they dont want to bother all those important businessmen if my dad needs to move around
thats why we're booking this without telling them, im looking forward to hearing what their reaction will be to the limo service
fingers crossed it all goes smoothly
x

Iando

The Limo service is really excellent btw - smartly dressed guy who drove us was more like a minder! Kept telling us about all the VIP's he had driven (looked after). I think he was stretching the word VIP with a few of them though (eg X factor contestants!!)
They will really like that service rest I dont think i can add to the comments above.

Bermudashorts

I have never flown with Emirates but I usually go business class for long haul and have spent a lot of time researching and comparing. My hesitation with Emirates is that they often don't provide flat beds, for such a long journey I would really want to be able to lie down properly, not just recline. But of course any business class is way better than economy..